Ster Kinekor in Gateway in Durban recently announced that they have been fitted with Dolby Atmos – an advanced cinema audio platform. Dolby Atmos reinvents cinema sound by giving each speaker its own unique feed, enabling many new front, surround and ceiling-mounted height channels for the precise panning of select sounds. The result is a fully immersive experience, putting the audience right at the centre of the action.
The installation at Gateway makes Ster Kinekor one of the few cinemas across eleven countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa that have been fitted with Dolby® Atmos. More locations around the world are scheduled to be announced throughout 2013.
“Dolby Atmos enables cinemagoers to be transported into the adventure through a lifelike and immersive sensory cinema experience. We pride ourselves in being pioneers of sound technology and are thrilled that Ster-Kinekor will be using Dolby Atmos to present films in the best possible way, just as the director intended,’ said Tarif Sayed, Regional Director, Dolby, Middle East & Africa.
“It’s our most revolutionary sound innovation in years and we’ve had incredibly positive feedback from our creative and production communities. I’m really pleased to bring it to Ster-Kinekor South Africa for the first time.’
Dolby Atmos introduces a hybrid approach to mixing that enables sound designers and re-recording mixers to direct sounds as dynamic objects that envelop the listener in a lifelike sound field. The system utilises adaptive rendering techniques to maintain precise artistic integrity to the film-maker’s original vision across a wide range of cinema shapes, sizes and loudspeaker configurations. It is an end-to-end solution that takes into account the entire content pipeline and brings together mixers, studios, distributors, and exhibitors to create dramatic improvements in the audio experience.
Fiaz Mahomed, CEO of Ster-Kinekor Theatres expressed his delight about offering this innovative technology in South Africa. “We are proud to bring this ground breaking technology to our prime 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,’ he commented.
Wild and Marr, sole distributors of Harman Products in South Africa supplied all Crown Amplifiers, JBL speakers and subwoofers for the installation. The company released a statement expressing their excitement for being involved in the project that provides immersive cinema audio to movie goers.
