“Star Trek Into Darkness” is the debut movie for the Ward theater’s new Dolby Atmos surround sound system. Its improved spatial qualities is best heard in this scene with Capt. Kirk (Chris Pine), left, Lt. Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto), (Courtesy Paramount Pictures)
BY GARY CHUN / gchun@staradvertiser.com
Consolidated Theatres is rolling out its new Dolby Atmos surround sound system in its Ward Titan XC theater with this week’s opening of “Star Trek Into Darkness” — despite a torn screen.
With the entire screen measuring 66 feet wide and 35 feet high, there’s a sizable angular tear on the right side that was caused last weekend by falling scaffolding while the theater’s sound system was being rewired.
While the tear was certainly visible during “Star Trek’s” lightly illuminated scenes, it proved to be a relatively minor distraction due to the remarkable sound design that emanated from the system’s 40 speakers. The original 32 located on the sides and the back of the theater are now augmented by two rows of eight speakers attached to the ceiling.
John Sittig, Consolidated Theatres director of projection and sound, said that during the process of putting in the system, “we had to lift the stage up 11 feet and pull the 800-pound polyester screen out. … The patch job we did on the tear was the best that we could do.”
He said it could take as long as two-and-a-half weeks for Consolidated to get a new screen that is manufactured on the east coast.
“The alternative was not to show the movie while waiting for delivery, but this new sound system, I think, is impressive and overpowering enough that I hope the public will give us a pass,” Sittig said.
The system made its debut in 2012 at the premiere of “Brave” at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
Stuart Bowling, senior cinema technical marketing manager for Dolby, said in his pre-screening remarks that the Atmos system took five years to develop “and was a big challenge to us, because we had to learn how to integrate and distribute this new system into theaters with pre-existing surround sound, and how the playback would be recalibrated because there are now more speakers.”
With the additional ceiling speakers, Bowling said there is “uniform coverage that puts you right in the middle of an immersive experience, and gives a movie’s sound design and music score more power.”
The new system was evident in “Star Trek’s” hand-to-hand battle scenes and quieter moments that warranted a subtler sound mix. And the usual humongous action setpieces made an already loud-sounding mix moreso.
(Sittig said that Ward’s Dolby Atmos still needed some fine tuning and, to my ears, it could use some tweaking of the relative shrillness of higher frequencies.)
Bowling said Dolby has “worked diligently with the Hollywood community” and that every major studio is on board, so audiences can expect to hear the Dolby Atmos surround mix in its full glory in upcoming tentpole movies as “Man of Steel” (Warner Bros., June 14), “Pacific Rim” (Warner Bros., July 12), “The Wolverine” (20th Century Fox, July 26) and “Elysium” (Sony Pictures, Aug. 9).
After the screening of “Star Trek Into Darkness,” Bowling said, “I think the technology can be improved with more imaging” or spatial localization of sound, “but the impact of this new surround sound system, from its sheer power to its subtler elements, is already paying off great dividends.”
The Ward Titan XC theater is now one of 80 in the U.S. with Dolby Atmos, and 100 worldwide. Tickets for “Star Trek Into Darkness,” showing in 3-D at the theater, are $16.75 general admission, $13 for seniors and children.