Tag Archives: RealD

RealD Scores Hat Trick in 3D Deal With UK’s Vue

February 24, 2009

Digital 3D provider RealD was bagged three of the top three UK exhibitors with the announcement that Vue will be converting 200 screens using RealD’s solution. This follows hot on the heels of #1 exhibitor Odeon/UCI’s deal for 500 screens and #2 exhibitor Cineworld’s deal to convert 30 of its 73 sites. From article in THR.com:

Vue Entertainment, the U.K.’s third-largest theater operator, is turning to 3-D technology, striking a deal with RealD to add 200 screens equipped by the 3-D specialist.

Vue and RealD said Monday that the rollout of RealD 3-D-enabled screens already has begun, with an installation at Vue’s flagship location in the British capital, Leicester Square.

“RealD 3-D is the market-leading choice for its remarkable track record of providing a superior viewing experience, something we can’t wait to bring to our many locations across the U.K.,” Vue CEO Tim Richards said. Read More »

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Posted in Countries, Digital 3D

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Cinedigm Scores Big With Live 3D Broadcast of NBA All-Star Event

By J. Sperling Reich

February 16, 2009

Cinedigm Live 3D NBA All Star Poster On Satruday evening Cinedigm continued its ongoing effort to bring popular sporting events in 3D to North American movie theatres by broadcasting the NBA All-Star Saturday Night to more than 80 venues in the U.S. and Canada. Since this type of alternative content is all the rage these days I decided it was high time to check out what all the buzz was about. I’m quite happy I did.

Previous Cinedigm live 3D events were allegedly riddled with technical problems. At the Fedex BCS National Championship Game in January the transmission often flipped the left eye and right eye causing theatre patrons to instinctively rip their 3D glasses off so as not to become nauseas. There were tons of walkouts at theatres that chose to show the event.

I would have assumed that Valentine’s Day would have provided stiff competition for Cinedigm in attracting patrons to the event, but at the Mann Chinese 6 in Hollywood, almost every one of the 290 seats were occupied. Tickets for the event were a steep $20, though that didn’t seem to deter diehard NBA fans. In fact, it wasn’t hard to spot fans milling about in the parking lot of the Hollywood+Highland complex on their way into the theatre; they were the ones wearing their favorite team’s jerseys.

Fan Expectations

Though I’m not all that knowledgable about the NBA All-Star game, I was lucky enough to find a seat smack dab in the center of the theatre next to Bradley Bandara, a 24-year-old Portland Trailblazers fan. Bandara learned about the 3D livecast on SportsIllustrated.com and decided to drive the 40 miles from his home to attend. (Others I spoke with drove between 5 miles and 30 miles to get to the theatre). Bandara is such a huge fan of pro-basketball that he used to hold viewing parties of the All-Star Saturday Night festivities when he was in high school.

Popularity: 39% [?]

Posted in Alternative Content, Digital 3D

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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: 56% [?]

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

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Active 3D Glasses Are Still Going Strong In Europe

By Patrick von Sychowski

February 9, 2009

xpand_0046-medium_300 One of the messages emerging from the recently concluded iDIFF conference in Paris – other than the fact that French penchant for strikes remains undiminished in the current economic downturn – is that active 3D glasses are still going strong in continental Europe, which is holding out against the RealD hegemony of US and UK. This is good news for market leader XpanD (nee NuVision), which had just launched its latest generation of glasses, called X101 Series.

From the press release:

XpanD’s new X101 Seriesof 3D active glassesrepresent several months of comprehensive R&D, engineering and design to equip them with state-of-the-art technical features and a streamlined, stylish appearance to optimize guest experience, comfort and to ease exhibitor operations. The core 3D viewing technology is the company’s patented “pi-cell” system, in which a specialized, fast-switching liquid crystal cell provides rapid, stereoscopic shutter action to deliver alternate right- and left-eye images.

New and upgraded features of the redesign were added with both exhibitors and their customers in mind. They include rugged construction with built-in flex points and replaceable batteries that extend product life, a lightweight and stylish form factor that is comfortable even when worn over eyeglasses, a modular design to accommodate both adults and children, environmentally friendly diodes, and a power-saving auto on/off mechanism. The light-efficient technology delivers the brightest possible picture and saves projector lamp power. The glasses also feature long-range IR signal activation, compatibility with DLP cinema chips, and a choice of two elective anti-theft systems.

Read that in reverse and you get a litany of the problems that have bedeviled active glasses: short life span batteries, one-size-don’t-fit-all, IR signal reception problems, ugly bulky look and high cost for shrinkage (loss/theft) is what has weighed the scale down, that was boosted on the other end by no need to install silver screen, no need for complicated gears in front of the projector, ability to move between different auditoria and, most importantly to some exhibitor, no need to pay ongoing licence fees to RealD. The latter point in particular has been a sore spot in discussions between RealD and some European exhibitors.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Posted in Digital 3D

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DCIP Reaches VPF Agreement With Fox

By J. Sperling Reich

July 25, 2008

After industrywide speculation and concern over the absence of any news about virtual print fee (VPF) agreements being signed by Digital Cinema Implementation Partners (DCIP) the company finally announced their first deal which rumor has it is with Twentieth Century Fox. The news was reported by Reuters and has not yet been made official by DCIP, however the company’s CEO, Travis Reid was quoted as saying:

“A party has signed a deal and we think it won’t be long until we have multiple studios.”

There are no details yet about the terms of the deal, nor any confirmation that it is with Fox, though during a conference call on Thursday Regal Entertainment’s CEO confirmed that a VPF agreement had been reached with at least one studio:

“We can’t disclose which studio, but we consider it to be a major milestone. It is always difficult in getting someone to be willing to be the first.”

Paramount is also rumored to be close to announcing a deal with DCIP, as is Walt Disney Studios.

DCIP was formed by North America’s three largest exhibitors – AMC Entertainment, Cinemark and Regal Entertainment – to manage and finance the rollout of digital cinema equipment and technology within each circuit. With 14,000 screens between them it is easy to see why the industry eagerly awaited news that the studios had come to some form of agreement with DCIP to subsidize the cost of installing digital cinema equipment. Due to the large size of the rollout, such a deal was viewed as a bellwether for the types of VPF deals other exhibitors would be able to get. Recent VPF deals announced by other integrators such as AccessIT in the United States and XDC in Europe did little quell everyone’s anticipation over news from DCIP.

No doubt even DCIP was getting a little anxious over the lack of progress on their VPF agreements they were able to make public. The company was founded in February of 2007 by the three theater chains and had hoped to wrap up their negotiations with studios over VPFs by the end of last year. As almost anyone working in or following the industry now knows, the studios began playing hardball with integrators such as DCIP on the contractual terms of the VPF agreements, haggling over every last detail including usage fees for alternative content and the length of the deal. XDC’s VPF with Hollywood studios is reportedly only USD $850 per film, per run.

And there’s one main reason that the rollout of digital cinema has stalled at around 5,000 screens in North America (out of 37,000); rolling stock prints range from USD $1,200 to $1,500 so even with VPFs the the distributors save heaps of money, whereas exhibitors are forced to pay for expensive digital cinema equipment they claim won’t save them any money or increase their revenue. That the standards for this equipment are still being determined by SMPTE and DCI hasn’t helped matters either.

However, in 2009 Hollywood studios plan to release upwards of 11 movies in digital 3D which will require the equipment to be installed on a broader scale. Presently the number of screens equipped for digital 3D in North America hovers around 1,300, making it difficult to release two such films into the market at the same time. News of the DCIP deal may be a relief for a few studio executives have otherwise to struggle to find enough digital screens to place their 3D releases on. Studios have actually begun to push some of their 3D releases back into 2010 to make certain they will have enough screens to put them on.

The thinking within the industry is that once DCIP starts announcing VPF agreements the rollout of digital cinema should ramp up soon thereafter. Michael Lewis, chief executive of 3D systems provider RealD, told Reuters:

“When the DCIP deal drops, then digital cinema is really on its way.”

Here’s to hoping Mr. Lewis is also fortune teller.

Popularity: 39% [?]

Posted in Digital Cinema, Integrators

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RealD and Cinepolis see Latin America in 3D

By Patrick von Sychowski

July 18, 2008

Cinepolis logo Mexican exhibitor Cinepolis has big 3D plans for the whole of Latin america. Its deal with RealD envisions 500 screens to be converted in the next few years. From the press release:

The rollout of these 500 RealD 3D screens has already begun with six new screens installed for the release of Journey to the Center of the Earth, and will continue through 2010. The partnership makes RealD the exclusive choice of Cinepolis for digital 3D and creates a strong platform in the market for the upcoming slate of over thirty major studio 3D releases in 2009 and 2010.

The press release then goes on to quote Jeffrey Katzenberg and Disney before remembering to sample the opinions of the two companies that made the deal happen, showing you where the TRUE power of 3D lies today (content, content and, yes, more content). THR.com‘s take is that:

Cinepolis and RealD are co-financing the venture, though Cinepolis declined to disclose financial details when contacted Thursday.

The deal provides a major platform for 3-D cinema in Latin America as Cinepolis continues to expand in the region. Cinepolis rival Cinemark also has a partnership with RealD.

and

Cinepolis, owned by the Ramirez family, currently has more than 1,800 screens. In recent years, as Mexico’s exhibition market has grown more saturated, the exhibitor has expanded into Guatemala, Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras and Colombia. Moving forward, Cinepolis is eyeing Brazil’s underserved exhibition market.

So at the present screen count, one out of every 3.6 screens will be 3D. This is clearly a bit too high, so it is likely to come about when Cinepolis has increased its footprint across Latin America. It must also mean that the screens will embrace digital cinema in 2D first, though whether Cinepolis will finance this itself or with a third party provider is nit clear. This means that the deal might not be contingent on something like the delayed DCIP deal holding up Regal and Cinemark’s 3D plans.

Popularity: 31% [?]

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Hollywood’s 3D Dilemma Goes Mainstream

By J. Sperling Reich

July 12, 2008

For months now the debate over the lagging rollout of digital 3D equipped screens has been argued by both distributors and exhibitors alike, mostly in public statements to industry media outlets. Well, on Thursday, the issue jumped from trade publications and trade show speeches, to the front page of the Los Angeles Times Calendar section. Industry insiders who have been following the story since it began in March will find the article of little value, as it is mostly a rehash of the current situation, however it is noteworthy if only because a major mainstream media outlet found the dilemma important enough to cover.

The story was written by John Horn, a respected L.A. Times entertainment journalist for more than two decades who recently won the Los Angeles Press Club’s entertainment Journalist of the Year award. Using the pending release of “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and the need to drop “3D” from it’s title as his lead, Horn thoroughly laid out all the main facts and issues so that even a layman could talk about the subject like an expert.

He starts out saying only 800 theatres in North America (which account for roughly 1,200 screens) would be able to show “Journey” in 3D and that Warner Bros. had to augment it’s marketing campaign to let audiences know that the film would also be shown in 2D on about 2,000 screens. He points out that 2D Hollywood releases such as DreamWorks Animation’s 2D “Kung Fu Panda” open on more than 4,100 screens. And he doesn’t leave out that DreamWork’s head Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the industry’s leading 3D proponents, has been upset over the slow speed in which exhibitors are installing the digital 3D equipment.

Horn goes on to detail how the low number of screens poses a problem for studios who have plans to release at least nine 3D features next year, including some by renown filmmakers such as James Cameron (”Avatar”) and Robert Zemeckis (”A Christmas Carol”). Disney, DreamWorks and 20th Century Fox stand to lose the most. While exhibitors also stand to miss out on the increased revenue which will come from the higher ticket prices charged for 3D releases, Horn explains that the high cost of digital cinema equipment is keeping them from upgrading their auditoriums.

He pegs the cost of a digital cinema conversion at a whopping $150,000, which seems to be an exorbitant figure no doubt provided by an exhibitor. Another slight misstatement by Horn is the confusion exhibitors have over the two 3D formats; RealD and Dolby. While these two companies (they aren’t really formats) are definitely the market leaders, certainly NuVision and masterImage may be upset over not being mentioned. Those are about the only two gaffs in the L.A. Times feature, as Horn goes on to properly highlight the stalemate between exhibitors and distributors over virtual print fees (VPFs) meant to finance the rollout of digital cinema.

To be sure, all of this is not news to anyone working in exhibition (or distribution), but at the very least Horn should be credited with writing one of the most accurate statements about the world-wide digital cinema rollout to date:

“At a time when the rest of the media world is transforming at light speed, movie exhibition is struggling to keep up. . .”

Popularity: 35% [?]

Posted in Digital 3D

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Regal’s 1,500 screen deal with RealD for 3D comes with BIG caveat

By Patrick von Sychowski

May 21, 2008

Audience 3D horror Regal likes 3D and is showing it in a big way by promising to install no less than 1,500 of its screens with RealD’s technology, meaning that more than one in ten of all its auditoria would be stereoscopically enabled. But this big hangs on a bigger IF that most of the press seem to skip over. Here is how a fairly long article on the Financial Times starts of:

Regal Entertainment, one of the largest US cinema chains, has struck a deal to install new technology that will sharply lift the number of screens capable of showing 3-D films and give Hollywood studios a more profitable outlet for their new releases.

Regal has signed an agreement with RealD, which makes 3-D projection technology, to install more than 1,500 3-D screens. The deal will lift the number of 3-D screens operated by RealD to more than 3,500.

With cinemas able to charge higher ticket prices for 3-D titles, Hollywood studios are clamouring to release their films in the new technology. DreamWorks Animation will release all of its films in 3-D starting next year with Monsters vs Aliens . Walt Disney will also release 3-D films in 2009, as will Universal Pictures with James Cameron’s Avatar .

But what the FT confines to the fine print at the bottom of the article, Carolyn Giardina has the nous to highlight in the first paragraph of THR.com’s article about the deal:

Regal Entertainment Group and RealD have inked a deal to install 1,500 RealD 3-D systems in Regal theaters in the domestic market. Consummation, however, is contingent upon digital cinema deployment arrangements.

In order to have digital 3-D, a theater first requires a digital cinema installation. Digital cinema deployment deals generally rely on a virtual print fee model through which studios contribute an agreed fee per screen, per movie to offset exhibitors’ installation costs. However, many of these deals remain at an impasse.

So if DCIP does not get the VPF deal in place there will be no 1,500 RealD screens. And that is still a very big ‘if’. The $1bn+ deal that was supposed to have concluded by late 2007 now looks likely to miss the Q2 2008 deadline. As Pamela McClintock notes in Variety:

At one point, the consortium — Digital Cinema Implementation Partners — wanted all the major studios to agree. Now, it appears that the consortium is prepared to move ahead with only three of the studios aboard: Walt Disney, Paramount (which distributes DreamWorks Animation titles) and Fox. Insiders said they expect Sony and Universal to follow suit eventually, while Warner Bros. and DCIP are said to be far apart on terms.

Disney has been the pioneer in digital 3-D, although it is Katzenberg who has become the public ambassador of the fight to convert more.

This would be one studio less than even AccessIT’s second VPF deal. Once again it seems that Warner Bros is sitting this one out, have so far signed no VPF deal with either AccessIT, DCIP or Arts Alliance.

Moreover, no one is asking the question about how the 1,500 3D screens will get rolled out, particularly if it is to happen in time for the Monster/Avatar 3D movies of 2009. The preferred way to convert cinemas is a whole multiplex at a time, which is how Christie/AIX tackled Carmike, with swarms of engineers and installers settling on multiplexes in one town like locusts, finishing the job and moving on to the next one.

But 3D installs will be sprinkled a handful of screens (two or three per Regal multiplex by my estimate) in each site. So if the digital cinema and 3D install it s to go hand-in-hand then installers will have to return to convert all the non-3D digitla screens at a later point, which is neither cost effective or efficient, much like Arts Alliance is has converted CGR in France to-date. Remember that the upgrade of the entire DCIP circuit (Regal, AMC and Cineark is going to take at least three years if not longer.

Digital 3D will be a long time coming yet, it would seem.

UPDATE: Some of the best analysis comes once again from Screen Digest courtesy of analyst Charlotte Jones:

Once the DCIP model is finalised, Regal could start conversion at (previously announced) rate of about 200 screens per month. There are now just 10 months before the release of Dreamworks Animation’s first 3D effort, Monsters vs Aliens in March 2009 and assuming roll-out began next month, this would give Regal, around 2,000 basic d-cinema screens of which an unspecified proportion would be 3D-enabled by this calendar benchmark. This scenario would be on top of the 134 3D screens Regal had deployed at end first quarter 2008.
While we do not believe that 3D’s incremental production costs, are a substantial issue for the US Studios, a slower take up then the 4,170 digital 3D screens we are predicting in the US market by end 2009, could result in a reduction of the premium revenues attainable from 3D screens or a further rescheduling of titles. The deal has been reported on a revenue-sharing basis with RealD, whereby initial capital costs are lowered or removed, in return for a share of premium revenues. In this respect, maintaining higher ticket pricing for 3D screenings will be essential to this arrangement.

It looks that, as with the fate of HD DVD vs. Blu Ray, the fate of DCIP, digital cinema and digital 3D currently rests with Warner Bros.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Posted in Digital 3D

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NBA to be shown live in 3D with stacked 4K

By Patrick von Sychowski

March 19, 2008

Dallas Mavericks cheerleaders Maverick billionaire Mark Cuban‘s Dallas Mavericks will have their upcoming 25 March game captured, beamed and shown in live digital 3D, through a partnership with Pace Fusion 3D. From the press release:

The March 25 game against the Los Angeles Clippers from the American Airlines Center will be beamed across town via satellite into Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban‘s Magnolia Theatre in Dallas‘ West Village where an invitation-only audience will watch unforgettable images through special 3D glasses using Sony‘s SXRD 3D Projection System on an 18×42-foot screen, making it feel as if you‘re sitting courtside. In addition to VIP guests, the audience will include over 100 lucky Mavericks fans, who can win tickets to the event by entering an online sweepstakes at mavs.com

FSN Southwest will utilize the proprietary PACE/Cameron Fusion Sports System to capture the action on the court and deliver a unique depth of field perspective to the Magnolia Theatre audience. Each of the four 3D systems that will be used is designed with two high-definition cameras that capture the left eye and right eye imagery separately and create one three-dimension effect. The result is a ‘wow‘ visual experience that makes the action seem so close and spectacular most viewers will probably forget they‘re sitting miles away in a movie theatre.

To display the game stereoscopically two SXRD’s will need to be stacked. While some may scoff that this highlights the SXRD’s inability to handle 3D from a single projector, it should be noted that a growing number of theatres are opting for stacked DLP 2K solutions instead of signing a long term licensing deal with RealD. Call me sexist or call me just-not-interested-in-basketball, but I’m wondering how well Pace will capture the cheerleader action in 3D.

Popularity: 32% [?]

Posted in Alternative Content, Digital 3D

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Q: Which 3D technology is best? A: Dolby’s!

By Patrick von Sychowski

December 6, 2007

All stereoscopic cinema technologies are not created equal, or rather, the presentations are not identical. But it is not just, say, the size difference between, say Imax and a RealD presentation that is noticeable, but even differences between different types of digital 3D presentations stand out (if you pardon the pun). cNet’s Stephen Shankland (NB: NOT the man in the picture above – that’s scary looking CrunchGear Guy sporting Dolby 3D specs) sat through three of the four different types of 3D cinema solutions available commercially today (NuVision/XpanD‘s active glasses screenings appear not to have been available to him in the US).

It turns out that it was not so much an apples, apples and oranges as Granny Smith, Golden Delicious and clementines type of experience. It is worth reading the whole article (Who shows the best view of 3D ‘Beowulf’?) for many interesting insights. For those who want to cut to the chase (and missed the headline of this item), the winner was the newest kid on the stereoscopic technology block:

Based on watching the movie start to finish three times, the 3D winner is Dolby 3D–and not just by a nose.

Dolby’s technology gave a sharp image that showed every beard bristle, the colors were relatively rich, flicker from moving objects was nonexistent, but most significantly, the sense of depth was strong. Even the subtle differences between a character’s facial features were perceptible, and group shots with a host of characters showed as true depth, not as a number of gradually more distant two-dimensional layers. I was truly impressed.

Now there are several things t be said about this comparison. The first is that it was a ‘comparison’ and not a ‘test’, let alone a ‘shoot out’. I cannot voucher for Mr Shankland’s vision, but chances are that he is not what Hollywood considers a pair of ‘Golden Eyes’. He is a knowledgeable and perceptive writer. So while I don’t doubt his judgment – and not having seen ‘Beowulf’ in ANY 3D form I’m in even less of a position to comment – it is important to remember that this was not a controlled experiment but an assessment of the average viewer’s experience.

As such, it is in some ways more important than a test in the old Pacific Theater that was the ETC’s Digital Cinema Lab. The writer says as much himself, so with all these caveats in mind it is interesting to dig deeper into his findings. The first is that artistic interventions have obviously been made in calibrating the 3D experience, particularly between Imax and digital 3D. This is an area that is just beginning to be understood and discussed Disney’s Howard Lukk has given several excellent presentations on this, talking about the ‘plane’ of the stereoscopic image.

Imax is ‘in your face’, whereas RealD is more the type of 3D that has been described as ‘surround sound for your eyes’, ‘box’ or ‘Doll House’ type of stereoscopics. Yet Dolby appears to have won out on the strength of the three ‘C’s (coherence, colour, clarity). This is surprising to industry observers, as the colour separation that underpins the Dolby (it was licensed from Germany’s Infitec) was long thought to cause it problems with accurate colour separation. Now the talk is instead that the struggle is to make the glasses that employ 16 or more layers of colour-separating film, cheap enough to manufacture in volume to compete with the disposable RealD circular polarized glasses.

Ultimately ‘Beowulf’ is not the best films to judge the merits of all three technologies (or even four or five, if you add active glasses and the Korean system under development) because it is CG-animation and mostly takes places in dark and dim caves, so the light-loss that all 3D systems suffer is masked. But this article is not just the first but a very, very good comparison that will hopefully stimulate more discussion and research around the subject.

Popularity: 46% [?]

Posted in Analysis, Technology

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