It’s been a busy year for Christie as it builds out more distribution infrastructure. In the last 12 months, Christie opened a dedicated 500 square metres branch in Madrid… a new purpose-built facility in Dubai… the set up of an office in So. Africa… and even the acquisition of VR Solutions in Australia (which will be rebranded as Christie after closing).
And now the latest news in EMEA: Christie opens a new office in France near Paris with triple the surface area. The new facility now occupies over 1000 square metres and hosts an area dedicated to service and training.
It also has several dedicated spaces including a showroom for staging live demos, several rooms for seminars and training courses, along with an extended sales open space. Partners and service providers will receive training on Christie’s products such as projectors and video processors, along with hot technologies and software such as Christie Autostack and Christie Twist.
The French office covers various territories including France, the Netherlands, Belgium’s Wallonia and No. Africa.
Christie has been providing dedicated support and training to the French market since 2001. Today Christie works with a pool of trusted partners, including Ciné Digital Service and Ymagis for the Entertainment Industry, while Partners such as IEC, Utram and Axians look after Christie’s LCD, 1-Chip, 3-Chip DLP Business products and Spyder products.
On the Rental Staging side, Christie works with key Partners such as ETC , Mvision, Groupe Dushow in France and ADC Production in Belgium.
Since 2008, and despite the difficult economic climate, Christie’s business in France experienced over 200% growth and the number of total employees was multiplied by three. Christie France has doubled the number of engineers and technical heads since last year.
Some of Christie’s most significant work in France includes the installation of Christie MicroTiles on the BFM Business broadcast set, the usage of high-powered equipment by leading rental stagers in France to illuminate the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides and l’Arche de la Défense; and the recent installation of LCD projectors at the artistic hub l’Imaginarium in Tourcoing.
In the cinema industry, Christie is used by leading post-production house Eclair Group, has been the Technical Partner of the Cannes International Film Festival since 2006 and recently played a key role with partner 2Avi in breaking the World Record for the largest 3D projection when it screened the final episode of the Harry Potter Series in Bercy.