Projection
Screen
Four and a half stories tall and six and a half stories wide,
or 44- by 66-feet (13.4- by 20.1-meters).
Film
70mm film with 15 perforations.
It is the largest film-frame
size in use.
The IMAX film is ten times as large as 35mm film and three
times as large as standard 70mm with five perforations.
Film
Projector
The projector system weighs
3,900 pounds (1,769 kilograms)
nearly two tons
(1.77 metric tons). The
system is designed and
built by Imax Corporation,
Mississauga, Ontario,
Canada. The projector
handles 330 feet (100
meters) of film per minute.
This is roughly similar
to an average adult walking
pace, or about 2.5 miles
(4 kilometers) of film
per 40-minute show! The
film moves at twenty-four
frames per second and
moves horizontally rather
than vertically. The film
is wound on magnesium
reels that are four feet
in diameter.
Sound
System
The IMAX six-channel high-fidelity
motion-picture sound system
with sub-bass is manufactured
by Sonics Associates,
Inc. Fifty-eight speakers
surround viewers. The
sound is produced at a
low frequency, which can
literally make shirtsleeves
vibrate. Soundtracks for
IMAX productions are produced
separately from the film
and are played from a
computer hard drive.
Theater
Design
The seating platform is angled twenty-five degrees to the
floor. Heads of viewers are level with knees of spectators
one row back. Everyone has an unobstructed view of the screen.
The image fills both horizontal and vertical peripheral vision.
The image expands vertically and horizontally. The theater
can seat 441 people.
back to
top
|