Lightware bridges heritage film and modern projection at Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam
The venue recently undertook a full upgrade of its AV infrastructure across all four public screening auditoriums
Eye Filmmuseum is the Netherlands' leading film museum, offering a rich variety of experiences from screenings of classic films to cultural exhibitions. With four auditoriums and a team of highly skilled projectionists, Eye serves as both a film archive and a cinema venue, hosting screenings, talks and live events. The venue recently undertook a full upgrade of its AV infrastructure across all four public screening auditoriums, under the leadership of Toon Bouman, Head of Operations and Yorrick de Nooijer, a freelance video engineer who upgraded the previous system with Lightware components in 2015 .
The existing AV system had reached the end of its life, having been installed more than 10 years ago,” says de Nooijer. “Eye invested in all new 4K projectors from Christie for the four auditoriums and therefore required a modern signal infrastructure to support the latest technologies with ultra-HD compatibility.
- says de Nooijer.
The previous system had been added to over the years and had grown in complexity. It lacked automation, and audio followed a separate path. The upgrade project represented an opportunity to design a modern system from scratch and to standardise and streamline the behind-the-scenes operations with a technology standard that could be duplicated across all four projection rooms. The key objectives of the upgrade project were to bring 4K60 ultra-HD video support across all auditoriums, create a coherent, modular AV infrastructure in all projection rooms, unify signal management for both old analogue and new digital content and implement a new future-proof system that could be scaled as required. Lightware’s Taurus product line formed the core of the new AV system.
With the transition to 4K UHD content and new Christie projectors, the Eye team needed a solution that could handle high-bandwidth HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2-capable video system, legacy formats and complex signal routing across multiple auditoriums. Lightware’s modular approach provided the flexibility and performance required for this unique blend of old and new media.
The central component of the new system is Lightware’s Taurus TPX transmitters and receivers (UCX-2x1-TPX-TX20 and UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20), which manage video distribution between source devices and projectors across all four auditoriums. This system enables operators to route signals from Blu-ray players, slideshow systems or even content from live presenters directly to the projection rooms with minimal latency and full 4K60 support. In larger or more demanding show configurations, the UCX-4x3-TPX-TX20 provides additional mobile input/output capacity and enhanced flexibility for managing bigger events with more than one content source and additional outputs such as return video feeds, confidence monitoring, or livestream setups.
For even more flexible signal extension, Lightware’s HDMI-TPX-TX106 point-to-point extenders and HDMI-TPX-RX107A-SR scaling receivers are also in use. For the rich array of content presented in different scenarios — from fast and easy to complex setups — on show at Eye Filmmuseum, this versatility is essential, as the scaling receivers ensure compatibility across a wide range of input resolutions and legacy devices.
The Taurus TPX 2x1 units located on stage allow presenters to connect a single USB-C cable that delivers audio, video, network, and power to their keynote speaker laptops drastically simplifying setup.
Lightware supports multiple control interfaces; hardware buttons via GPIO, playlist-based automation and a customizable web interface. With this choice of ways to operate the system, our projectionists can respond quickly and ensure transitions between events are as smooth as possible. We’ve also found that the new system reduces operator training time.
- explains Bouman.
All four auditoriums now have a uniform, future-proof technology standard, with the capability to handle live events, screening of old analogue films or speaking engagements with flexibility. Thanks to the modular nature of the signal management system from Lightware, the new infrastructure can grow and adapt to future needs without a total redesign, whilst the support for scaling and conversion of video signals supports all content types, from black and white movies to the latest ultra-HD visuals.
We do a lot of different things here at Eye Filmmuseum. For example, we’ll often do dual projection, projecting digital subtitles on top of analogue film, or switch from a Blu-ray to a presenter’s slide show on the fly. This was a bespoke integration, designed and implemented in collaboration with systems integrator, BeamSystems. The flexibility we found in Lightware products allowed us to self-develop something truly unique.
continues de Nooijer.
Yorrick worked on a mix of devices in the chain that are all HDMI 2.0 4K60 compatible. This ensures that technicians never encounter video signals that cannot be displayed, significantly reducing the chance of interference and the time needed to troubleshoot problems.
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Throughout the project, Lightware provided a high level of support that was both technically thorough and practically grounded.
One of the Lightware Netherlands team had prior experience as projectionists themselves, which really helped with the understanding of our particular challenges and the overall vision we were trying to achieve. This industry knowledge ensured the integration was sympathetic to how projectionists actually work in live scenarios.
- says Bouman.
The AV infrastructure overhaul at Eye Filmmuseum shows how even the most complex environments can benefit from the flexibility of a carefully designed signal management solution from Lightware.
“I would describe the end result as seamless. Our operators needed to get back to work straight away, and the new operations rooms were ready to go very quickly. Lightware understood what we needed and helped us to make the project a success.”
- concludes Bouman.
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Eye Filmmuseum recently undertook a full upgrade of its AV infrastructure
