Tag Archives: Digital Cinema

Digital Faces Critical (Archiving) Dilemma

May 14, 2009

digital_dilemma_cover1

“The Digital Dilemma”—a 2007 report from AMPAS’ SciTech Council that examines the challenges of archiving and accessing digital motion picture materials—was the subject of the SMPTE’s Hollywood Section May meeting, held at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theatre in Hollywood.

The report concludes that there is no long-term strategy for archiving and preserving digital assets that doesn’t require large capital investment.

Andy Maltz, director of the SciTech Council, reported that in 2008 the worldwide box office reached $20 billion, but he estimated that only 0.0015% of that amount was spent on addressing this dilemma. He emphasized that much more needs to be done.

During the evening, Maltz presented an overview of the report and an update on its impact since its release. He generated applause and laughter from an audience that has been inundated with 3D format talk when—in outlining the discussion objectives—he quipped “there will be nothing about stereoscopic movies tonight.”

Actually, he wasn’t entirely correct. He addressed AMPAS’ need to preserve digital content, citing as an example the increasing number of 3D titles that originate from and are/will be released in the digital realm. He also cited the ASC/DCI Standard Evaluation Material (Stem) and all Oscar-nominated films, which are archived by the Academy.

“Current technologies and practices are inadequate,” he said. “Periodically you will need to copy the digital media. Storage technology and operating technology will become obsolete.”

As to current investment, the report suggested that it costs $1,059 to preserve one film archival master for one year. In contrast, it estimated that annual cost of preserving a 4K digital master to be $12,514.

The SciTech Council is now working on what it calls a Digital Motion Picture Archival Framework, which would include the development and standardization of a file format, directed research, education and a follow up report on “The Digital Dilemma” for indie filmmakers and executives at public archives.

A very worthwhile read, “The Digital Dilemma” report can be downloaded from the AMPAS web site (here).

Popularity: 37% [?]

Posted in Business, Digital Cinema, Technology

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Largest UK Cinema Chain Picks Vendors for 3D While Snubbing Third Party Integrators

By Patrick von Sychowski

February 12, 2009

logo_odeon The UK’s largest exhibitor Odeon (formed through the merger with UCI) has selected Real Image’s Qube server and projectors from NEC to extend the company’s digital cinema and (particularly) digital 3D reach.

From the Qube press release:

Odeon and UCI Cinemas Choose Qube Servers Qube XP-D servers chosen in 111 screen 3D digital cinema rollout in Europe

Qube XP-D Digital Cinema Server

Web Site

Local Page

The Qube XP-D digital cinema server has been chosen by ODEON and UCI Cinemas – Europe’s largest cinema operators – to be a part of their current 111 screen digitization plan across Europe.

Already playing Disney’s “Bolt” in digital 3D in Portugal for several weeks, Qube has recently commenced commercial digital 3D screenings across the UK with “My Bloody Valentine”.

The digitization plan of ODEON and UCI Cinemas is in response to the significant number of digital 3D productions scheduled for release from 2009, ensuring that the audiences across Europe can enjoy the latest films in state-of-the-art cinema technology.

Popularity: 66% [?]

Posted in Countries, Digital 3D, Digital Cinema, Equipment Vendors

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One screen per multiplex, or, How is AAM converting CGR to digital cinema?

By Patrick von Sychowski

April 25, 2008

A press release from Arts Alliance Media (AAM) about their deployment with France CGR Cinémas is more interesting for what it reveals unintentionally than what it tries to trumpet. The headline of the press release is ‘CGR Cinemas and Arts Alliance Media Install the First All-Digital Multiplex in France at La Rochelle’, but it is the subtitle that hints at what’s more interesting about it: ‘Initial phase of CGR digital cinema rollout complete’.

The fact that an entire multiplex has been converted to digital is unremarkable. Not only are there scores of such multiplexes in the US, but AAM itself was involved in setting up an all-digital multiplex for Odeon in UK, and they are also not doing without 35mm projectors, as was the case with Vue in the UK. And yet that seems to be the key point of this press release:

Circuit George Raymond (CGR Cinémas), one of France’s largest cinema chains and Arts Alliance Media (AAM), Europe’s leading specialist in digital cinema technology, content and deployment have announced the installation of France’s first fully digital 12-plex cinema at La Rochelle. This is a significant milestone for the French motion picture industry and further proves the viability of the Virtual Print Fee (VPF) business model for Europe’s widespread transition to digital cinema.

But the more interesting fact is burried in the third paragraph:

To date, a total of 19 screens have been equipped with DCI-compliant 2K digital projection systems within 8 different CGR multiplexes across France in the cities of La Rochelle, Blagnac, Brignais, La Meziere, Lattes, Niort, Villenave d’Ornon and Torcy. At the La Rochelle site – the first one to be fully equipped in digital - a one-month extensive test and analysis phase has now begun, which will allow CGR and AAM to assess network interactivity software and data reliability solutions. To enable a smooth transition to digital, the 35mm projection systems remain in place, so each screen can play 35mm or digital prints, as needed.

So 19 screens in total, of which 12 are found in La Rochelle, leaves seven screens for the other seven CGR multiplexes, i.e. just one screen per multiplex.

CGR cinema map

From an operations perspective this is self defeating. AAM should know this from the UK Film Council’s Digital Screen Network experience, where the installation of just one screen per multiplex has led to inability to move any film playing in digital, restricting programming to dropping that film or ordering a 35mm print for a smaller screen. So the move only makes sense from the perspective of testing. This is mentioned further down in the press release:

Sébastien Bruel, CGR’s Technical Director said “We have worked closely with Alexandre Brouillat of AAM, and with CDS, our integrator partner, in order to design and install a technical infrastructure that supports and enhances our processes, from the delivery of content to the projection: it meets our highest expectations. This flagship installation will allow us to validate our network strategy, make sure our security requirements are met and set up our new operational processes before the next installations.” (italics added)

That explains the 12+screen, but not the other single installations. Moreover, AAM already has considerable experience from the DSN, as well as its UK Odeon installation and also dabbling in Norway. So why do they just put in one screen per multiplex, meaning that they will have to return to equip all other screens at a future point. The only explanation is that it does allow for digital 3D as well as showing opera and other forms of alternative content. Echoing the press release is a Variety article:

“This will open new perspectives to our group in terms of 3-D and alternative content, as well as faster and more flexible programming and increased efficiency,” enthused Jocelyn Bouyssy, CEO, CGR Cinemas.

So a single or two digital screens in a multiplex would be good for showing 3D films and alternative content, which AAM is actively inserting itself into,

Either way, the press release promises 100 screens by July 2008, equivalent to a quarter of the circuits screens. Perhaps by then AAM will also have announced more cinema partners - at the current rate of announcement it will take them more than seven years to reach their goal of 7,000 screens - and also Warner Bros or some European distributors as VPF signatories to its plans. Expect some deals to be held back for RAAM and/or Cinema Expo.

Popularity: 32% [?]

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Disney digs ESPN sports with AccessIT

By Patrick von Sychowski

February 14, 2008

Trust Disney to have foresight and show initiative when it comes to alternative content in digital cinemas. While the NFL is sending cease and desist letters to Wisconsin cinemas showing Packer games, Disney has teamed up with AccessIT through its ESPN division to screen live HD college football games in Texas cinemas. From the press release:

This is the first time Disney, ESPN and AccessIT have joined forces to provide a live sporting event to paying audiences following tests last year. It is also the first event at which AccessIT’s CineLive(TM) technology, providing live 2-D and 3-D streaming of alternative content to theatres, will be employed for a major sports spectacle since the product was announced last fall.

“One of the many reasons we’ve supported AccessIT’s leadership in transitioning the industry to digital cinema is to be able to provide events such as this one to eager audiences,” said Chuck Viane, President, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Distribution. “Fans get to enjoy the action of often sold-out games and the camaraderie of others without having to travel great distances, and each one gets the best seat in the house.”

Given Disney’s long history of digital 3D involvement - or Disney Digital 3D(TM), to give it its proper name - it should be no surprise if we are less than a year away from the first Disney/ESPN Digital 3D sporting event.

It reminds me of a digital cinema conference at least five years ago (a different eon in digital cinema terms) when I sat next to Bob Lambert, Disney’s Corporate Senior Vice President, Worldwide Media Technology and Development , listening to a panel discussion about alternative content. At one point he turned to me and said, “we’ve brought the cinema into the living room, it’s only natural that we take the living room back into the cinema now.” Surprised that a studio guy would be so cool about alternative content, I asked him if I could quote him on that. He thought about it for half a second, and said, “sure, why not.”

Now it helps that Disney happens to own ESPN, but mainly this has come about because there are a lot of very smart people working at Disney when it comes to digital. And Bob is a real mensch, as well as being one of the people who got digital cinema started way back in 1999, though like his then colleague Phil Barlow, is too modest to accept the full amount of credit that he deserves.

So a small amount of credit to Bob as well for the latest development.

Popularity: 37% [?]

Posted in Alternative Content

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Aussies Want UK Cinema Advertiser

By Patrick von Sychowski

January 30, 2008

CSA UK/Irish cinema screen advertiser Carlton Screen Advertising (CSA) is officially in the chopping block with the most likely buyer being Pacific Equity Partners, which bought the exhibitor Australian cinema chain Hoyts last year. Having once been the biggest and most profitable screen advertiser in the world, CSA’s decline has been as steep and fast as it has been sad. Despite the OK-ish box office year 2007, CSA (2,900 screens in 500 sites) was not able to capitalize on the small growth as it was saddled with large up-front payments to some of the UK’s largest circuits. With one of these, Cineworld, being publicly quoted, CSA’s move to switch from 6-month up-front payment to month-by-month forced it to flag this to the stock market. This in turn forced CSA’s parent ITV to announce that the screen advertiser was indeed for sale - at a rock bottom price. As Sunday Times notes:

Once worth £80m, analysts now value CSA at nothing, despite healthy cinema attendances. ITV may even have to pay someone to take it off its hands.

The business is estimated to be liable for another £200m in upfront payments to customers, chiefly Odeon and Cineworld, to satisfy onerous advertising contracts that stretch to 2012.

Those agreements mean CSA has struggled to make money despite total cinema advertising income growing 10% to £170m last year, according to Nielsen figures.

Popularity: 42% [?]

Posted in Cinema Advertising

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7/10 of IMAX’s China screens to be digital

By Patrick von Sychowski

January 11, 2008

Large format (LF) film company Imax has recycled an old press release about a ten-screen deal with China’s Wanda Cinemas first reported here back in September 2007. The only major thing different about the new press release appears to be that seven of the ten deployments will be the as-yet untested Imax digital cinema system, while the first three use the MPX(R) film technology. The article says that “The price of the deal was not announced.” So maybe Wanda are getting the projectors for free, just as AMC did last year. Cinema goers in Changsha in Changchun in north-east China will get to see the first two (analogue) systems, followed by Beijing and Shanghai.

Popularity: 22% [?]

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Sony Is Officially Fourth Euro VPF Studio

By Patrick von Sychowski

December 7, 2007

As revealed in this blog some time ago, Sony Pictures International (SPI) is the fourth Hollywood studio to sign up to Arts Alliance Media’s European virtual print fee (VPF) based digital cinema deployment deal, that has so far found one cinema taker in France. The write up in the Hollywood Reporter is cagey on which territories will be part of this deal:

Under the agreement, SPRI has pledged to supply its films “to certain European countries” in digital format to AAM-deployed, DCI-compliant digital-cinema screens. Territories include “those in Western Europe,” SPRI said.

The releasing arm also has pledged “to make financial contributions in order to promote digital cinema.”

SPRI’s move comes after the November decision by French exhibition chain CGR Cinemas to sign with AAM to convert all its 400 screens to digital.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Posted in Digital Cinema, Integrators

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When d-cinema leaves audinces in the dark

By Patrick von Sychowski

December 5, 2007

You are not a frequent film goer if you have not sat through at least one instance of a 35mm reel breaking and the projectionist (or the kid who sold you the popcorn) taking forever to fix it. I once waited 45 minutes to get to see the last underwhelming five minutes of ‘Mission to Mars‘. Boy was that not worth the wait.

Thanks to the miracle of digital cinema, there is now a 21st century version of this annoyance, except now the film won’t even start and the chances are slim-to-none that even the most competent projectionist will be ever to sort it out, as several audiences in Australia recently found out. This from AdelaidNow:

PREMIERE Australian screenings of much-hyped 3D spectacular Beowulf descended into farce on Monday night when the digital projection technology failed simultaneously in Adelaide and Perth.

That follows a similar incident in Sydney last week. Cinemagoers at all three venues were unable to watch the 3D blockbuster after security access keys, provided by the distributor as an anti-piracy measure, failed to work.

Roadshow Films said they were confident the problem had been solved and would not affect audiences when the film is released tomorrow.

Ouch! Whoever was responsible for the Australia distribution of Warner Bros’ Beowulf (Paramount handled it in the US) will have been in deep trouble as a result of screwing up the KDM decryption keys. (Based on previous studio-lab digital relations I’m guessing Technicolor, but I could be wrong). Re-funding the audience is never cheap or popular, either with the cinemas, distributors or even audiences themselves:

Valley View resident Damian Woodards said he was disappointed. “We were all looking forward to the latest 3D technology that’s supposed to be getting more people along to the cinemas,” he said.

Roadshow Films general manager Joel Pearlman said he believed the glitch had been ironed out. “This was incredibly unfortunate and disappointing, but these are all issues to do with the security key which have been addressed,” he said.

Yes, but only until the next screw up. Even with 99.99% accurate KDM creation and matching, that will still leave hundreds of dark screenings every year. And it just doesn’t look as interesting as 35mm film getting stuck in the projection gate and melting. It’s just black and absolutely nothing happens. Call it the Black Screen of death for digital cinema.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Posted in Miscellaneous, Technology

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Leaded, unleaded or a cinema ticket?

By Patrick von Sychowski

September 21, 2007

Gas attendant Indian refinery company Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is branching out from petrol station - into forecourt cinemas. As income declines from retail petroleum products BPCL thinks that it can revive its fortunes by pumping out digital cinema features in halls all across India. With oil prices being as high as they are, you’d think that this was a strange move but apparently government controls are keeping fule prices and profits in check. From Economic Times of India:

Confirming the development, BPCL chairman Ashok Sinha told ET: “Cinema halls will help us boost our non-fuel revenues. We are undertaking two pilot projects at our retail outlets in Gujarat. If successful, the same will be replicated in other retail outlets across the country.”

To source content, BPCL has tied up with Sony Entertainment Ltd (SET’s) film distribution unit, Cinemata. This tie-up will also help BPCL set up single screen cinema halls in most of the company-owned outlets in the country.

Being the country’s third largest refiner, BPCL has over 7,500 retail outlets across India. However, the company plans to have cinema halls initially in the company-owned outlets only. “The pilot project is costing us around Rs 1 crore. We have transponders and ready infrastructure in place. The movies will be shown via satellites. If everything goes well, we will have 300 cinema halls at our retail outlets by 2010,” Mr Sinha said.

The mind reels (no pun intended) at the potential synergies - forecourt attendants dressed as usher(ettes) anyone? - though sadly there seems to be no inclination to take the concept to its logical conclusion: forecourt drive-in cinemas! But the oil men are hard nosed about what will work and what will happen to that which doesn’t work. “If a movie is not making money, we will change it on the third day (itself),” Mr Sinha is quoted as saying. IF you think it is a strange idea remember that British Gas experimented with converting some of its high-street shops in the UK to micro video cinemas in the early 1980s. But it does give a whole new meaning to the idea of having film on tap. (Photo courtesy of Old-Pictures.com)

Popularity: 10% [?]

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