Shortly after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake occurred off the coast of Japan on March 11th numerous rumors and speculation have swirled around the exhibition industry over its impact on the availability of digital cinema equipment. In part, this was spurred on by Texas Instruments reporting that their manufacturing plant in Miho, Japan, about 40 miles northeast of Tokyo, “suffered substantial damage” during the quake.
Because third of the output at TI’s Miho plant is dedicated to DLP production. The DLP chip is one of the most important parts in digital cinema projectors manufactured by Barco, Christie and NEC, so it was initially thought that the industry would once again face a shortage of equipment. However, since then both Barco and Christie have publicly said they have enough inventory on hand to meet demand for months, if not a year, into the future.
As the number of emails coming in to Celluloid Junkie with questions about the issue increased to more than two dozen, I felt it appropriate to give TI a call for an update. What I learned was that, most importantly, all of TI’s personnel are safe and unharmed. The company’s fabs in both Miho and Aizu-Wakamtsu (about 150 miles north of Tokyo) were damaged in the earthquake. At Miho, the building withstood the earthquake, though the manufacturing equipment inside was damaged as it got tossed around with all of the shaking.
By the end of March repairs at Miho were finished on the facility’s infrastructure systems that deliver water, gases, chemicals and air. Most significantly, the fabs cleanroom was recertified. At the time, 90 percent of the plant’s equipment had passed electrical tests.
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Popularity: 1% [?]
Dolby is using CinemaCon to announce a slate of new titles that will be released with Dolby Surround 7.1 audio.
Most of the films are highly anticipated summer tentpole releases and include Walt Disney Studios “Pirates of the Carribbean: On Stranger Tides”, DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda 2″, Disney/Pixar’s “Cars 2″ and Paramount Pictures’ “Transformers: Dark Of The Moon”. Dolby also landed the first Indian film to feature their enhanced audio offering; Ramesh Sippy Entertainment’s “Dum Maaro Dum” will be released in April with Dolby Surround 7.1.
Since introducing the product to exhibitors in June of 2010, more than 1,300 Dolby Surround 7.1 installations have been completed. Dolby now says it is one of the “fastest adopted cinema audio formats” in the company’s history.
Of course, what makes the enhanced audio offering possible are the 16 audio tracks, or channels, within digital cinema packages (DCPs). Including additional audio tracks in digital releases seems like a no brainer, however exhibitors still have to be equipped to playback the extra channels. That means having wiring in place for left rear and right rear surround channels, not to mention an audio processor that can route the audio to the proper speakers.
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Popularity: 1% [?]
After launching their 4K projector at ShowEast, Belgium based Barco is ramping up their global sales effort with the announcement of two new deals.
The first was a reseller partnership arrangement with Real Image in India, a country presently experiencing high growth in new multiplex openings. Real Image may be familiar to some as the company behind Qube Cinema. Barco will provide training, service and customer support to Real Image in a deal that should help the projector manufacturer strengthen marketing efforts and increase its install base throughout the territory.
Real Image will be able to offer Barco’s entire digital cinema product line to their customers, a necessity in a country where cinemas range from small single screen complexes in remote geographical areas to state-of-the-art venues in large urban areas. Arvind Rangnathan, Chief Executive Officer of Chennai based Real Image pointed this out in the press release announcing the partnership:
“The complete range of digital cinema projectors offered by Barco are ideal for this market, be it the mid-sized multiplex screen or the large single screen… we are now able to provide a stunning experience in 2D and 3D even on larger cinema screens.”
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Popularity: 2% [?]
Cine Packewaia in Ushuaia, Argentina
Quick, tell me what is the southernmost location in the world where you can see a movie in digital 3D? Silly question I know, but it’s thanks to Christie, the projector company, that I can even ask it.
The company sent out a press release yesterday announcing their digital cinema projectors had been chosen by The Packewaia Cinema (Cine Packewaia) in Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city on earth. The city of 65,000 rose out of a former naval facility only ten years ago and is now the capital of Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego province, otherwise known to English speakers as the “Land of Fire”.
The Packewaia Cinema is run by Gama Producciones and appears to have only one screen, which is now not only equipped with a Christie projector, but also Dolby 3D.
The release was filled with gems such as this from Craig Sholder, Christie’s vice president of Entertainment Solutions:
“It seems appropriate that ‘the land of fire’ has embraced the ‘hottest’ trend in the industry: 3D digital cinema.”
Probably the most interesting information contained in the announcement was the unique way Xenon Cinema Technology had to install the projector. Not all films are released digitally in Argentina, in fact it can sometimes take weeks before a film print makes its way as far south as Packewaia, so the 35mm projector couldn’t be completely abandoned.
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Popularity: 9% [?]
Sony's SRX-R320 Projector
If Sony wanted to make a big splash at Cinema Expo in Amsterdam this past week then they did one heck of a job. On Tuesday, the second day of the conference, Sony announced two exhibitor agreements with National Amusements and AMC Entertainment’s United Kingdom based theatres for digital conversions. The company, known for its 4K digital cinema solution, also struck up partnerships with three European digital cinema dealers.
National Amusements
The biggest of these announcements had to be the news that National Amusements had chosen Sony as their integrator. The theatre chainis one of the largest in the world, operating 950 screens across venues in the U.K., United States and Latin America. National Amusements is the fifth largest theatre chain in North America.
Under their existing virtual print fee (VPF) agreements with Hollywood studios, Sony will install their 4K digital cinema projectors on all of National Amusements’ screens. They will start immediately with Showcase Cinemas, National Amusements’ U.K. theatre chain where Sony Digital Cinema 4K systems will be deployed on all 276 screens. In an effort to quickly ramp up the number of 3D screens at the circuits disposal, Sony will install the first 24 systems before the end of July.
There was no mention when installation of d-cinema equipment would begin in the U.S. or South America. In fact the press release seemed purposefully non-committal, referring to the deal as an “expected global exhibitor agreement”. One could read into the use of the word “expected” or assume that Sony will be deploying equipment to the 450 screens National Amusements has in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Rhode Island. The theatre chain owns 16 theatres in South America which would probably be included in any worldwide rollout.
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Popularity: 15% [?]
Posted in
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Tagged as
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AMC Entertainment,
Duncan Short,
Europe,
Hulskamp Audiovisueel,
National Amusements,
Oliver Pasch,
Protronic AG,
Showcase Cinemas,
Sony,
Sound Associates
Datasat's AP20 Audio Processor
It is a very rare occasion when I have any personal involvement, however small, in one of the many press releases that make their way to my inbox. This past week was one such occasion when two announcements arrived from an old employer, Datasat Digital Entertainment (formerly DTS Digital Cinema). Both press releases pertained to the company’s new cinema audio processor, the AP20.
While still at Datasat I was tasked with product management for the next generation of their cinema audio processor. The XD10P, which was the complementary audio processor for the XD10 Cinema Media Player, was nearing end-of-life and parts to manufacture it were increasingly getting hard to come by. Besides, Datasat wanted an audio processor that would be capable of handling the more technical demands of digital cinema and other pro-audio applications.
After a great deal of market research and engineering work, the AP20 Audio Processor was developed. The processor can handle digital audio from both eight channel 35mm film prints and 16 channel digital cinema content. It has a touch screen interface, Dirac Live room tuning, more digital signal processing power than anyone could ever ask for and enough input/output jacks to make the crankiest of theatre techs happy. Even the three expansion slots made the final cut allowing for additional channels or the integration of emerging technologies.
I was quite proud that the initial functional requirements we put together for the processor wound up actually getting built. However, I left Datasat shortly after the product launched and once outside the company I could never really be certain how successful the processor was in the market.
The AP20 Around The World
Any concerns I may have had completely vanished this past week upon being told all Datasat’s sales projections were being “comfortably” met. In fact, one of Datasat’s releases boasted that the West African theatre chain Au Cinema Ce Soir chose the processor for their digital cinema screens, including their flagship cinema, Théatre National Daniel Sorano in Dakar.
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Popularity: 14% [?]
Christie's CP2220
It’s been a busy week for Christie. The company’s CP2220 was the first series 2 digital cinema projector to pass the Compliance Test Plan (CTP) put in place by Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) to gauge whether equipment meets their published specification. As well, they announced the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Shenzhen, China.
While many d-cinema equipment manufacturers claim their products are DCI compliant, it wasn’t until October of 2007 that a testing process was made public and testing entities were selected. Christie can now officially say the CP2220 is DCI compliant, having fully passed all tests that make up the CTP, including procedural and design reviews. Because Sony says the SRXR320 is compliant on their website I’m not sure if it’s the first digital cinema projector to pass the CTP, or just the first series 2 projector to pass it.
In the press release announcing the test results, John Hurst of CineCert, one of DCI’s icensed testing entities, said:
“We are very pleased to confirm that the Christie CP2220, featuring Texas Instruments’ Series 2 DLP Cinema technology, has passed all the requirements of the CTP.”
Passing the CTP is a huge milestone for a d-cinema technology vendor as it is the only way for equipment to become DCI compliant. Hollywood studios require all equipment playing their content to be DCI compliant. In making sure a piece of equipment meets all of the DCI specifications, one of the CTP’s main goals is to verify a device’s interoperability and content security features.
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Popularity: 15% [?]
Posted in
Equipment Vendors
Tagged as
4K,
Brian Claypool,
China,
Christie,
Christie CP2220,
CineCert,
Compliance Test Plan,
DCI,
DLP Cinema,
Ihor Stech,
john Hurst,
Texas Instruments
Panavision continues to modify its 3D glasses
Earlier this week Panavision took their first public steps into the 3D motion picture exhibition market by announcing a new system that will work with all projectors, film or digital, and all screens, white or silver. While we had already reported that Panavision was working on such a solution, this was their first official statement about the product. The company, primarily known for high end motion picture camera systems, will demonstrate the system next week at Cine Expo in Amsterdam on a screen 56 feet wide (17 meters).
Last Tuesday Panavision invited the press to their offices in Woodland Hills to see the 3D system in action. We were greeted by John Galt, Panavision’s Senior Vice President of Advanced Digital Imaging, Eric Rodli, Senior Vice President of Panavision and Bill Bevins, President and CEO of Panavision. They explained all the technical specifications about the system as well as some of the business details pertaining to its marketing.
First let’s quickly review some of tech bullets all of which are the same as they were back in March when we first saw a demo:
- The system uses spectral comb filtering, not polarization, to separate the visible light spectrum into ten band of even and odd wavelengths of light. One set of bands is presented to the left eye, the other set to the right eye.
- Dichroic passive glasses allow the viewer to view distinct images in each eye. Though the image reaching each eye is actually different, the viewer’s brain puts the images together providing the sensation of seeing a full color spectrum.
- No ghost busting, color correction or image processing is required.
- Film-based 3D uses an over/under method. Each frame of film contains two images, stacked on top of one another, two perforations high. The system will use the same film prints made for Technicolor’s 3D system. A specially designed split lens mounted on the front of the projector combines the images on screen.
- Digital 3D being shown on a DLP projector employs a split filter wheel placed before the integrator and in front of the lamp house that rotates at 4320 RPM to provide 144 flashes per second. For Sony’s SXRD projectors a specially designed split lens will be used to separate two stacked images from the 4K chip.
- The system will work with any digital projector on the market today.
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Popularity: 17% [?]
Both at ShoWest and in the weeks leading up to the conference, I was able to speak with some of the folks over at Texas Instruments working on the company’s digital cinema offerings. They were happy to report that development of their 4K chip was right on schedule and some of the first 4K DLP projectors should be available for purchase in the first part of 2011, if not a little sooner.
For those who are just tuning into our industry, TI is the group that has been making DLP chips for cinemas since 1999. Each DLP chip is an array of 2.2 million microscopic mirrors that move and rotate at high speeds to reflect the appropriate light and provide 2K image. Projectors based on the company’s DLP digital micromirror device (DMD) have been installed on over 19,000 movie theatre screens worldwide, giving them at least 90% of the digital cinema install base.
However, last year for the first time TI’s dominance in the market was threatened when two of the world’s largest cinema chains, AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas, announced they would be installing Sony’s 4K digital cinema projectors. While the DCI spec may only call for 2K, the marketing advantage of 4K was hard to overcome with exhibitors who were looking for a future-proof solution. So in June of last year TI announced they would be developing a 4K DLP chip for their OEM manufacturers, which include Barco, Christie and NEC. No development timeline or release date for the new chip was given. Read More »
Popularity: 37% [?]
Surfing around the Internet last week I stumbled across a promotional trailer for Christie, the motion picture projector manufacturer. The new trailer (see below) can be found on Christie Digital’s YouTube channel. To date, it has been viewed 280 times since it was uploaded on January 14th. The trailer is 25 seconds long and promotes Christie’s line of digital cinema projectors powered by DLP chips. It seems 3D content was taken into consideration during its production.
With the conversion to digital the number of equipment manufacturers that can be found in any given projection booth has potentially doubled. This could potentially lead to at least two minutes worth of preshow for d-cinema vendors, promoting servers, projectors and 3D technology. This isn’t even taking into account satellite content delivery providers, integrators or theatre management system developers. And I’m sure I’m leaving someone important out.
Have a look at Chrisitie’s new trailer and let us know what you think.
Popularity: 19% [?]
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