Last week both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported that an announcement from Digital Cinema Implementation Partners about their financing was imminent. The opportunity to play 3D content will certainly be welcomed by AMC Theatres, Regal Cinemas and Cinemark, however from the way the two newspapers covered the story you might get the impression it was the only reason. The financing would allow Hollywood studios to “roll out more 3-D movies in the wake of the success of James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’” wrote the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times said the “money would allow future 3-D film releases”.
Both media outlets seem to have gotten their hands on some internal briefings or at the very least seen an early draft of a press release as they have updated some of the details from previous reports about DCIP’s financing. A more exact figure of USD $660 million was cited by both papers which is down from the original USD $700 million rumor which was first floating around. As well, the number of screens has been upped to 14,000 from 12,000 with the Wall Street Journal putting the number of actual theatre sites being converted at 1,100. The New York Times laid out the details as follows:
According to a draft announcement making the rounds in Hollywood, the new financing, arranged by JPMorgan and Blackstone Advisory Partners, would total about $660 million. Of that, $445 million is expected to come from senior bank debt, $135 million from what is described as “junior capital” and $80 million from equity contributed by the member theater circuits. Nine banks, including Bank of America and Citibank, are part of the lending group. Blackstone raised the $135 million from other investors.
I always find it amusing to see how mainstream media covers the transition to digital cinema in reporting such news. The Wall Street Journal piece states:
In a digital conversion, theaters rip out old celluloid film projectors, and stop receiving weekly shipments of large film canisters. They instead use fiber optic lines to transfer huge digital film files.
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Popularity: 10% [?]
SmartJog and Ymagis issued a joint press release yesterday announcing they had reached a non-exclusive partnership agreement and will integrate their technologies to offer theatre owners a more robust digital cinema offering. The pairing seems as if it would be complimentary given that SmartJog specializes in high speed delivery of digital content and Ymagis focuses on digital cinema deployment.
What this means is that when Ymagis installs digital cinema equipment at one of their theatres, they will also be deploying SmartJog’s digital content delivery solution. During the first phase of the partnership, the SmartJog Gateway will be integrated into the Ymagis Cinema Central Server, which is a theatre management system. Content will arrive through the SmartJog Gateway and be handed off to the Ymagis TMS. This solution requires a theatre to make room for a separate piece of network connected equipment. The second phase of the partnership will integrate the software which runs the SmartJog Gateway directly into the Ymagis Cinema Central Server, allowing for content to be delivered straight to the TMS without need for additional hardware.
One bonus that comes with the partnership is that the two companies will be able to share their respective content delivery networks. This means Ymagis would be able to send content to any theatre in SmartJog’s network, even if the exhibitor wasn’t signed up with them. Both companies are based in France so it’s no shock that integration and deployment will begin in that country. Most, if not all, of the exhibitors Ymagis works with are in Europe.
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Popularity: 7% [?]
That collective sigh of relief you may have heard over this past weekend no doubt came from the North American motion picture exhibition and distribution industries. The Los Angeles Times report that investment bank JPMorgan was finally able to round up roughly USD $700 million for Digital Cinema Implementation Partners must have come as some relief.
Heaven knows we’ve been hearing about DCIP’s quest for financing for well over a year now. It seems at every ShoWest, Cinema Expo or Show East for the past 18 months we’ve been told by investment bankers that money is on the way. Though let’s face it, if the staggering amount of money being sought wasn’t enough to cause a delay, the worldwide credit crunch certainly didn’t help. Financing hasn’t been easy to come buy in any business sector and no matter how lucrative the project.
Of course, DCIP is the deployment entity founded by three of the world’s largest exhibitors; AMC Theatres, Cinemark and Regal Cinemas. With anonymous sources close to the negotiations confirming that DCIP’s financing will be announced in the next two weeks, the company can finally begin the rollout digital cinema technology on 12,000 screens across the United States and Canada.
Back in 2008 JPMorgan, armed with virtual print fee agreements from the studios, went looking for USD $1 billion for DCIP to convert 14,000 screens across all three circuits. Since then, AMC has gobbled up Kerasotes adding another 900 odd screens to the mix. There was no word on which screens or theatres will be converted or what will happen to those screens which don’t make it into the first 12,000. Nor was a time frame given to complete the transition, though it has been widely expected to take three years.
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Popularity: 10% [?]
Problems With "Avatar" In Germany
It was bound to happen. With James Cameron’s 3D epic “Avatar” being released on more than 16,000 screens in 122 countries on December 18th, surely there would be a few snafus. One Deluxe insider claimed “Avatar” marked the first movie title for which they shipped more hard drives with digital cinema packages (DCPs) than 35mm prints. So whether it was a faulty server, malfunctioning projector or invalid key, a few dark screens or missed screenings seemed inevitable. And with the enormous amount of promotion and hype surrounding “Avatar’s” release there were thousands of sold out auditoriums making whatever problems that cropped up difficult to hide.
Few would have predicted that such issues would be caused by humans, rather than technical errors. But that’s just what happened in Germany during the first few hours of “Avatar’s” release. Apparently upwards of 70 screens were unable to play the film in digital 3D because they had not received the keys, or received the wrong keys. The problem affected theatres run by Cinestar and Cinemaxx in cities such as Eisenhuettenstadt, Mainz, Garbsen and Berlin. Audiences that had shown up for the first showings of the film were told they could see the film in 2D or were offered a refund.
It should come as no surprise that news of the dark screens spread rapidly in mainstream media, especially in the tech press. Outlets such as The Register and Heise ran stories that faulted Deluxe Digital, the service provider Twentieth Century Fox used to distribute both 35mm and digital prints. However, having seen first hand the amount of resources, energy and effort Deluxe put into the release of “Avatar” it is highly unlikely that they somehow managed to bungle the key delivery. More probable is that one of Fox’s field offices neglected to relay some last minute playdates they had managed to secure.
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Popularity: 5% [?]
For the past several weeks there have been whisperings in conversations throughout the motion picture exhibition industry about organizational changes at Kodak Digital Cinema. To put an end to the conflicting reports that were coming my way I did the most simple of things; picked up the phone and spoke with someone directly at Kodak. Strange, I know, given that this business has gotten us all so used to playing our cards close to the vest, but sometimes a direct approach actually works.
Indeed, Kodak Digital Cinema is dramatically changing the focus of its business. Bob Gibbons, Director of Marketing and Communications for Kodak Digital Cinema lived up to his title by being very upfront in explaining the company’s new strategy. “We’re going to really concentrate on areas that build more directly on our unique capabilities of service and intellectual property licensing,” said Gibbons. “We’re going to discontinue all development and manufacturing of our preshow advertising systems, our Kodak screen management servers, our Kodak theatre management systems and what I refer to as our role as a feature systems integrator, putting the packages together and marketing the packages.”
Acting as a systems integrator has been the most visible part of Kodak’s digital cinema business up until now. Moving forward, Kodak Digital Cinema will instead develop and license digital cinema technologies to be commercialized by others while continuing to provide services and support for existing systems. Though Kodak may not be manufacturing preshow video players any longer, they will continue to prepare and distribute preshow content and playslists.
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Popularity: 12% [?]
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August 24, 2009 5:51 am
The UK’s Cinema Exhibitors’ Association (CEA) had previously announced that they are setting up an organization to support small-to-medium sized exhibitors in the switch to digital, along the lines of the semi-hibernating Cinema Buying Group (CBG) of NATO. CEA’s CEO Phil Clapp commented at the time that:
many [cinemasl also recognise that they are extremely unlikely to be able to secure funding deals to allow them to convert on their own. We strongly believe that the proposed funding group may be the only option to achieve this for a significant majority of small and medium-sized cinema operators.
Now the time has come to appoint someone to head up this mission. From the announcement:
As detailed in an advert appearing in the next edition of Screen International, the CEA is looking to recruit - initially on a six month contract - an individual with the following qualities:
- Experience of work in film distribution and/or exhibition at a senior level, with an understanding of the key industry issues and processes between the two sectors;
- Experience of digital cinema contracts and/or deployment;
- Knowledge of the major US studios and international distributors, including the key decision-makers on issues around digital cinema;
- Proven negotiating skills; and
- Experience of running an organisation at director or a similar senior level.
Key initial tasks for the successful candidate will be to: establish the necessary business, governance and financial structures for the group; undertake an analysis of the current market for digital cinema in relation to group members; and, through discussion with potential funding partners and others, to identify those approaches which might provide a ‘best fit’ for group members with regard to financial support.
It may be somewhat optimistic to think that this can be achieved in six months, but the contract does have an extension option. Expect whoever is appointed to be spending a lot of time on a plane somewhere between Heathrow and LAX.
Popularity: 9% [?]
If there was any debate over whether digital cinema would ever roll out in the European market one would hardly know after the past two weeks. Sure there have been lots of discussion at the European Cinema Summit and Cinema Expo about which European countries would be eligible for virtual print fees, which would have to go it on their own and wether the European Commission would offer any subsidies, but at the same time several theatre chains have been announcing their plans to deploy the new digital technology.
After yesterday’s announcement that Hungary’s Palace Cinemas had selected XDC for the conversion of 170 screens, Euroscoop, a chain with theatres in Belgium and The Netherlands, has also signed an agreement with the European integrator. Finance by their VPF agreement, XDC will install DCI-compliant digital cinema equipment on Euroscoop’s 61 screens starting in September and finishing before the end of the year.
Euroscoop will be using XDC’s CineStore Solo server and central library server, the CineStore Plaza. Each of the circuits six theatres will get XDC’s theatre management system and will be fully networked. Euroscoop has elected to go with Barco projectors. Read More »
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Just a few months after announcing the installation of 12 digital 3D screens, Palace Cinemas, a leading Central European exhibitor has selected XDC as the d-cinema integrator which will deploy digital cinema throughout all its 170 screens. Installations will be financed using XDC’s virtual print fees and will commence in the latter half of 2009.
Budapest based Palace is the largest theatre circuit in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Of course, XDC will rely on the CineStore server they manufacture in each installation. Every one of Palace’s 20 theatres will be networked and use the CineStore Plaza as their central storage server in conjunction with XDC’s TMS. No word on what projectors have been selected, though they are sure to be DCI-compliant.
In Amsterdam for Cinema Expo, V.J. Maury, Palace Cinemas Chief Executive Officer, seemed excited that digital cinema was finally rolling out at circuit-wide. Read More »
Popularity: 11% [?]
The announcement on Celluloid Junkie that Texas Instruments is developing 4K projector solutions is causing waves throughout the industry. The story was picked up by both THR.com (DLP making the jump to 4K) and Variety (TI leaping into 4K fray), which despite their headline both acknowledge that TI was effectively forced into this situation by the Sony tie up with Regal and AMC.Perhaps the best other coverage came from Eric Taub in the New York Times:
TI has always said that 2K is good enough, with tests showing that consumers can’t see the difference.
TI has been against 4K, until they were for it. On Thursday, the company announced that it would now market 4K technology, which will be incorporated into their next-generation projector technology to be manufactured by a variety of partners.
The company will continue to sell 2K projectors to the majority of its customers, according to Nancy Fares, business manager for TI’s DLP Cinema Products Group.
Ms. Fares said that this is not a case of TI trying to play catchup to Sony, which recently announced a number of large contracts to install its 4K projectors in AMC, Muvico, and Regal Entertainment cinemas. Texas Instruments has been working on 4K technology for two years, she said.
And when TI said that most consumers can’t see the difference between a 2K and 4K image, the company is sticking to its guns.
Their 4K technology will only be installed in about 20 percent of its customers’ theaters, the “brightest and biggest” with screens 70 feet and larger in size.
TI has meanwhile put out a press release providing details:
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Popularity: 22% [?]
It’s official: On the heels of our previous Celluloid Junkie post on this subject, TI announced that it plans to develop 4K as an extension of its next-gen DLP Cinema projection technology.
The new platform—which TI said would comply with the DCI spec—is slated to launch at the end of the year and initially support 2K. TI aims to offer 4K sometime in 2010.
Meanwhile, Barco inked a deal to deploy TI’s developing 4K technology to the Cinemark theater chain—a notable move, as additional DCIP members Regal and AMC both recently announced deals with Sony.
“Regal and AMC are no stranger to DLP Cinema,” said Nancy Fares, business manager for DLP Cinema Products Group. “I hope this will give them an option to think about.”
Fares reported that a 1.2 inch 4K chip would be developed and released first, “but there are not limitations.” She added that TI would also continue 2K development. 4K, she said, would offer choices, including support for 2D screens as big as 100 feet, and 3D screens as big as 75 feet. It’s not expected that the developing technology will be able to be retrofitted to the current system.
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Popularity: 20% [?]
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