Parisian Cinemas Get Full Samsung Makeover
Samsung has played a key role in the seven-year project to rehabilitate a 97-year-old Parisian cinema, Pathé Palace.
Pathé Palace is using six Samsung Onyx screens: four 4K Onyx screens that measure over 10m wide and two 2K Onyx screens that measure 5m wide.
The company says Samsung Onyx is the world’s first Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI)-certified cinema LED display for theatrical exhibition.
Samsung has also installed The Wall (IWC model) in the main lobby of the Pathé Palace.
Measuring 5.4m high and 9.6m wide, The Wall uses the MICRO AI Processor to “analyse every second of footage instantly, upscaling up to 8K resolution and optimising picture quality to have less visual noise”.
The Wall’s HDR technology uses MICRO LED technology.
Samsung has also added its Smart Signage (QMC series) to display the theatre schedules and movie trailers in the lobby, as well as in front of each theatre room.
At the entrance of each theatre room is Samsung’s Stretched Display (SH37C model) in a 16:4.5 ratio.
The Pathé headquarters office has also recently installed about 200 5K ViewFinity S9 monitors, The Wall (IWA model) in the boardroom.
The cinema was originally built on the site of the Vaudeville Theatre, per cinematreasurers.org.
“The Vaudeville Paramount Palace opened on 24th November 1927 with Merion C. Cooper’s documentary ‘Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness’. It was designed by British theatre architect Frank T. Verity, who had also designed the Plaza Theatre, London, for Adolph Zukor’s Paramount Pictures in 1926.”
The site says the Paramount Theatre had an original seating capacity of 1,920 in orchestra, mezzanine and balcony levels, and was home to a Wurlitzer theatre organ.
“In 2007, the cinema underwent a renovation and was taken over by Gaumont Pathe and was renamed Gaumont Opera-Paramount Opera. Renovation of the seven screens was completed in July 2008 and it became the Gaumont Opera Capucines.”
It went through various guises before closing for major renovations in 2019. Two years prior, the owners had purchased an adjacent site, which was home to two cinema screens, retail space and five floors of offices.
Original elements to have survived the redesign include the corner facade and dome, and the circular entrance foyer.
Designed by Renzo Piano, the project aimed to bring production and cinema distribution of films under one roof.
“The project aims to undertake a complete overhaul of the underground space beneath the building,” his company says. “Commercial outlets, which were built in a unique and different manner, had ended up affecting the overall aspect of the facade and they will be changed to give the facade its original appearance.
“This will lead to visually opening up the building space to embrace the outside city and invite visitors directly into its large glazed indoor atrium named La Piazza’.
In the basement, a lower courtyard is home to a large cinema screen with a total capacity of 440 seats and two smaller screens each with 100 seats. The three upper levels have four cinema screens, each with a different visual identity.
“These screens are served by escalators and walkways which span the entire length of the Atrium. Levels 4 and 5 will house all of the office space which will form the future head office of Pathé. A terrace spanning a total surface area of 600m2 can be accessed directly from the Pathé offices.”