HISTORY was made at Lyme’s Regent Cinema this week when a crane was drafted in to help bring it into the digital age.

The 1930s cinema is moving with the times by converting from playing movies on traditional 35mm film to digital versions, with 3D expected to follow soon.

A crane was needed to lift the digital projector box on to the roof because the equipment was too big to negotiate the narrow stairs of the Grade II listed building.

Cinema manager David Johnson said: “This is a big event for the cinema and for a town the size of Lyme Regis and is arguably the first time state-of-the-art equipment has been installed in such a major way since the cinema was built in 1937.”

Mr Johnson said cinema goers could expect a better quality viewing experience.

“The picture and sound quality is expected to be a vast improvement on traditional projection,” he said. “It’s the way that all cinemas are going at the moment so maybe even in two or three years’ time the traditional projectionists using 35mm film will be very rare, probably anywhere in the country.

“What we can also then do is show 3D technology and you can’t do that without having gone digital first – 3D could be as early as next weekend. We have always had problems with cinema projection. The film can break, which will no longer apply, all sorts of parts can go wrong with the projector, and you can get problems with your sound system.

“Going back to the old days when it was nitrate film you used to have two projectionists in the box with buckets of sand in case there was a fire.” Personally overseeing the conversion was one of the industry’s leading experts, Max Bell, of Bell Theatre Services who had his first job as a projectionist at the Regent Cinema.