Samsung Electronics supplied the new Onyx LED product (model ICD) to the premium theater Trilith Cinemas in Fayetteville, Georgia. By creating the first case of applying the second-generation product—launched eight years after the debut of the Onyx brand—to the U.S. market, the company strengthened its business portfolio.
According to the industry on the 20th, Samsung Electronics' U.S. subsidiary partnered with multiplex operator Georgia Theatre Company (GTC) and digital cinema solution corporations GDC Technology America to install the new Onyx Cinema LED screen at the Trilith auditorium.
Onyx is a brand Samsung Electronics created when it launched a theater-dedicated light-emitting diode (LED) screen product in 2017. It is a business-to-business (B2B) product that lets audiences watch movies on a high-definition display instead of a projector. With no edge distortion or resolution loss, it delivers the same brightness and color from any seat and has high color reproduction.
In Apr. last year, Samsung Electronics unveiled the second-generation Onyx product at CinemaCon 2025, the world's largest film industry expo, eight years after the first generation. It became the first movie screen, rather than a projector, to receive Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) certification. That means it meets the digital cinema standard specifications established by DCI for picture quality, sound, and content security features.
It supports 4K (4096 x 2160) resolution and a maximum 120 Hz refresh rate. The display can express the full Digital Cinema standard color gamut (DCI-P3). Supporting high dynamic range (HDR) technology, it delivers brightness six times higher than conventional projectors (up to 300 nits). Because it remains clear even in high ambient light, theaters can use it as a venue for various events such as concerts and sports.
Standard widths are configured as ▲5 m (pixel pitch 1.25 mm; pixel pitch is the distance between pixels) ▲10 m (pixel pitch 2.5 mm) ▲14 m (pixel pitch 3.3 mm) ▲20 m (pixel pitch 5.0 mm), with options to install differently depending on the auditorium.
Trilith Cinemas, which opened in Dec. last year, consists of nine auditoriums in total. Of these, five auditoriums adopted the new Onyx product. Screen sizes vary, including 5 m, 6.4 m, and 14 m. GTC said it introduced the new Onyx product because it is suitable for creating an environment that screens films as the creators intended. GTC operates multiple theaters mainly in the southeastern United States. It runs 25 locations and about 250 auditoriums not only in Georgia but also in Florida, South Carolina, and Virginia, ranking among the top 20 multiplex operators in the United States.
The new product is priced at $3,330 per cabinet (panel unit) based on the U.S. website. Each cabinet measures 63.5 cm wide, 89.9 cm high, and 12.7 cm thick. A 10 m (32.8 feet) screen requires 96 cabinets.
In Korea, the new Onyx product was first applied at Lotte Cinema Sillim's "Gwang-eum LED" auditorium in Oct. last year in an 11 m size. The previous model began at Lotte Cinema World Tower in 2017 and was installed at six locations including Busan and Suwon. The Culver Theater in central Culver City, California, and the Pathé Palace in Paris, France, also use Onyx screens. In Nov. last year, Samsung Electronics participated as an official sponsor of the 11th Asian World Film Festival held at the Culver Theater and is pursuing various activities to raise awareness of the Onyx brand.