18 March 2012: MELBOURNE
Specialty Group Pty Ltd is proud to announce that its Specialty Cinema division has installed one of the Australia’s largest screens at Village Cinemas’ VMax Cinema at Knox, Melbourne Victoria.
The result of many months of planning, Specialty Cinema worked closely with Village Cinemas and international cinema screen manufacturer, Harkness Screens, to secure the screen for the large, 747 seat VMax auditorium at Knox.
The massive screen had to be specially air freighted to Australia from France in a crate more than 13 meters long, weighing in at more than 500kg, crate and screen combined. Offering the latest in 3D technology, the huge new cinema screen measures 28.230 meters wide x 12.015 meters high.
Getting such a large screen in place was a complex project which required:
· Two forklifts to lift the crate to the height of the upper level at Knox
· A hole to be cut in the cinema wall to get the screen into the auditorium
· A team of 20 people to manoeuvre the screen into position and secure it to the screen frame
· Five days work in total for the massive installation
“This project was particularly delicate because the silver surface of the screen is easily damaged if it is touched, so we needed to avoid any contact with the screen surface during the installation process” said Brian Ross, General Manager, Specialty Cinema who supervised the complex effort.
“We were pleased that Village Cinemas came to Specialty Cinema to install one of the largest silver screens in the southern hemisphere. It gave us a chance to demonstrate the skill and dedication of our theatre technicians who have installed a large majority of the screens in Australia over the last 20 plus years” said George Aleksiunas, Cinema Sales Executive at Specialty Cinema.
The newly installed Australia’s largest cinema screens were launched on Wednesday December 21, 2011 when Village Cinemas threw the doors open to a very special group of movie fans who were the first to see the giant 3D screen in action, enjoying an advance charity screening of Happy Feet Two.
About Specialty Group Pty Ltd: Since 1969, Specialty Group has been providing theatre, stage and cinema equipment and services to the performing arts and cinema exhibition industries in Australia, New Zealand and 28 countries around the world. Specialty Group operates under the Specialty Theatre (http://www.specialtytheatre.com) and Specialty Cinema (http://specialtycinema.com) brand names.