Underscoring its commitment to the increasingly popular Dolby ATMOS platform, South African cinema chain Ster-Kinekor recently deployed Harman’s JBL Professional cinema loudspeakers and Crown amplifiers at its flagship Gateway Cinema in Durban.
The system was unveiled in December at a premiere for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. South Africa professional audio distributor Wild & Marr supplied all the HARMAN components for the installation.
The theatre features five JBL ScreenArray 4732 loudspeakers with three suspended left-right-rear JBL 4642A dual 18-inch subwoofers. Forty-eight JBL 8350’s serve as the surround speakers for the sides, rear, and overhead. Twenty-nine Crown XTi4002 amplifiers power the system and three Crown XTi6002 amps power the subwoofers.
Dolby ATMOS creates life-like sound where each of the 48 JBL surround speakers are independently amplified, creating 48 separate channels of surround sound in the cinema. The use of JBL loudspeakers enables greater realism with a heightened impact in every scene.
“Being part of the scientific process of taking a piece of art and recreating it as the director had intended is awe inspiring. Interacting with Dolby to overcome technical challenges that face this very new concept was an honor and it was great to hear from Dolby that our method of installation was way above average,” stated Wild & Marr Systems Engineer, Gustav Teitge.
“We are proud to bring this groundbreaking technology to our No.1 Ster-Kinekor cinema in the country – Gateway. We are especially excited to launch this offering to the city of Durban where South Africans go to play, to holiday, to relax and to have fun this time of year. We think South Africans deserve the best. And we’re happy to bring it to them,” added Fiaz Mahomed, CEO of Ster-Kinekor Theaters.