Located at the flagship Golden Village VivoCity Cineplex, Golden Village’s GVmax® features radial stadium style seating with 602 seats. GVmax also has the widest cinema screen in Asia, 22.4 meters, with crystal-clear 4K digital projection. With the installation of Dolby Atmos, GVmax® becomes the first Southeast Asian cinema to introduce the revolutionary 64.2 channel cinema sound system, designed to create a more realistic movie experience for viewers.

The EAW cinema speakers system complies with Dolby Atmos requirements for speaker configuration and the positioning metadata of the audio stream to optimize 64.2 channels playback in the GVMax® Hall so the team at Electronics & Engineering Pte Ltd (E&E) made a proposal to Golden Village to upgrade their sound systems to exploit the full potential of Dolby Atmos. Working closely with the team at Dolby, E&E conceptualized the project over a period of five months. The implementation was carried out over a 4 day period. Tuning and calibration took another three days to complete.

“The biggest challenge for the installation was the tight time frame to install 5 nos. of EAW CB523z 3-way cinema speaker system behind the 22.4m perforated screen; 32 nos of EAW CR72i surround speakers mounted on the side and rear walls; 4 nos. of front and rear EAW SB284z subwoofers and setting up of the scaffoldings that were required for the mounting of 2 rows of 12 nos. each of independent EAW® ceiling mounted MK2396 600 watt 2 way speakers in the cinema hall and not to mention the racking and termination of 27 units of EAW CAZ 2800 and 16 units of EAW CAZ1700 power amplifiers ”, commented C.H. Khor, Senior Project Manager from E&E. Massive deployment of these speakers, amplifiers and 64.2 channel termination had to be installed over a 4-day period with the installation team from E&E working close to 24 hours around the clock to ensure the completion of the project.

Dolby Atmos is regarded as the most significant development in the history of cinema audio since the introduction of surround sound. Taking a unique layered approach to sound design, it gives content creators total control over the placement and movement of sound for moviegoers and gives audiences a whole new reason to go to the movies. Together with the EAW 3rd generation cinema speaker systems, it will undoubtedly pull moviegoers into a new talked-about story as the sound is absolutely profound, said Ronald Goh, Managing Director for Electronics & Engineering Pte Ltd. This installation now makes GVmax® one of the largest Atmos installations in the world to date. “The Dolby Atmos project is a great success. We are proud to have been part of the team that has made this installation possible”, continued Mr Goh.

Moviegoers will be able to experience this cutting-edge Dolby Atmos auditory experience with the premiere of the two-part action comedy Ah Boys to Men. Directed by Jack Neo, the production is the first Asian film to be mixed in Dolby Atmos.

Photo Credit: Golden Village Cinema, Singapore