Recently in Digital Projection Category

According to The Hindi Business Line, UFO Moviez (a subsidary of Apollo International) intends on rolling out digital cinema into 2,000 screens by 2008. The company plans to invest invest close to $40 million for said rollout. 

Acording to Raaja Kanwar, Vice-Chairman and Director, UFO Moviez, the expansion is not restricted to India:  "We plan to be present in around 1,000 screens in India by March 2007, and in 1,000 screens outside India. As far as the international foray is concerned, we would be mostly looking at markets which have a large segment of NRI population."

In August it was reported that the company had acquired a 51 percent stake in susidary DG2L Technologies.  This enabled UFO Moviez to acquire worldwide rights to MPEG 4 cinema.  As blogger Pilgrim of Digital Cinema Matters put it when posting on the August buy out: "I like the term "near-2K", which I guess means 1920x1080 standard full HD resolution, not to mention the exclamation mark, which is not something you see often in US digital cinema press releases."

According to a Moneycontrol India, this development will enable the largest unified digital cinema chain in the world.  From the piece:

"India is on the forefront of the digital cinema revolution and with this deal bringing together the two titans of this revolution UFO Moviez, the world's largest integrated digital cinema network and Chennai based Pyramid Saimira Theatres Limited (PSTL) for the digitization of 1000 (PSTL) theatres over the next three years all over India will create the largest integrated digital cinema chain in the world. UFO Moviez shall be providing end to end digital cinema solutions for the theatres in the Pyramid Saimira chain at a cost of Rs.150 Crores."

and

"Mr. Sanjay Gaikwad, Executive Director/CEO, UFO India Pvt. Ltd. said, "We anticipate that this tie up with Pyramid group will chart the way for the digital revolution happening in the field of cinema exhibition. A single integrated chain of 1000 digital cinemas all over India will provide producers and distributors a unique opportunity for saturated wide spread release in the week of release itself. Worldwide, there is tremendous excitement about this technology which is being hailed as the next great leap in film distribution and exhibition"."

NYT's writer Laura M. Holson elucidates on Hollywood's dependence on foreign box office, and its effect on a movie's creative and marketing appraoch.  While the piece does not mention digital cinema blogger Pilgrim from  Digital Cinema Matters makes an astute point: "Digital cinema will only accelerate the trend of global day-and-date and put more pressure on overseas distributors to better understand the global audiences the better to adapt the marketing campaigns for local markets."

Excerpts:

More Than Ever, Hollywood Studios Are Relying on the Foreign Box Office - New York Times

This post is over two month late in coming, but thanks to the truely stellar blog Digital Cinema Matters I came across this article in the London Times.  If there were a  Featured Blog on The Second Sight (and there is), Digital Cinema Matters is in a class by itself.  Pilgrims commentary on this article is excellent.  I would add that my hunch is that gaming in theaters as alternative content is a perfect fusion of the game generations demand for hyper realism and an example of a potentially manifest experience economy vis-avis the Multiplex.

Ch-ch-changes are on the way to a screen near you - Sunday Times - Times Online

Excerpts:

At seven Vue cinemas around Britain, youngsters will be able to play the computer game based on the film on the big screen.

I don’t care how good your home-entertainment system is,” said Steve Knibbs, chief operating officer of Vue Entertainment. “Compare that with playing on a 40ft screen.”

Businessofcinema.com - Cinema Business News and Information

Excerpts:

"Digital cinema is on the rise and how. According to a recent study done by Research and Markets, there will be more than 17,000 D-cinema screens in the world by 2010. Research and Markets’ study throws light on the global market for D-cinema."

"The number of D-cinema screens globally doubled in the second half of 2005 and there were 849 D-cinema screens by year end 2005. Close to 97 film titles were released globally in D-cinema standard during 2005."

"Of the top five leading cities by number of digital screens deployed, four are in Asia and one is in the USA. North America is the leading region for D-cinema screens, followed by Asia and then Europe."

"According to the study, while Christie dominates the market for D-cinema projectors in the US market, Barco dominates in Europe and Asia."

Digital cinema server makers embed Thomson watermarking - Hardware - www.itnews.com.au

Excerpts:

Digital cinema server manufacturers are embedding forensic watermarking technology from Thomson to protect movies shown in theaters from being pirated.

Servers from Doremi Labs have already begun shipping with Thomson's NexGuard technology, while GDC, QuVis and Tamedia are finalising the processes.

The technology embeds date, time and place of projection into the digital movie image and soundtrack as the movie projects on the theater screen. The information is picked up by the camcorder trying to record the movie, said Pascal Marie, Thomson's vice president for Content Security.

QuVIS vice president of engineering Michael Paulson says the company evaluated a few watermark technologies, including Philips, and thought Thomson's matched their architecture best. "We had to modify the audio portion or the server," he said.

Thomson requires a specific audio digital signal processor, so QuVIS created a new audio module in the server that will install into movie theaters.

"Look I think we have to pay attention to the extreme drop off in box office. It’s real," says Megan Wolpert, executive VP of Spyglass Television when I interviewed her in January this year: "People can say it's because of the content.  People can say it's because of the options.  People can say it’s because of piracy.  Regardless, it’s real."

Digital cinema according to most industry spokesmen just might save the theatrical box office.  3D is especially promising for the younger demographic who have been raised with the hyperrealism of entertainment software. “I believe we are back," National Association of Theatre Owners president and CEO John Fithian said as he proclaimed the long-awaited arrival of the digital-cinema age at ShoWest this year: "We stand now at the dawn of the biggest technological revolution since the advent of sound. Digital cinema starts right now, in the year 2006, and it couldn't come at a more important time."

Bob Gibbons, Director of Marketing and Communications at Kodak Digital Cinema remarked when I interviewed him in April. "The other thing is that you have got to use digital in a way that lets you enhance the entertainment experience, or changes the entertainment experience, or ad an incremental entertainment experience, or do something that you can't do with film; because some of us are convinced that if you simply put a sign on your door that says, 'I am going to show you this movie digitally, and by the way I want you to pay more for it.'  People in essence won't pay more for it.  If you are just reinventing the wheel and calling it fire, that is a little foolish." Gibbons sums it up: "So the point is that you have got to be able to do more with a digital system than you can do with an analogue system, and in fact you can.  You can do a lot more.  One of the ways you can do that is by having a network, so you can now not only get content, you can in fact manage you business." 

Gibbons continues, “It's being done though over in Europe on a per capita, per person basis.  When you walk into the door the exhibitor makes some money from you, and the money they make from you is partially from ticket price, it's partly from what you spend on concessions, it's a little bit if you play games, and stuff like that.  If you are an exhibitor and you have a slide show, and a lot of them still do, they are probably making seven cents from you when you walk through the door.  Over in Europe, when you walk through the door they are making up to ninety-four cents from you. Why?  Because the have targeted stuff, they have sold it differently, they are showing you stuff you absolutely can't see on television; it's just different and they can sell it for a lot more money.  It's the same thing."

The question is: would advertising ruin the movie experience?  According to John Horn in the Hollywood Reporter: “Los Angeles moviegoer Leonard Kolod recently spent $9.50 for a Beverly Center showing of new Line’s “A History of Violence,” only to be bombarded by nearly a dozen advertisements and previews preceding the film.  Kolod complained to Loews Cineplex, but rather than placate its customers, “Loews admonished Kolod in an email that ads 'have been part of the cinema experience for many years,' and are necessary to offset costs as 'screen actors are now receiving upwards [of] twenty million dollar salaries per movie and the films themselves are costing over one hundred million dollars to produce.'  To which the Leonard Kolod's of the world will say, 'next time, I’ll wait for the DVD'”  (Horn, The Los Angeles Times, “Hollywood should rewrite own script” December 26, 2005).

Then again maybe they won't. Maybe they will wait for the Blu-ray, but in actuality I think developments like the one elucidated below will offer theater owners more flexibility to deal with the challenges.

Kodak developing digital theater software | CNET News.com

Excerpts:

Kodak Digital Cinema and National CineMedia, a partnership of the three top U.S. movie theater chains, on Wednesday said they are developing theater management software to automate digital cinema systems now being installed at movie theaters worldwide.

News From broadcastbuyer.tv - GDC Technology Delivers Monster House In Digital 3D In Asia

Dolby pushes 3D cinema scheme, News at CNET.co.uk

CanMag- Box Office- Monster House 3D Box Office Exceeds

"3D in digital is much better than 3D in film. The technology in digital doesn't create the headaches that you have in 35 mm, because your mind doesn't have to adjust for imperfections in the speed of the film between the two projectors," said Joe Berchtold, president of Technicolor Electronic Distribution Services, when I interviewed him in February this year. A heightened entertainment experience, which includes, 3D, may be the only way that theaters can compete in the new age of digital multideliverables, video games, home theaters, and waning theatrical admissions.

The results of Chicken Little and now Monster House confirm this likelihood.

Read Excerpts:

Digital Media Asia: News - NEC launches Starus NC2500S digital cinema projector

Excerpts:

NEC Corporation of America, a Subsidiary of NEC Japan, has the premiered its NEC Starus NC2500S Digital Cinema projector with DLP Cinema technology from Texas Instruments.

The Starus NC2500S is claimed to be the world's brightest DLP Cinema projector for large-sized screens - 49ft wide or larger. Delivering 2K resolution and high contrast ratios (2000:1), the Starus NC2500S digital cinema projector is easy to operate and requires minimal maintenance, NEC said.

The company believes the Starus Digital Cinema solution will enable theatres to deliver enhanced digital images to screens of all sizes and simplify theatre management, while reducing costs with the up to 99.999 per cent continuous uptime with fault tolerant multiplex/hub servers. The Starus Digital Cinema solution also allows theatre operators to manage playlists, upload features and perform playbacks from anywhere in the multiplex, it was noted.

The complete family of Starus Digital Cinema projectors also includes the Starus NC1500C for medium-sized movie screens, and the Starus NC800C for small theatres, screening rooms and post-production facilities.

New York Times published a piece today "Studios Shift to Digital Movies, but Not Without Resistance" by Scott Kirsner:

The product market for digital cinematography has established first entrants like Panavision and Thomson Grass Valley ( and Arriflex), but writes Scott Kirsner:

"[M]any new cameras are on the way, from established companies like the ARRI Group of Germany and a start-up, Red Digital Cinema."

Also cited:

“We’ve reached what may be looked at, five years from now, as a tipping point in the use of digital cameras,” said Curtis Clark, a cinematographer who is chairman of the American Society of Cinematographers’ technology committee."

Aside from technological advances in image quality vis-à-vis 35mm, I would add that digital acquisition is reaching critical mass as the gaming generation of below and above-the-line creators and technicians enter their "journeyman" or productive years. Unlike their predecessors, this generation does not have the residue of the long-standing infrastructural culture war between film and "video".

The cost savings of newer technology are often emphasized by OEM's, and certainly the viability of digital technologies arises primarily from the growing emphasis on solving the endemic vagueness and inefficiency in Hollywood financials. This trend is ultimately a result of the emerging Creative Economy. The engine of economic growth in the developed world is sustained creativity and the production of high-value intellectual property whether pharmaceuticals, video games, or movies.

In the shift to digital, infrastructure is often overlooked by commentators; while emphasis is frequently placed on the efficiency and aesthetics benefits of newer technologies. As the gaming generation matures, the industry will continue to develop a culture of technicians with dramatically different training cycles and models then its traditional and waning culture of apprenticeship. OEM's, however, are not in a rush to push out traditional acquisition technologies, unless they rely solely on digital for revenue streams. In fact, revenue streams inform the marketing strategies and angle of manufacturers when it comes to their positioning on newer digital technologies. Are they still making money from traditional technology? Then why disparage film. Are they a diversified? Then why not emphasize their choice. Common wisdom in business is that the most profitable years in a technological lifespan are the last years when there is less money invested R&D. Then, it's pure profit.

Infocomm - News - Christie ramps up projector production

In the world's largest deployment of Digital Cinema systems as part of Christie/AIX (a collaboration with Access Integrated Technologies, Inc. with U.S.-based Carmike Cinemas, Inc.), Christies has had to increase production of its digital cinema projectors to meet demand, according to press release:

To keep pace with the demand, the Company's Canadian facility has already increased manufacturing capacity to meet the demand, putting it on target to deliver up to 400 units per month by the end of 2006 - a 400 percent increase in production in one year. The company plans additional expansions in the coming year as 2K-resolution DLP Cinema, the heart of the Christie CP2000, becomes the industry standard.

According to Jack Kline, President and COO, Christie Digital Systems USA, Inc.

"We have dramatically expanded our manufacturing facility and are increasing our production lines from two to six, and extensively restructuring our space and production methods to meet increased demand."

In addition to the nearly 4,000 projectors bound for North American theaters, Christie has been contracted to deliver hundreds of systems to the European and Asian markets.

Here is a summary of upcoming pieces in my four part series on digital technology and emergent media trends for 2006:

The second installment will focus on the changing nature of our industry’s below-the-line labor market vis-à-vis digital acquisition and post, and how newer technologies are transforming our industry’s culture and training cycle. I will illustrate how our industry is moving from a culture of apprenticeship to a culture of technicians, and how this development fits into the larger context of globalization and the creative economy.

The third piece will focus on growing demand for greater clarity and efficiency in the way that Hollywood and other creative industries do business. I see the viability of digital technology as part of an emerging trend in Hollywood towards solving the endemic vagueness around creative financials that are symptomatic of our outmoded ideas about creativity.

The fourth piece will focus on emerging markets and the changing nature of content that is resulting from these newer technologies and other generational and economic trends.

Cheers,

Alexa D. O'Brien

In February of this year, I interviewed Joe Berchtold, president of Technicolor Electronic Distribution Services about his company's digital cinema roll out plan. Technicolor is the only digital cinema provider that offers Sony's 4K digital projectors.

John P. Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey have already noted how we are shifting from the “consumption of goods” to “the consumption of experiences.” Video games and 3 D Digital Cinema are a continuation of the trend towards interactivity and heightened experience that have evolve with the Creative Economy and, more specifically, the emerging ethos of the gaming generation of letters X, Y, and thereafter.

The economic reality of interactivity and heightened experience is punctuated by the fact that "Chicken Little did two and half times the box office per screen in 3D versus what it did in 2D," says Joe Berchtold, "3D in digital is much better than 3D in film. The technology in digital doesn't create the headaches that you have in 35 mm, because your mind doesn't have to adjust for imperfections in the speed of the film between the two projectors." A heightened entertainment experience, which includes, 3D, may be the only way that theaters can compete in the new age of digital multideliverables, video games, home theaters, and waning theatrical admissions.

On May 4, 2006, Sony issued a White Paper on 4K Digital Projection System that can be downloaded at DCinemaToday.Com

Every Oscar for Best Picture since the first Academy Awards in 1928 has honored a motion picture recorded on film from the Eastman Kodak Company. Since the dawn of the motion picture industry, Kodak has served as a driving force in filmmaking science and technology, providing negative, print, and sound film, digital intermediate post-production work, and digital cinema products and services. In a November 2005 Lehman Brothers Equity Research Report, analysts Sabbagha and Talbott, estimated that Eastman Kodak earnings from entertainment film revenues were $1 billon annually, forty percent from their origination stock and sixty percent from their print stock. I wanted to learn more about how Kodak intended to protect is legacy brand in the midst of the emerging digital motion picture marketplace. Last month, I spoke with Bob Gibbons, Director of Marketing and Communications at Kodak Digital Cinema.

Alexa O'Brien

How has Kodak been preparing for the digital marketplace in regards to motion picture film?

Bob Gibbons

Let me just give you my view of digital cinema, because I have been involved with it since the beginning at Kodak. Around 1980, probably around the time of Disney's TRON, postproduction started going digital. The problem with computers in 1980 was that you needed a lot of power. You needed silicone graphics. Even if you had big computers, the quality of the postproduction, the special effects and so forth, was far less than film quality. So we said, why don't we come out with some sophisticated scanners and recorders to help maintain the quality of the product? So, we came out with a brand called Cineon. We also opened up a laboratory so we could improve those products and that was Cinesite, an effects company. As it turns out, other people started to come out with products. Pretty soon, there was a lot of good quality capability out there. Prices came down and there were more competitors in the marketplace.

Then we said, maybe we don't need to be in the product side of things. Maybe we ought to be in the service side of things, and continue to do effects. So we have two digital service companies: one in Hollywood called, LaserPacific, and one in London called, Cinesite that has done effects for Harry Potter and Narnia.

Since its inception as catalyst for cinema’s transformation from black and white to color, Technicolor’s history now spans ninety years in the motion picture industry. Even as parent, Thomson, leverages the rainbow’s magic brand to advance its digital cinema venture, Technicolor still processes over five billion feet of motion picture film a year. DreamWorks, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers, and Twentieth Century Fox have all signed agreements to use digital projection systems from Technicolor Digital Cinema on five thousand screens in the United States and Canada; and under the terms of a strategic understanding with Century Theatres, Technicolor will begin to install digital projection equipment with a beta-test deployment of ninety to hundred-and-twenty screens, in the first quarter of 2006. With an initial rollout plan for complete digital projection systems on up to five thousand DCI-compliant screens over the next three to four years, Thomson intends to deploy at least fifteen-thousand digitally-equipped screens in the United States and Canada over the next ten years.

As president of Technicolor Electronic Distribution Services, Joe Berchtold is responsible for the strategic development, growth, and operations of the Thomson Services division worldwide, including all aspects of Technicolor’s digital cinema initiatives, on-demand content, and IPTV distribution services. Since joining Thomson in 2003, Berchtold has been co-head of strategy and acquisitions, leading key initiatives that include the acquisition of DirecTV’s set-top box business; the company’s investment in Content Guard with Time Warner and Microsoft, where he now sits on the board of directors; and the forging of an agreement with VeriSign to jointly develop an online content authentication and authorization service bureau to support secure delivery of electronic entertainment content over digital networks.

Alexa O’Brien
Do you think digital cinema will reverse the declining box office trend?

Joe Berchtold

Well, I think that the hope of that is what has driven a lot of the energy behind digital cinema over the past year. I think people have come to realize that the savings from digital cinema on the cost side are some ways out, and the real opportunity here is the top line. It's getting customers back. If you think about a movie theater as a retail business, it’s among the most constrained retail businesses you can imagine from a merchandising standpoint; because as a physical reel of film is tied to a physical room, there’s just no flexibility. Digital inherently creates a lot more flexibility. People are talking about some of the things. You can add more screens. You can move screens. All of which will help on the margin. But, we also think, and I’m not creative enough, but we also think that five years from now, what are some of the most creative people in the world going to have figured out to be able to take advantage of this technology?