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Category Archives: Integrators

AAM Topper Howard Kiedasch Discuss TMS Deal With Hoyts

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | August 30, 2010 8:41 pm

AAM + Hoyts

It’s that time of year in the Northern Hemisphere where everyone wanders off on vacation at the end of summer. It’s very easy to let an important piece of news slip by without digesting it properly. So, I wanted to take a moment to highlight the announcement made early last week that Hoyts Cinemas had chosen deploy Arts Alliance Media’s (AAM) Theatre Management System across their 400 screens in Australia and New Zealand.

It would be incredibly easy to brush the news off as just another press release from a digital cinema vendor. After all AAM has developed a TMS for the deployments it is undertaking in Europe. It’s not as if they have to build it from scratch. I’d argue however that it’s a bit more meaningful because Adam Wrightson was a part of the decision making process at Hoyts.

Wrightson is Hoyts, Group Technology Director and anyone that knows him, or has ever worked with him, knows how thorough he is when it comes to the technology the chain chooses to install. Presently he is working with Digital Cinema Implementation Partners Australia (DCIPA) to roll out digital cinema throughout Hoyts.

Any system or software developer that wants to do business with Hoyts has to get past Wrightson’s wary eye which is no easy task. After all, Wrightson is the kind of guy that can judiciously put together a detailed technical requirements document that leaves few if any engineering questions unanswered. A few years ago Wrightson sent me a specification document he wrote for a digital advertising network which came in at a mere 80 pages and had more color figures and diagrams than a world atlas. Getting a nod from Wrightson may as well be the digital cinema equivalent of being knighted.

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Sony Expands In Europe With National Amusements, AMC, And Dealer Partnerships

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | June 26, 2010 11:04 pm

Sony's SRX-R320 Projector

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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Cinedigm and Unique Digital Release TMS Upgrades

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | June 23, 2010 1:09 pm

Theatre Command Center Screenshot.png

Screenshot of Cinedigm's Theatre Command Center

Timed to coincide with this year’s Cinema Expo conference being held in Amsterdam through Thursday two well known integrators have released enhanced versions of their theatre management systems (TMS). North American deployment entity Cinedigm has included centralized management features in their Theatre Command Center TMS and Norway’s Unique Digital is making the next version of their RosettaBridge software available.

A TMS is software that enables a multiplex to manage all of their digital cinema servers, projectors, content, security keys and logs within a given theatre, all from a central location. It is often attached to a library management server where d-cinema content is stored.

Theatre Command Center
Cinedigm was one of the first companies to develop a working TMS which they named Theatre Command Center. Their initial version was integrated with Christie projectors and Doremi servers. It’s key features were:

  • Management of all content including MPEG, JPEG, trailers, preshow and alternative content.
  • Ingest of content via any delivery method including USB, satellite and fiber optic wire.
  • Remote operation of servers and projectors.
  • Automated scheduling of playlists that allowed for the transfer of content to the correct screen.
  • Integration with some point-of-sale systems as well as Cinedigms head office software.
  • Web access allowed users to log in from any computer connected to the Internet.
  • Real-time monitoring of d-cinema systems with system status alerts and notifications.
  • System log management.
  • Multi-language support.

Some of this functionality, such as content management and ingest, would be considered basic requirements for any TMS, no matter the manufacturer. Most of those who have been using the software that I’ve spoken with have had positive things to say about the software. The only consistent criticism I’ve heard is about the systems graphical user interface (GUI). I’m not familiar enough with Cinedigm’s TMS to add my own thoughts.

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Ymagis Experiences Growth Spurt In Deals With UGC, Utopia and OCine

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | June 20, 2010 11:15 pm


Ymagis Logo.jpgIn the past few weeks Ymagis, like their European counterpart Arts Alliance Media, has announced a number of new deals with exhibitors. What better time to review them all than on the eve of Cinema Expo, which begins tomorrow in Amsterdam.

For anyone who may need a brief refresher on who Ymagis is, they are a European digital cinema integrator and deployment entity of sorts. Based in Paris, France, they differentiate themselves from other European integrators by focusing on the management and administration of virtual print fees (VPF) being paid by distributors rather than on the financing and installation of digital cinema equipment.

This is not to say Ymagis doesn’t arrange for financing and deploy d-cinema systems in theatres. They most certainly do. In fact, Ymagis arranged the financing for the deal they announced on May 11th with the French based theatre chain UGC. The announcement was really a formality since Ymagis began converting UGC’s nearly 600 screens in March of this year. UGC operates 36 theatres in France, three in Belgium, four venues in Italy and another six in Spain. Attendance at UGC’s theatres throughout Europe tops out at more than 40 million.

The deal is one of the more important ones Ymagis has landed, not only because its with one of France’s largest theatre operators, but also because they arranged financing for the conversion through Banque Populaire Group, LCL-Crédit Agricole and Banque Palatine.

Reached via email, Ymagis chief executive officer and founder Jean Mizrahi detailed the unique way his company works with exhibitors:

“We have a flexible model. In some cases, exhibitors prefer to finance the equipment themselves. In other cases, they want us to take care of it. Right now among the 1400 screens we have signed throughout Europe, half of them have chosen to self finance, the second half we’re financing. We receive the VPFs and though the exhibitors do not know how much we receive from the distributors, we redistribute the largest portion of this revenue directly to them.

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Arts Alliance Lands Cineworld and €50 Million Funding

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | June 14, 2010 5:03 pm


cineworld-aam-sankaty-6001

With the start of Cinema Expo International only a week away Arts Alliance Media wasted no time in throwing down the gauntlet for major announcements at this year’s event. Earlier today AAM, one of Europe’s leading digital cinema deployment entities, made public two important deals they have undoubtedly been working on for some time.

The first bit of news was that AAM has entered into an agreement with Cineworld Cinemas, the second largest movie theatre chain in Europe, to convert 100% of their circuit to digital. That’s 790 screens at 77 venues throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. And the kicker is Cineworld will finance the entire digital cinema conversion with their own cash and financing with a schedule that will see the project completed in the next three years.

That news alone would have been worth its own press release, but on top of that AAM announce they had closed on EUR €50 million (USD $61 million) in financing with Sankaty Advisors. AAM will use the money to fund the digitization of 1,000 screens for exhibitors they’ve previously entered into agreements with. AAM already has 700 screens deployed with an additional 2,300 in the pipeline.

So let’s take a step back and examine each of these announcements in more detail starting with Cineworld.

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Norwegian Media Disects Arts Alliance Finances

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | May 28, 2010 12:08 pm

Arts Alliance's Thomas Høegh

Arts Alliance's Thomas Høegh

Anyone who has been following the motion picture exhibition industry for the past few years should know that digital cinema is not for the faint of heart nor light of wallet. Just ask Thomas Høegh, the founder and CEO of London based Arts Alliance, the parent company of Arts Alliance Media, a leading European integrator.

Last week I was forwarded a copy of an article about Mr. Høegh and Arts Alliance Media which ran in DagensNæringslev (or Today’s Business), the biggest business trade paper in Norway. Translated to English, the headline reads “Red Figures On All Screens” and the sub-headline stated:

Thomas Høegh’s film company Arts Alliance Media has lost a total of NOK 258m over recent years.   Accounting figures for DVD company Love Film also shows a three-digit one million kroner deficit.

It’s always fascinating to see how mainstream media outlets cover the worldwide exhibition industry’s transition to digital cinema, especially when they turn their attention to the equipment vendors and service companies facilitating the conversion. Despite the superficial and often naive approach most outlets take when writing about the subject, the DagensNæringslev piece was interesting in that it detailed Arts Alliance Media’s finances by boiling down the company’s 2009 annual report.

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It’s Official - DCIP Gets $660 Million In Funding

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | March 10, 2010 8:36 pm

DCIP + Money.jpg

A boisterous cheer erupted this morning during the Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum (ISDCF) meeting when the proceedings were interrupted with news that Digital Cinema Implementation Partners (DCIP) had just officially announced they had received their financing. Indeed, DCIP published a press release stating that they had raised USD $660 million in financing. The funds will be used to roll out digital cinema in North America’s three largest circuits; AMC Theatres, Cinemark and Regal Cinemas.

As we previously reported when it was still a widely circulated industry rumor, DCIP’s financing will come in the form of USD $445 million in senior bank debt, USD $135 million in junior capital and USD $80 million in equity from the theatre chains themselves. JPMorgan assisted DCIP in raising the money which is being supplied by a who’s who of financial institutions including Bank of America, Barclays Bank, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, GE Capital, Morgan Stanley and the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

There are sure to be tons of news stories generated by DCIP’s announcement, especially since it will allow media outlets to wave around the trendy “3D” phrase in hopes of attracting a few extra eyeballs. The reports will cite that nearly 14,000 screens throughout North America will be converted to digital by AMC, Cinemark and Regal who formed DCIP as a joint venture in 2007. (Truthfully, it’s probably more like 10,000 screens when all is said and done). No doubt they may even go so far as to pull press release quote from Travis Reid, DCIP’s CEO, which states:

“We are excited that with the continued support of our owners, studio partners and financial advisors we have completed this critical step in our process. Over the next few years, we’ll be aggressively implementing the transition to digital technology in theatres across North America. Guests will enjoy enhanced presentation and additional entertainment options at their favorite theatres as Exhibitors and content providers capitalize on the flexibility enabled by digital technology, including many upcoming releases using digital 3D. Having this substantial financial package and our studio partnerships in place, we’re pleased to launch this new era of technology to guests looking for an exceptional out-of-home experience.”

Check out the way Mr. Reid so adeptly snuck the word “capitalize” into that quote. Pretty slick. It’s funny though, because I always imagined his press release quote would read more along the lines of:

“Phew! That was harder then it needed to be and dare I say it’s about time we landed some money. Thankfully I will no longer have to answer questions every other week about when DCIP will be getting its financing.”

Since the mainstream media will take care of all the cheerleading about how 3D will soon be coming to a theatre near you, I figured it might be interesting to further explain the types of financing DCIP is getting. I mean what’s with all these terms like “senior debt” and “junior capital”? Does the senior debt have offspring named after it? And does the junior capital have a father with the same name? Read More »

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More Rumblings About DCIP’s Financing

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | February 28, 2010 11:31 pm

dcip.jpgLast 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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Norway’s Film & Kino Selects Unique Cinema Systems For Conversion

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | February 24, 2010 3:29 pm


Unique Cinema Systems.pngAfter completing VPF deals with six studios last June, Film & Kino has announced the selection of Unique Cinema Systems as an integrator for nine out of the ten sub-contracts it is awarding to convert cinemas across Norway to digital. Film & Kino put the contracts out to tender at the end of last year and numerous integrators, including Nordic Digital Alliance which won the tenth contract, had been vying to land a portion of the work. As well, by December of 2009 it seemed as if just about every equipment manufacturer had sent representatives to Oslo.

It was highly anticipated (at least by me) that Unique, based in Bergen, Norway and Dublin, Ireland, would wind up with a lions share of the contracts. After all, they are one of the few, if not the only, digital cinema integrators and deployment entities in Norway. According to Unique’s press release, the value of the Film & Kino contracts is estimated at NOK 300 million (EUR € 37 million or USD $50.13 million) and represents 300 screens.

Film & Kino had split the tender into ten different groups and then assigned each of Norway’s cinemas to one of the groups. Four of the groups were reserved for the four largest theatre chains in the country. Five of the groups were divvied up among each of Norway’s primary geographic regions and comprises of independent cinemas. The final group is for temporary cinemas, some of which are seasonal or travel between smaller towns. The contract for each of the groups was awarded separately by Film & Kino as well as individual committees made up of local participants with a working knowledge of the cinemas in their respective groups.

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JPMorgan Finds $700 Million For DCIP

Posted by J. Sperling Reich | February 10, 2010 5:42 pm


dcip.jpg 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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