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Author Topic: Auro 11.1 - Its Rollout & Marketing Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-26-2014 07:41 PM                     The Auro 11.1 sound format has been around for a couple years, but now it looks like some actual installation progress is starting to take shape in the US. Cinemark intends to install Auro 11.1 on all of its "XD" labeled premium big screen rooms, starting with "top tier" markets but eventually going into all XD houses. There is around 100 of them with more to open. The Auro 3D web site now has a map showing Auro installations around the world. There's not very many at this point. Here's a list of Auro 11.1 houses in North America: California Calabasas - Edwards Theaters Stadium 6 Glendale - Pacific Theaters Glendale 18 Folsom - CinemaWest Palladio 16 Los Angeles - Pacific Theatres at the Grove Redwood City - Cinemark Redwood Downtown 20 and XD Florida Boca Raton - Cinemark Palace 20 and XD Lakeland - Cobb Theaters Lakeside 18 Miami - AMC Sunset Place 24 Georgia Canton - Carmike Riverstone 15 Illinois Gurnee - Marcus Theatres Gurnee Mills Cinema Nebraska Omaha - Strong Ballantyne Nevada Las Vegas - Century 16 South point and XD New Jersey Ridgefield Park - Starplex Luxury Cinemas 12 New York New York - Regal E-Walk Stadium 13 & RPX Texas El Paso - Cinemark Cielo Vista Mall 14 and XD El Paso - Cinemark East Montana and XD Fort Worth - Cinemark Alliance Town Center Frisco - Cinemark Frisco Square and XD Galveston - Moody Gardens Grapevine - Cinemark Tinseltown Grapevine and XD Plano - Cinemark Legacy and XD Plano - Cinemark West Plano and XD San Antonio - Santikos Paladium Virginia Leesburg - Cobb Theatres Village 12 Canada Kelowna, BC - Landmark Grand 10 Cinemas Mexico Morelia, Michoacán - Cinepolis Santa Fe, Cuajimalpa - CineMex The marketing and branding for Auro 11.1 is a little odd for its inconsistency. Here's the Auro3D company logo: Here's two logos Barco put together for Auro 11.1: Which logo is supposed to be used by movie theaters and movie studios? I've seen some theater chains use the Auro3D logo. Cobb Theaters is using one of the Barco Auro logos. The advertising situation for Auro seems even worse than that of Dolby Atmos. I can't recall seeing Auro logos on any movie poster artwork or end titles. However, I haven't seen every movie with an Auro 11.1 mix (there's not very many; Dreamworks Animation seems to be the biggest source for future Auro 11.1 titles). What seems even worse is how specific movie theaters are treating Auro. What the hell is Cinemark doing? The movie I: Frankenstein has Atmos and Auro 11.1 mixes, but I checked a few of the XD theaters in the Dallas area. They don't mention anything at all about Auro 11.1. This makes me wonder if Cinemark is trying to give "XD" all the pomp and circumstance for the more elaborate sound system and deliberately not give Auro 11.1 any credit at all. I: Frankenstein hasn't been exactly well received by critics at all. It has a dismal 5% tomato meter score at Rotten Tomatoes. A lot of Dolby Atmos equipped theaters aren't playing the movie; shows like Ride Along and Lone Survivor are playing on those screens instead. IMAX branded theaters would be stuck playing that movie for weeks, if not for the re-release of Gravity going back on a lot of those screens 1/31. Anyway, if Cinemark is going to spend a bunch of money on more than 100 Auro 11.1 installations, they probably ought to be making a far better effort at promoting the sound format. If Auro is supposed to be an unspoken ingredient in the XD theater recipe then that would be a pretty stupid move.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-26-2014 09:45 PM                        I'm surprised AMC didn't put it into their Pleasure Island 24 at Disney World....that's a pretty deluxe, "dine-in" location. (Or maybe they put Atmos there? We're going to be there next weekend, if we get over to that area I'll find out.)  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-26-2014 10:30 PM                     AMC has installed Dolby Atmos in its ETX theaters and Prime screening rooms. The AMC Downtown Disney 24 has an ETX screen, but I'm not sure if that's the same theater you're talking about. I: Frankenstein is currently playing on that screen. I don't know if it will still be on that ETX screen Friday. It would be kind of cool if they had Gravity in Dolby Atmos on that screen then.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-26-2014 10:42 PM                        That is the location.....I forgot they changed the name of it when Disney basically shut down most of the Pleasure Island area. (And they'll probably change it again, because the whole Downtown Disney area is being re-imagined as "Disney Springs."  |  IP: Logged Buck Wilson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 894 From: St. Joseph MO, USA Registered: Sep 2010 posted 01-27-2014 12:00 AM                     Why even bother with Auro when Atmos is available? Cost?  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-27-2014 12:27 AM                     I think cost is the main thing. I don't know the price of the Barco AP-243D (a re-badged Datasat cinema processor), but I'm guessing it costs quite a bit less than a Dolby CP850 Atmos processor. The Auro 11.1 format probably doesn't require nearly as many amplifiers for a full 11.1 or 13.1 configuration. But, a well configured Auro 11.1 capable sound system is going to cost quite a bit more than a regular 5.1 or 7.1 based sound system. That investment is going to be useless without a steady stream of Auro 11.1 movie mixes. We're kind of in the dregs of the movie release schedule right now. I: Frankenstein is the only new movie in theaters with both an Auro 11.1 and Atmos mix. The way it looks, it might be March before we see more movies with Auro or Atmos. There could be some last minute title entries, such as the upcoming Robocop remake. But if the mix in a movie like that was fully optimized for those next-generation sound formats I think we would have seen an announcement from Dolby, Barco or Auro by now. A movie whose 5.1 or 7.1 mix is basically ported over into Atmos or Auro with little change is pretty disappointing.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 01-27-2014 01:58 AM                        Barco sound? Sorry I'm waiting until Panavision comes out with their sound system.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 01-27-2014 05:33 AM                     I've heard rumors that will be released right after their 3D system .  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 01-27-2014 12:09 PM                     Wayyy off topic... quote: Mike Blakesley the whole Downtown Disney area is being re-imagined as "Disney Springs." Um. Huh?  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-27-2014 12:23 PM                        Yes, they are re-making the whole area, adding a parking garage (because parking there is ridiculous), adding more shops and restaurants and a foot-bridge to a resort across the lake, and so on. They abandoned the whole "Hyperion Springs" concept that was originally planned for the Pleasure Island area and incorporated it all in to Disney Springs. But the AMC Theatre (with whatever sound system it has) will still be there! Sorry for the topic drift...of the two Auro logos above I like the second one better, it is more interesting. The top one looks like an 80s refuge.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-27-2014 02:10 PM                     Barco's two Auro logos are more interesting. They have a better sense of style to them than Auro's own company logo. However, Barco's two Auro 11.1 logos won't reproduce well at small sizes. The dots in that criss-cross "A" icon are fairly complicated. They get muddy looking when shrank to small sizes. And then the "experience sound in 3D" lettering is so thin in weight that it's only legible at large sizes. That lettering is barely 1 pixel in width in the examples above. Maybe that lettering would be dropped in versions of the logo made for smaller sizes. The Dax Pro typeface has many weights to it, from very light to very heavy. Barco should work on some other alternatives that can reproduce well as small icons on a web-based theater show times page.  |  IP: Logged Terry Lynn-Stevens Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1081 From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Registered: Dec 2012 posted 01-27-2014 02:23 PM                     While Barco does make good quality projectors, there really is not much of a chance that Auro 11.1 will ever succeed. quote: I've heard rumors that will be released right after their 3D system [Wink]  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-27-2014 02:52 PM                     As much as I want Dolby Atmos installations to proliferate into thousands of theaters, Auro 11.1 is going to stick around if enough theaters have Auro 11.1 sound systems. Right now around 120 theater locations in North America have screens equipped with Atmos and some of those locations have multiple Atmos capable screens. Auro 11.1 won't have any trouble growing to the 120 theater locations level. There are around 100 Cinemark XD screens with several more set to open this year. Regal has a deal to install Auro 11.1 in 20 of its RPX theaters. Carmike appears to be leaning toward putting Auro 11.1 in its Big-D theaters after testing both Atmos and Auro 11.1 in two of their Big-D theaters. One thing I don't think has good odds is DTS' object-based MDA format taking over. I'm skeptical it can be a one size fits all format for immersive sound in D-cinema. Atmos and Auro 11.1 are very different in how they are encoded. Both are proprietary. The authoring environments for both are very different. Adding another layer via a DTS MDA authoring environment may create even more work. The results would have to be checked within the Auro and Atmos. Having a "single delivery" for immersive sound on DCP hard discs is asking a bit much. Just look at all the different projection format "deliveries" on some DCPs. There's already separate 5.1 and 7.1 audio mixes on many DCPs. The situation is just going to get more complex rather than going the other direction to greater simplicity. If all the audio/video deliveries won't fit on a DCP disc the studios will just have to use some bigger capacity hard discs.  |  IP: Logged Terry Lynn-Stevens Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1081 From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Registered: Dec 2012 posted 01-27-2014 03:26 PM                     quote: Bobby Henderson Having a "single delivery" for immersive sound on DCP hard discs is asking a bit much. Dolby Atmos will play in any cinema, 5.1, 7.1 or up to 64 channels. Atmos is a single inventory format.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-27-2014 04:08 PM                     Ha? And I figured everyone was installing Christie Vive by now because their sales people told me it was the best thing going out there today. Their claim was that it is even better then their projectors and even better then the guy that actually runs Christie. Seriously though. Isn't that just the old ribbon speaker line that Big Skie used to sell and no one bought? Or did they actually bother to design a whole new line of ribbon speakers that no one will still buy? I probably shoudla started another thread for this but I had to poke fun at it some where... Ala Vive! Mark  |  IP: Logged

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