Recommendations

Experiencing Holosphere
By T. Berryhill

It was Remembrance Day, November 11th, 1998, when I finally got to experience true digital theatre. CORE invited me to join others who had been close to the company for a special reception the night before a two-day demonstration in a theater at Robson Square, Vancouver. I had heard that the projector would impress me even more than the GE light valve technology I had considered to be tops for many years, so I was definitely curious to see for myself. But since I believe that sound is at least as important as picture to create a truly impressive experience, I really wanted to hear the proprietary system for myself too. As much as I enjoy graphics and have worked with 3D animation since the early 80’s, seeing the premier of Jurassic Park only reinforced to me that sound and sound quality is critical.
I did have a “taste” of the sound system at the home of its developer, Dr. Josef Tyls, a few weeks earlier. As we sat in his listening room with a small array of
speakers, we chatted easily while the sound pressure gauge registered over 100 decibels.
“We can hear each other clearly without shouting over the music,” he said, “because no distortion is being introduced by the system.” Having considered myself an audiophile in the 60’s and 70’s, I was quite impressed by what I heard. But a special small listening room and a theatre are two different things. I had faith that his bass end would hold up because of what I call his “air cannon” design for the bottom end. Four of these would be at the front of the theater. But what about the high notes and mid-range? I was informed that the secret was in the crossovers and system design, making sure that only the right range of sound was delivered to each speaker, with absolutely no distortion. This system has been designed using proprietary circuitry developed over 17 years. It involves modifications to the amplifiers as well as the special crossovers.
What amplifiers would he use? Crown. “I’ll be there,” I said.

At the theater, CORE presented the sound system first, demonstrating the “small array” designed for small theaters and high-end home installations. Even in this space for seating 350, the small array was crystal clear and well balanced, except for a slight weakness at the low end, in my opinion. Then they switched on the woofers, or air cannons as I call them, but just two of the four. That was it. It filled in what I had been missing with just the small array. However, if I were to use the small array for home theater, I think I would just take them without the cannons.

I really was impressed by the clarity and quality of the sound from the small array, but sitting there staring at the large array, I couldn’t help but wonder, “what’s it going to be like when they switch it all on?” I didn’t have to wait. On went the class-A amplifiers, the other two woofer systems, the large array and selected sample CDs.

I listen for detail. I listen for tonal quality and balance, and unfortunately I often try to tune out distortion. I joke with myself at the symphony about the time at Massey Hall in Toronto during the 70’s, when I was heavily involved with sound systems, exclaiming to my companion, “Listen to the quality!” as the Toronto Symphony played. Live sound is amazing.

What I heard that night I can only describe as “more.”
I wanted to hear it again. I wanted to hear more examples to see if it really was this good. I couldn’t get enough. The next day I returned and brought my own CDs. I had them push the limits. 105 decibels. 106 decibels. I knew this music. I had heard it on several different systems. This is really what I wanted… a sound system with no distortion and lots of power. I have never before heard this level of clarity.

Now, how about some imagery to go with this sound system? Unfortunately, since it was a holiday, the digital tape deck was stuck in shipping, so they only had DVD quality that night. Their up-converter that improves the quality of DVD video was also enroute, so we watched straight home quality DVD. I’ve been at movie theaters with far worse quality! This was beating 70-mm film! I returned the next day to catch the D5 digital tape projection at much higher quality. I walked right up to the screen, on stage, and could not see artifacts of the technology until I was about 10 feet away. I later learned that the screen, 27' x 11', was designed for film projection with a coarse mesh to minimize distortion caused by airflow. Now I’m thinking those “artifacts” could well have been that mesh. The projector’s intensity had been turned up to compensate for the light lost due to the tranmissiveness of the screen. Does this mean it would be even more impressive on a solid surface mounted screen? It doesn’t really matter, because from the seating area, the digital projection was far and away better than any 70-mm film I have ever seen. While I had used micro-mirror technology projectors for lectures and presentations, this projector was incorporating the technology specifically for theater projection. All the same ease of use was there with on-screen controls from the remote control for brightness, etc. It was just that the image was so much bigger (it filled the screen) and so much clearer than film or other digital projectors of the past.

Putting together the sound and projection, CORE screened a couple of recent Hollywood titles on DVD. This indeed was better than when I saw the movies at the cinema. Special effects came alive with no distracting sound artifacts or distortion. The power of the bass involved me in the action with no pain.
This is digital theater, and I want more of it.

Where can this go in the future? With such a high quality picture and such great sound, all coming from a little digital disk or tape instead of bulky cellulose film, theaters of the future may cut their costs enormously by operating the equipment much as we now do at home with our TVs, VCRs and DVDs.
I can only imagine other opportunities for group experiences in a theater environment, such as live events shared around the world over digital networks, live learning experiences for school children, computer-based presentations, group games and more. This, in my opinion, is one of those evolutionary, incremental changes, that is indeed significant. Those who seize the opportunity first will definitely set the direction.

Mr. Berryhill is a teacher and lecturer at the University of British Columbia, in the Multimedia and Internet Labs. He was also past President of the Vancouver ‘SIGGraph’ Association for the past three years. Mr. Berryhill also does private technology consulting and multimedia development work for a number of prominent businesses within British Columbia.