Here is one such screen the Empire Leicester Square in London’s West End which was only refitted this summertime with an incredible JBL loudspeaker array and THX licence.
The original JBL specification that was installed back in 1989 only lasted till the late of 1999 until the THX licence was withdrawn. As some of you know there are very tight restrictions on the THX cinema licence, where if you fail to meet the next inspection the THX licence and any advertisement martial trailers would be forbidden under the THX licence agreement.
Sounds kinder tight doesn’t it, if you have noisy AC or other you’re stuffed, the Empire had one problem with the AC but it never really distracted me from the motion picture exhibition of the film. I have however heard far worse nosy AC in my local cinema here in Bournemouth ODEON screen #6.
But the Empire is most defiantly back on the map, and with a JBL sound power that comes from an array of Crown amplification that is a staggering 56KW this is the ultimate THX screen in the whole United Kingdom if not the world!
With a sub bass array of x16 JBL 4645C which is 13 feet wide and 8 feet high that supersedes the existing x8 JBL 4645 tenfold!
The surrounds have gone from x22 JBL 8830 to the newer JBL 8340 x42
The screen channels are a five-screen array that works with all the 70mm six-track mag formats from Todd-AO to Dolby Stereo format 41 42 and 43, also there is SDDS8 Channel along with dts and dts 70. Dolby Stereo Digital Surround-EX can also be found at the Empire and with an atmosphere to impress the most die hard cinema goer.
