Read all about Letchworth Garden City Heritage's tech upgrade

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Fact File

Broadway Cinema and Theatre, Letchworth Garden City, UK

The beautiful art deco venue, designed by Bennett and Bidwell and built by Howard Hurst, became a popular venue for occasional rallies, speeches and live music after its opening. And the site itself featured in the 2013 movie “The World’s End”, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, with the cinema doubling as “The Mermaid”, a pub at the heart of the story. The Broadway Cinema and Theatre, located 30 minutes north of London in Letchworth Garden City, UK, has been in operation since 1936 when it opened its doors to a packed screening of “Follow the Fleet”, starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.

CT Magazine staff

Like so many of its peers, the building has undergone both major and minor refurbishments since its opening, reflecting the cultural evolution and demands of this local, vibrant and diverse community. These changes have seen the site morph from the original single-screen site opened more than 85 years ago, into a modern fourscreen cinema that has retained its art deco features. At the heart of the building is a large multi-purpose 400+ seat auditorium complete with stage, and designed to host cinema screenings (via a large electric roller screen), as well as live theatrical productionsincluding musicals, plays and stand-up comedy. The three additional smaller screens showcase first-run movie content, as well as event cinema, including ballet andopera. And the venue is owned by Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation; a charitable foundation with clear objectives to improve the lifestyle and wellbeing of Letchworth residents, as well as enhancing recreation and leisure opportunities for all.

Arguably one of the more significant changes occurred over 11 years ago when the site moved from film to digital, converting its four existing 35mm film projectors to Kinoton Series 2 projectors, at the same time as installing 3D technology into two of its four screens. This was a move

that enabled the cinema to retain its status as a cultural hub at the centre of the local community.

Upgrading Technology

Over the past 10 years the cinema has undertaken a number of minor upgrades including the installation of a new 10-metre wide, 3D-enabled, roller screen to the cinema’s main auditorium - and in the summer of 2020, the deployment of four new Dolby IMS3000 servers.

In 2021, the Heritage Foundation recognised an increasingly pressing need to replace the projection equipment in each auditorium, “We’d identified a number of areas of concern regarding our Kinoton projectors which made them a long-term operational liability. Given the age of the units, obtaining spare parts was

becoming a significant challenge, something that was only exacerbated by Covid, and something we recognised would get worse over time,” explained Jason Valentine, Venues Manager for the Heritage Foundation. “As well, the operational and consumable costs of running ageing xenon-based projectors meant that they were becoming more and more uneconomical to run even before the ...TO LASER global energy crisis we’re now experiencing. And our other major concern was long term compatibility with future technology. So we looked to the market to identify options that would help us address these issues”, Valentine added. Having met with every major projection technology company during CineEurope 2021, Valentine quickly identified the large number of different options available to the cinema but felt compelled to seek further impartial guidance, “As an organisation, we’re not ostensibly cinema operators, in fact, the cinema forms just a small - although important - part of our operations to support the local community. That means our knowledge and expertise, particularly from a technology standpoint, is somewhat limited. With such a wide range of options available, we needed independent guidance to help us firstly understand the best-fit solution for the cinema, and secondly, to ensure

The Broadway’s Screen 1 auditorium

The Broadway Cinema and Theatre’s exterior

Defining the Pathway

that we were driving maximum value from the investment, something which is essential as a charitable organisation,” Valentine said.

So they turned to the Cinema Technology Community (CTC) to provide impartial guidance, focusing on three specific areas. Firstly, an assessment of the pre-existing technology infrastructure and its performance. Secondly, in identifying and assessing technology options that fell within the allocated budget. And thirdly, to assist in the creation of the tender documentation and for support during the process.

At its core, the Heritage Foundation is committed to ensuring that it operates sustainably and for the benefit of Letchworth’s residents. This upgrade represents a large step towards this commitment.

Documenting the As-is Situation

The CTC team made a series of visits to Letchworth, visits to identify and focus on auditorium geometry, the creation of a technology manifesto for the site, screen sizing and brightness and uniformity measurements. The resulting 14-page report highlighted the requirement to install new projectors.

“We noticed across three of the four auditoriums that peak brightness levels were below the minimum threshold of the DCI-specification (11fL), resulting in underlit screens and underwhelming images,” explained Peter Knight, CTC’s lead

consultant on the project. “We also identified that screens two, three and four were at the end-of-life stage and needed replacing as part of the project”, Knight concluded. Having understood the existing projection setup and its output capabilities, the CTC team identified a range of appropriate projector and screen combinations. These combinations would meet the cinema’s primary objectives for replacing the projectors whilst also improving both onscreen brightness (to meet and exceed DCI-specifications) and uniformity. “We took a technology-agnostic view with our findings, drawing up a set of specifications for any projector, notably the required lumen output based on screen types that would improve uniformity. Understanding that the chosen solution would either be a laser phosphor or RGB laser projector, we factored in the potential for light degradation over the course of the projector’s life, and thus the specification included sufficient headroom in power. We identified different screen types for each solution, given the “The difference in the potential for laser speckle with quality of presentation RGB projectors. In understanding that the large high-gain roller was instantly noticeable” screen in Screen 1 was not being replaced, we also considered the use of light source specifically for this screen from a speckle perspective along with the potential for moiré if the chosen solution was a 4K projector,” explained Knight. The CTC team then identified a range of appropriate projectors from NEC, Christie, Barco and GDC, before providing a final recommendation from each manufacturer based on suitability and availability of product.

Preparing to Tender

“As a charitable organisation, we have to ensure that we manage our budgets carefully and that we’re obtaining value for money. With this project it was no different, so

(left) A sound rack in Screen 4

A Kinoton series 2 projector

A side-by-side digital and film projector

while we had an incumbent integrator that had worked with us over many years, we were able to use the specification defined by CTC to invite the four largest UK integrators to tender for the project,” explained Valentine. “Each integrator provided a detailed response which helped us identify experience, product availability, ongoing support and pricing. Our internal scoring matrix then meant we could identify a preferred supplier for both the product and service for the project.”

In With the New…

Equipment shortages across the world meant a relatively lengthy delay to the planned installation. However, in April 2022, four new Barco phosphor laser projectors arrived at the cinema along with the engineering team from chosen integrator, Omnex. Three new screens from Harkness formed the first part of a staged roll-out which was then followed by the decommissioning and removal of the four Kinoton projectors and the installation of the new Barco projectors.

“The difference in the quality of presentation was instantly noticeable. The image was so much brighter, sharper and more uniform and the improvement, even from the most challenging seats, was dramatic. And our customers’ feedback has been incredibly positive,” said Valentine.

“From an operational perspective, the new technology is already having the benefit of helping us to combat rising energy costs by reducing our power and HVAC requirements, something which will help us see a tangible return on investment over the next decade”, Valentine explained.

With the installation complete, Valentine and the Letchworth team are looking to use the project as a blueprint for future technology roll-outs, “Having an agnostic partner in CTC helped us to make informed decisions on technology choices. We couldn’t have managed the process, including the tendering phase, without their support and we’ll look to work with the CTC team again in the future when we look to upgrade our seating across the cinema”, Valentine concluded.

A sound rack in Screen 2