FEATURE LASER CINEMA Taking lasers to the
With Gravity winning big at the Oscars at the beginning of March, Jessica Rowbury looks at how laser projection technology is set to transform the 3D experience of watching blockbuster movies
T
he sci-fi blockbuster Gravity was one of the big winners at this year’s Oscars, picking up seven awards including Best Director. The film, which took five years to make, boasts some spectacular visual effects, but how would laser projectors change the viewing experience? Laser projectors for cinema offer significant image enhancements over traditional xenon lamps, especially for 3D films like Gravity. Laser-based systems offer wider colour gamuts, higher levels of contrast – and, because the laser doesn’t degrade like a lamp, consistently higher brightness. ‘If you look at a star scene, and you can see small planets, these typically have colours at the edges. By using lasers there is a much higher distinction ratio – so there is much more contrast and everything looks more real,’ said William Mackenzie, CEO of Necsel. ‘It creates much brighter images, much better contrast, and much more immersive viewing.’ Necsel’s lasers have been adopted in projectors
from Kodak and Christie Digital and its frequency- converted green laser array won a SPIE Prism Award earlier in the year at Photonics West. Around 80 per cent of Gravity – which sees Sandra Bullock’s character stranded in space after debris destroys her shuttle – was computer- generated, with some scenes taking years to produce. Each frame of the scene showing the destruction of the International Space Station, for instance, took approximately 50 hours to complete.
Don Shaw, senior director of product management at Christie Entertainment Solutions,
12 ELECTRO OPTICS l APRIL 2014 movies
noted that one of the problems with current 3D projection systems is their relatively low light intensity. He commented: ‘Simply put, the movies are too dark, leaving audiences struggling to discern critical details that make up the image in front of them.’ He said that 3D systems have only 10 to 30 per cent of the light levels of 2D projectors.
The higher output power of lasers would make a film like Gravity much brighter and the detail in a scene like the Hubble Space Station destruction much clearer. It would also make 3D cinema more attractive to audiences – recent ticket sales of 3D screenings have been declining with customers opting to watch the cheaper 2D alternative. Mackenzie commented:
The higher output
power of lasers would make a film like Gravity much brighter
‘Ultra-high brightness, above 45,000 lumens, is something you can’t achieve using one cinema projector. Everyone agrees that this market segment is going to be laser-based. You will start to see demos and physical installs this year, and then in 2015 you will see more of the regular roll-out of these projectors.’ Necsel’s frequency-doubled green laser, which
won the Prism Award, is capable of generating a mix of photopically-optimised light wavelengths for each eye. ‘Using these lasers you can create wavelengths of green light separated specifically by around 15nm or 20nm, in order to create one set of wavelengths for one eye and another set of wavelengths for another eye,’ explained Mackenzie. ‘With colour separation 3D, the image is not affected when people move their head from side to side, like it is with vertical 3D. The large companies fully realise that now, and they are developing products based on colour separation 3D. You will start to see the roll-out of this type of 3D.’ Indeed, laser projection systems are starting to enter cinemas across the globe. Christie Digital is due to demonstrate its
latest laser projection architecture at the upcoming CinemCon 2014 and National Association of Broadcasters NAB Show in Las Vegas in March and April. The company is also due to permanently install its digital laser projector in the Seattle Cinerama Theatre in Seattle, USA which will be the world’s first commercial digital laser projection system installed in cinema.
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