Emagine Novi

More than Surround Sound

Emagine Entertainment operates innovative movie theaters throughout the Midwest, and it recently completed a five-million-dollar renovation of its Emagine Novi location in the northwest suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. A huge part of that renovation included the merger of former theaters thirteen and fourteen to provide space for the state of Michigan’s largest screen and 320 luxury reclining chairs from which to enjoy it. In addition to a state-of-the-art Christie laser projector that perfectly illuminates every square inch of the 92’ x 48’ screen, Emagine opted to support the visuals with a 64-channel Dolby Atmos system led by five Danley SH96HO point-source loudspeakers and a powerful Danley BC418 subwoofer.

David Zylstra, chief technical officer at Emagine Entertainment, collaborated with Tom Ruhling, director of entertainment technology, to design the technical aspects of the new theater. “Danley was an excellent fit for the situation,” Ruhling said. “Given the size of the space, the typical pro cinema loudspeakers were a bit too light for the task at hand. Line arrays, in addition to being way too expensive, would have given us headaches with comb filtering and smearing. In contrast, Tom Danley’s patented technologies deliver true point-source output with incredible fidelity and almost undetectable distortion, despite their ability to produce impressive SPLs. Importantly, Danley boxes are fairly priced, especially when you consider how few boxes are needed compared to a line array.”