Recent Oscar winners are making space on their mantelpieces for their latest piece of hardware, and to some extent they can thank Vancouver’s Leader Cinema Systems for its part in the overall process. The company installed its Leader Hollywood Format (LHF) Signature Series sound system in the Charles Aidikoff Screening Room in Beverly Hills, where more than 90 screenings were held for 3,000 industry professionals voting for nominated films in craft categories.

During award judging, studios want their films to sound and look their best, and the cinema and studio evaluation/post-production sound system contributed to that end.

‘[Our sound system] isn’t the finest in Hollywood – that would be unfair,’ he says. ‘But it’s extraordinarily good for a small Canadian company. We’re now recognized among the best.’

In its 53rd year, LCS has an international reputation as a forerunner in screening room development, and Leader has received an Emmy for his contributions to stereo television broadcasting.

Leader explains that LHF’s digital crossover networks and the Leader stabilized geometry of the main screen speaker systems reveal elements in a mix that would be concealed on lesser systems. According to the company CEO, during a screening of the Ben Affleck-Gwyneth Paltrow feature Bounce, Miramax reps said they heard parts of the soundtrack they had never heard before.

Leader believes the ‘state-of-the-art is contained within the soundtrack, and now it’s up to theatre owners and sound system designers to deliver [that] to the audience.’ *

-www.leaderhollywoodformat.com