BEHIND THE
SCREENS Dan Meier visits the newly opened ODEON Leicester Square, the UK’s first Dolby Cinema
S PICTURED ABOVE: Julian Stanford and Carol Welch
ince opening its doors in 1937, the ODEON Leicester Square (OLS) has been the cinema chain’s flagship location, hosting more than 700 film premieres over the course of its 80-year history. But as every moviegoer knows, this is the age of the cinematic reboot, and OLS closed its doors at the beginning of 2018 to undergo a dramatic refurbishment and technical upgrade. That’s where Dolby steps in. “This is an historic occasion, where we’re bringing together an iconic theatre - arguably the most famous cinema in Europe - with new state-of-the-art technology from Dolby,” announces Julian Stanford, Dolby Cinema Europe’s senior director of business development, from the company’s Soho screening room. After almost a year of Leicester Square having one less cinema than usual, the
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newly opened ODEON Luxe Leicester Square is the first Dolby Cinema in the UK. Dolby Cinema combines three key elements to provide moviegoers with an immersive cinema experience: Dolby Atmos sound, Dolby Vision, and bespoke design. In the case of OLS, design proved a particular challenge due to the sheer scale of the room and its location right in the heart of one of London’s busiest areas. The challenge was to not only isolate the cinema from the outside noise of tourists, beatboxers and giant M&Ms, but also to stop the powerful Dolby Atmos sound from impacting its neighbours. “We built a huge wall behind the screen that’s acoustic isolation,” explains Chris Kukshtel, Dolby’s director of product marketing. “That means the hotel that’s behind OLS won’t be able to hear the great sound that we’re