Argentina’s Leading Theater Chain Goes Digital

Village Cinemas completes digital deployment across Argentina with 38 Christie CP2220 projectors.

If you’ve ever seen a movie on the big screen in Argentina, chances are you’ve visited a Village Cinemas theater. With 20 years in the market, eight complexes and 79 screens across the country, Village Cinemas is well-established as one of Argentina’s leading theater chains to catch the latest big screen flick.

In the past two decades, the chain has made several expansions, updates and innovations that demonstrate a commitment to its customers as well as to technology. In 1996, it was the first exhibitor to open a multi-screen complex in Argentina. Recent upgrades include love seats (complete with movable armrests), wall-to-wall screens, full stadium seating and Dolby Atmos sound.

This time, Village Cinemas is going digital. The theater completed its final stage of digitalization earlier this year with a little help from Christie’s Solaria Series cinema projectors.

The chain had already used Christie equipment during the first phase of digitalization, according to Diego Bachiller, commercial manager at Village Cinemas, leading it to turn to Christie when it came time to install the projectors. 38 Christie CP2220 projectors now power the majority of its 79 screens across Argentina, with the possibility of more to come.

Bachiller says the service Christie provides in Argentina is a “deciding factor over other brands,” and speaks highly of the Solaria Series. “With regard to the Christie CP2220 model we acquired, its performance and brightness are excellent, it is very easy to handle and user-friendly for our operators, as well as being very competitively priced.”

Edgar Navarro, cinema account manager for Christie in Latin America, noted that Village Cinemas “has been at the forefront in offering its audiences innovative cinema technology … as you can imagine, we are delighted to be a key player in the technological foundation on which the company is building its plans for the future.”

Village Cinemas also acquired two units of the Christie ACT automated control solution for film theaters. The system provides web-based control over a theater’s many functions, including light dimmers, masking motors, audio levels, projectors and servers from any device in the network.

Movie-goers may expect to see another Christie addition to the Argentina theaters in the future. Village Cinemas recently attended a demo of Christie’s Vive Audio, a complete high-performance audio solution.

“We tried it out in a theater in Los Angeles and we were really impressed. It’s an excellent product that the audience will definitely appreciate,” says Inés Trementino, the chain’s manager of operations. “Of course, we fully intend to bring this system on board and continue differentiating ourselves through technology, because we know that our audiences perceive and value a cutting-edge cinema experience.”

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