Balancing heritage film and modern projectionist needs wi...

Eye Filmmuseum is the Netherlands leading film museum, offering a rich variety of experiences from screenings of classic films to cultural exhibitions. With four auditoriums and a team of highly skilled projectionists, Eye serves as both a film archive and a cinema venue. The venue recently undertook a full upgrade of its AV infrastructure across all four public screening auditoriums, under the leadership of Toon Bouman, Head of Operations and Yorrick de Nooijer, a freelance video engineer who installed the previous system back in 2011.

The existing AV system had reached the end of its life, having been installed almost 15 years ago, says de Nooijer. Eye invested in all new 4K projectors from Christie for the four auditoriums and therefore required a modern signal infrastructure to support the latest technologies with ultra-HD compatibility.

The previous system had been added to over the years and had grown in complexity. The upgrade project represented an opportunity to design a modern system from scratch and to standardise and streamline the behind-the-scenes operations. The key objectives of the upgrade project were to bring 4K60 ultra-HD video support across all auditoriums, create a coherent, modular AV infrastructure in all projection rooms, unify signal management for both old analogue and new digital content and implement a new future-proof system that could be scaled as required. Lightware's Taurus product line formed the core of the new AV system.

With the transition to 4K UHD content and new Christie projectors, the Eye team needed a solution that could handle high-bandwidth video, legacy formats and complex signal routing across multiple auditoriums.

The central component of the new system is Lightware's Taurus TPX transmitters and receivers (UCX-2x1-TPX-TX20 and UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20), which manage video distribution between source devices and projectors across all four auditoriums. In larger or more demanding show configurations, the UCX-4x3-TPX-TX20 provides additional input/output capacity and enhanced flexibility for managing speaker content, return video feeds and technician monitors.

For even more flexible signal extension, Lightware's HDMI-TPX-TX106 point-to-point extenders and HDMI-TPX-RX107A-SR scaling receivers are also in use. This versatility is essential, as the scaling receivers ensure compatibility across a variety of input resolutions and legacy devices. The Taurus TPX 2x1 units located on stage allow presenters to connect a single cable that delivers audio, video, network, and power to their devices.

Lightware supports multiple control interfaces; hardware buttons via GPIO, playlist-based automation and a customizable web interface, explains Bouman. With this choice, our projectionists can respond quickly and ensure transitions between events are as smooth as possible. We've also found that the new system reduces operator training time.

All four auditoriums now have a uniform technology standard, with the capability to handle live events, screening of old analogue films or speaking engagements with flexibility. The new infrastructure can adapt to future needs without a total redesign, whilst the support for scaling and conversion of video signals supports all content types, from black and white movies to the latest ultra-HD visuals.

We do a lot of different things here at Eye Filmmuseum, continues de Nooijer. For example, we'll often do dual projection, projecting digital subtitles on top of analogue film, or switch from a Blu-ray to a presenter's slide show on the fly. This was a bespoke integration, designed and implemented in collaboration with systems integrator, BeamSystems. The flexibility we found in Lightware products allowed us to self-develop something truly unique.

Throughout the project, Lightware provided a high level of support that was both technically thorough and practically grounded. I would describe the end result as seamless, concludes Bouman. Our operators needed to get back to work straight away, and the new operations rooms were ready to go very quickly. Lightware understood what we needed and helped us to make the project a success.

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