Wave Cinemas has upgraded its projectors from 2K to 4K in order to offer higher resolution and better movie-viewing experience
BY KTP RADHIKA
Wave Cinemas, the multiplex arm of Wave Infratech, has eight operational cinemas spread across northern India. Currently, it operates in Noida, Ghaziabad, Raja Garden-Delhi, Lucknow, Moradabad, Ludhiana, Haridwar and Chandigarh. Consisting of 32 screens in total, Wave has about 10,000 seating capacity and offers world-class digital sound, audio and projection systems, with seating claims to have been designed ergonomically for comfortable viewing.
The company prides itself on embracing the latest and modern equipment and technologies of international standards. It uses audio systems from Martin Audio, screens from Harkness Hall and Dolby cinema processors.
As a part of delivering modern and cutting-edge viewing experience to customers, Wave Cinemas recently installed 4K projectors in its cinemas.
Picturing properly 
Yogesh Raizada, Corporate Head, Wave Cinemas, says, 鼎inema industry uses different kinds of projectors. At first, it was carbon projectors and then analog projectors came into the picture. After that, digital projectors 2k and then 4k came into existence. Internationally, 10k projectors are also available these days. However, in the Indian context most of the cinemas are using normal 2K digital projectors.”
What are the advantages of 4k projectors? Wave in fact was using 2K projectors in its cinemas, which provides an image with a resolution of 2048×1080 or 2.2 million pixels. However, as part of its large-scale business expansion, Wave wanted to become more competitive in the film industry and wanted to provide the best-in-class viewing experience to its customers.典oday, new technologies are coming into home-theaters and even to television sets. So, viewers are very much aware about the technologies and they want better picture quality and view in cinemas,he explains.
4K digital projection doubles the dimensions of 2K projectors to 4096×2160. This equals 8.8 million pixels, exactly four times the count of 2K projection. From an audience perspective, 4K offers improved quality, unprecedented levels of resolution and contrast and, ultimately, a much more dynamic, engaging and immersive entertainment experience in a multiplex. The management of Wave decided to upgrade their projectors to 4K. Before choosing the brand, Wave did a market study and found out that Barco 4K projectors, one of the market leaders, will best fit their needs.
Barco 4K projectors use the 1.38DLP Cinema chip from Texas Instruments, which can project over 35 trillion Academy accurate colors and delivers a greater than 2500:1 contrast ratio. Raizada points out: 展e preferred Barco projectors because of the quality they offer. These ‘top of the line’ projectors guarantee razor-sharp images combined with consistent uniformity, rich contrast and accurate colors.In addition to that, the projector has better optical design and superior lamp efficiency, which results in a maximum light output and a sharpened visual 3D experience. It also has a patented cooling system, which ensures reliability and a significantly increased lifetime.
Barco projectors come with integrated media block (IMB) installed.展ith an IMB, the content decryption takes place inside the projector, which makes piracy tougher. The new link between server and IMB is not only more secure and reliable, but also faster,assures Raizada. The projector also has high frame rate (HFR) technology, which projects movies at a frame rate that is twice or higher of what痴 seen in normal cinemas. As a result, viewers see less flicker, motion blur and stuttered movement. This improves 3D movies dramatically creating ultra-realistic movie going experiences.
Shifting from 2K to 4K was a smooth process for Wave. 的t was an overnight transition. Everything was tried and tested before the implementation and the process was smooth,shares Raizada. World class viewing experience and customer satisfaction were the greatest benefits that Wave received from the upgrade. 展e got a lot of positive customer feedback after that,points out Raizada. It also provided a competitive advantage for Wave since most of the players in the market are using 2K projectors. 的t is a major part of our wider expansion plans,he says.
Future projects
At present, these 4K projectors have been installed at Wave’s Noida, Raja Garden-Delhi and Lucknow multiplexes. Wave is planning to install it in all their cinemas in near future. About the cost involved, Raizada says that 鍍he technology won’t come cheap.”
With the right kind of technology in hand, Wave is now planning for a huge expansion of their cinema business. In the next three to six months, the multiplex operator is planing to open Cinemas in Jammu, Meerut, Ghaziabad and Rudrapur. 笛ammu and Meerut will have three screens each, while Ghaziabad and Rudrapur will have four screens each, consisting of overall addition of 3,300 seats in the next six months,says Raizada.
On the technology side, the chain is planning to renovate the ticketing system. 典icketing methods are changing day in and day out. We are planing to revamp our ticketing platforms in another few months and also developing our own mobile apps for ticketing,says Raizada. The company is also planning to deploy some cloud-based solutions in future.
