The future of cinema is not projectors, the future of cinema is giant televisions

IMAX technology has been surprising the world for a couple of years with truly incredible theaters in terms of sharpness and brightness. In the world of cinema, we haven’t seen better theaters in terms of image quality than IMAX. Interestingly, this quality standard is easy to surpass if we were to abandon projectors.

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Little by little, a revolution in LED cinema screens is taking shape, largely driven by aggressive initiatives from Chinese companies such as China Film Global Technology Limited (CFGDC), Huaxia Leyard, QSTech, Unilumin, and Lopu.

The figures shared by LEDinside, according to a TrendForce report, are surprising. By the end of October, there were already more than 50 LED cinema installations in China, 30 of them just this year.

More and more cinemas around the world are installing LED panels

However, Chinese manufacturers are no longer focusing solely on the domestic market; they are globalizing, taking advantage of Beijing’s policies that encourage expansion into new markets.

These markets have historically been dominated by companies like Samsung and LG, which offer their Onyx and Miraclass lines. Now, TrendForce estimates that global LED installations will reach 160 units this year.

One of the first major victories abroad occurred when CFGDC revealed that a cinema in Dinkelsbühl, Germany, installed 10 of its high-end Cinity LED projection systems, making it a fully LED cinema. These projectors support 4K video at 120 fps, meet the DCI-P3 color standard, and can reach a brightness of 87 foot-lamberts in 2D mode.

Leyard, another leading LED screen company, has installed its screens in more than 20 international cinema halls, including theaters in France, the United States, and Spain.

Another Chinese duo, a company called Rio-tech in collaboration with Timewaying, installed earlier this year what they call the first HeyLED cinema screen in Europe at a cinema in Romania. This 2K screen has surpassed DCI certification.

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Together, TrendForce offers a very positive picture of this market and states that, although LED models currently only represent 0.5% of the approximately 30,000 high-end cinema screens that exist in the world, the growth margin is enormous.