Going for a movie? Watch it in Onyx

Korean electronics giant Samsung has just re-thought how you will watch a movie in a theatre. Not beamed out from the trusty old projector, but on an enormous LED high-resolution screen. All these past 120 years, we’ve been using the projector. As the years went on, no one imagined there could be a TV screen big enough to watch at a cinema hall. But that changed with the Onyx, which is a world first.

The Onyx was launched in February this year, shown off at CinemaCon in April, and is now ready to go into theatres. You can actually head out and see it at the PVR Cinemas in the Promenade Mall, Vasant Kunj, Delhi. By the end of the year, four to five other theatres will switch to it or add the dazzler to their existing equipment, says Samsung. It is in several other parts of the world as well, starting with Korea, Samsung’s home turf.

There are three important aspects that make the Onyx different. The first is what Samsung calls Onyx View and it refers to how the quality of the screen will completely change the way a movie looks. The screen has high contrasts that increase brightness and vividness.

The interesting thing about the LED screen is that it isn’t affected by ambient light. Just as you don’t ever turn out the lights when watching TV, you don’t have to turn them off in a movie theatre with Onyx, though you may choose to. This difference actually opens up possibilities for the use of an Onyx screen, in one of the three different sizes currently available for expansive viewing, which could be put in say, a big restaurant. Or a large space where children may watch content without having to turn off lights. The screen will be available in variations extending between five, 10 and 14 metres in width. The screen gives off no heat, so this isn’t a factor in its placement in a closed space.

The screen is also different in the way it depicts 3D content. It renders ‘extreme reality’ for viewers that Samsung believes will engage audiences enough to bring them to theatres in larger numbers. The depth and clarity of the visual experience is greater, making it possible to easily read text on screen.

The screen also offers a surround sound experience from JBL by Harman International, owned by Samsung. You no longer need to sit in a particular sweet spot in the theatre to get good sound but can enjoy the audio experience from anywhere.

Samsung thinks, in time, cinema houses can rethink how their space is organised. There’s a considerable saving of space by removing the projector area and new experiences can be configured. Being made up of panels, these can be quickly swapped if a defect develops as cinema houses will have spare ones.

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