Crown I-Tech HD Hits the Big Screen To Power Marcus Theatres® UltraScreen® At North Shore Cinemas

In a unique fixed installation where high performing sound systems are critical, North Shore Cinemas, a Marcus Theatres® Cinema in Mequon, Wisconsin has chosen Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers to power its UltraScreen® theaters. The theater is the first to deploy I-Tech HD to power its audio systems.

Mark Collins, Director of Projection Technology for Marcus Theatres, explained the decision to go with I-Tech HD’s for this environment was a logical choice. “I know that a lot of the technology in the amplifier was built with the tour sound market in mind. However, I think this type of application is even more demanding than having the equipment on the road because the amplifiers are constantly running. For cinemas you need power and reliability. These amps give us a ton of headroom and with Crown you know you are getting a great product,” said Collins.

The move to I-Tech HD also proved to be cost-effective because the additional power means each theater needs fewer amplifiers to power the system. “For one theater it doesn’t work out to be a huge savings but when you are outfitting multiple venues, it can really add up over time. The plan is since we have seen how well this works, we will continue installing I-Tech HD’s in other venues as well,” added Collins.

From an installation perspective Collins felt the process was seamless. “We set the amps up with no assistance at all. We basically hooked everything up and turned them on, it was that simple in terms of set-up,” said Collins.

Collins believes the results of this project speak for themselves. “From a sound perspective, there is a noticeable performance difference even to the average person who walks in the theater. I think that speaks to the quality of this system,” said Collins.

The amplifiers power a JBL sound system consisting of three ScreenArray® 4732 loudspeakers, six 4642A subwoofers, eight AC2212 loudspeakers on the side walls and two AM4215 loudspeakers for the back wall.

I-Tech HD features a new user-inspired DSP engine co-developed with BSS called OMNIDRIVEHD. The new processing engine features Linear Phase FIR filters that offer unrivaled crossover performance for sonically pure tunings. The OMNIDRIVEHD processing engine also features an innovative new suite of limiters called LevelMAX™. Harman HiQnet™ System Architect ™ mirrors the typical browser navigation interface to provide contracting professionals with a familiar interface to access a host of power configuration and control functions.