Well un-regrettable DIE HARD wasn't showing in Empire screen yesterday as it was only playing for three weeks exclusively in THX. But I did however managed to see "Transformers" the new Michael Bay "Armageddon" king of loudness and loud and low was what it was. It was a fighting battle between robots that can transform into mechanical devices.
Steven the deputy manager on site yesterday was very welcoming at giving me the okay to take pictures of this grand looking cinema that we have over here in England.
After been shown around for a brief while by Tony duty booth projectionist whose been working for UCI for several years took great pride of what he does on the daily basics at the famous Empire in the world.
The storyline was very wooden as well was acting as well being quite disorientating, but I was only hear for the sound.
Sounded measured quite high from the front row VERY, with clear undistorted levels approaching to 100dbA with great support of low end bass and LFE.1 authority by the JBL custom screen array and HUGE MEGA HUGE sub bass array which is made up of 16x JBL 4645C.
Thee most lowest and deepest moment in the film was the final battle on the streets while one of the transformers gets blown away while rolling and spinning though the air as it heads towards you! All sound levels dropped down to being quite and the LFE.1 growled deeply at close to 120dbc.
I meet a new friend at the Empire that day who just so happened to be going to the cinema with his dad and overhead my name when calling on the intercom outside. I was a bit staggered and surprised that for someone who's been reading the forum posts on the many sites who called me the JBL guy? And after being properly introduced we had a rather fun time watching and listening to Transformers in Dolby digital THX.
I was there yesterday for the showing of Transformers in Empire #1 THX sound system and it was mega I mean loud and very deep. Sat right at the front and the screen size was MEGA!
After being introduced to Tony duty projectionist on the site he was able to show booth #1 at the Empire as there was first public showing of Transformers starting in 20 minutes.
The rack system looked wonderful I mean wonderful a real sight for sore eyes it was loaded up with an assorted combination of Dolby dts and SDDS decoder processes which is what the Empire needs for putting on the best show on the planet!
The arrays of dbx 4280 which control and protect the loudspeakers in the auditorium makes prefect sense, the rest of the Crown amplifiers where housed behind the THX baffle wall to keep cable lengths to a minimum seems reasonable while the Crowns racked up in the rack control the surround arrays.
The crossover can be adjusted from the booth via the pc with access to the dbx database as well as Dolby for Digital Dolby presentations and more.
The rest of the Crown amplifiers are housed behind the THX baffle wall to keep cable lengths short, while the booth dbx crossover system is controlled from there all Crown amplifiers for surrounds are housed in the booth.
The projector is equipped with dts reader SDDS reader and Dolby SR-D reader with the new red beam for the Cyan tracks now printed onto the film.
I asked Tony if the new sound system had meet with the expectations and he clear said "it surpassed them many times" and surpassed it did the range of dynamic range in the cinema was too incredible and quite frankly quite untouchable.
The pictures are slightly on the dark side of the moon I know but that's technology for you, the cameras flash I guess isn't that bright for large spaces like the Empire but at closer range shots it seems to work out fine.
The tiles fitted to the sidewalls was one of curiosity as to what type of material they where made of? It seemed like extra ones where added thou I can't be certain unless consulting one of the installers that made the modifications to Empire 1.
My friend Nabil who I meet at the Empire yesterday was counting up the arrays of JBL 8340 while I have seen the pictures in the pervious thread I was more interested with what the tiles where made of, and thou there is slight echo apparent in the Empire granted it is a very large auditorium and when you get fast dialogue the result is overlapping sounds which becomes a "cacophony" and you sit there thinking to yourself why can't they speak slowly!
There was the odd moment when things calmed down but remember this a Michael Bay film and most of his films tend to have fast duologue, doesn't he realize that if you have fast dialogue its going to be very hard to understand you must allow a few moments for the dialogue to decay in the background. Sound effects sound great mixed my Kevin O'Connell I wonder if he'll pick up his golden boy this time? The score in the film sounded like Zimmer thou I didn't see the credit and I wasn't too impressed with the score on this film.
I measured undistorted sound pressures close too 120dbc due the last frightening moments when the transformers start transforming the streets into a battle war zone. Sound pressures in the dbA weighting was close just over 101dbA but was supported with bass authority!
