News: London BFI IMAX screen replacement - picture album (technical details inside)

Behind the screen

Front of the screen

The new screen arrives

22 x 27m (72x88ft)

The first incision

Going...

Gone!

The old screen folded up ready to be cut into pieces

Out of the box

The riggers heave the 800kg screen up the stairs

Installing the new speakers. Lasers are used to position the speakers to ensure that the sound covers the whole auditorium.

The new IMAX 3D Digital projector, which will give us the option to present all IMAX DMR films from July 2012.

The IMAX GT (Grand Theatre) projector used for 15/70 film format

A 70mm film plate in the projection room

The seats have been protected with plastic whilst we spray the screen

The purpose-built spray rig goes up

Tracks are laid at the base and at the top of the screen frame, and the rig can move left and right so that the spray gun can cover all of the screen.

A team of ten strong riggers to haul the 800kg of perforated vinyl up

Up the full 20 metres height of the screen under the supervision of an IMAX engineer.

It takes 48 hours for all the creases to drop out of the new white screen

The purpose-built spray rig

Tracks are laid at the base and at the top of the screen frame, and a spray rig tower is assembled and fitted to the two tracks. The rig can move left and right so that the spray gun can cover all of the screen. A laser control ensures that the spray gun is always an exact distance away as it makes its way up and down the screen, spraying a special silver paint that will ensure that light is reflected in straight lines off the screen. It is silver because a white screen would refract the light and this would cause ghosting of the image.