New revolution in digital cinema: LED opens a new era for the film industry

During the 2025 Spring Festival, the domestic animated film "Nezha 2" not only set a new record in Chinese film history, but also unexpectedly sparked a discussion about technological innovation. Audiences who watched the film in the LED theater found that the stream of flames when Nezha soared into the clouds and the mist, and the blue ripples of the Dragon Palace in the deep sea presented a visual shock that traditional projection technology could not match. This phenomenal event is like a prism, reflecting the dual rise of China’s film industry from content innovation to technological breakthroughs.

In fact, in the film industry, digital film LED projection technology has experienced a period of development. With the efforts of domestic LED companies and the strong support of national policies, in the past 2024, the development of digital film LED projection technology in the Chinese market has ushered in a period of rapid growth. Therefore, the latest development situation of digital movie LED projection technology has also attracted the attention of more and more LED practitioners.

In this regard, at TrendForce Consulting’s 2025 New Display Industry Seminar, Dong Zhigang, general manager of the Cinema Business Department of Unilumin Group, discussed the latest digital movie LED projection technology and market conditions. Let’s share and analyze the opportunities and challenges behind digital movie LED projection technology.

Dong Zhigang, General Manager of Cinema Business Department of Unilumin Group

Unilumin has formed a comprehensive product line and strengthened the technical strength of LED movie screens

Looking back at the history of movie projection technology, the world's first LED movie projection system appeared as early as 2017, and China's first LED movie projection system will be released in 2021. In the following time, domestic LED film technology continued to advance, causing a series of changes in the world's film projection technology industry, allowing Chinese companies to truly participate in the development of the film projection technology industry.

Dong Zhigang introduced that the screening quality of a movie is composed of a series of factors such as resolution, frame rate, brightness, contrast, color gamut, dynamic range, visual effects, sound effects, etc. Digital movies must reach LED projection standards from projector standards. In addition to meeting high-performance display, security and full-screen color management requirements, they must also cooperate with digital movie players to complete the decoding of digital movie data packets. Overall, digital movie LED projection technology is a collection of various elements such as technological innovation, application exploration, and standard support.

From the perspective of changes in cinema architecture, the difference between the architecture of LED cinemas and projector cinemas is small. In addition to the elimination of the projection room required for projectors and the different placement of speakers, LED cinemas have the same Also supports TMS management system, codec, and audio decoder. Therefore, for cinemas, the application of LED technology allows the theater to retain the basic projection structure while also bringing projection technology with high brightness, high contrast and excellent grayscale performance at low brightness to further restore the effects of high-resolution, high frame rate, and high dynamic range movies.

Faced with the development advantages of LED technology in the film field, domestic LED display companies have started their layout. Dong Zhigang said that in recent years, LED movie screen applications have quickly become a red ocean market. According to incomplete statistics, there are currently 15 or 16 companies participating in the layout of the LED movie screen application market.

As one of the layout players, Unilumin Technology has formed a comprehensive product line in the face of the increasingly prosperous film application market and has become a strong competitor in this market.

Currently, in the field of LED movie screens, Unilumin Technology's UCine LED series has covered 5m-20m specifications, P2.5~P5 spacing, with 2K and 4K resolutions, peak brightness of 300nit, ∞:1 ultra-high contrast ratio, 100% D CI-P3 color gamut, 16bit gray scale, 100,000 hours of service life and other features.

Unilumin Technology has prepared for the needs of various theater scenes through a complete product portfolio. In addition, Unilumin Technology has also taken the initiative to explore potential applications of LED movie screens to further expand the market space.

Unilumin explores three major application directions of LED movie screens

Compared with traditional projection technology, LED movie screens have great advantages in naked-eye 3D, contrast, viewing angle, lifespan, brightness, wide color gamut, high dynamic range, space, etc. But on the other hand, LED movie screens still need to be improved in terms of cost, sound reproduction system, power consumption, eye protection and other capabilities. In order to take advantage of the existing advantages of LED movie screens, Unilumin Technology has designed and created a series of emerging cinema scenes, providing more reference for the future application and development of LED movie screens.

For example, in order to replace laser projector technology, Unilumin Technology has built LED cinemas with sizes of 5m~20m and resolutions of 2K and 4K in Beijing, Xinjiang, Chengdu, Wuhan, Quzhou, Los Angeles, and other places to meet the needs of high-definition and ultra-high-definition viewing.

In addition, immersive theater is also one of the important application directions of LED movie screens. Dong Zhigang pointed out that based on the high brightness, high contrast and easy layout of LED, LED movie screens can create a more immersive viewing experience.

Currently, Unilumin Technology has built the first all-LED immersive cinema in Sanya, Hainan, using a new multi-link Screen technology, the total screen resolution reaches 9K, the main screen and side screen meet the requirements of the P3 color gamut of the movie, and the innovative design of integrated control of the main screen and side screen can achieve the picture synchronization of the main and side screens, bring an immersive and enveloping picture, and can also achieve a naked-eye 3D projection effect.

In addition, Unilumin Technology is also exploring the application of dome theaters and has implemented related projects in the Mawangdui Museum in Changsha, Hunan and the Riyadh Season in Saudi Arabia, creating a different entertainment experience.

Unilumin Technology continues to explore various LED movie screen applications and is expected to become a benchmark for the development of LED movie screen applications in the future.

In response to the technical problems of sound reproduction in LED projection, Unilumin creates the first LED sound-transparent screen

Although LED movie projection technology shows many advantages in display effects, it faces considerable challenges in sound effects. In the traditional screen era, sound transmission was simple and direct. Speakers were placed behind the screen. The surround sound system, combined with decoders and power amplifiers, could easily create an immersive sound environment with clear and discernible dialogue. However, the sound-proof feature of LED movie screens has completely changed the original sound transmission mode.

Dong Zhigang said that in order to solve this problem, the industry has developed a variety of technical solutions, and sound image and wave field synthesis technology has become one of the mainstream choices. By arranging speakers around the LED screen, adjusting the sound image and wave field, and simulating and synthesizing the central sound field for sound reproduction, the sound is focused on a specific "sweet spot". However, this area is relatively limited, and the sound reproduction effect is also subject to certain restrictions.

Another sound wave reflection method is suitable for small screen scenes, reflecting sound waves directly to the auditorium. For example, Meyer Sound in the United States is excellent in the application of this technology. In cinemas with a screen below 10 meters, it allows the audience to have a good experience of sound originating from the middle of the screen.

Compared with the above technologies, Unilumin Technology chose to use screen sound transmission technology. Although the cost is extremely high, it can bring ideal sound effects. In June last year, Unilumin Technology launched the world's first sound-transparent LED giant screen in Nanjing. The screen has gone through multiple rounds of hole opening plan testing, and uses a unique module perforation design to place the main channel speakers at the rear, and realize the sound cavity through the structure of the LED box, ensuring the sound transmission effect of the speakers.

In addition, there is a full-hole holographic screen solution, but its sound attenuation parameters are still in the research stage. Unilumin Technology is also continuing to explore how to apply this solution to optimize the sound effects of LED movie screen projections to achieve a high-quality audio-visual experience that matches the excellent display effects.

Improve the voice of LED movie screen standards and increase the growth space of domestic LED movie screens

Dong Zhigang pointed out that while exploring application space and optimizing technology, the establishment of a standard system is also crucial to the development of digital movie LED projection technology. At present, the DCI standard occupies a dominant position in the field of digital movies, and together with FPIS and SMPTE in the United States, it forms the standard system for global digital movies.

However, in the past, direct display equipment was not defined in the DCI standard. As LED technology becomes more widely used in the field of movie projection, the DCI standard continues to iterate and is updated at an average frequency of once a year. Its updated content focuses on areas related to LED movie screens, adding intra-frame contrast tests, minimum effective black points, stereoscopic projection tests, etc. This series of adjustments not only reflects the needs of technological development, but also reflects the power game among all parties in the industry.

In order to gain more say in LED movie screen standards, my country is also actively participating in the construction of digital movie LED projection technology standards. Many domestic manufacturers, including Unilumin Technology, have jointly formulated corporate standards and set challenging indicators.

Internationally, In June 2024, my country submitted a draft standard proposal for "Optical Technical Requirements and Measurement Methods for Digital Cinema LED Cinemas". At present, the standard project has been approved by the International Organization for Standardization and has been formally established to start the standard drafting work. The standard is scheduled to be released within three years. It will standardize and lead LED cinemas to improve projection quality and promote the large-scale promotion and application of global LED digital movie projection.

With the successful establishment of the standard, it not only reflects the increasing influence of Chinese film technology in the field of international standards, but also provides more support for the future development of China's LED movie screen technology.

Summary

What can be seen is that from application development, technology optimization to the establishment of standards, domestic LED movie screen technology is on the road to healthy development, which has laid a solid foundation for obtaining more market demand in the future.

Dong Zhigang believes that the LED movie screen market is still promising in the future. At present, the number of domestic LED cinemas accounts for less than 1% of the total movie market, and there are many potential opportunities. Unilumin Technology will continue to develop the LED movie screen business in the future to help China's LED technology shine in the global cinema market.