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DTS Digital Cinema Back From The Not-Quite-Dead With Qube Deal

March 29, 2009

DTS Digital Cinema and Qube Deal DTS Digital Cinema has been going through a bumpy ride in the past year, but appears to be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. One year ago DTS Inc. spun off its two non-licence division. DTS Digital Images reverted to being Lowry Digital under the new ownership of Reliance/Adlabs. DTS Digital Cinema had a question mark over it until it was eventually acquired by the United Kingdom’s Beaufort International Group. Almost immediately the company closed down its server manufacturing arm and people in the industry started speculating - as we are prone to do - whether the company would survive. [Full disclosure: the co-editor of Celluloid Junkie, J. Sperling Reich works for DTS DC, but we take care not to mix paying day jobs with non-paying blogging, so he kept a stoic silence about how the company was doing any time we talked.]

DTS Digital Cinema has now staged something of a small comeback through a smart deal with Real Image Media Technologies, the Indian makers of the Qube server. Here are the key bits from the press release:

DTS Digital Cinema and Qube Cinema have announced a co-branding strategic alliance to develop and market numerous digital cinema products including a digital cinema server, a theatre management system, an enhanced digital cinema mastering solution and other allied products. The alliance will bring together the best of both companies’ strengths to form a strong commercial and technology presence in the digital cinema marketplace. Qube will bring to the relationship, their experience of having developed cutting edge digital cinema products such as the Qube XP-D digital cinema server, QubeMaster Pro encoding suite and the QubeCast media delivery system. Besides providing sales and marketing presence and expertise in many regions around the world, DTS Digital Cinema will lend the partnership experience in developing motion picture technology, such as 5.1 digital surround sound, as well as the content management software knowledge that helped develop their Theatre Management System, Satellite Delivery System and Digital Booking System. Together the two companies will develop numerous digital cinema products, starting with the DTS Digital Cinema DC-20 powered by Qube, a digital cinema server that meets DCI specifications and will be on display at ShoWest 2009. Read More »

Posted in Business, Equipment Vendors

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DTS Digital Cinema Sold To Unknown Satellite Company

By Patrick von Sychowski

May 17, 2008

So long and thanks for all the Guinness - DTS has put an end to the corporate Seitensprung that was DTS Digital Cinema, which has been picked up by UK satellite company Beaufort International Group Plc. Here is what the press release on DCinemaToday.com had to say in the opening paragraph:

Beaufort International Group Plc announced today that it has acquired the business and assets of DTS Digital Cinema from DTS, Inc. for an undisclosed sum. Beaufort made the acquisition through its US subsidiary, Beaufort California, Inc. Chris Thomas, Beaufort California, Inc.’s CEO, commented, “We are very pleased to have made this acquisition. DTS is an established brand in the cinema industry, and provides a solid foundation for us to develop our plans in digital cinema.” Thomas continues, “DTS has laid the groundwork for us with its 15-year history in providing the highest quality digital audio for film to over 30,000 screens worldwide.

The price has elsewhere been quoted as $3.3m, which puts it at leas than half of the previously disposed Lowry Digital Images (sold last month to Reliance for $7.5m). From the press release we learn that Beaufort “will continue to use the DTS brand for the foreseeable future under our agreement with DTS.” Strangely there appears to be no website for Beaufort, so it is up to the trusty analysts at Screen Digest to drill down into the deeper meaning of this buy:

Datasat is a deliverer of media content through its wholly-owned (mainly) satellite networks, and the acquisition fits into a strategy of widening their reach to the digital cinema space. Up to now, Datasat’s content delivery strategy has focused on areas where high quality, secure file trasnfers are necessary, and has avoided media and broadcast industries. However, with the introduction of digital cinema, which needs very secure networks for large files (as opposed to live feeds or pre-recorded broadcasts) this move makes sense. Currently, company operates in five broad industrial areas: corporate, diplomatic, emergency, security, medical.

Nowhere is there any mention of Ireland, perhaps wisely as the nationwide Irish conversion to digital cinema is a standing joke in digital cinema circles. While there have been some positive noises about the DTS Digital Cinema hardware and platforms, it remains to be seen how the de-merged company will succeed against the likes of Doremi and Dolby, which unlike DTS is holding on very hard to its digital cinema division.

DTS meanwhile goes back to focusing on consumer products licensing, which seems to be a profitable field judging by this article; DTS shares jump as 1Q profit rises on sales.

Posted in Mergers & Acquisitions

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