This is topic IMAX + IMAXDome In One? in forum Large Format Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 03-22-2005, 04:31 PM:
 
I came across this website
http://www.cinecitta.de/imax/imaxsysteme.html

Does that actually have a dual system? I've been to a few IMAX Theatres (dome and flat) but I've never heard of this.
 

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Posted by Dick Vaughan (Member # 540) on 03-22-2005, 05:20 PM:
 
Dean

Yes it does I was there last July. It is part of the most successful multiplex sites in Germany. It is a fascinating location

All of the theatres are underground , the IMAX theatre actually being built in what was a Nazi bunker in the centre of Nuremberg.

The 35mm theatres all run in individual projection "cupboards" with endless loop platters.

there are a number of suchconvertible Imax/Imax Dome installations. I believe the first was the Canadian Museum of Civilisation in Ottawa(Hull).

Other sites include Barcelona and Madrid in Spain and the Science Museum of Minnesota in st paul
 

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Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 03-22-2005, 06:04 PM:
 
Spitz manufactures convertible domes for theatres. Their site has a photo, but not really a very good one. You can see the flat screen on the left and the dome in the "convertible" position above and behind the audience.



http://www.spitzinc.com/domes/rodo.html
 

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Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 03-22-2005, 07:50 PM:
 
so, do the speakers stay behing the flat screen? I always thought that the Dome and Flat IMAX had different speaker arrangements. does this system do anything to image quality/sound quality. it looks pretty badass to me, especially if one wanted to make a 35/Imax/Imax Dome/Anything they want theatre.
 

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Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 03-23-2005, 02:50 AM:
 
My jaw just hit the floor. I designed something very similar when I was in high school just for fun. Almost identical. I'll have to go searching through my old files to see if I still have it...
 

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Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 03-23-2005, 03:42 AM:
 
You should have called the Inventor's Hotline and patented it!
 

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Posted by Dick Vaughan (Member # 540) on 03-23-2005, 09:40 AM:
 
Two sets of speakers I think
 

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Posted by Thomas Jonsson (Member # 1902) on 03-23-2005, 03:17 PM:
 
I´ve seen one in Berlin. It was a newly built part of
the city center, I think it was called Europa Center.
On one side of the "main street" was a multiplex with
an Imax only, and on the other side one with a combined.
It looked odd with the dome raised above your head like
a huge umbrella.

Thomas
 

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Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 03-26-2005, 12:38 PM:
 
It's not the Europa Center but at the "Potsdamer Platz".
The double screen location is called Discovery Channel IMAX and the dome projection looked quite good to me.

The Europa center is a 1960s shopping mall in the old center of (then West) Berlin. A huge cinema named ROYAL PALAST with 2 70mm Cinerama-type screens is located on top of the mall, unfortunately this roadshow theatre was closed last years, but there's an interesting website that shows some nice DP70 installation:

Royal Palast Berlin

Discovery Channel IMAX Berlin
 

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Posted by Thomas Jonsson (Member # 1902) on 03-26-2005, 03:22 PM:
 
Christian,
I was in Berlin only for two days, and have a BAD memory.
Can´t argue with you - it was certainly Potsdamer Platz.

Too bad I didn´t get a chance to see Royal Palast. I was
in Berlin in mid October, when was it closed? It´s a shame
those large, REAL theaters are closed down, one by one.
Being replaced probably with another rotten multiplex.

Thomas
 

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Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 03-27-2005, 03:25 AM:
 
Thomas,

I think it closed last September.
The large auditorium had one of Europes largest screens with 30 meters (98 ft.) arc length, but for the last 20 years, the ROYAL PALAST was owned by UFA theatres, notorious for letting old movie palaces fall apart.
Friends from Berlin told me that the worst employees from all UFA theatres were sent to the ROYAL (to collect all foul apples in one basket, as an UFA manager explained), and when no one cared about presentation and showmanship any more, the public ceased to favor these former roadshow theatres any more.

To give an example of that attitude:

During the 1980s the masking mechanism in auditorium #1 broke down. Instead of fixing it properly, they vertically reduced the size of the image for all formats. From that day on, even with anamorphic scope format only 18 of total 30 meters were used. Nobody cared.

These theatres are still fully equipped, there are three additional smaller auditoriums built in the 1970s, and there has been some interesting in reopening the whole complex, but the owners of the shopping mall, being totally ignorant of the bad name the UFA management gave the place, does not want to invest any money so that someone could revive the ROYAL with some style.

BTW, the ROYAL website was created by Jean-Pierre Gutzeit, a great guy who has fond memories of seeing films like MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY and FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE in Ultra Panavision on ROYAL #1's huge deep curved screen.
J.P. also helped screening the restored 70mm version of SPARTACUS in honor of Kirk Douglas some years ago.
Initially, the Berlin Film Festival authorities had shown the film (with Douglas attending the show) in a scratched and patched-up 35mm scope/Dolby print in one of the new multiplex theatres on Potsdamer Platz.
Many fans wrote lettres and mails insisting on an additional 70mm screening on a huge screen, and with the help of Mr. Gutzeit it did happen, and more than 800 people did show up to see SPARTACUS in 70mm at 11.15 PM.
 

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Posted by Thomas Jonsson (Member # 1902) on 03-29-2005, 07:32 AM:
 
Christian,
Thanks for the info and the link. Spartacus in 70mm on
a 30 meter screen! Wish I hadn´t missed that!

On the Royal Palast website is a black/white picture of
a woman standing beside a projector that I´ve never seen
before. Do you know what it is?

Thomas
 

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Posted by Thomas Hauerslev (Member # 566) on 03-30-2005, 12:32 AM:
 
Royal Palast in German language
 

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Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 03-30-2005, 11:38 AM:
 

quote: Thomas Jonsson

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On the Royal Palast website is a black/white picture of
a woman standing beside a projector that I´ve never seen
before. Do you know what it is?

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