VPF Reaches European Shores

By Annlee Ellingson

December 4, 2007 8:55 AM Permalink Comments (0)

Arts Alliance Media deploys digital cinema on the continent

A couple of announcements over the past couple of weeks suggest that digital cinema may be finally gaining traction in Europe. The application of the virtual print free (VPF) model that’s taken root in North America has been stymied across the pond by a number of factors particular to the fragmented market: Every country has different levels of government involvement in the exhibition industry that affects the implementation of blanket deployment, and local distributors siphon the influence of the Hollywood studios.

Still, Arts Alliance Media (AAM), which completed the U.K. Film Council’s 240-screen digital network in April, announced at Cinema Expo in June a VPF model for 7,000 screens in Europe. With Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures International and Paramount Pictures International on board, AAM has inked its first exhibitor. The digital cinema integrator will outfit Circuit George Raymond’s (CGR) 400 screens with Christie projectors and Doremi servers and software.

Seven digital screens will be up and running in the French chain by Christmas to run 3D content. Then rollout will commence in the first quarter of 2008, with the goal of completing 200 screens during the first year. CGR, one of the country’s largest exhibitors, operates mostly multiplexes in midsize towns.

Meanwhile, Access Integrated Technologies has taken another step toward taking its implementation plan overseas. The d-cinema integrator has inked a nonexclusive distribution agreement for territories outside the U.S. that will bundle Doremi servers with AccessIT’s Theatre Command Center software and Library Management System. The pact comes on the heels of two successful pilot programs in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

http://boxoffice.com/blogs/annlee-ellingson/2007/12/vpf-reaches-european-shores.php