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Replacing the World's Largest IMAX Screen

lukehopewell1 writes "IMAX Sydney has replaced its screen — the largest in the world — at a cost of $250,000. Weighing over 800 kilograms, painting the screen took over 12 days and 350 kilograms of paint. Lifting the massive screen and installing it took a year of planning and 31 riggers. A neat photo gallery is included so you can get an idea of just how big a job this was."

21 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Print Page Link.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
  2. Pftt australia's imax can't compete with La Geode. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nice, but the IMAX crown goes to La Geode in Paris.
    Although it has a slightly smaller screen (1000 m^2), the screen is not planar but hemispherical with a diameter of 36m.
    The public is literally at the center of the action, and no cinema and certainly no home theater how ever high end it is can compete with this kind of cinema experience.

  3. What...how...? by MacGyver2210 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why in the world would it take an entire year to plan hoisting a 800kg screen? That weighs less than my car. A few winches could get it in place without putting even the most fragile screen at risk. I wonder what they did with the other 9 months of that year?

    FWIW, I have hung a full-sized non-IMAX screen in about half an hour with zero issues. Not 800kg, but at least 100.

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    1. Re:What...how...? by YankDownUnder · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you saw WHERE our IMAX is, and what parking is available - aside from the logistics of human traffic, amongst other things - you'd understand. "Plan the work, work the plan" - ergo, no hiccups, no unforeseen issues - and hey, we just got finished with our city's "Festival Season" - which has been full on since November...therefore, I think I'd rather laud the whole lot of 'em - and I look forward to getting inside and seeing what they've done! (the tourists will love it - and more than enough Sydney-siders will be checking it out as well)

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    2. Re:What...how...? by T-Bone-T · · Score: 4, Informative

      The whole project took a year. They probably spent most of it researching the logistics and what they wanted in a new screen. After that, that screen had to be manufactured and delivered. It says in TFA that it only took about half and hour to lift and secure it.

    3. Re:What...how...? by MrQuacker · · Score: 2

      You have a sheet of vinyl that is 30m by 35m. That it weights 800kg (~750g/m2) is quite plausible.

      The paint weights 350kg because it is made out of silver, and they are putting on several coats. The screen has to be very reflective, and silver works best.

    4. Re:What...how...? by WeatherServo9 · · Score: 2

      The silver is only important for 3D; it is reflective enough to better maintain the polarization so the 3D image has less ghosting. For normal 2D images though, silver is a little too reflective; depending on how the screen is curved and where you are sitting it tends to create hotspots in the image instead of appearing more uniform. Personally I find silver screens look awful, there are good reasons theaters don't normally use them (except for 3D processes like RealD).

    5. Re:What...how...? by Ninja+Engineer · · Score: 2

      Ha!
      I now live in Australia. It has become clear to me that any field construction work here suffers from the fact that there is nil supervisory capability, and the whole industry can't organize its way out of a wet paper bag.

  4. Re:Soon with crappier image quality! by MisterSquid · · Score: 4, Informative

    At 4:30 into the video, the CEO of IMAX Australia mentions that they have been using 70mm for quite some time.

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  5. Re:Soon with crappier image quality! by MisterSquid · · Score: 2

    Sorry, my previous reply was based on my misunderstanding your question.

    A better answer to your question is that the Mark Bretherton (CEO) expresses a reluctance to "upgrade" to digital until digital at least matches the quality of 70mm.

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    blog
  6. Most impressive by Ol+Biscuitbarrel · · Score: 4, Informative

    On page 7 of the photo gallery they quote the theater's CEO that they'll be using 1570mm film, which commentors were quick to point really means 15/70 sprockets per frame/width. The idea of film as wide as a compact car is interesting to envision, though.

  7. Re:Riggers? by Cryophallion · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Not Really... I just raised one in New England two weeks ago. We had 13 people up top pulling, 10 more below helping to pull, and numerous other people who were assisting below to keep the screen surface raised as much as possible. There easily need to be that many, as the screen is extremely heavy and difficult to pull up as a dead load. Additionally, ours had a silver surface for 3D, which means you can't touch the screen or you will ruin it.

    Then there was the joy of bringing a 60' box holding the screen through a mall, raising it 2 stories in a food court all night, and then raising up the screen itself...

  8. Re:31 riggers by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe it's the font but I did a double-take when I read it...

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  9. Re:Pftt australia's imax can't compete with La Geo by Joce640k · · Score: 2

    We've got one of those in Spain since mid 1990's: http://cac.es/hemisferic/

    (And yes, I've played video games on it...)

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  10. Re:Conversion? by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dunno...but if you're British I believe it's about a third of the size of Wales.

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  11. Re:Soon with crappier image quality! by Anubis+IV · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not true, actually. I recall hearing about an experiment that some IMAX engineers did a few years back, where they put black and white squares in a checker pattern up on the screen. They started with a 2x2 grid of squares, then went to 4x4, then 8x8, etc., but they ended up stopping well before they ever hit 4K because the screen had become gray. What that meant was that the film was not able to provide the level of contrast actually necessary to discern the shapes any longer. In other words, the level of detail it provided was below that of a 4K image.

    Of course, the problem with 4K is that the details are so small, even at the scale of IMAX, that viewers would need to sit in the first five or so rows to really be able to appreciate any difference at all. And, as was noted in the video, lighting and quality concerns are still major factors with digitial projectors, more so than the issues with resolution.

    Analog has some advantages, to be sure, but they mostly are in the fact that it can provide good enough resolution without other compromises. Digital resolutions surpassed IMAX several years ago, but digital projectors still have enough drawbacks that analog continues to have a place in some of these theaters, though time is running out for that.

  12. At last, a venue worthy of displaying my... by couchslug · · Score: 2

    ...Roseanne Barr beaver shot collection.

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  13. Re:Soon with crappier image quality! by EdZ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Your eye is not a camera. Just because you cannot resolve the space between two dots, does not mean your eye cannot resolve detail at much higher resolution, e.g. vernier acuity

  14. Re:Soon with crappier image quality! by Jesse_vd · · Score: 3, Informative

    You don't even need to OPEN the article. The video is in the damn summary

  15. Re:31 riggers by Metricmouse · · Score: 3, Funny

    I HAVE A BIG BLACK CLOCK and it could be the font too.

  16. Re:Annoying Video by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "And when I go to another country, my name and it's pronunciation doesn't change"

    Umm, actually it does. (Ever been to China?)

    Yeah, Americans say 'Zee'. Big whoop. I still remember starting school and exasperated teachers beating it into everyone, "it's ZED, not ZEE, this isn't Sesame Street!!!!"