Tag Archives: Ballantyne

GDC Comes On Strong With New Features and Dealer Network

gdc-logoUnless you’ve been living on another planet, or simply working in an industry other than exhibition, it would be hard not to know what GDC Technology has been up to lately.  After all, they’re not shy about telling you all their latest deals, most recent installations and newly released product features.  The digital cinema server manufacturer has published seven press releases this last week alone.  Just in case you’ve been too busy planning for ShoWest to pay attention, let’s do a quick review of GDC’s announcements from the past nine days.

Though the Singapore based company has been making digital cinema servers for more than 10 years and has the largest install base after Doremi, GDC has historically found it difficult to gain traction in North America.  It seems that is changing for the better.  On Thursday, GDC announced a deal with Sonic Equipment Company, a Kansas-based cinema equipment vendor, to resell and support the company’s digital cinema server.  Sonic has been in business more than three decades and provides support for 400 screens in 8 states.  A majority of Sonic’s clients are independent theatre owners and most, if not all, are in the Midwest.  The company has made a name for itself by focusing on digital cinema integration for smaller chains and not only providing equipment sales, but also helping out with maintenance and even financing.

Sonic is certainly living up to its reputation of being an aggressive dealer when it comes to digital cinema, as immediately upon closing their deal they sold the first GDC servers to ever be installed in the United States.  There was no information about how many units were sold, though they are being installed in 8 different theatres in Kansas, Kentucky and Missouri. Read More »

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ShowEast deals round up – Day 1

ShowEast logo

As always, a raft of digital and cinema related deals were announced on the first day of ShowEast. Below are the key ones.

AccessIT partners Sensio for live 3D streaming

Sensio Digital cinema integrator AccessIT has announced a partnership with stereoscopic technology solutions provider Sensio to broadcast live 3D events, together with AccessIT’s existing satellite partner IDC.

Access Integrated Technologies, Inc. (“AccessIT”) (NasdaqGM:AIXDNews) announced today, CineLiveSM, a new proprietary product that will bring both 2-D and 3-D live content to movie theatres equipped with digital cinema. CineLive, the next step in leveraging the digital era to further enhance exhibition offerings, is a new set of hardware, developed exclusively for AccessIT by International Datacasting Corporation (Toronto:IDC.TONews) and Sensio® Technologies Inc. (Sensio) (CDNX:SIO.VNews) which allows live 3-D and 2-D content to be converted from satellite feeds into theatrical entertainment.

What the press release takes a round about and convoluted way of saying is that Sensio has a technology for squeezing two high definition video streams (left eye, right eye) into one HD channel, so tat 3D events can be transmitted in real time over existing HD(TV) network, such as IDC’s. This should be a boost for AccessIT’s live events division, though as of yet they have not announced what events they have lined up, with rumours saying that Cirque de Solei might be one. Read More »

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