Christie (visual display technologies company)
Projection and visual display manufacturer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christie is a visual display technologies company that specializes in digital projection, display technology, and projection tools for cinema and enterprise markets. Their product lines include cinema and pro AV projectors, video walls, and video wall processors. The company has been granted over 100 patents.[1]
| |
 Headquarters in Cypress, California, U.S. | |
Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Professional audio-visual technology |
| Founded | 1929 |
| Founder | S.L. Christie |
| Headquarters | Cypress, California |
Key people | Takabumi Asahi, CEO; Michael Phipps, President & COO, Christie Digital Systems, Inc. |
| Products | Projectors, LED displays, LED video walls, LCD displays |
| Services | Design, manufacture, deploy, and support ProAV and Cinema display technology |
| Parent | Ushio, Inc. |
Christie is headquartered in Cypress, California, U.S. with engineering in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada and manufacturing in Shenzhen, China.[1] Christie has offices in 15 countries.[2]
History
1920s
Christie was founded in 1929[3] by S.L. Christie in California. Christie was originally in the business of battery chargers and power supplies.[4]
1960s
S.L. Christie’s son Tom took over in 1950.[4] At that point Christie had made a name for itself as a manufacturer of 35 mm film movie projectors, lamp houses, lamp consoles, and film platter systems.[5]
1990s
The projector division of Christie was acquired by Ushio in 1992.[6]
Christie acquired the Kitchener, Ontario-based digital projection business of Electrohome in 1999.[7]
Christie was the first licensee of Texas Instruments' Digital Light Processing technology.
2000s
Christie acquired Vista Controls Systems in 2007, makers of video processing systems, including the Spyder.[8]
In 2009, Christie launched MicroTiles, modular LED-powered DLP-based units that can be built together into a large video wall-style display.[9]
2010s
In 2013, Christie launched the Matrix StIM WQ and Matrix SIM WQ projectors. These projectors were designed for simulation and training applications and included Christie AccuFrame smear-reduction technology.[10]
In 2015, Christie acquired Coolux, best known for its Pandoras Box product family of media and show control systems.[11] In the same year, Christie launched a new projection system using RGB laser technology with colors approaching Rec. 2020 color space.[12]
In 2019, Christie launched MicroTiles LED, a direct-view LED display consisting of a mounting chassis and three rectangular modules which snap onto the chassis via magnets.[13]
As of 2019, more than 65,000 Christie projectors have been installed worldwide, used in more than 10 million screenings.[14]
2020s
During Expo 2020 Dubai in 2021, 252 Christie RGB pure laser projectors were used to illuminate the Al Wasl Dome. The dome was built as the centerpiece of the Expo site and holds a Guinness World Record for the largest interactive immersive dome.[15]
Christie acquired Cinergy, a cloud-based enterprise platform for movie theaters, from Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, LLC (DCIP) in 2022.[16]
Awards
The company won an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 1982 for the design and manufacture of the Ultramittent film transport for Christie motion picture projectors and again in 1998 for the design and development of the Christie ELF 1-C Endless Loop Film Transport and Storage System by employee Clark F. Crites.[17]
In 2024, Christie received its third award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[18] The Academy Scientific and Technical Award was awarded to principal product developer Michael Perkins for the design and development of the Christie E3LH Dolby Vision Cinema Projection System.[19]