SilverBird on Thursday evening treated the media and celebrities to the first public screening of a 3D movie at Nairobi's Westgate Mall. The 3D movie was "Step Up 3", a film revolving round a street dancing crew that was released early this year.  Silverbird Westgate becomes the first cinema in Nairobi to satisfy the rising demand for the latest in theater technology that seeks to improve the user experience. 3D technology has recently seen massive adoption worldwide due to the filming breakthrough in Avatar, a widely popular movie released in 2009, which opened up viable shooting and filming of 3D movies.3D film screening brings out an effect of images popping out of the screen and that the drama is literally unfolding around you. The announcement from Silverbird comes several months after LG introduced 3D TV in the Kenyan market and will be the second 3D cinemas in the country after Nyali in Mombasa.

Speaking after screening of the movie, Sheria Saidi, the general manager of Silverbird Kenya said the firm was out to create the ultimate 3D experience for its customers. "With the future of 3D technology and film , we will deliver constant releases of 3D films moving forward. We look forward to availing new and exciting 3D concession combos for our customers," Saidi said.

Saidi told he media present that Silverbird has deployed a new Expand 3D system and the latest Dolby Digital Surround Sound to improve the user experience. "Customers world over are embracing 3D technology which has better quality and Silverbird aims to release  all block-busters at the same time as they are been released in US/Europe. The advent of 3D technology has seen cinema attendance increase worldwide, " adds Saidi.
The entertainment firm also announced plans to roll out the technology to all 18 screens in their 5 movie theaters to cover a total seating capacity of 3,108. Silverbird is wooing movie goers with a showcase of titles starting with "Avatar" which will be screened in the new re-released format which has eight extra minutes of never-before-seen-footage. Other titles will include "Harry Potter", "Gulliver's Travels" and "Chronicles of Narnia".
The public screening elicited mixed reaction from the attendants with some terming the experience as "amazing" and "breathtaking." Most described feeling as if the characters were projected right off the screen to in-front of their faces. However, some section of the crowd said that the experience did not differ a lot from normal 2D movies.
There were also several complaints of discomfort on the eyes and strain caused by the 3D glasses which have to be worn to view the content. The 3D glasses fit on anyone above the age of 3 and can be worn a top of prescription glasses.
However, there was a general agreement the the 3D TVs from LG offered a far better 3D experience than the movie screen. This was attributed to either the quality of the demo 3D screening on the TV which are mostly high-quality animation and sport clips or the physical size of the TV screen compared to the theater screen.  This appears to be reverberated by the fact that 5 out of the 8  3D titles that will be screened by Silverbird in the coming months are animated.

Most of the images could be viewed well without the 3D glasses with the difference been noticed on relatively smaller objects that occupy a small part of the screen which needed the glasses.
3D movies are shot with two cameras from slightly different viewpoints which become two different separate streams of images, one for each eye. The 3D eye-wear shows each eye the correct image and fools the brain to believe it is seeing  in three dimensions.  32,000 3D equipped screens are expected worldwide by 2011.
Silverbird also plans to roll out 3D gaming in partnership with local Sony distributors. This would see 3D gaming areas in Silverbird lifestyle stores.