Vive Audio Components Are Aimed at Multiplexes, Screening Rooms, and DI Theaters

Christie introduced Vive Audio, a line of high-end speakers and amplifiers designed for cinema sound in theater auditoriums, screening rooms, and post-production facilities.

Vive Audio is not a new sound format; it's a line of cinema audio equipment designed to support 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound, as well as the new Dolby Atmos and Barco Auro 11.1 formats. "Christie Vive Audio represents a major leap in cinema sound, with perfect timbre-matching that unleashes the potential of today’s uncompressed digital audio along with leading immersive audio platforms such as Dolby Atmos," said Christie Entertainment Solutions Senior Product Manager Jim Hall in a prepared statement.

Christie's speaker design employs a curved, single-enclosure line array of ribbon-driver speakers for screen channels that it says increases the theatrical sweet spot by up to four times compared to compression-driver-based systems, with consistent audio coverage throughout the room. Subwoofers can optionally be bracketed together fo rbetter sound dispersal, and surround speakers come in both line-source and line-array versions. The LA1 line array is suited for 100-seat theaters, the LA3 line array for 300-seat theaters, and the LS3S line-source speaker is designed a a surround speaker for 300-seat theaters. Subwoofers also come in three different flavors, depending on the needs of a specific room.

Christie CDA amplifiers are efficient class D components that Christie calls "more compatible with digital sources." Four different models of amp are available, rated from 2,000 to 7,500 watts, and all are designed for continuous operation over the long term.

More information, including a link to a tech brief on ribbon-drive speaker technology, is available at Christie's website.