NCCC Mall Buhangin to Offer the Very First Cinema in Davao Equipped with Dolby Atmos Technology

Movie viewing experience of Davaoeños will be taken to a whole new level as NCCC Mall in Buhangin will be the first cinema houses in the region to sport true Dolby Atmos surround sound technology. Yes, you read that right, this is the very first Dolby Atmos-equipped cinema in the city.

NCCC Mall Buhangin is one of the newest shopping malls in Davao City. I think they just officially opened about two months ago. And when you give them a visit today, you will notice that there are still a lot of unoccupied store spaces yet. 

And together with the this newest shopping mall in Buhangin, NCCC Mall is also bringing a new sound technology in town in two of their newest movie theaters. Dolby Atmos.

So what is a Dolby Atmos tech? It is basically a type of surround sound system that we have been experiencing in cinema houses for quite a while now, but Dolby Atmos is much much more enhanced version of that. The "3D" surround sound configuration in cinemas are usually done manually such as assigning a particular audio channel or content in movies to specific speakers to give a surround sound-like experience. But in this technology, both the sounds in the content or movies are already mapped in the production, or configured for Dolby Atmos system in a way. So when it is played in cinemas like this at NCCC Mall in Buhangin, where the audio system already supports Dolby Atmos movies, the surround sound experience is much more real and natural and refined. At least that's how I understand it.

Through this new offering, NCCC Mall promises to provide you "A feel of reel to real" as they "combine images and sound technologies to make your viewing a complete cinematic event."

The best way to explain the experience is it's like you are in the scene itself where you hear every sound as they come from everywhere. Be it a bullet from behind or from front to the back, a helicopter flying above the head, drops of rain here and there, you will hear them as if you were there in the scene.

"See how it transports you from ordinary to extra-ordinary into the story with moving audio that flows all around you in three-dimensional space with breathtaking realism, so you feel like you are inside the action creating a powerful entertainment." - NCCC Mall

Dolby Atmos surround sound is actually not that new. It was initially launched in 2012 by Dolby Laboratories and the very first movie to use this innovation was Disney Pixar's animated film Brave. According to Wikipedia, other notable movies that used this tech were Gravity, The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, La La Land, and Hacksaw Ridge.

That was me having a quick photo right after the special viewing event. We watched the latest Mission Impossible: Fallout movie which is great by the way.

How was the experience? It was pretty much what I expected. I think it was one of the best movies for this type of technology as in has those super action packed scenes like car chase around Paris, helicopter chase, bullets coming from left and right as well as punches and kicks. The musical score was so alive, and the overall audio quality was so rich and full of details. Loud and clear.

New cinema technology, new cinema house, and was one of the very few people to watch a movie here. The overall experience was definitely great. One of my most anticipated movies in the coming months is DCEU's Aquaman, directed by James Wan. The trailers are great so far especially the very recent one they just released which is a 5-minute long clip. So needless to say, I will be seeing that Jason Momoa starred movie at this mall this coming December.

While the NCCC Mall Buhangin has been around for a couple of months now, the cinema section is not yet open. But according to representatives we have talked to at the special screening, they plan to open it to the public by October 10th, that's next week.

There are a total of four cinema theaters at this branch where two are Dolby Atmos-ready. Each cinema has a seating capacity of 172 and 51 sure seats capacity for PWDs, per cinema. Also you can now book and pay movie tickets through their website on cinemas.nccc.com.ph. Or follow them on www.facebook.com/NCCCcinemas for more updates. They can also be reached via phone at 221-NCCC (6222).