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| D3D Giant Screen Cinema booth at NM Museum of Natural History, courtesy Barco |
Davenport, IA, USA (Dec 16, 2011) – During the last weeks of January 2012 the Putnam Museum’s Giant Screen Theater will be transformed to the region’s only Giant Screen Digital 3D Theater. The theater will temporarily close from January 8 through February 2, 2012 so the technology conversion can commence. This upgrade will allow the Putnam to show a wider selection of 2D and 3D movies and documentaries as well as expand the theater programming to significantly enhance the Movie-Museum experience. With partners D3D Cinema, Barco, and Dolby® 3D the Putnam Museum will install a 2D/3D digital 4k dual projection system.
“We’re very pleased that 4K digital technology is now available making it possible for the Putnam to be one of the first Giant Screen Theaters in the country to take advantage of this advanced technology,” said Kim Findlay, Putnam President. “We have always been devoted to providing our visitors with the highest quality movie experience anywhere. 4K digital technology allows us to maintain our quality standards for the Giant Screen along with giving us more flexible programming opportunities. The movie and documentary industry is changing rapidly, and to continue to succeed in giving our visitors the most dynamic experience in the current climate, we are excited to go digital.”
D3D President and Founder, Don Kempf explains. “We are thrilled to be partnering with the Putnam Museum in Davenport.” Kempf continues, “we are at a unique time in cinematic history where museum theaters, like that at the Putnam Museum, can take advantage of this new 4K projector technology to show an expanding library of content, both documentary and studio guaranteed to immerse the audience with a superior image quality and state of the art sound.”
The Putnam Museum opened an IMAX® Theatre in Spring 2002. Considering the cinema industry and technology changes along with considerable cost savings, the Putnam Museum Board of Trustees opted not to renew the contract with IMAX® Corporation. The new system will include twin state-of-the-art Barco 4K digital projectors, paired with Dolby® Digital 3D technology. The Theater will re-open on February 3, 2012 with the newly-released Giant Screen documentary The Last Reef 3D: Cities Beneath the Sea as well as the Ridley Scott-produced documentary Life in a Day. Saturday, February 4 the new weekly Kidtoons experience will debut. A movie and hands-on education activities related to what the youngsters have seen on the Giant Screen will occur every Saturday at 9:00 a.m. There are also plans for a classic film series, Senior Mondays and live simulcasts during 2012.
Dana Waterman, Chairman of the Putnam Museum comments: “The Putnam has been a Quad Cities icon since 1867 and continues its vitality in our community, recently being voted by residents the Best Family Entertainment. The Theater conversion to state-of-the-art digital projection means that we will be on the cutting edge of cinema technology, and able to provide an ever wider variety of movie-going and educational experiences to our visitors of all ages.”
The projection system is not the only part of the museum’s theater to be upgraded. Before reopening in February, the audio system will also be enhanced with THX® certified sound by QSC Audio Products, LLC. The digital conversion is made possible with support from the Riverboat Development Authority, Scott County Regional Authority and the Putnam Museum Guild.
