For the past several weeks there have been whisperings in conversations throughout the motion picture exhibition industry about organizational changes at Kodak Digital Cinema. To put an end to the conflicting reports that were coming my way I did the most simple of things; picked up the phone and spoke with someone directly at Kodak. Strange, I know, given that this business has gotten us all so used to playing our cards close to the vest, but sometimes a direct approach actually works.
Indeed, Kodak Digital Cinema is dramatically changing the focus of its business. Bob Gibbons, Director of Marketing and Communications for Kodak Digital Cinema lived up to his title by being very upfront in explaining the company’s new strategy. “We’re going to really concentrate on areas that build more directly on our unique capabilities of service and intellectual property licensing,” said Gibbons. “We’re going to discontinue all development and manufacturing of our preshow advertising systems, our Kodak screen management servers, our Kodak theatre management systems and what I refer to as our role as a feature systems integrator, putting the packages together and marketing the packages.”
Acting as a systems integrator has been the most visible part of Kodak’s digital cinema business up until now. Moving forward, Kodak Digital Cinema will instead develop and license digital cinema technologies to be commercialized by others while continuing to provide services and support for existing systems. Though Kodak may not be manufacturing preshow video players any longer, they will continue to prepare and distribute preshow content and playslists.
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–Barco has enterted into a supply agreement with Kodak to provide exhibitors fully integrated digital cinema systems that combine Barco digital cinema projectors and Kodak’s digital screen management servers and theater management systems.
“Barco has a long-term commitment to high quality projection technology in digital cinema,” said Les Moore, chief operating officer for Kodak Digital Cinema. “We are already working with them in a number of multiplexes in the United States and beyond. By combining Barco’s capabilities with ours, we can jointly provide a complete solution to the marketplace. This new agreement will be a good fit for both companies and for our customers worldwide.”
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