BFI (British Film Institute) has extended its long association with Christie and its
DCI-compliant projectors, by embracing the new Solaria 4K DLP resolution platform.
With its high frame rate, the acquisition of the new CP4230 will enhance the BFI
Southbank’s cinema experience — particularly its 3D exhibits — delivering more than
34,000 lumens.
The new projector will sit alongside the BFI’s Christie CP2000 2K DLP Cinema
projector in the 450-seat NFT1, at London’s BFI Southbank.
Says Richard Boyd, head of BFI technical services: “The BFI is now staging a lot of
very high profile premieres and this gives us a choice. Each year we run over 2,000
bits of content through these Christie projectors, in an enormous number of formats,
and they never fall over.’
The BFI also plans to take delivery of Christie’s new DCI-compliant IMB (Integrated
Media Block) — the first to pass the DCI Compliance Test Plan (CTP) in a 4K DLP
Cinema projector, in both 2K and 4K modes of operation.
Christie IMB has been designed as a standalone IMB, meaning that everything
required for control and content decryption/decoding is part of the IMB itself. The only
external hardware needed to operate the IMB is a compatible storage solution and
Boyd notes that one advantage of the Christie IMB is that it only requires a simple
RAID [storage].
This new generation of digital cinema projectors will have a significant benefit to the
BFI and the new CP4230 will enjoy a high profile debut, screening a new restoration
of the David Lean classic, Lawrence of Arabia, which was screened earlier this year,
also with a Christie 4K DLP Cinema projector, at the Cannes Classics section of the
2012 Cannes Film Festival. The film has been lovingly restored and remastered in 4K
by Grover Crisp, and will receive an extended run at the BFI Southbank during October
and November. Meanwhile, a new print of another Lean classic, Bridge On The River
Kwai, has also been remastered in 4K.
The BFI is now capable of displaying every analogue and digital format, including
nitrate, 16mm, 35mm and the wide high resolution 70mm format, as well as 2K and
4K movies.
“It’s important to be ready and we are incredibly excited by the new 4K possibilities,’
admits Richard Boyd. “The high frame rate will keep us on the cutting edge of the
technology; The Hobbit runs at 48 fps and Avatar 2 at 60, so we can show what the
industry has to offer.’
