DOLBY CINEMA
The UK’S first Dolby Cinema is open, and we took a trip to see it
Dolby’s audio technologies have had a home in movie theatres since the mid-1970s, its stereo and surround formats laying the foundations for the movie-going experience ever since.
While the relationship between Dolby and cinema remains strong, it’s only in the past few years that the two have come together in an official capacity to create a proprietary cinematic experience.
Dolby Cinema became a thing in 2014, but until December last year, UK cinema-goers had not been able to access one. In the run-up to Christmas, Odeon’s European flagship cineplex, in the heart of London’s West End, reopened its doors after undergoing a multi-million pound, 11-month refurbishment.
Screen 1 of the historic venue, now officially ‘Odeon Luxe Leicester Square’ and home to more than 700 Europe film premieres since 1937, features the UK’S first Dolby installation, promising the best picture and sound experience in the UK in a theatrical domain.
With 400 speakers in an 800-seat auditorium, it is certainly a dramatic stage. But the linchpin of Dolby Cinema is the combination of Dolby Atmos surround sound and Dolby Vision HDR picture – audio and visual technologies that represent the pinnacle of home cinema entertainment.
Atmos expands on 5.1- and 7.1-channel surround sound by allowing up to 128 channels in a mix, enabling overhead sound and a flexible and precise object-based mixing process (as opposed to channel-based). Vision, meanwhile, is one of a handful of well-established High Dynamic Range (HDR) formats, promising optimal brightness, contrast and colour performance, dynamically adjusted on a frame-per-frame basis depending on the nature of the content.
To achieve its promise of audiovisual reverie, interior design and construction had to be considered. Preserving the venue’s character was a priority – looking after its 80-year history while also looking forward with new technology.
Screen 1 features the original safety-curtain design with Flying Ladies figures flanking it. There’s an orchestra pit for live events, and a Compton organ that rises up through the stage.
Everything is black – seats, walls, carpets and ceiling – to reduce reflective light. The seating is in curved rows, positioned away from the walls, and made up of 350 Luxe Recliners and 450 Luxe Classic rockers.
A wall behind the screen isolates the auditorium from the adjacent hotel. The ceiling is covered with acoustically transparent material and has been reinforced to hold the 16kms of speaker cable running above it, as well as the bespoke speaker stack configurations hanging off it.
A total of 400 speakers present the Dolby Atmos soundtracks, offering what Odeon says is full sound coverage in the auditorium. There are multiple tiers of line arrays (ie. speaker stacks) in 120 speaker locations – 100 of which are behind the screen – to project out into the room. The magic source is custom proprietary Christie dual laser projectors, standard across Dolby Cinemas, which in this case beam onto a 25,000kg floating screen that can go backwards if required.
While the xenon bulb projectors typically found in cinemas are capable of beaming 48-nit brightness and 2000:1 contrast ratio onto a screen, Dolby says its Cinema projector systems reach 108 nits and over a 1,000,000:1 ratio.
We need no encouragement to find a sumptuous Luxe Recliner and stretch out with the electric controls as we settle down to watch the cinema’s opening film.
The Dolby Cinema treatment isn’t genre-specific, the company says, claiming that this is the best way to watch any film – so we can expect an eclectic line-up of listings in the future.
And while the initial trailer for cyberpunk action-adventure Alita: Battle
Angel, and a few snippets of other upcoming action movies, show off the sound system’s huge all-round capability and truly encompassing nature at its very best, Mary Poppins is proof of that.
The audio and visual experience is almost incomparable to that offered by a typical cineplex – as a repeat viewing of Mary Poppins later confirms. The film is an advert for Dolby Vision, its consistently splashy hues and animation an assault of colour, and the Dolby Cinema presentation does it justice. The soundtrack is just as engaging – everywhere, in every direction, it is both loud and enveloping.
While we have praised Dolby Vision and Atmos presentations in a home cinema environment, living room set-ups can’t match this for scale, of course. The Dolby Cinema is a spectacle and sonic marvel.
“Practically perfect in every way”, to borrow a line from cinema’s best-loved nanny? It’s not far off at all, although an inherent problem is that from the back of the auditorium, the screen looks modestly sized at best.
There simply isn’t the same dizzying sense of awe at the screen as there is with the wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling IMAX screens. That said, the quality is unquestionable.
The Odeon Luxe Leicester Square’s Dolby Cinema experience isn’t cheap either. You may be able to find tickets at this cinema for around the same price as at your local cineplex, but you’ll have to sit right at the back.
The best seats in the house cost £30.75, and you’ll pay a minimum of £20.75 to sit in a Luxe Recliner, which offers a fully-reclining seat with extra legroom and a tray table. For a Luxe Classic rocker, prices vary between £10.75 and £15.75. Luxe Classic seats are included in Odeon’s Limitless membership (which offers unlimited films for £20 per month), with a £5 upgrade for Luxe Recliners.
So, while a Dolby Cinema may not be the choice every trip, it could be a treat for the most anticipated films of the year. Thankfully, 2019 has some big releases that should look and sound incredible in Dolby Cinema, with Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Star Wars: Episode IX, The Lion King and IT: Chapter Two all potential forthcoming Screen 1 listings.
“Mary Poppins is an advert for Dolby Vision, its splashy hues and animation an assault of colour, and the Dolby Cinema presentation does it justice”