A NORTH Lancashire cinema is making a big noise about its new state-of-the-art sound system.

The Dukes at Lancaster has just installed the Dolby eX digital system, thanks to a Lottery grant from the Arts Council.

Cinema manager Tim Young says the Dukes is fortunate to be one of the few provincial cinemas which boasts the £32,000 system.

"In terms of the size of our screen and sound system, we are probably the best equipped art cinema in the UK," he said.

"This represents a massive step forward for the Dukes cinema, placing it on a par technically with the most advanced venues in the world."

The eX system, specially designed to bring the best out of the amazingly complicated soundtrack for the last Star Wars movie, goes one step further than the modern Dolby digital systems, as Tim explains:

"It has four separate sound channels for the sound mix, which is thrown around the auditorium.

The audience is surrounded by speakers, they are not just behind the screen."

He adds: "The new system does not necessarily mean that the soundtrack will be louder, but that it will be able to maintain an excellent clarity of sound throughout, in extremes of loudness and quietness."

Aptly enough, The Phantom Menace - the most recent addition to George Lucas's space epic - is being screened at a gala night re-launch of the cinema tonight (Friday).

Other films made with a high sound mix specification lined up over the coming weeks include Mission To Mars, Perfect Storm and Gladiator.

But the upgrade at the Dukes is good news for fans of film classics as well as the latest blockbusters, since the cinema has replaced old sound equipment with the latest laser technology capable of reading even the oldest analogue soundtracks.

Meanwhile, for those who films really seriously, the Dukes is launching a ten-week 'Contemporary Cinema - Images and Issues' course in partnership with Lancaster University.