The pandemic may have slowed down the industry, but some theaters are paving the road to the future: a theater in Taiwan is the first in the market to completely replace the projector with LED technology.

The first movie theater with LG LED Cinema Display makes movies even more magical, says LG Electronics, announcing that in collaboration with Taiwan’s leading theater chain, Showtime Cinemas, it has created the conditions to amaze moviegoers in Taiwan. The futuristic theater is the world’s first movie theater equipped with LG LED Cinema Display technology, used to completely replace the projector with LED technology, which is also, according to LG, the first time it happens in the market. The theater also features Dolby’s cinema server solution and Dolby Atmos immersive audio.

Theaters using LED technology are not new, though, and Samsung already claimed in 2017 that the company had created the first Cinema LED Display. Sony also showed its Crystal LED, presented as “a window to a new world” and a solution for theater owners to replace their projectors and canvas with a large-size LED display, but the company has apparently moved in other directions, and suggests Crystal LED as useful for anything “from boardrooms, theme parks, museums and retail showrooms to corporate lobbies, design studios and scientific research facilities.”

The first Cinema LED Screen

Samsung, meanwhile, installed its first ever commercial Cinema LED Screen at Lotte Cinema World Tower in Korea. Designed as a High Dynamic Range (HDR) LED theater display, the Cinema LED Screen creates, says Samsung, “a more captivating and vibrant viewing experience through next-generation picture quality and true-to-life audio thanks to collaboration between HARMAN Professional Solutions and Samsung Audio Lab.”

As demands within the cinema space evolve, Samsung’s Cinema LED Screen offers the versatility to expand services to meet a wider range of audience needs. The display maintains its advanced presentation capabilities in a range of dark and ambient lighting conditions. This flexibility makes the Cinema LED Screen ideal for venues wishing to use their theater space for corporate events, concerts, sports event viewing and gaming competitions.

“As the popularity of advanced at-home entertainment systems and streaming platforms increases, theaters must reposition themselves as a destination for an incomparable viewing experience that consumers simply cannot encounter anywhere else,” said Sang Kim, Vice President of Samsung Electronics America back in 2017. “Our new Cinema Screen technology brings a more powerful and high-quality picture to the big screen, creating an environment where viewers feel as if they are part of every scene.”

The Samsung Onyx Cinema LED

Samsung Electronics also unveiled in February this year its Onyx Cinema LED screen in Australia at HOYTS Entertainment Quarter in Moore Park, Sydney, the first-ever in Australia. The new installment features Samsung’s latest 14-meter Onyx screen. Samsung’s Onyx LED screens are installed in several major cities across the world, through partnerships with Pacific Theaters in Los Angeles, USA, Capital Cinema in Beijing, China and Arena Cinemas’ Sihlcity theater in Zürich, Switzerland.

The Samsung Onyx Cinema LED continues the company’s partnership with HARMAN Professional Solutions. With support from HARMAN Professional’s JBL Sculpted Surround technology, the Onyx SOUND expands the audio sweet spot within a given theater. When combined with Samsung’s proprietary technology, the end result leaves you with sound that is optimized and perfectly-tuned to fit LED screens. The whole system offers, as Samsung notes, “The Cinema of the Future”.

The future may have to wait a bit longer, though. The actual situation, due to the pandemic, has left theaters around the world in the dark, but everybody expects a solution that will allow a return to life as it was, and Taiwan’s leading theater chain, Showtime Cinemas, seems to believe it will happen soon, so the company invested in the LG LED Cinema Display solution.

Movies in full Dolby Atmos

“Our intent is to elevate the movie-going experience beyond what consumers have become accustomed to,” said Paik Ki-mun, head of the Information Display business unit of LG Electronics Business Solutions Company. “We’re confident that the advanced technologies behind LG LED Cinema Display and Dolby solutions will grow our share of the growing LED cinema market.”

LG and Dolby Laboratories closely collaborated to integrate Dolby’s Integrated Media Server (IMS3000) with LG’s innovative LED Cinema Display. Dolby’s IMS3000 allows movies to play in full Dolby Atmos to produce a wide soundstage that surrounds the audience by projecting sounds corresponding to the movement and position of objects on the screen. Pairing Dolby Atmos with the vibrant, lifelike images of LG’s LED Cinema Display creates a more immersive experience that makes going to the movies even more memorable and magical.

Control each individual pixel

At 14 meters wide and seven meters high, the dazzling LG screen produces finely-detailed 4K images on a scale rarely seen, says the company. Unlike conventional digital projectors, LG’s system ensures excellent picture quality across the entire surface without any distortion. Due to its ability to control each individual pixel, LG LED Cinema Display guarantees a superior contrast ratio and amazingly accurate color reproduction. Furthermore, LG LED Cinema Display meets the highest standards for content security and Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) certification.

“We are excited about our collaboration with LG Electronics to bring our combined expertise to movie goers in Taiwan,” said Jed Harmsen, vice president of Cinema & Content Solutions at Dolby Laboratories, Inc. “With the lifelike images created by LG’s LED Cinema Display and the immersive audio delivered by Dolby Atmos, moviegoers will be able to enjoy an elevated and thoroughly captivating cinematic experience.”