Dolby Supports Big-Screen Premiere of New Chronicles of Narnia Movie - 28 meters

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Dolby provided digital cinema technical support for the UK’s biggest single-screen digital cinema movie premiere to date. Disney Pictures’ and Walden Media’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was screened last month at the O2 arena in London before an audience of 10,000, including stars from the movie Liam Neeson (the voice of Aslan), Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian), and the film’s director, Andrew Adamson.

 

A giant 28-metre cinema screen was installed in the O2 arena to accommodate the largest single-screen digital cinema audience experience to date in the UK.

To help make this happen, Disney Pictures called upon the engineering support and consultancy of the Dolby Professional Services Group. Dolby provided digital playback for the three Christie DLP projectors via a Dolby Digital Cinema system, as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound audio processing for the massive auditorium.

“Because the UK is the home of CS Lewis, we wanted to do something unique for the premiere of Prince Caspian,” says Saul Mahoney, executive technical director, Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture UK. “The huge screen size at the O2 arena presents a number of technical challenges, so we wanted the very best technical expertise and equipment to ensure the highest quality digital presentation for this much-anticipated premiere.”

 

With its massive seating capacity of 10,000, the O2 arena can hold more than five times as many people as the UK’s biggest existing cinema. Recreating a cinematic experience on such a large scale has its technical challenges. However, the technical team from Dolby worked to ensure that the quality of the image and the overall cinematic experience worked, even in the back row, which was more than 100 metres from the screen.

 

Prince Caspian is the latest installment of The Chronicles of Narnia series and promises even more action and incredible visual effects than the first film, which earned USD 750 million worldwide. The premiere will also generate a donation to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity as part of Disney’s partnership with the hospital.