The cinema of the future

Hall 5 in the Sihlcity Arena, a venture from Swiss businessmen Edi Stöckli and Patrick Tavoli, now boasts the first CinemaLED screen in Europe and the first worldwide to feature 4K 3D. As announced at the international press conference on 20 March 2018, the new technology is also known as Samsung ONYX. 

Here, the projector technology, light beams and canvas screen are all replaced by a vast screen made up of 24 million tiny LEDs. The result is unprecedented image quality with stunning colour brilliance and luminosity, ensuring that visits to the cinema are a spectacular experience. With the elimination of the projector, and thanks to the high luminosity of the CinemaLED screen, the new screen opens up entirely new possibilities in interior design. Instead of a projector room, there’s a VIP box for even more cinemagoers.

The 96 individual cabinets are modular and mounted on top of one another to provide an imposing and seamless black wall. There are no reflections and the picture is equally razor-sharp at every point on the screen. Luminosity in the completely darkened hall is 10 times stronger than with conventional cinema technology. And thanks to the high contrast range, the bright and dark scenes are displayed flawlessly. Also worthy of note is the low power consumption of the system – the screen is designed for 24/7 use and in a regular cinema theatre will use about as much electricity as two coffee machines.

BURRI was responsible for the design, production and installation of the support framework for the screen. The support element is designed to tenth of a millimetre accuracy, entirely in keeping with the high requirements of the state-of-the-art screen. For maintenance, there’s a grated service bridge.
Of course, it’s not just an outstanding picture but also comfortable seats and a pleasant view of the screen that make up an enjoyable cinema experience. With this in mind, BURRI raised the existing stand with tubular steel scaffolding and decked it out with wooden panels. Finally, the entire construction was covered with PVC flooring.

Everyone involved with the project worked under great time pressure and with a great deal passion to bring the revolutionary screen to completion. Despite the short time span, BURRI succeeded in designing a solution that is also modular and can be implemented extremely quickly. BURRI is proud to have been an essential link in this constellation. Throughout, BURRI worked closely with Imaculix AG, the exclusive solution partner for the ONYX CinemaLED screen from Samsung. 

BURRI’s opinion: it’s the Cinema Experience 2.0!

Imaculix is ​​a market-leading agency for multimedia productions and technologies in the DooH and cinema sector in Switzerland. Imaculix also creates and produces a range of digital video formats for national and international clients.