Samsung plans to install about 5 LED cinema screens in India by 2018 end

Samsung India is looking to install about five of its 4K Onyx Cinema LED displays at movie theatres across the country by the end of 2018, a senior company executive has said.

The South Korean tech giant introduced the LED display for large screens in collaboration with multiplex theatre major PVR Cinemas in India on Monday.

"This is our first installation and we are trying to go further and install many more screens in the country. Roughly 5-7 installations (in India) is what we are looking at before we exit 2018," Puneet Sethi, Vice President, Consumer Electronics Enterprise Business, Samsung India, told IANS.

IANS had first reported in May that PVR Cinemas will be among the first multiplex chains to install Onyx Cinema LED in the country and that the LED screen would be deployed at PVR multiplexes in Delhi and Mumbai.

"To begin with in India, we are concentrating only on Delhi and Mumbai. As we get into the first quarter of 2019, we will also focus on other metro cities such as Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad," Sethi said.

"We are in discussion with other leading multiplex chains as well," Sethi added.

The technology was originally introduced by Samsung in 2017 and it deployed the first screen in Korea.

PVR Cinemas said it would install the 4K Onyx Cinema LED screen in Mumbai by the end of 2018.

"This financial year we are looking at one more installation, which will be in Lower Parel, Mumbai," said Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Joint Managing Director, PVR Ltd.

The installation of one LED screen roughly requires 8-10 weeks.

"Based on the response of viewers in these two cities, we would decide about further installations in 2019," Bijli added.

With this new technology, currently available only in a few countries across the world, enthusiasts can watch movies with better picture quality, true colours, and greater vibrancy and accuracy, Samsung India claimed.

The LED display comes with comprehensive solutions such as "Onyx View", "Onyx 3D" and "Onyx Sound". The screen delivers HDR (High Dynamic Range) to the cinema, showcasing on-screen contents at peak brightness level, nearly 10 times greater than that offered by the standard cinema projectors.

The screen offers "Onyx" surround sound from JBL by Harman International and Samsung's Audio Lab.

(Krishna SinhaChaudhury can be contacted at krishna.s@ians.in)

--IANS

ksc/gb/mag/