How Much New Technology is Incorporated in HK’s Best Cinema?

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The cinema provides double guarantee to ensure projection quality. On one hand, projection equipment is chosen from world-famous suppliers for functional reliability; on the other hand, an efficient management system is adopted for the stability of projection.”

Ivan, Managing Director - UA Cinemas

Landmark Shopping Mall

The word is quickly spreading around social media: Your trip to Hong Kong in 2019 will be incomplete if you fail to visit K11 MUSEA located at Tsim Sha Tsui, the most commercially and culturally prosperous place in Hong Kong.

 

Launched in 2019, K11 MUSEA boasts 133,000 square meters of commercial area and 10 levels. This world-class experiential landmark offers immersive experiences in retail, art, culture, entertainment and gastronomy, all under one roof. K11 MUSEA is adjacent to the Avenue of Stars and situated in the heart of Hong Kong. Facing Sogo across Salisbury Road and close to the luxurious Intercontinental Hong Kong, it aims to establish a “cultural Silicon Valley” and popularizes the philosophy of culture retail. K11 MUSEA is more than a landmark of culture retail. It stimulates the infinite inspiration of millennials and advances creativity, culture and innovation.

The Star Cinema in K11 MUSEA

The shining K11 MUSEA complex is immersed in art and culture. The largest and highest traffic artistic place is K11 Art House cinema on Level 4. This flagship cinema was recently launched by UA Cinemas, and quickly established itself as the highest profile cinema in Hong Kong. UA Cinemas Managing Director Ivan said, “Tsim Sha Tsui is an area with high consumption level and population density, and the core commercial facilities like K11 MUSEA plays an important role in gathering people. K11 Art House is positioned in the same way as a shopping mall to meet the higher demand of moviegoers.”

 

Built with natural materials, the cinema has an architectural design typical of the mountain houses in Switzerland where the natural texture of the wood and retro stone and brick walls contrast sharply with the modern lamps and copper details. Sake Bar, an open bar in the cinema, offers audiences with distinctive sake and snacks for a differentiated moviegoing experience. The cinema also opened the first MOOV Pop-up store in Hong Kong, which perfectly combines music with movies and arranges different types of music activities to extend the amazing viewing and listening experience.

Ivan said, “K11 Art House goes beyond the traditional concept about cinemas, taking the experience to a higher level through the forces of creativity, culture and innovation with the game-changing technologies and products to ensure the best possible moviegoing experience.”

 

The cinema covers 6,000 square meters and consists of 12 houses of different sizes and 1,708 seats. The IMAX® laser house is the first IMAX laser projection system in Hong Kong and features 4K 3D capability. With IMAX laser, audiences see a broader color range and a higher degree of brightness and contrast. Supported by IMAX 12-Channel Immersive Sound System, the system creates a truly immersive effect. The house offers 368 seats and 4 chairs for the disabled.

 

All the 12 houses are equipped with laser projectors and 11 of them are equipped with the next generation GDC SR-1000 and SX-4000 media servers: SR-1000 installed in 3 houses, and SX-4000 installed in 8 houses. SR-1000 is the first Integrated Media Block (IMB) compatible with three generations of projection technologies and without required connection to hard disks. SX-4000 immersive sound media server is most characterized by the compatibility with 5.1/7.1 surround sound and the support for multiple immersive sound formats.

 

In addition, K11 Art House also uses GDC’s terrestrial broadband Electronic Delivery Service (EDS), which has been the only method of delivering Digital Cinema Packages (DCP) to cinemas in Hong Kong for three years. Since the amount of data DCP’s contain cannot reliably transfer over standard IP networks, DCPs are typically delivered to individual theaters by satellite, or by shipping specialized hard drives via express courier. But there are challenges with both methods — and neither is conducive to a seamless, fully digital workflow that supports further digital innovation. EDS safely enables cloud-based transferring services of up to 100GB in approximately three to five hours with 100 Mbps broadband Internet speed.

To meet the demand for a high-end VIP experience, K11 Art House features Blackbox. The VIP house offers 26 seats that are equipped with electric functions. It also includes a VIP lounge, coat racks and an independent restroom, which improves the sense of space and facilitates the interactions among guests. The Blackbox house is managed by a senior professional VIP team, providing personalized and thoughtful services like those in first-class cabins as well as exclusive food offerings.

 

K11 Art House also has a multi-purpose house named Whitebox. The house offers 113 common seats and four seats for the disabled, which are equipped with writing panels for use in meetings. More than a cinema house, Whitebox is also a stage for performance, which is enabled by the LED caption display equipment, foldable stage, computer lighting for stages, sound control system and backstage facilities for performers. Moreover, there is also an exhibition space outside the house for social activities.

 

To create a friendly environment for both disabled and healthy people, K11 Art House provides auxiliary facilities for visually or hearing-impaired people to use. House 1 and House 8 are equipped with hearing aid systems and audio description systems. Every house in K11 Art House includes barrier-free paths and 4 seats for the disabled.

Double Guarantee for Viewing Quality

Ivan said, “The cinema provides double guarantee to ensure projection quality. On one hand, projection equipment is chosen from world-famous suppliers for functional reliability; on the other hand, an efficient management system is adopted for the stability of projection.”

 

To manage content playback, K11 Art House installed TMS-2000, the latest generation theatre management system developed by GDC. The solution enables the cinema to be managed in a centralized manner. With more than 50 new functions and improvements based on TMS-1000, TMS-2000 features playing and equipment condition display monitoring that is from one single access and integrates screen monitor, content management with enhanced performance that facilitates centralized management of contents and KDM, a “smarter” program scheduler that gives alarm in case of the absence of CPL or the failure of KDM, and intelligent recovery that makes replacement of servers easier and faster.

 

In the future, cinemas will need to be more dedicated to providing extreme experiences from operational and management efficiency through technical means. That will be an inevitable path for cinemas to survive and develop. The opening of K11 Art House is a prime example of a cinema equipped for the future.