Click here to view the embedded video.
This past Sunday Cinedigm, a leading North American digital cinema deployment entity, achieved another live event milestone and I was there to witness it first hand. As we reported back in June, Cinedigm partnered with Sensio Technologies to bring the FIFA World Cup Final live and in 3D to theatres throughout the United States and Canada.
Event Details
At the time there was some uncertainty as to how many theatres were to show the FIFA World Cup matches and where they would be located. In total 25 FIFA World Cup matches were shown live in 3D at 475 venues in 33 different countries accounting for 4,500 screenings.
Cinedigm was given permission directly from FIFA to show the matches at 15 locations and theatres in Arizona, California, Florida, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ontario Texas and Virginia were selected. Another 15 locations were allocated to NCM Fathom.
Originally Cinedigm intended to show both the semi-final matches as well as the championship game, which pitted Spain against The Netherlands. Instead they chose to hold screenings only for Sunday’s final in order to have one marquee event. The feed for the event was supplied by ESPN, which was capturing the match in 3D for its new 3D network.
From what I was told ESPN wasn’t too pleased about the final being broadcast in cinemas.
First Hand Account
Dave McNamee of the HL Group, Cinedigm’s public relations firm, was kind enough to provide me with a pass to see the FIFA World Cup final at Rave Los Angeles 18 (formerly The Bridge). I was told to arrive early as seating was on a first come first served basis, but due to traffic and weekend errands I wound up arriving just as the match began.
The box office was empty and I figured this would be yet another lesson in how football (or soccer) was an underappreciated sport in North America. However, the quietness of what appeared to be a deserted multiplex was an illusion shattered upon entering the 364-seat auditorium in which the World Cup game was being shown. Every seat was filled except for the one I managed to squeeze into (and only because it was broken).
The theatre also sold out a 218-seat auditorium for the football (or soccer) match. It was later reported that Cinedigm sold out all of its World Cup Final screenings with 50% of the venues selling out more than one screen.
The picture quality of the game varied between a perfectly crystal clear image on closer field-level shots to the standard half-field shots from the stands which were a little fuzzier. I overheard a couple of people in the audience say they couldn’t make out the soccer ball within the frame.
I noticed this problem as well on a few occasions, but only on half-field shots that showed half the stadium. At times the ball appeared to have some ghosting issues. In all likelihood what was causing this on a technical level was the live feed itself, which was being broadcast in 1080i and projected at 1080p. The fuzziness of the ball was a byproduct of the interlacing.
Even so, the 3D effect was truly amazing, especially on field level shots where you could see the exact position of the ball, the distance between players and the true length of the field. Penalty kicks near each teams goal really came to life since it was possible to see all the obstructions the goalie had to contend with. I’ve heard many people say that football (or soccer) is a sport that wouldn’t work in 3D since most broadcasts rely heavily on wide shots rather than 3D friendly close-ups. I can assure you that 3D added value to the viewing experience.
So did being among more than 300 sports fans glued to the screen, intermittently screaming and cheering with every shot on goal, amazing save and questionable foul. One patron even blew a vuvuzela in support of Spain every time they came close to scoring. At halftime a long line formed for the men’s bathroom and someone wearing a soccer jersey exclaimed, “Hey, it’s just like being at the stadium!”
Indeed, other than the lack of beer and alcohol, it was.
Reaction
Like the positive comments found on Rave’s Facebook page, those I spoke with after Spain won the match in extra time were all pleased with the event and praised the 3D picture quality.
Dev Oli, a young meditation and yoga instructor, traveled all the way from San Diego to Los Angeles to be present. “I though the ball would really come out of the screen, but I still enjoyed it,” he said. Though Oli had seen numerous 3D movies, it was his first time seeing a sporting event at a cinema in 3D. He said he would definitely return to see another sporting event in the future, “especially if they figure out how to shoot it.”
Cinedigm has previously broadcast live 3D sporting events such as the 2009 BCS Championship, the 2009 NBA All Star Saturday Night and this past year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball championship. If such 3D sporting events being broadcast in cinemas are sure to improve with more time and experience, then with the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final Cinedigm made a convincing argument for a bright future.
]]>Click here to view the embedded video.
If you’re into heavy metal music then you’ll be happy to hear that some of the world’s biggest head banging bands will be playing live at a theatre near you. On Tuesday, June 22nd, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax, otherwise known as the Big Four of heavy metal music, will be sharing the stage at the Sonisphere Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria and will broadcast their concert in high-definition to cinemas in 40 countries.
New York based By Experience is the company producing the event which as been dubbed The Big Four. In press announcements promoting the concerts Metallica’s outspoken drummer Lars Ulrich talked about what he felt was a historic moment in rock music:
“Who would have thought that more than 25 years after its inception, thrash metal’s big four would not only still be around and more popular than ever, but will now play together for the first time.”
The live cinema event will be four hours long, which on a Tuesday night shouldn’t pose a problem for most theatres showing the broadcast. In the United States, NCM Fathom is distributing the concert which will be shown in theatres not only on June 22nd, but also at an encore performance on June 24th in specific locations. Tickets are already on sale for USD $18 at a list of theatres eight pages long.
In the United Kingdom the concert will be broadcast at 79 theatre locations, including more than 30 Cineworld venues. Tickets are already on sale for GBP £15. Luke Roberts, head of marketing communications at Cineworld said of the event:
“It offers something a little different that many wouldn’t expect to see at the cinema.”
It would be interesting to find out after the event is broadcast into cinemas how much it cost to produce and what its worldwide gross was. What do you think of The Big Four concert as alternative programming? Is four hours too long for such an event? Do you plan to attend? Fee; free to give us your thoughts in the comments section of this post.
]]>
Last week Cinedigm announced a partnership with Sensio that will allow them to bring the FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament being held in South Africa this month to theatres all over the world. What’s more, the matches will be shown live and in 3D.
The press release sent around to promote the partnership was was pretty standard, but there was one sentence that raised a question for me:
“To kick things off, the companies will use Sensio’s technology and Cinedigm’s theatre technology design to bring select matches from this year’s FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament in Live 3D to hundreds of theatres around the world.”
My curiosity wasn’t necessarily stirred over which of the matches would be shown, because the release goes on to mention they’ll start with the quarterfinals. Instead, I was left wondering what “Sensio’s technology” actually was and how Cinedigm, a leading North American digital cinema integrator, would utilize it to project a live broadcast of a World Cup Soccer game in 3D. The rest of the press release only served to make me even more inquisitive, especially upon reading:
“…Cinedigm’s extensive experience in bringing live 3D sporting events to U.S. theatres through Sensio 3D format and CineLive technology.”
I was aware that Cinedigm had done a good job broadcasting live 3D events into theatres previously, and even attended some of the events, such as the 2009 NBA All-Star Saturday Night and the 2010 NCAA Men’s Final Four. I knew that the company had created the CineLive Network specifically for this purpose. However I thought it was about time to actually understand what this Sensio technology actually was and why it was being referred to as a 3D format.
A quick visit to Sensio’s website provided me with little more than the company’s history and mission which made it clear that their focus is on 3D technology. The professional 3D cinema section of the website only lists two different products:
- SFX Pro Cinema - 3D live encoder/decoder for digital cinema and live events
- CineLive - Cinedigm’s exclusive product which allows live 3D and 2D content broadcasting into digital cinemas
So now I knew that Sensio had something to do with encoding and decoding live 3D content. But specifics were hard to come by. With enough clicking around on the website I came across Sensio’s media kit which contained the same verbiage sent to me by Cinedigm’s PR firm, HL Group, when I inquired about the company and its technology:
Sensio develops and markets stereoscopic 3D digital compression, decompression and display formatting technologies. Its solutions are deployed on a global scale by content creators, game developers, broadcasters, specialty channels, and digital cinemas. . . It’s flagship technology, Sensio 3D, allows the high-quality distribution of 3D content through conventional existing 2D broadcast networks and playback on any 3D display device, including plasma TVs, LED/LCD, HDTVs, PC and glass free 3D displays, as well as home theater and digital cinema projectors.
Finally I had my answer. Sensio must be enabling Cinedigm to receive and decode 3D content that arrives through their satellite network. Presumably the content is being compressed at the live event in a proprietary manner that allows it to be transmitted over a standard broadcast network. What Cinedigm must bring to the relationship is cinema technology experience as well as strong relationships with theatre owners.
So, now that you’re up to speed on how Cinedigm will bring live FIFA World Cup matches in 3D to movie theatres, do you plan on attending one of the broadcasts?
]]>
Emerging Pictures will be offering non-profit art houses an interesting way to make a few extra dollars this June. The company, which runs the largest digital alternative content theatre network in the United States, is making a special version of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band’s concert film “London Calling: Live in Hyde Park” for special screenings.
Indie film theatres or community culture centers which have official 501-(c)(3) non-profit status will be able to screen the film for audiences up to three times between June 10th and June 21st in advance of the title’s DVD and Blu-Ray release on June 22nd, almost a year to the day that Springsteen performed the concert in London’s Hyde Park.
As a means of offering financial and promotional support for ongoing digital cinema programs, non-profit venues that show the 90 minute film will be allowed to keep 100% of the box office gross. Commercial cinemas are also invited to screen the Springsteen concert film after agreeing to donate box office receipts to The Danny Fund and the Melanoma Research Alliance. The fund was established in 2008 after E Street keyboardist Danny Federici passed away in 2008 due to skin melanoma.
Commenting on the benefit screenings Barry Rebo, co-founder of Emerging Pictures, said:
“With the warm weather just now coming on, it’s especially timely to warn folks about the dangers of the sun. For sheer joyousness, an outdoor Bruce Springstten & The E Street Band experience is perfection.”
Anyone who has seen Springsteen perform live, as I have, will understand Rebo’s enthusiasm.
A noteworthy aside about this announcement is the use of benefit screenings to help promote the release of a DVD or album. The cost of distributing such content theatrically is minimal and is more than covered by the incremental DVD sales that occur after screenings help build awareness of new titles. Sony Music, which is releasing the Springsteen concert film, will get some nice promotion for an upcoming DVD launch, while at the same time getting points for donating theatrical revenue to art houses and cancer research. This is type of “marketing-by-screening” has also been practiced successfully by the likes of B-side.
What could really make this a no brainer for Springsteen fans would be a higher-cost premium ticket offering to the screenings that includes the DVD or Blu-Ray.
]]>
–Sony and Regal released a press release this morning, officially announcing that Regal will install the Sony 4K digital projections systems across its entire circuit. (See Celluloid Junkie’s Friday post below on this news).According to the release, the installation of the systems is expected to take 3-5 years, but the financing is being handled through DCIP. So the question is, when will installations start?
There is still no word on DCIP securing the needed funding to begin its planned wide rollout. DCIP represents AMC, which also plans to deploy Sony technology; as well as Regal and Cinemark.
Sony also reported that approximately 1,500 of the Regal screens will be outfitted for 3D using Sony’s dual-lens adaptor technology.Amy Miles, Regal Entertainment Group’s incoming chief executive officer, is quoted in the press release as saying: “The rollout of these Sony 4K systems gives Regal the opportunity to utilize the latest technology to provide our patrons the best available presentation. Sony’s state-of-the-art 4K systems produce the highest levels of resolution, contrast and overall image quality.”
–Another example of the growing interest and potential of alternative content, The Financial Times is reporting that a June 25 production of Racine’s Phèdre at London’s National Theatre is to be screened live in 170 cinemas worldwide. Dame Helen Mirren stars in the production, which according to the article is nearly sold out in the d-cinema venues. See the complete article, titled “British Theatre to be Seen Around World,” here
–An interesting feature on CNN Money/Fortune titled “Every Blog Becomes a Cinema” examines a new model of distribution, as well as advertising. SnagFilms aims to distribute documentaries—which have always been challenged to find a theatrical release—on the Internet. The article is here
–Call for Papers: SMPTE is seeking proposals for technical papers and tutorials for the 2009 SMPTE Technical Conference & Exhibition, 27-29 October in Hollywood.
The organization is seeking papers on a range of topics including digital cinema exhibition, d-cinema production and post, advancements in film technologies, content security and stereoscopic 3D Imaging.
Interested parties are invited to submit a one-page abstract, no later than June 12. Further details on how to submit a proposal are here
Call for Entries: The Hollywood Post Alliance has issued a call for entries for the Engineering Excellence Award, part of the 4th Annual HPA Awards. The call for entries is now open and will run through July 1. Entrants will be given the opportunity to present their technology during the Engineering Judging Day.
The HPA Awards also accepts entries in categories for compositing, DI/color grading, editing, audio post, as well as for the new Judges Award for Creativity and Innovation in Post Production. For more, see the website here
A group of 3D industry leaders shared varying opinions on the future of 3D—as well as their latest impressions of the credit market–during a panel yesterday at the Digital Hollywood confab in Los Angeles.
“The market has recovered a little since December,” said James Dix, analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. “The credit market is clearly loosening up, although DCIP happening imminently is not likely.”
Cinedigm chairman/CEO Bud Mayo reported: “Cinedigm has already financed $300 million in conversions of digital screens and we expect to start again this summer. The VPFs are a model that is proven and we have the data to support it. Getting our lenders to put up money for a proven model is not that much of a challenge. It is the macro economics that are the challenge.”
Kerner New York’s chairman/CEO Neal Weinstock surprised some while addressed production costs, suggesting that “we think we can get the production budget only about $25,000 higher for 3D than 2D, for episodic TV. Television will be the lion’s share of the 3D business.”
Lenny Lipton predicted that all content would eventually be 3D. “We are seeing the domino effect with 3D. Genre by genre it will become necessary to attract audiences. Animation was the first. It appears that horror will be next.”
Citing the success of 2D blockbuster “The Dark Knight,” Imax’s Greg Foster disagreed, saying “3D is providing a benefit, but I don’t think you have to throw all your eggs in one basket.”
Mayo also doesn’t believe that all movies need to be 3D, but he did promote alternative content. “The opportunity of digital have very little to do with movies–it’s to complement movies. How do you fix the seats that are empty? The opportunity comes with doing other things along with movies.”
As an example, he reported that Cinedigm would be offering concerts as alternative content during the summer.
Foster reported that Imax is up to 90 digital installations. He added that at Imax screenings, the first 15 minutes of upcoming summer release “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” would be presented in 3D.
Moderator Marty Shindler of consulting firm The Shindler Perspective offered a screen count update: Over 7,000 digital cinema screens worldwide, 3500 of which are 3D ready.
]]>Dreamworks Animation’s debut stereoscopic 3D title “Monsters Vs. Aliens” raked in another $8.5 million at the US box office this weekend, helping bring its domestic gross to $174.8 million and allowing its international box office to cross the $300 million mark. The film opened March 27 in the US and is the highest grossing film of 2009 to date, both in the domestic and worldwide box office.
A second 3D release, Focus’ “Coraline,” also sits in the US box office’s top 10 for the year so far. At number nine, the Henry Selick-directed stop-motion title has earned just shy of $75 million.
For other recent 3D releases: Lionsgate’s “My Bloody Valentine 3D” has taken in $51.5 million in the domestic market; and Disney’s 3D only release “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience” earned $19.1 from roughly 1200 3-D screens.
In contrast to the Jonas release, Disney’s 3D “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds Concert” earned $65.5 million on only 650 screens in 2008. What factor or factors caused this difference? Was it the popularity of Miley Cyrus? Was it the fact that the “Hannah Montana” movie opened the day after the live concert tour wrapped, and was therefore considered more of an “event?”
–In this weekend’s US box office news, Screen Gems’ Beyonce Knowles starrer “Obsessed” led the pack, opening with $28.5 million.
But perhaps more notable is that “Earth”—the debut documentary from Disney’s new Disneynature banner—finished in the No. 5 slot with $8.6 million for the weekend. The movie opened last Wednesday and the five-day cum is $14.2 million. The result seems underscore the potential of digital documentary/alternative content. Disneynature launched in 2008 with a slate of nature documentaries. At the time, Disney chairman Dick Cook said 3D was a possibility for future Disneynature releases.
“Earth” is the first title from producer-director Alastair Fothergill (BBC and Discovery Channel’s “Planet Earth”), who has multipicture deal with Disneynature.
Announced productions under the new banner include “Oceans” and “Orangutans: One Minute to Midnight.” Both are slated for a 2010 release.
]]>Click here to view the embedded video.
This report just in from our friend and colleague Jerry Pierce:
Click here to view the embedded video.
Many who know me are aware what a big opera buff I am. I’ve held a subscription to the Los Angeles Opera’s annual season for at least the past five years, and when I travel I make a point of trying to see an opera in each city I visit. But when CJ’s co-editor Patrick Von Sychovski forwarded me an article from last Friday’s New York Times about operas being screened in cinemas around the world I was a little ambivalent. Why did we need another article about how wonderful it is operas are reaching the masses through movie theatres? Especially the umpteenth article from the Times about the successful Metropolitan Opera program. We get it; opera is the new black, it’s the greatest thing to happen to movie theatres since the invention of the popcorn kernel. What more could we possibly learn about operas being shown in movie theatres?!
Apparently. . . quite a lot.
In fact, the article by Daniel J. Wakin’s article advanced the story of showing operas in cinemas quite a bit and went deeper than simply rehashing the successful program offered by the Met. Back in June of 2008, at Opera America’s annual conference of opera professionals, several managers and artists actually complained about the Met’s ongoing dalliance with streaming its performances into movie theatres. Wakin’s writes:
The dissenters say that the movement will lead to more conservative programming; that the voice will become subservient to appearance; that listeners will be trained to hear something electronic and lose an appreciation for a live experience.
Some worry that vocal training will change, de-emphasizing the ability to project, and that the Met’s effort is a deal with the Devil, because it will divert audiences from local opera houses to make the easier, cheaper trip to the mall.
Given the price of gas lately, the trip to one’s nearest multiplex may indeed be cheaper than journeying all the way to their nearest respectable opera house, but the tickets aren’t exactly inexpensive. In the Los Angeles area, tickets at most theatres showing the operas are USD $22. It’s not the hefty USD $95 to $150 the average ticket prices some opera companies charge, however it’s not the bargain matinee price one might expect when showing up to a movie theatre at ten o’clock in the morning, (when the Met operas screen live on the West Coast of North America). When the Met first introduced the program three years ago, I had to drive 3o miles just to get to a theatre that was showing the broadcast, the same distance I drive to get to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion where the LA Opera performs.
Of course, the argument that movie theatre broadcasts might be siphoning off audience members from local opera houses holds some water. Wakin quotes the general manager from the Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, NY who says that two groups of new subscribers decided not to journey from Ithaca and Syracuse to see performances in lieu of attending the Met’s screenings in cinemas. The Met’s reputation for upscale productions with high caliber performances is hard to compete with, as is the convenience of not having to sit on a bus all day to get to Binghamton. The real problem with audience’s forgoing local opera companies is that such companies are the training ground for young, up-and-coming performers and musicians. If smaller companies become financially strapped and wind up closing, this may eventually affect companies in large cities who are seeking to recruit experienced talent
Wakin points out that those fighting the wave of movie theatre opera screenings are outnumbered by those that are in favor of such programs. Many opera professionals wouldn’t mind seeing the kind of financial returns from cinema broadcasts that the Met has managed to earn. We’ve previously reported on the financial numbers from the Met’s 2007-08 Live HD program, but the Times recent article unveils a few more interesting figures based on the present season. Despite facing serious fiscal hardships of late, the Met has managed to take in USD $1 million in profit from this year’s Live HD screenings. Mind you, that is only a drop in their annual budget bucket, which tops out at USD $280 million, though the Met’s artistic director Peter Gelb points to the cinema broadcasts as the reason for a 12 percent growth in ticket sales to live performances during his three year tenure. How he has come to this conclusion I’m sure is less than scientific
Ironically, the Met has already sold more than 1 million tickets in movie theatres for this year’s program with three operas yet to be broadcast, though will sell only 850,000 tickets to its live performances in New York for the 2008-09 season, yet have already sold . Screenings of the Met’s performances are shown at about 850 theatres in over 30 countries. However, it should be noted that not all opera companies are finding success at the multiplex. While Emerging Pictures has built a proven track record for broadcasting operas from many of Europe’s famous companies, the San Francisco Opera beamed four performances to 120 theatres last year with luke-warm results and has since tabled their cinematic efforts.
Another concern that those working opera have expressed is that broadcasting operas into cinemas will force performers to change the way they sing, project their voice and act:
Singers now worry about matters that are usually invisible to house audiences, like spraying saliva when singing consonants, or showing the effort to hit a high note, or turning upstage to clear one’s throat, or winking in support of a duet partner during a clinch, said Susan Graham, the mezzo-soprano, who has hosted several broadcasts and played Marguerite in the broadcast of Berlioz’s “Damnation de Faust.” The camera’s unrelenting nature means fewer peeks at the conductor.
Yet the Met has been broadcasting Saturday matinee performances nationwide for the past 78 years and since 1977 have also been airing selected productions on PBS through their Great Performances broadcast. Why haven’t these fears been expressed before now?
As for movie exhibitors, they have credited the opera broadcasts with bringing audiences who have not been to a movie theatre in years back to movie theatres. This is particularly true with older patrons, who many theatre owners have seen returning to venues not just for operas, but for screenings of movies.
One factor that those dismayed with the opera broadcasts are overlooking is that such offerings are introducing the art form to thousands who would otherwise never have experienced it at all. A recent study published by the trade group Opera America found that:
. . . . as a result of attending the HD shows, more than 92 percent of all attendees say they are now more likely to attend a live performance either at the Met or at another opera house. Almost one in five HD audience members had not attended a live performance in the past two years. More than 5 percent of U.S. attendees have never been to a live opera performance.
So maybe rather than becoming frightened over the prospect of losing their audience to movie theatre broadcasts, opera managers should figure out how to exploit the opportunity the way some popular artists, musicians and filmmakers have used modern technology to help boost their own income. For instance, Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails gave away their most recent albums online months before they were released in stores to record sales. The comedy troupe Monty Python posted all their movies on YouTube and wound up selling an additional 23 million DVDs this past year.
Hey. . . there might jsut be something to this whole new media thing. Maybe, just maybe, it helps spread the word.
]]>
On Satruday evening Cinedigm continued its ongoing effort to bring popular sporting events in 3D to North American movie theatres by broadcasting the NBA All-Star Saturday Night to more than 80 venues in the U.S. and Canada. Since this type of alternative content is all the rage these days I decided it was high time to check out what all the buzz was about. I’m quite happy I did.
Previous Cinedigm live 3D events were allegedly riddled with technical problems. At the Fedex BCS National Championship Game in January the transmission often flipped the left eye and right eye causing theatre patrons to instinctively rip their 3D glasses off so as not to become nauseas. There were tons of walkouts at theatres that chose to show the event.
I would have assumed that Valentine’s Day would have provided stiff competition for Cinedigm in attracting patrons to the event, but at the Mann Chinese 6 in Hollywood, almost every one of the 290 seats were occupied. Tickets for the event were a steep $20, though that didn’t seem to deter diehard NBA fans. In fact, it wasn’t hard to spot fans milling about in the parking lot of the Hollywood+Highland complex on their way into the theatre; they were the ones wearing their favorite team’s jerseys.
Fan Expectations
Though I’m not all that knowledgable about the NBA All-Star game, I was lucky enough to find a seat smack dab in the center of the theatre next to Bradley Bandara, a 24-year-old Portland Trailblazers fan. Bandara learned about the 3D livecast on SportsIllustrated.com and decided to drive the 40 miles from his home to attend. (Others I spoke with drove between 5 miles and 30 miles to get to the theatre). Bandara is such a huge fan of pro-basketball that he used to hold viewing parties of the All-Star Saturday Night festivities when he was in high school.
“I’ve been watching this religiously ever since I was a little boy and I figured it was the most condensed celebrated way to view this other than being in the arena,” Bandara said of why he wanted to see the event in 3D. While not an actual game, All-Star Saturday Night is a showcase of some of the NBA’s most well-known star athletes as they participate in shooting competitions, skills exercises and a climactic slam dunk contest. Bandara warned that, “This event has a lot of downtime in it and the moments of intensity are few and far between. I hope it’s just a fun atmosphere with everyone cheering and having a good time.”
Given that we were watching the event in Hollywood, the heart of the movie business, Bandara noted that there were a few industry members on hand. I personally spotted representatives from Dolby and MasterImage as well as Jim Whittlesey, Senior Vice President of Operations and Technology at Deluxe. Bill Hogan, a product engineering manager from Panasonic sat right behind me. He was hoping that the NBA event would be better than the BCS game he “suffered” through at the Rave Town Square 18 in Las Vegas during CES. He reported having to wear his 3D glasses upside down for the entire first half of the game due to the polarity issues.
Brad Carroll, Vice President of Sales and Business Development for Cinedigm’s content and entertainment group addressed the crowd before tip off, thanking them for coming out. He mentioned that the NBA livecast was the culmination of 8 years of work for Cinedigm and Bud Mayo, the company’s CEO who is striving to make theatres “more than just a place to see movies.” He credited Cinedgim’s CineLive technology, which enables live 3D broadcasts, for making the whole night possible.
The opening Britney Spears music video montage of NBA highlights had those around me checking their glasses wondering if they were actually seeing a stereoscopic image. Turns out they weren’t as a title card followed instructing everyone to “Put your 3D glasses on now”. As the first 3D images appeared a voiceover blasted through the theatre proclaiming, “Welcome to the dawn of a new day in sports entertainment”. A quick cut montage of 3D basketball footage followed and the audience was hooked from the moment a shot of the cheerleaders flashed on screen. We were quickly introduced to Matt Devlin, the television play-by-play announcer for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors who would serve as the host throughout the broadcast. This caused some grumbling that the commentary from TNT, the cable network which broadcast the event, would not be heard. Bandara agreed that this was a huge disappointment, saying “I would absolutely be at home if I knew it wasn’t the real commentators.”
The problem with providing the “official” commentators for such 3D livecasts is that the television broadcast and the 3D broadcast are two totally separate productions; each with their own camera crews, audio feeds and shot selection. Using the TNT audio commentary would no doubt have caused heaps of confusion when sportscasters began referring to images audiences weren’t actually seeing in the theatre. The only audio that Cinedigm shared with TNT was interviews with the winners of each contest.
Technical High Points and Glitches
Audio was the one area which didn’t seem to live up to the 3D visuals. It seemed to be in 5.1 “semi-surround sound” with audio coming mostly from the front speakers. The cheering sold out crowd on hand at the U.S. Airways Center in Phoenix could hardly be heard at all and Devlin was often drowned out by the arena’s public address announcer. The most annoying hiccup was a minor sync problem in which the audio was half a second behind the picture for the entire broadcast. It was noticeable when basketballs bounced off the backboard and painfully obvious during musical segues such s as one that featured the drumming group Phoenix Percussion. In all fairness, I didn’t hear anyone complain about the sync issue and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were only industry techies that picked up on it.
Of course, the real captivating factor for those watching in theatres was the 3D footage streaming onto the screen. The image was shown in high-def 720p with each frame flashing 60 frames per second/per eye for a total of 120 frames per second. RealD was the 3D technology used at the Chinese 6 in Hollywood, though they were never mentioned by name throughout the simulcast.
One drawback to live 3D events, at least as they are conducted today, is the lack of ghostbusting performed on the images. Crosstalk, where a single element in the 3D image starts to split into two, was predominant around basketballs in flight, lettering on certain team’s jerseys and at times the basketball net. You’d need a trained eye to notice it consistently and nobody I spoke with complained of dizziness, eye fatigue or headaches. As soon as RealD (and other 3D technology providers) can perform ghostbusting on the fly, which is presently in the works, this issue should be resolved.
Overall the image presentation was very impressive. Certain moments were downright amazing, especially during the slam dunk contest. There were only two incredibly brief instances where the satellite feed dropped out causing pixelated blocks which turned the screen into the worlds largest impression of a Jackson Pollock painting. The first instance of signal loss lasted 15 seconds and the second a mere 5 seconds. The latter occurred right before the slam dunk contest and jump started the audience into impromptu synchronized vocal exercises - moaning in unison at the loss of picture and cheering loudly upon its return.
The only other image snafu was caused by the basketball players themselves who often moved faster than 60 fps causing motion blur during slow motion replays. (Maybe Cinedigm can convince the NBA to talk their players into moving a bit slower during 3D livecasts). I’d bet a pretty penny that in the next few months this footage will be cleaned up and all the motion blur and crosstalk will be gone so that at trade shows such as ShoWest it will look pristine.
While most of these technical issues weren’t noticed by sports fans in the Chinese 6, almost everyone was commenting on the poor camera angles capturing the really exciting moments. TNT was given the premium camera positions for each competition often leaving Pace, the 3D production company that shot the event, struggling to find good placement. This is completely understandable since TNT was expecting 5 million television viewers and Cinedigm was expecting. . . well. . . not 5 million theatre goers. As well, TNT’s crew has spent most of their career shooting sporting events and are experts at framing a shot and predicting the action. By the end of the three hour NBA All-Star Saturday Night event, the 3D coverage was featuring shots that were poorly framed and often featured camera operators and their equipment rather than basketball players. When was the last time you saw a camera crew featured prominently on television during an important free throw? This issue will surely wind up as a footnote, for there were moments of pure brilliance when the 3D footage and the on-screen action were married perfectly to create a breathtaking shot that will be remembered long after shots that derive from poor camera placement are forgotten.
Audience Participation
If the goal was to make theatre audiences feel as if they were “at the game” then Cinedigm succeeded. When the arena PA announcer asked everyone to stand for the national anthem, one person in the theatre actually complied. He looked around, saw that nobody else was standing, suffered a moment of embarrassment, and stayed on his feet. Throughout the night the audience remained boisterous; booing players they didn’t like, cheering for ones they did, counting players’ baskets and shouting out their own scoring during the slam dunk contest. It was. . . dare I say it, almost as if we were at the arena in Phoenix.
When the Portland Trailbalzers’ Rudy Fernández was having trouble making his second slam dunk, missing one attempt after another, the whole audience was glued to the screen. They rooted him on with each new run to the basket as if he could actually hear them. The attention paid to such a large screen during such a moment was far greater than what one would normally expect from watching similar content at a bar.
We Now Pause For This Commercial Message
A 2D trailer for “Madea Goes To Jail” was the only thing resembling a commercial throughout Cinedigm’s simulcast. There were a few short 30 second “house ads” for Sensio 3D, the NBA and Cinedigm itself, otherwise the telecast was commercial free. Instead, theatre goers were treated to close up shots of the cheerleaders dance routines. And I can gladly report that the cheerleaders do look. . . ahem, even better in 3D.
About an hour in, Bud Mayo showed up on screen to say hello to everyone in the 150 movie theatres around North America watching the event. (There seemed to be a bit of confusion in venue count since Carroll mentioned that it was being shown at 87 theatres and Devlin gave out an 85 theatre count.) Mayo was standing courtside wearing a pair of RealD glasses and stairing at a television monitor displaying the game in 3D. Ever the salesman, he launched into a marketing pitch for Cinedigm and digital cinema explaining that events such as this can help fill theatres that are empty or not being used 85% of the time. “The winners tonight are the audience,” he exclaimed, leaving those non-industry types in my theatre perplexed as to what this man was actually talking about and how it related to basketball.
Speaking of marketing, just before the evening ended a message flashed on screen asking the audience to send any comments they had about the simulcast and the 3D presentation to Cinedigm via text message. This was not only good customer relations but a genius marketing move as Cinedigm can now market future events to these same patrons.
Random Odds and Ends
Showing a live 3D event, be it sporting or otherwise, is a concept and a technology which is still in the early stages of development, though evolving rather quickly. Sitting in the Chinese 6 on Saturday night, I couldn’t help but notice a few things worth mentioning:
- The theatre audience was so wrapped up in watching the game and glued to the 3D images, it seemed as if nobody visited the concession stand. In the middle of the event the fully stocked VIP bar was completely empty. Yet when the lights came up at the end the place was littered with popcorn bags and empty soda cups.
- People were chattering and talking to their friends whenever they felt like it. Nobody cared or shushed them. . . and it didn’t detract from the experience!
- Audience members talked on their cell phones to friends watching from home. Then, when it was time to vote via text message for the winner of the slam dunk competition, everyone whipped out their cell phones and there wasn’t a single complaint. Try that during a movie (but not if you want to live).
- CGI and lower thirds take on a whole new meaning when they appear in 3D. They are actually pleasant to look at.
- With no automation cues to program, the lights didn’t dim until 15 minutes into the broadcast which was a a bit of a problem given the low light levels 3D affords. Several people yelled out for the lights to be turned off.
- In 3D, when the beer man walks up the aisle, he’s not just obstructing the view of those in the arena anymore. Down in front!
- The size difference between NBA athletes and their WNBA counterparts is quite noticeable in 3D.
- 3D does not make NBA athletes sound any more intelligible than they do when speaking during television interviews.
- Mascots look even worse in 3D than they do when they are annoying you by jumping up and down during the games.
Show Me The Money
Of course, at the end of the day Cinedigm, rights holders and theatre owners are all trying to make money off of these events. The financial outcome of Cinedigm’s NBA All-Star Saturday Night won’t be known for some time, but in an upcoming post I’ll review some best and worst case scenarios.
One would think that simulcasting the actual All-Star game in 3D would have been a better financial bet for Cinedigm, but the NBA only offered up the Saturday night festivities. Even so, TNT reports that the All-Star Saturday Night telecasts have traditionally drawn more viewers. According to the NBA, Saturday night’s telecast was the most watched in the 23-year history of the event, with more than 5.8 million people tuning in.
The Mann Chinese 6 seemed happy with the event. The cashier at the box office reported 205 tickets were sold, not counting comps, which was a 77% occupancy rate. (It was closer to 95% if you include all the comps.) The manager of the theatre reported that concession sales were definitely up, and he said there were more people in his venue than on a regular Saturday night.
Mann doesn’t seem to be the only exhibitor pleased with the event, as a positive review from The News Herald in Northern Ohio confirmed. By the end of the evening Carroll was responding to emails on his Blackberry coming in from happy exhibitors across North America. One Canadian exhibitor wanted to speak early Monday morning about “adding more locations” for the next event.
Better yet, the auditorium was full at the end of the evening and the 2o people I polled while exiting the auditorium said they enjoyed the event, didn’t mind the USD $20 ticket price, felt the 3D aspect truly worked and would “definitely” attend a future simulcast if one were held.
Could Cinedigm have asked for a better response?
]]>