Display developers such as Samsung are eyeing movie theaters to install LED walls as a screen replacement to projection systems, but the installments can be pricey and use a ton of power.
Samsung Initially debuted its Onyx LED displays for cinema in 2018.
Courtesy of Samsung
Samsung and LG are among a number of tech companies that are quietly making a new push to Hollywood on the potential of LED display tech to replace theater projection systems that have been used since the birth of cinema. It would be a radical change.
A projection system, true to its name, projects images onto the big screen. An LED wall is akin to a sophisticated, massive TV screen, and its use would render the projection booth a thing of the past. At this early stage, major U.S. theater chains are not using the tech.
The companies are hesitant to share many details on their plans — Samsung’s Onyx LED displays for cinema are installed in roughly 100 cinema auditoriums worldwide, including at The Culver Theater in Culver City — but Hollywood insiders have recently seen new demonstrations of the tech, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
“As with any new technology, there are a lot of very positive and some very scary things,” says director and cinematographer Jay Holben, who worked with this tech — categorized in the industry as “direct view” displays — as part of an American Society of Cinematographers-led project to create stan
