Project: Outdoor Cinema
Even for experienced specialist planners, this is not an everyday request: a high-quality cinema with all the refinements – under the open sky! But we took on the challenge and think the result is something to be proud of!
Cinema Outdoors
Even under ideal conditions, building a conventional home cinema in a building isn’t something you just do on the side; there are a multitude of things to consider already during the planning phase. The challenge becomes even greater when a high-quality film experience is desired outdoors, because not only do the basic elements like light, image, and sound behave very differently here, but the entire installation also has to permanently withstand wind and weather. And of course, the technology should also remain discreetly in the background when not in use.
Ideas and Solutions
For this project, we had to develop various solutions that hadn’t existed in this form before. For example, the very powerful projector used was placed in a specially made weatherproof enclosure on the building’s flat roof. To always ensure the ideal operating temperature, this enclosure can be either heated or air-conditioned depending on the weather. The projector casts its image onto the special outdoor screen Oasis by Stewart. The main speakers are elegant black outdoor speakers that blend unobtrusively into the area’s design. A particularly elegant solution are the rear effect speakers from New-Tec, which cleverly combine a lamp and sound generation. Players, amplifiers, and other equipment are housed safely from the weather in a 19-inch rack in the basement of the house. The only thing that presented no challenge at all was hiding the subwoofer: it was simply buried at a suitable spot in the ground!
Action, Ambience, and Wow Effect
The entire system communicates via the proven control system from Control4. This allows the system to be conveniently controlled from anywhere using an iPad app. The picture and sound of the outdoor cinema are truly impressive, and since the technology is completely invisible in the dark, the film experience is absolutely astonishing. But even when no blockbuster is being projected onto the screen, the system knows how to impress. For parties and other events, the projector creates an extraordinary atmosphere by projecting various images onto an artificial waterfall. A truly remarkable project that was a lot of fun for us to implement!