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About Brown Auditorium Theater
The museum is the oldest repertory cinema in Houston and has sponsored the exhibition of film since 1939. Initially, the museum screened films that were furnished by the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the museum solicited additional films from local consulates. First-run films as well as archival and repertory films were featured. The taste for foreign films grew in the 1950s, and the museum provided the only venue in Houston for such offerings.
By 1974, with the completion of a theater designed by the famed architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, film became a regular part of the museum’s annual exhibition schedule. Brown Auditorium Theater seats 362 and has excellent acoustics and sight lines. The theater reopened after significant, state-of-the-art renovations in November 2000.
The new design features a custom seamless screen that provides larger, brighter, crisper
images. The projection booth was expanded to house consoles with larger lamphouses to
support 16mm and 35mm motion picture images, multi-format video projection, and, in the future, a digital projector. In addition, slide projector lenses, the projection window
glass, and other optical elements were updated.
The audio systems feature separate motion picture and speech reinforcement designs. The
audio system for motion pictures supports Dolby and DTS digital playback as well as
current analog optical film formats. The system’s main screen channels are tri-amplified
with low frequency reinforcement provided by three subwoofers behind the screen.
Surround speakers are mounted behind the side and rear walls of the auditorium.
Other improvements include a new lighting/dimming system and custom-designed AMX
control system to allow remote operation from both the projection booth and the lectern
on the stage level. The custom-designed lectern offers guest speakers a variety of ways to
use media in their presentations. Intercom equipment enables performers and operators to
exchange information, and a newly remodeled green room with elevator access is
available for speakers and performers on the stage level. The assistive listening system
was expanded to fully comply with ADA requirements, and more comfortable companion
and wheelchair seating is accessible in the remodeled theater.
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