More film options coming for Saskatchewan Science Centre's IMAX theatre
Saskatchewan’s Science Centre was host to a giant delivery this week, promising to reinvigorate the province’s largest film screen.
A giant crane hoisted the 50 by 70 foot screen weighing 1,800 pounds off of its transport and into the IMAX Kramer Theatre through a window.
“The screen has to come in in one long crate. So its 52 feet long. It can’t be wrinkled, bent, anything. It comes in and slides into the top of the theatre,” Sandy Baumgartner, CEO of the centre told CTV News.
Trevor Ewan has been the chief projectionist at the IMAX for the last 25 years.
“New screen coming in, it’s exciting. Its nerve wracking as it was the last time the screen came in,” he said. “And it’s always weird to see something that expensive hanging in the middle of the air.”
It’s part of a $4 million conversion to digital projection at the Kramer IMAX.
“Up until now, our IMAX film projector has used Imax 15/70 millimeter film and that’s the only way that we’ve been able to show content in Imax format,” Ryan Holota, Chief Operating Officer at the Science Centre explained.
The new projection system is powered by 4,000 lasers and each is available for sponsorship as part of a fundraising campaign.
“The new laser projectors that we're installing will give us access to basically all the content that Imax is producing in digital formats, as well as other content not necessarily IMAX but in digital formats that we haven't been able to show,” Holota said.
“If you see on TV, and it says ‘now playing in IMAX,’ that's something that we might be able to show in our theatre.”
Updated equipment and more movie selection is something visitors have been anxious to see for years.
“That's probably been one of the number one requests that we've had,” Holota said. “The laser system will allow us to have more content, to change that content out more often, which will let people come back and enjoy those films a lot more often in the future.”
The entire facility is being revamped including the lobby, all the seats and the five storey tall screen.
But that’s not all, according to Holota.
“We have some permanent exhibits in the Science Centre that are going to be coming online also early in July, including an updated Richardson Agri-Land exhibit, which we're really excited about.”
The renovations to the centre will allow it to expand its services and help the non-profit achieve its goal.
“Our mission is to ignite scientific curiosity in Saskatchewan. We’re a tourism destination for southern Saskatchewan and the City of Regina and we know that we bring people in from all over North America and certainly all over Canada,” Holota said.
“A science centre is both an entertainment facility but it's also an educational facility. So, we sort of hit all these different targets and it’s very important for communities to have vibrant science centres.”
The new Kramer IMAX Theatre is set to have its first screening in early summer.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge U.S. to prosecute the company
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.