THE IMPORTANCE OF THX FOR CINEMA SOUND.

In 1977 on the release of STAR WARS,George Lucas heard the sound at a local Cinema and was appalled at the sound and the fact it sounded nothing like he had heard when making/mixing the movie.

In 1983 -within Lucasfilm Ltd,to make sure that Return of the Jedi didn`t suffer the same audio fate as Star Wars, the THX program was born,developed primarily by Tomlinson Holman (Tom  Holman`Xperiment ) and aimed to ensure that Cinemas could replicate audio to the level the director had intended.

This meant strict criteria for the speakers,amplifiers and the auditorium itself and stringent testing to achieve a THX certification**.

**"The THX system is not a recording technology and it does not specify a sound recording format: all sound formats, whether digital (Dolby Digital, DTS, SDDS) or analog (Dolby Stereo, Ultra Stereo), can be "shown in THX". THX is mainly a quality assurancesystem. THX-certified theaters provide a high-quality, predictable playback environment to ensure that any film soundtrack mixed in THX will sound as near as possible to the intentions of the mixing engineer. THX also provides certified theaters with a special crossover circuit whose use is part of the standard. Certification of an auditorium entails specific acoustic and other technical requirements; architectural requirements include a floating floor, baffled and acoustically treated walls, non-parallel walls (to reduce standing waves), a perforated screen (to allow center channel continuity), and NC30 rating for background noise ("ensures noise from air conditioning units and projection equipment does not mask the subtle effects in a movie's soundtrack."

In 2002 the THX ideology and process were sold to Creative (video card manufacturers) and in 2016 sold again to Razer (The games manufacturers).

But the stringent criteria for validating the right equipment for high end Cinemas -commercial & consumer,remains.

http://www.thx.com/certified-products/


http://www.thx.com/certification/thx-cinema-certification-program/


For Projectiondreams THX is incredibly important and Projectiondreams is one of the few companies in europe that has a THX trained professional onboard (trained under John Dahl) ...

This ensures that Projectiondreams can setup Audio to the standard expected by the director using equipment validated by the THX testing process.

For example, we use Parasound Amps and M &K SPEAKERS..both used by George Lucas to listen to his soundtracks..both rigidly tested by THX.

Klipsch speakers used in most major Cinemas in the U.S.

Epson projectors,Panasonic t.v.s.....etc..

THX is a crucial part of Cinema..but there are others..we adhere to all of them within our CINEMA PEDIGREE ethos..

http://www.projectiondreams.com/20665/portugal-home-cinema/cinema-pedigree/

THX Cinema in process...

So folks..COME TO THE PROFESSIONALS...get the quality you deserve...and a great tip?

For Cinema..DONT TOUCH IT if its not THX approved...

Rgds,

Vincent Myers M.D.


#algarvehomecinema #projectiondreams