World first for Pathé Tuschinski with Christie Mystique

Photo credits: Stefan Vogels, CinemaNext

WOKINGHAM, England – Amsterdam’s Pathé Royal Theater Tuschinski, rated the world’s number one theatre by TimeOut.com on its centenary in 2021, has addressed a perennial keystoning issue in its main auditorium with Christie Mystique™ Cinema alignment software. CinemaNext identified Christie Mystique Cinema as the only solution able to project the right image and correct the keystoning in such a challenging environment where the rake angle is nearly 30 degrees. They also specified a Christie CP4435-RGB pure laser projector to run alongside the software and provided a complete on-screen upgrade.

The stunning Pathé Tuschinski is Amsterdam’s most famous theatre. Outside, the unmistakable Art Deco façade mixes towers, ceramic sculptures, and leaded light windows. Inside, you step into a sublime lobby designed to give theatregoers the feeling of illusion. The glorious main auditorium (Screen 1) is set out in a huge semi-circle around an orchestra pit, with plush seating for 600 in royal red velvet and a magnificent double-tiered balcony.

As such, Pathé Tuschinski is not only a favorite venue for cinemagoers, but the most exacting audience of all - directors and producers showcasing their movies for the first time. “We facilitate lots of movie premieres and events,” explained Nico Vertommen, director, Facility Pathé Theatres BV and responsible for renovations and technical maintenance in Pathé theatres. “We have a massive downward projection due to a very high positioned projection booth, less than 0.5-meter (1.6 f) space behind our screen, and a lot of building restrictions due to the historical status of the building.”

Matthew Jones, managing director of CinemaNext Netherlands, oversaw a large team of skilled technicians, including three systems designers and several engineers working on the installation for over a month to upgrade the projection and provide every audience member with a premium experience. “The auditorium is stunning but the projector being high above the double balcony produces a very steep angle rake to the bottom of the screen of around 27 degrees that would generally distort the image as a result. The screen size, fully open, is 12.2m x 6.9m (40 x 22.63 feet). There were artifacts on-screen, the credits curved, and some of the images cut off at the sides,” explained Jones.

“We knew from our personal relationship with Christie that they were working on a single projector Mystique Cinema software for blending and alignment. The software allows for keystone correction that ensures the entire image is displayed correctly without any cropping of the image. We collaborated behind-the-scenes and Christie provided us with the beta software to be used for the first time at Pathé Tuschinski,” Jones shared.

To upgrade the projection to a status fitting the clientele, CinemaNext wanted a 4K RGB pure laser projector. They specified a Christie CP4435-RGB with a premium ultra high contrast 6.000:1 lens. The projector has a wide color gamut and is capable of 4K @120 frames per second. Electronic Color Convergence (ECC) allows maximum pixel alignment up to 1/64^th of a pixel to provide perfect RGB color alignment. It also has the advantage of RGB pure laser’s best-in-class lumens-per-watt energy efficiency.

“The previous projection had been Xenon,” explained Jones. “The Christie CP4435-RGB gave a good spec for the size of the screen. The lens is very good. The premium ultra high contrast lens reduces aberrations with excellent pixel overlap and is much sharper. The results of the installation were excellent. There is a fantastic clear image. Contrast tripled from 2000:1 to 6000:1, there’s much more color on screen and audiences see much brighter, better, beautiful visuals. And, of course, now there is a perfectly aligned image so what they don’t see is any keystoning that used to take away from the overall experience.”

“Due to the installation of the Christie equipment, we succeeded in significantly upgrading our quality standards for both picture and sound,” concluded Vertommen. “We are very satisfied with the latest improvements in Tuschinski. Pathé always focuses on innovating cinemas and improving the moviegoing experience for customers and this has elevated customers' expectations in every way with positive feedback and from all the patrons at Tuschinski.”