Tag Archives: DLP Cinema

Japanese Earthquake May Not Impact The D-Cinema Supply Chain

May 5, 2011

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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Les Moore Discusses Kodak Laser Projection Technology

By J. Sperling Reich

March 26, 2011

At the end of February when the FDA approved a variance clearing the way for Kodak to sell their laser projection technology to cinema exhibitors we ran a post which started out stating it was meant to be a competitor to Texas Instruments DLP chip. It didn’t take long for a commenter to point out that the Kodak’s system actually uses the DLP chip.

I spent considerable time searching through all of Kodak’s marketing material and press releases trying to find any reference to TI’s DLP chip and came up empty. Multiple searches on Google, that bastion of all knowledge, finally turned up some information which seemed to confirm that Kodak employed DLP in its solution.

All of this made me realize how little I actually knew about Kodak’s laser technology. I figured there could be no better source for information on the system than Kodak itself. Thankfully, I was able to speak with Les Moore, Kodak’s chief operating officer for Digital Cinema, who managed to shed some light (no pun intended) on the new technology. Surely, my first question should come as no surprise.

Celluloid Junkie: After being corrected in a recent post about Kodak Laser Technology and its use of the DLP chip I found it difficult to determine conclusively whether you are actually using the chip. Are you?

Les Moore: Yes. What we did was we said, “Lasers are starting to hit a price power point that makes some sense for theatrical use. Let’s see what we can do to design a projector using lasers as the light source. Let’s take a good hard look at the benefits that lasers can bring to a projector and then optimize the projector to make use of the lasers. There are a few manufacturers out there making good products in the industry with DLP, let’s base it around a DLP engine.” So that’s what we did.

CJ: The reason I ask is that there is no reference to DLP in any of your marketing or technical material. Was that intentional?

LM: I thought we had said it. I don’t believe it is described in the FDA variance. You might be right. There was no intent to not include that information. I think you’re aware we’ve held some open sessions here in Rochester where folks can hear a presentation that walks through the technology from front to back and then we take people up to a theatre and do a demonstration. It’s been very clear in those presentations that it’s designed around a DLP. Maybe that’s something we need to work on. It wasn’t intentional.

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Kodak Gets FDA Approval For Laser Projection Technology

By J. Sperling Reich

February 25, 2011

Kodak Laser Projection System

Kodak’s plans to create a light engine for digital cinema projectors that can compete with Texas Instruments DLP chip reached a crucial milestone earlier this week. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the variance application clearing the way for the commercialization of Kodak Laser Projection Systems which feature Kodak Laser Projection Technology.

Maybe, like me, you’re wondering what the FDA has to do with regulating anything that isn’t a food or a drug. Don’t they have eggs to inspect and clinical trials to oversee? Well yes, they do, however they also oversee any manufactured device that emits radiation. For the most part that means lots of medical equipment and x-ray machines, though laser light displays also fall into this category.

Much in the way pilots and drivers need licenses, a federal license demonstrating basic laser knowledge and safety is required to operate high powered laser systems. For instance, night clubs with laser light shows need to obtain variances for their lighting equipment. I’m not sure exactly what kind of variance Kodak applied for, but according to Les Moore, Kodak’s chief operating officer for Digital Cinema:

“The FDA variance serves as a template to be followed by manufacturers that we license to incorporate this new laser technology.”

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Christie Gets DCI Compliance And New Manufacturing Faciltiy

By J. Sperling Reich

June 18, 2010

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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Texas Instruments On Track With 4K

By J. Sperling Reich

March 26, 2010

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 »

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It’s Official: TI Targets 4K; Cinemark Makes Deal

By Carolyn Giardina

June 17, 2009

dlp_logo1 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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There’s not really 5,000 digital cinemas out there

By Patrick von Sychowski

October 17, 2007

Texas Instruments might have you believe that there are 5,000 digital cinema installations across the world and on “every continent except Antarctica,” based on the press release ‘DLP Cinema(R) Technology Surpasses 5,000 Screen Milestone‘. But this is based on a creative definition of what constitutes a cinema screen. But that does not stop the PR from gushing:

There are 5,260 DLP Cinema enabled theatres installed across the globe, an increase of 140% from the same period one year ago.

The pristine picture quality and ideal combination of contrast, color and brightness created by DLP Cinema allowed DLP Cinema technology to quickly become the industry standard. DLP Cinema(R) technology is deployed throughout 99% of the digital cinema market and is in every continent in the world except Antarctica. DLP Cinema expects to surpass 5,500 screens by mid November, 2007 and 10,000 screens by the end of 2008.

It then goes on to discuss 3D, noting that there will be a 1,000 digital 3D-enabled screens in North America in time for ‘Beowulf’, which is very impressive given that that time two years ago when ‘Chicken Little’ came out in digital 3D there were just 83 screens put in place.

Which brings us back to what constitutes a ‘screen’ or, more properly, ‘cinema screen’. As TI counts it, this is not a screen that you would find in a cinema or multiplex, but any screen with a DLP Cinema(R) projector pointing at it. This means that post-production facility grading room, preview theatres, specialized screening rooms, simulator installations, theme park screens and other places all fall within this category. These can be as much as ten per cent, given that post houses and other film service locations have had to digitize faster than cinemas to provide the content.

So we are somewhere above the 4,500 mark in terms of proper digital cinema installations, which in itself is impressive, but it is not the nice round number that TI has rolled out for ShowEast.

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