Japanese STRANGER café cinema builds a mini-theatre with ceiling mounted Espedeo Supra-5000 laser cinema projector

Cinema Background

Kikukawa STRANGER is a fusion of a 49-seat mini-theater and a 15-seat café, conveniently located a minute's walk from Kikukawa Station in Sumida-ku, Tokyo. The mini-theatre offers professional cinema-class projection and sound systems with high-quality comfortable seats mainly playing movies that have not yet been officially released in Japan, including those micro-movies available on the Internet.

Tadayuki Okamura, the president of STRANGER, explained the concept of the mini-theatre, "During the covid-19 period, people are forced to work from home. It was rare for people to interact with others or have activities together. The goal of building a mini-theatre is more than just watching a quality movie. We wanted to re-connect people together by creating a comfortable space for interaction and discussion before or after movies in a café making the movie experience more human-touched and filled with ‘strangers love’.”

Challenges

Okamura-san said, “While looking for a property in Tokyo to open a movie theatre, we had to consider the local laws which meant we had to meet certain requirements, such as zoning, ceiling height, and aisle width. We found the Kikukawa property, which was originally a pachinko parlor but met all criteria and decided to transform it into a mini-theatre with a 4-meter-wide screen and a DCI-projector to playback encrypted movie content.” Considering the space was originally a pachinko parlor that was not built for a commercial cinema, we knew the ceiling height and space would be an issue. Hence, we needed to source a feature-packed DCI projector that was designed for a boothless installation and one that was exceptionally quiet.  

Solutions

Espedeo Supra-5000, a DCI-compliant digital cinema projector was selected as the best choice for Kikukawa STRANGER. The Supra-5000 not only delivers vivid colors with ALPD 4.0 RGB+ laser phosphor technology, but also features the world’s smallest form factor for a DCI projector, weighs 47 kilograms, and is the quietest in the market with a noise level of 35 dB(A) – as quiet as a whisper. In addition, the Supra-5000 laser output is rated as Risk Group 2, which is safe to be installed in schools, conference rooms, and home theaters. This allows STRANGER to ceiling-mount the cinema projector inside the mini-theatre. The ceiling mount installation eliminates the need for a projection room and increases the projection distance for a larger screen and more seating capacity.

Results

Okamura-san said, “The Supra-5000 cinema projector was the only option that met the installation requirements of a ceiling suspension without a hush box (an enclosed box specifically designed for Risk Group 3 DCI projectors). With the Supra-5000 projector, the audience is not able to hear the projector during the playback of the movie. Also,
Supra-5000 offers an amazingly bright picture quality with incredible sound. We did cover the LED lights and now it is all good. The DCI projector allows us to screen movies that are only available at STRANGER, and we are committed to continuously providing an even richer movie experience with a comfortable space, unique movies, and great coffee."