Digital cinema looks for traction in Europe - Slow rollout among the topics at this week's Cinema Expo

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i76a689103c1b2ad6b14b168fc59e7c59

 

By Carl DiOrio

 

June 20, 2008, 06:02 PM ET

 

Updated: June 22, 2008, 04:08 PM ET

 

If the digital-cinema revolution took its time getting traction among U.S. exhibitors, the situation in Europe has been downright slo-mo.

 

Europe's d-cinema rollout will figure in several sessions set for Cinema Expo International 2008. The annual exhibition trade confab kicks off Monday at the RAI convention center in Amsterdam.

 

D-cinema proponents say there has been a perfect storm of woes impeding progress in European territories: a tendency to lag behind U.S. rollouts, combined with a pullback in Hollywood studios' generosity in funding installations on both sides of the Atlantic and now the spreading global financial crunch.

 

"Everybody is suffering from the state of the financing market," said Gemma Richardson, a spokeswoman for London-based Arts Alliance Media. "We have five studios on board, so we're rolling. But we're trying to get everybody to pitch in and help, and that means from the pricing of equipment by the manufacturers and right on down the line."

 

An installations facilitator, Arts Alliance has been among those companies at the center of the European digital rollout.

 

"We're having conversations with the top cinema chains throughout Europe, and it's just a question of who wants to get in the game," said Howard Kiedaisch, Arts Alliance's New York-bred CEO and a former international executive at Universal and PolyGram.

 

Arts Alliance's deal this year with the French theater chain Circuit George Raymon marked the first funded through a virtual print fee arrangement with Hollywood studios. Through VPFs, studios agree to pay exhibs the equivalent of what print runs would cost for several years after converting to digital distribution.

 

Funding d-cinema installations by tapping studio largesse has been much more widespread in the U.S. But in the U.S. and Europe, Hollywood studios recently have insisted on much lower VPFs than was true in the earlier days of the U.S. digital rollout.

 

That's been a drag on how many circuits sign up for installations.

 

In some cases -- like a near $1 billion deal recently struck by four studios with the Belgium-based d-cinema service XDC -- impressive financing is in place. But third-party facilitators such as XDC or Arts Alliance still need to hammer out VPF-related agreements with individual exhibs.

 

"That's just what I call a hunting license," one d-cinema wag quipped of XDC's deal with Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount and Fox.

 

Europe has only 1,300 screens equipped for movie-quality digital projection, with many of the installations involving lease-only arrangements with systems vendors and others funded with government subsidies. The U.S. has almost 5,000 movie-quality digital screens, dating from an initial round of deals in late 2005 and early 2006 orchestrated following a lengthy engineering phase by a Hollywood studio consortium.

 

"The reality is that only as of February of this year are we where the U.S. was in December of 2005," Arts Alliance's Kiedaisch said. "It should go faster now, because the U.S. rollout shows people digital cinema helps business once you have digital screens up and running."

 

Arts Alliance recently struck a deal with Spain-based Yelmo Cineplex to equip five screens in a Madrid multiplex set to open in July. Those installations won't tap into any VPF funding, but execs hope to do so eventually as Yelmo and Arts Alliance expand on their relationship.

 

Meanwhile, though 3-D installations necessarily lag digital installations -- you can't have the former without the latter -- the less-expensive, less-complicated 3-D rollout could gain quick traction once Europe's d-cinema footprint grows a bit.

 

"RealD is dependent on the roll-on success of digital cinema," said Michael Lewis, CEO of U.S.-based 3-D vendor RealD. "But 3-D has been the driver for getting digital out there, because right now there is one sunny area in the cinema business, and that's 3-D."

 

RealD, which operates more than 90% of the global 3-D screens, has almost 1,000 North American screens but just 192 elsewhere, including 116 in Europe. The company recently struck a contract to equip 600 screens operated in the U.K. and elsewhere by the Odeon/UCI and CineWorld circuits, but only slow progress will be marked on converting those screens until the chains sign off on VPF-related financing agreements.

 

Complicating Europe's VPF negotiations is the simple reality that more films are distributed there independently.

 

As a result, "exhibitors will just have to pay a larger share (of d-cinema installation costs) than in the U.S.," a d-cinema proponent noted.

 

Proponents of 3-D tout exhibitors' ability to charge more for 3-D movie tickets, as well as its ability to differentiate the theatrical experience at a time when home theater viewing is on the rise. As for d-cinema, it eventually will save studios on distribution costs and boosts exhibitors' ability to program advertising and alternative programming in their auditoriums.

 

"Everybody knows all the merits of digital," Kiedaisch said. "But it's important that anybody who wants to be around in three to five years helps drive the process. You can't just be an ostrich with your head in the sand."

 

Cinema Expo International is produced by the Nielsen Film Group, a division of Nielsen Business Media, parent company of The Hollywood Reporter.

Digital cinema looks for traction in Europe

Slow rollout among the topics at this week's Cinema Expo

By Carl DiOrio

 

June 20, 2008, 06:02 PM ET

 

Updated: June 22, 2008, 04:08 PM ET

 

Related Content More Cinema Expo coverage 

If the digital-cinema revolution took its time getting traction among U.S. exhibitors, the situation in Europe has been downright slo-mo.

 

Europe's d-cinema rollout will figure in several sessions set for Cinema Expo International 2008. The annual exhibition trade confab kicks off Monday at the RAI convention center in Amsterdam.

 

D-cinema proponents say there has been a perfect storm of woes impeding progress in European territories: a tendency to lag behind U.S. rollouts, combined with a pullback in Hollywood studios' generosity in funding installations on both sides of the Atlantic and now the spreading global financial crunch.

 

"Everybody is suffering from the state of the financing market," said Gemma Richardson, a spokeswoman for London-based Arts Alliance Media. "We have five studios on board, so we're rolling. But we're trying to get everybody to pitch in and help, and that means from the pricing of equipment by the manufacturers and right on down the line."

 

An installations facilitator, Arts Alliance has been among those companies at the center of the European digital rollout.

 

"We're having conversations with the top cinema chains throughout Europe, and it's just a question of who wants to get in the game," said Howard Kiedaisch, Arts Alliance's New York-bred CEO and a former international executive at Universal and PolyGram.

 

Arts Alliance's deal this year with the French theater chain Circuit George Raymon marked the first funded through a virtual print fee arrangement with Hollywood studios. Through VPFs, studios agree to pay exhibs the equivalent of what print runs would cost for several years after converting to digital distribution.

 

Funding d-cinema installations by tapping studio largesse has been much more widespread in the U.S. But in the U.S. and Europe, Hollywood studios recently have insisted on much lower VPFs than was true in the earlier days of the U.S. digital rollout.

 

That's been a drag on how many circuits sign up for installations.

 

In some cases -- like a near $1 billion deal recently struck by four studios with the Belgium-based d-cinema service XDC -- impressive financing is in place. But third-party facilitators such as XDC or Arts Alliance still need to hammer out VPF-related agreements with individual exhibs.

 

"That's just what I call a hunting license," one d-cinema wag quipped of XDC's deal with Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount and Fox.

 

Europe has only 1,300 screens equipped for movie-quality digital projection, with many of the installations involving lease-only arrangements with systems vendors and others funded with government subsidies. The U.S. has almost 5,000 movie-quality digital screens, dating from an initial round of deals in late 2005 and early 2006 orchestrated following a lengthy engineering phase by a Hollywood studio consortium.

 

"The reality is that only as of February of this year are we where the U.S. was in December of 2005," Arts Alliance's Kiedaisch said. "It should go faster now, because the U.S. rollout shows people digital cinema helps business once you have digital screens up and running."

 

Arts Alliance recently struck a deal with Spain-based Yelmo Cineplex to equip five screens in a Madrid multiplex set to open in July. Those installations won't tap into any VPF funding, but execs hope to do so eventually as Yelmo and Arts Alliance expand on their relationship.

 

Meanwhile, though 3-D installations necessarily lag digital installations -- you can't have the former without the latter -- the less-expensive, less-complicated 3-D rollout could gain quick traction once Europe's d-cinema footprint grows a bit.

 

"RealD is dependent on the roll-on success of digital cinema," said Michael Lewis, CEO of U.S.-based 3-D vendor RealD. "But 3-D has been the driver for getting digital out there, because right now there is one sunny area in the cinema business, and that's 3-D."

 

RealD, which operates more than 90% of the global 3-D screens, has almost 1,000 North American screens but just 192 elsewhere, including 116 in Europe. The company recently struck a contract to equip 600 screens operated in the U.K. and elsewhere by the Odeon/UCI and CineWorld circuits, but only slow progress will be marked on converting those screens until the chains sign off on VPF-related financing agreements.

 

Complicating Europe's VPF negotiations is the simple reality that more films are distributed there independently.

 

As a result, "exhibitors will just have to pay a larger share (of d-cinema installation costs) than in the U.S.," a d-cinema proponent noted.

 

Proponents of 3-D tout exhibitors' ability to charge more for 3-D movie tickets, as well as its ability to differentiate the theatrical experience at a time when home theater viewing is on the rise. As for d-cinema, it eventually will save studios on distribution costs and boosts exhibitors' ability to program advertising and alternative programming in their auditoriums.

 

"Everybody knows all the merits of digital," Kiedaisch said. "But it's important that anybody who wants to be around in three to five years helps drive the process. You can't just be an ostrich with your head in the sand."

 

Cinema Expo International is produced by the Nielsen Film Group, a division of Nielsen Business Media, parent company of The Hollywood Reporter.

 

XDC Signs its First Large-Scale Deployment Agreement - With Cineplexx for 193 Digital Screens in Austria

XDC, the leading digital cinema service company  in Europe, announces to have signed an exclusive agreement with Cineplexx Kinobetriebe GmbH, the largest cinema chain in Austria, for the deployment of digital cinema systems in 100% of the circuit’s 193 screens. This agreement represents a contract of a total value of about 24 millions Euros.

 

Amsterdam, Cinema Expo 2008 – The agreement signed between Cineplexx and XDC includes the roll out of DCI-compliant projection systems co-financed by the Virtual Print Fee (VPF) model. The rollout is scheduled to begin in the last quarter of 2008, with a target of 50% of each complex screens converted during the first contractual year.

 

Serge Plasch, XDC’s Chief Executive Officer said: “We are very proud to announce this first VPF deal with one important European exhibitor, just one month after having signed our digital cinema deployment agreements with the studios. This demonstrates that the XDC’s VPF-based business proposal meets the requirements of European exhibitors. We expect to announce additional deployment deals in other countries soon.”

 

Christian G. Langhammer, Cineplexx’s Chief Executive Officer said: “We are delighted to be the first exhibitor to go fully digital with the XDC’s VPF-based business model. We have been working with XDC for several years. They have financed, installed and serviced our first 16 digital screens. XDC has the best team to support exhibitors into their transition to digital, and I’m really excited to extend our cooperation with this major milestone, which will give to Cineplexx huge opportunities to benefit from all the advantages of digital cinema.” Christof Papousek, Cineplexx’s Chief Financial Officer added: “Besides offering pristine image quality to our audience, we will extend our programming to alternative content,  3D shows and live satellite events (opera, concerts, sports …). Last but not least, digital will allow us to reduce our operational costs.”

 

Under the terms of the agreement, XDC will exclusively install DCI-compliant digital projection systems: Christie 2K DLP Cinema® projectors and XDC’s CineStore® Solo G3 D-Cinema servers. XDC will also implement a fully integrated and networked solution in each complex, thanks to its advanced Theatre Management System and Central Library, the XDC’s CineStore® Plaza.

 

Film Ton Technik (FTT), via its Austrian subsidiary FTT Digital Cinema GmbH, will carry out the installations and the maintenance, as well as the frontline helpdesk.

 

About Cineplexx

Cineplexx Kinobetriebe GmbH was founded in 1993 and is a 100% subsidiary of Constantin Film-Holding GmbH, which belongs to the Austrian family Langhammer. Cineplexx emerged in the transition phase in the ninetieth when traditional cinemas were closed and multiplex cinemas entered the market. Constantin Film realised this trend and developed a multiplex chain with 20 cinemas and 193

screens, over the whole Austrian country. A sister company is still operating 10 traditional cinemas in the arthouse and original-version segment. The whole group had a turnover in the amount of nearly 80 millions. Euro in 2007 and has about 800 employees. More info available at www.cineplexx.at.

Contact: Cinepromotion & Filmmarketing GmbH, Mrs. Resch, +43-1-52128-146.

 

Digital cinema looks for traction in Europe

Slow rollout among the topics at this week's Cinema Expo

By Carl DiOrio

June 20, 2008, 06:02 PM

Updated: June 22, 2008, 04:08 PM

If the digital-cinema revolution took its time getting traction among U.S. exhibitors, the situation in Europe has been downright slo-mo.

Europe's d-cinema rollout will figure in several sessions set for Cinema Expo International 2008. The annual exhibition trade confab kicks off Monday at the RAI convention center in Amsterdam.

D-cinema proponents say there has been a perfect storm of woes impeding progress in European territories: a tendency to lag behind U.S. rollouts, combined with a pullback in Hollywood studios' generosity in funding installations on both sides of the Atlantic and now the spreading global financial crunch.

"Everybody is suffering from the state of the financing market," said Gemma Richardson, a spokeswoman for London-based Arts Alliance Media. "We have five studios on board, so we're rolling. But we're trying to get everybody to pitch in and help, and that means from the pricing of equipment by the manufacturers and right on down the line."

An installations facilitator, Arts Alliance has been among those companies at the center of the European digital rollout.

"We're having conversations with the top cinema chains throughout Europe, and it's just a question of who wants to get in the game," said Howard Kiedaisch, Arts Alliance's New York-bred CEO and a former international executive at Universal and PolyGram.

Arts Alliance's deal this year with the French theater chain Circuit George Raymon marked the first funded through a virtual print fee arrangement with Hollywood studios. Through VPFs, studios agree to pay exhibs the equivalent of what print runs would cost for several years after converting to digital distribution.

Funding d-cinema installations by tapping studio largesse has been much more widespread in the U.S. But in the U.S. and Europe, Hollywood studios recently have insisted on much lower VPFs than was true in the earlier days of the U.S. digital rollout.

That's been a drag on how many circuits sign up for installations.

In some cases -- like a near $1 billion deal recently struck by four studios with the Belgium-based d-cinema service XDC -- impressive financing is in place. But third-party facilitators such as XDC or Arts Alliance still need to hammer out VPF-related agreements with individual exhibs.

"That's just what I call a hunting license," one d-cinema wag quipped of XDC's deal with Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount and Fox.

Europe has only 1,300 screens equipped for movie-quality digital projection, with many of the installations involving lease-only arrangements with systems vendors and others funded with government subsidies. The U.S. has almost 5,000 movie-quality digital screens, dating from an initial round of deals in late 2005 and early 2006 orchestrated following a lengthy engineering phase by a Hollywood studio consortium.

"The reality is that only as of February of this year are we where the U.S. was in December of 2005," Arts Alliance's Kiedaisch said. "It should go faster now, because the U.S. rollout shows people digital cinema helps business once you have digital screens up and running."

Arts Alliance recently struck a deal with Spain-based Yelmo Cineplex to equip five screens in a Madrid multiplex set to open in July. Those installations won't tap into any VPF funding, but execs hope to do so eventually as Yelmo and Arts Alliance expand on their relationship.

Meanwhile, though 3-D installations necessarily lag digital installations -- you can't have the former without the latter -- the less-expensive, less-complicated 3-D rollout could gain quick traction once Europe's d-cinema footprint grows a bit.

"RealD is dependent on the roll-on success of digital cinema," said Michael Lewis, CEO of U.S.-based 3-D vendor RealD. "But 3-D has been the driver for getting digital out there, because right now there is one sunny area in the cinema business, and that's 3-D."

RealD, which operates more than 90% of the global 3-D screens, has almost 1,000 North American screens but just 192 elsewhere, including 116 in Europe. The company recently struck a contract to equip 600 screens operated in the U.K. and elsewhere by the Odeon/UCI and CineWorld circuits, but only slow progress will be marked on converting those screens until the chains sign off on VPF-related financing agreements.

Complicating Europe's VPF negotiations is the simple reality that more films are distributed there independently.

As a result, "exhibitors will just have to pay a larger share (of d-cinema installation costs) than in the U.S.," a d-cinema proponent noted.

Proponents of 3-D tout exhibitors' ability to charge more for 3-D movie tickets, as well as its ability to differentiate the theatrical experience at a time when home theater viewing is on the rise. As for d-cinema, it eventually will save studios on distribution costs and boosts exhibitors' ability to program advertising and alternative programming in their auditoriums.

"Everybody knows all the merits of digital," Kiedaisch said. "But it's important that anybody who wants to be around in three to five years helps drive the process. You can't just be an ostrich with your head in the sand."

 

Digital dearth in Europe - Proponents realize there may be no d-cinema 'big bang'

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ib3b4f691bfdc207767a7b42db1ebfc6b

 

By Carl DiOrio

 

June 23, 2008, 05:59 PM ET

 

AMSTERDAM -- The time warp that is digital cinema figured prominently Monday in opening-day seminars at Cinema Expo.

 

In the U.S., the rollout of d-cinema systems in multiplexes nationwide is sufficiently progressed -- at almost 5,000 movie-quality screens -- that exhibitors already are eyeing the additional implementation of 3-D hardware. Pacific-Asian exhibition is even further around the digital bend, with an installed base of about 6,500 screens.

 

Yet in Europe, which has fewer than 1,000 digital screens at present, d-cinema is largely a theoretical discussion.

 

Money woes and other impediments figured in a session billed as "D-cinema in Europe -- Stalled?" But a speaker recounted overhearing a telling comment in the hotel bar the night before.

 

"Stalled?" a bemused conventioneer asked. "I didn't know it had started."

 

Of course, the d-cinema rollout is more progressed in some European markets, with the U.K., Belgium, France and Russia getting better traction than elsewhere. Installation outfits XDC and Arts Alliance Media have helped roll out systems for about 400 and 326 screens, respectively, keeping the region's digital pulse pumping if not racing.

 

Exhibitors here appear relatively sanguine about the situation. That's partly because independent films represent a higher portion of the product mix, and indies haven't been keen to distribute films digitally as the major studios nor to help exhibs fund installations.

 

"In Europe, there will be no big bang for digital cinema," said Dutch Distributors Assn. director Michael Lambrechtsen, who seemed more upset over Holland's weekend soccer loss to Russia. "This is economically and physically impractical."

 

D-cinema proponents in the U.S. might say the technology's rollout there has hardly been a "big bang" event either. But the stateside use of "virtual print fees" as a means of securing studio funding for digital theater installations has gotten much quicker traction than in Europe, where the spreading sense is that exhibitors might have to carry a much greater portion of the financial burden themselves.

 

"Individual (circuits) will progress faster or slower depending on their economic strength," Lambrechtsen said.

 

Inertia on d-cinema is so palpable on the continent that another speaker felt the need to remind people the digital trend is inevitable.

 

"It's a clear imperative that the movie business is going in the digital direction," European Digital Cinema Forum chief Dave Monk said. "Not going there is just not a practical option."

 

A pantheon of top d-cinema vendors are on board at Cinema Expo to help show European exhibitors how it's all done. Such companies as DLP, Soy Electronics, Imax, Dolby and Christie Digital also are involved in several movie screenings set for digital presentation at the confab.

 

Those include Paramount's "Tropic Thunder," set for a screening Thursday night. Screenings set for later in the week include Sony's "Pineapple Express," Warner Bros.' "The Dark Knight" and Disney's "Wall-E," among others.

 

Meanwhile, one potentially helpful development in the d-cinema rollout emerged Monday, when Belgium-based installations facilitator XDC said it's signed up the final two majors to virtual print fee arrangements. The pacts with Sony and Universal follow similar XDC deals with Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount and Fox.

 

XDC now must convince individual circuits throughout Europe to tap into VPFs, through which studios would help defray costs of exhibitors' d-cinema installations costs. But execs said the arrangements theoretically could cover up to 8,000 new digital installations throughout the region.

 

Cinema Expo continues through Thursday at the RAI convention center.

 

Leo Cendrowicz in Brussels contributed to this report.

Is Europe finally ready for the d-cinema rollout?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i50d4ccb4056bd834eaeff88d2b3c35f5

 

By Andreas Fuchs

 

June 19, 2008, 05:44 PM ET

 

Can digital cinema break the language barrier in Europe? While there is continued optimism about the long-term forecast for the technology, insiders continue to lament the fact that an expensive price tag and Europe's cultural diversity are proving to be major stumbling blocks to the ongoing d-cinema rollout.

 

Nevertheless, progress over the last year has been steady: With a 41% increase in the number of digitally enabled screens over June 2007, Europe now accounts for 840 of some 1,800 installed internationally.

 

In North America the number of DCI-standard-compliant screens amounts to 4,700, the majority of which were deployed by systems integrator AccessIT and projector manufacturer Christie. Taken aside an ever-growing number of test sites by Dolby, Kodak, Sony and Technicolor on both sides of the Atlantic, two local players have truly upped the ante on the European front.

 

London-based Arts Alliance Media completed the 240-screen U.K. Digital Cinema Network in May 2007 and signed support agreements with five Hollywood studios: Paramount, Disney, Fox, Sony and Universal. One year later, its Belgium-based competitor, XDC International, followed suit with four of the majors -- Warner Bros., Paramount, Fox and Disney -- contributing product and financing to some 8,000 planned screens.

 

"XDC has negotiated with the studios, taking into account the needs of the European fragmented market," declares Fabrice Testa, vp sales and business development for the company. "The scope of the agreements is for 22 European countries. The challenge is to install fully integrated and networked solutions in the multiplex venues."

 

But in evaluating the financial and operational implications of hard drives versus cans of 35mm film, Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, president of international distribution for Warner Bros., says d-cinema has yet to offer an economic advantage due to the relatively high costs to support the few digital screens.

 

"The cost of the equipment continues to be exorbitant," Kwan-Rubinek says. "This has effectively slowed the pace of installations around the world. Only when these prices become attractive to all players in the market -- whether exhibition circuits, integrators, government or private entities, etc. -- will we be able to move more quickly."

 

Nevertheless, AAM CEO Howard Kiedaisch says the d-cinema era in Europe is well under way. "We are the only digital cinema provider in Europe to have signed up both studios and exhibitors to a Virtual Print Fee-based digital cinema rollout. The Virtual Print Fee business model is working in Europe."

 

While that may be true, many others across the continent, like Sony's Oliver Pasch, see Europe's numerous languages and cultures resulting in "completely different market situations." As the head of digital cinema Europe at Sony's Professional Division, Pasch believes it is unlikely that business models based upon VPF from Hollywood will work in those countries "where the share of Hollywood content at the boxoffice is less than 50%."

 

At Warner Bros., international releases have been slightly higher than that percentage due to the success of local productions like Germany's "The Red Baron" and the global 3-D release of "Beowulf," which Kwan-Rubinek says represented a "healthy 17% of the total international boxoffice, and this coming from just 311 screens, or 4% of the total international screens." Indeed, in Europe, digital 3-D collected slightly more than 20% of the total boxoffice from 200 screens.

 

So will 3-D convert the remaining d-cinema skeptics?

 

"As in North America, 3-D is providing a reason and a way for a few screens to deploy digital systems," says Robert Mayson, vp and general manager of Kodak Digital Motion Imaging. "But the overall business continues to be very fragmented in many countries and cinema chains."

Jeffrey Katzenberg still on 3-D stump - Promoting two DreamWorks titles at Cinema Expo

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/technology/news/e3ib3b4f691bfdc2077442a0d9e5d948951

 

By Carl DiOrio

 

June 23, 2008, 08:16 PM ET

 

AMSTERDAM -- It's a well-traveled act by now, Jeffrey Katzenberg's promo push for 3-D exhibition.

 

This time, the DreamWorks Animation topper took his extra-dimensional tubthumping to Cinema Expo, where he's also promoting two DWA titles.

 

"One year ago, I stood here and first spoke to you about 3-D," he recalled while gracefully omitting the scant progress Europe has made in its rollout of digital projection, let alone 3-D accouterments.

 

"I think this is the single greatest opportunity in 70 years," Katzenberg said. "Not since the introduction of Technicolor 70 years ago has there been something so impactful to what we do."

 

Although the notion that many of the assembled exhibitors might be playing 3-D movies anytime soon was perhaps a bit fanciful, the DWA CEO's enthusiasm can be contagious.

 

"We hear there are going to be like 10 to 12 movies released in 3-D in 2009," said Gerald Buckle, d-cinema manager for regional digital pioneer Odeon Cinemas. "That's quite an incentive for doing something."

 

There are fewer than 150 3-D screens sprinkled throughout Europe, compared with about 1,000 in the U.S.

 

Hollywood executives dream of a day when they can release 3-D films on thousands of global screens, but for now studios must split their distribution efforts between conventional and 3-D prints. And the number of runs in the former category dwarfs those in the latter.

 

Katzenberg shared with the exhibs a well-received extended clip from "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which is set to unspool in December as DWA's last feature production animated in conventional CGI. He also showed footage from Easter 2009's "Monsters vs. Aliens," whose 3-D animation represents the future for DWA.

 

Also Monday, Nielsen PreView execs presented details of a newly released study showing substantial consumer appetite for 3-D cinema.

 

Nielsen PreView senior vp Ann Marie Dumais said additional consumer education about the technology could broaden 3-D interest even further. The Nielsen Co. is the corporate parent of Nielsen PreView and The Hollywood Reporter

3D can be 'saving voice' for cinema, claims Nielsen

http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=39560

 

Diana Lodderhose in Amsterdam

24 Jun 2008 08:17

 

3D cinema is a "three-legged stool operation", requiring co-operation from not only exhibitors and distributors, but consumers as well, delegates at Cinema Expo in Amsterdam were told.

 

Ann Marie Dumais, SVP at Nielsen PreView, said that the faster exhibitors and distributors took on board 3D cinema, the quicker consumers will eventually adopt it.

 

"The lines are blurring between home theatre and real theatres," she said.

 

"Homes are starting to catch up with the theatre experience – they're getting bigger, screen sizes are increasing and simultaneously there are more choices available, including digital, cable and DVD. Even surround-sound is starting to rival what is offered in the cinema."

 

A survey conducted by Nielsen found that currently one in every four cinema-goers have stopped going to the movies due to a drop in quality and an increase in prices.

 

Dumais suggested that while moving to 3D is expensive and takes time as it means moving to digital, it could be the "saving voice" for cinema and can offer audiences something different than it has done in the past. She even compared it to the earlier transition of black and white to colour.

 

Based on analysis in the US – which accounts for 80% of 3D installation in the world – Nielsen found that 5% of people in the US didn't even realise 3D existed, despite having been around for nearly a century. A further 35% were aware of 3D but chose not to go while 60% were aware and attended.

 

She urged for increased awareness and education in the medium, saying that there are 4,000 current or planned 3D installations to date.

 

JP Morgan forecasts that there will be 7,000 3D installations by 2010, marking a 10% increase in attendance along with a $3.50 increase in ticket prices, which would translate to a 60% increase in revenue.

 

Later, at the Paramount Pictures International product presentation, Jeffrey Katzenberg of DreamWorks Animation hailed 3D as the "greatest tool for moviegoers in the past 70 years" before showing audiences a few scenes from the upcoming Monsters Vs Aliens animation, shown in Real D 3D.

 

Audiences responded positively to it and the entire PPI show reel, which also included scenes from the upcoming 2D Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, released later this year, in addition to PPI's 2009 line-up, which includes Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, JJ Abrams' adaptation of Star Trek, Michael Bay's Transformers sequel and Zach Snyder's Watchmen.

 

A screening of new Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder was later shown to audiences with a positive reaction – one exhibitor claimed the film was one of the most exciting and original comedies of the past few years.

 

XDC Signs Digital Cinema Deployment Agreements with Sony Pictures Releasing International and Universal City Studios LLP

http://www.digitalcinemainfo.com/xdc_06_24_08.php

 

June 24, 2008

 

Source: XDC

 

XDC, the leading digital cinema service company in Europe, has signed non-exclusive agreements with Sony Pictures and Universal and is now the first deploying entity having signed with six (6) major U.S. distributors to target the deployment of up to 8,000 DCI-compliant digital cinema installations across Europe.

 

Sony Pictures Releasing International (“Sony Pictures”) and Universal City Studios LLP (“Universal”) will support XDC, acting as a Deploying Entity, to roll out DCI-compliant digital cinema systems for theatrical presentations in several countries in Europe. Under the terms of the agreements, Sony Pictures and Universal have independently and non-exclusively agreed to supply European exhibitors with their feature films in digital form (if booked) for projection on DCI-compliant digital cinema screens, as well as to make financial contributions in order to promote DCI-compliant digital cinema projection systems (a new and higher quality delivery format).

 

These agreements, together with those signed with Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Paramount Pictures Corporation, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and The Walt Disney Studios, are a major milestone in Europe, and for XDC in particular … the company is now the first one to offer a full Hollywood slate and will work with the European Distributors.

 

Commenting on the announcement, Mark Zucker, President of Distribution for Sony Pictures Releasing International, said: "Digital cinema is not just about the evolution of motion picture exhibition; it’s about the technological revolution that allows consumers to experience our motion pictures the way filmmakers intend, with beautiful, clear images and pitch perfect sound. Enhancing the theatrical experience for audiences everywhere is the goal of Sony Pictures and we are delighted and excited to support XDC as we work together to provide state-of-the-art projection systems to moviegoers.”

 

David Kosse, President, Universal Pictures International agreed: “XDC is warmly supported by Universal. The digital world is the future, and we as a studio are committed to its continual and sustained growth. We look forward to supplying our movies to this new digital platform and, along with audiences, reaping the rewards by continuing to enhance the theatrical experience.”

 

Serge Plasch, XDC’s Chief Executive Officer commented: “These agreements with Sony Pictures and Universal, together with the ones signed with the other studios, mark and ease the beginning of the large scale deployment of digital cinema in Europe. For XDC, the next steps are the negotiation of similar agreements with European movie distributors, the sale of this co-financing proposal to cinema exhibitors across Europe and last but not least, both equity and debt raising to fund the digital roll-out phase. This infrastructure deployment will also help XDC to develop its other activities: first, the design and sale of cinema advanced solutions, secondly, the installation and maintenance of complete digital cinema systems for exhibitors, and thirdly, digital content processing and distribution services for movie distributors and advertising sales houses.”

 

Dolby Launches 3D Playback Compatibility Program

http://www.digitalcinemainfo.com/dolby_06_23_08.php\

 

June 23, 2008

 

Source: Dolby

 

Dolby Laboratories, Inc today announced at CinemaExpo 2008 a licensing program for digital cinema server manufacturers to allow their digital cinema servers to support Dolby(R) 3D Digital Cinema playback. XDC became the first manufacturer to receive approval to license Dolby 3D Digital Cinema technology for its CineStore Solo G3 server line.

 

As part of its deep commitment to digital cinema interoperability, the Dolby 3D licensing program will enable exhibitors who have servers manufactured by licensees of this program to integrate Dolby 3D into their existing server platforms.

 

"As excitement grows for digital 3D, we wanted to make it easy for exhibitors around the world to adopt Dolby 3D and offer their patrons an enhanced cinema going experience," said John Carey, Vice President Marketing, Cinema, Dolby Laboratories. "We are committed to providing interoperability in our digital cinema products to give exhibitors a choice in suppliers."

 

The Dolby 3D playback compatibility licensing program delivers solutions designed to ease interoperability among digital cinema manufacturers. Since Dolby 3D uses dual-channel, real-time color correction technology within the playback server, studios are not required to perform any 3D vendor-specific preprocessing. To ensure optimal Dolby 3D quality, Dolby strictly defines the technical requirements and evaluates the playback systems.

 

"This licensing deal for Dolby 3D is a major step for the digital cinema industry. Indeed, our current exhibitor clients already equipped with the XDC CineStore(R) Solo G3, and all the other exhibitors deploying digital screens and selecting our server because of its assets, will now be able to install Dolby 3D Digital Cinema technology," said Thierry Van der Kaa, General Product Manager at XDC. "Exhibitors will then have the opportunity to project 2D and 3D shows using their regular white screen and without any 'ghost-busting' effect."

 

The Dolby 3D Digital Cinema playback compatibility licensing program is open to digital cinema server manufacturers capable of meeting Dolby's performance requirements and approval processes. Approvals are granted upon rigorous testing of the integration and accuracy of Dolby 3D color correction algorithms. Exhibitors looking to implement 3D with a Dolby 3D licensed playback server will also need a Dolby 3D compatible projector or a retrofit kit for existing projectors that includes an easily installed full-spectrum color filter wheel.

 

Barco's new digital cinema projector makes its world premiere at Cinema Expo, in Amsterdam.

http://www.digitalcinemainfo.com/barcodigitalcinema_06_24_08.php

 

June 24, 2008

 

Source: Barco

 

At the Cinema Expo trade show, digital cinema pioneer Barco strengthens it leading position by introducing a new member to the DP family.

 

The DP-1200 is Barco’s newest digital cinema projector, custom made for the small venue market. Thanks to the DP-1200 even the smallest cinemas now have access to digital cinema, at an affordable price.

 

Built on the renowned technology of the Barco DP series, the DP-1200 is Barco’s new digital cinema projector for the small market. It is designed for screens up to 12m (40ft) wide Using the same 0.98 inch DLP Cinema chip from Texas Instruments, the DP-1200 builds further on the success of the DP1500 and DP2000 platform.

 

Barco paid particular attention to further optimizing the operating cost, by making low wattage 2kW and 1.2kW lamps available for use in the DP1200. In addition, the DP-1200 incorporates all the traditional Barco benefits such as a modular design, a motorized single lens solution, optimal protection of the optics and a low ventilation requirement.

 

The communicator software and SNMP agent provides the customer with an easy key to operate their digital cinema projector.

 

Wim Buyens, Vice President Digital Cinema, states: “with the addition of the DP-1200, Barco presents a complete series offering a tailor made solution at everyone’s desire, budget and for every screen size.” Wim continues: “Barco’s DP series are cost competitive digital cinema projector solutions, based on a high product reliability and ease of use.”

 

DVideo Unveils New Features for Theater Management System (TMS)

http://www.digitalcinemainfo.com/dvidea_06_23_08.php

 

DVidea AT CINE EXPO 2008

June 23, 2008

 

Source: DVidea

 

DVidea, the company focused on developing tools to meet the challenges of asset management for digital cinema, unveils today new features for its state-of-the-art Theater Management System (TMS) at CINE EXPO 2008, currently underway in Amsterdam from June 23 - 26. Designed to meet the needs of all exhibitors, Dvidea TMS provides the most comprehensive tools for media management and automation, including the control of servers from several D-Cinema manufacturers. Exhibiting in Hall 11, booth 167, Dvidea will demonstrate the ability to manage remotely from a pocket wireless device a Doremi DCP-2000 server. Appointments for private demonstrations can be reserved upon request.

 

DVidea TMS

DVidea's Theater Management System offers a comprehensive set of easy-to-use tools to manage each aspect of the new digital workflows involved in theater exhibition. Intuitive interfaces for each task are easy to learn and use, and adaptable to a range of workflows. The DVidea TMS system is built on open standards for straight-forward installation, easy administration and reliable third-party integration. The benefits of the DVidea TMS are significant for small independents as well as larger network theater operators.

 

Key Features of DVidea TMS

 Library – Easy manual or automated ingest of features, pre-shows, local productions to the Library, your Central Content Catalogue.

 File and KDM Management – DVidea automatically handles your internal and external transfers and tracks the progress.

 Scheduling – Programming made simple; build or import pre-shows and ad blocks. Total flexibility for current and future scheduling as well as updating shows in-progress.

 Monitor – Real-time status of all devices and multiple viewing screens; built-in alerts.

 Equipment Automation – Pre-set controls for sound, lights, cinema servers, projectors and third party automation systems.

 Exchange – Automated data transfers of playlists, logs, financial information with booking, ticketing, point-of sales and network operating centers.

 

A wide range of additional features designed to improve workflow is included in DVidea Theater Management System.

 

DVidea Technology

DVidea's Theater Management System is based on open technology standards. Built on proven, non-proprietary platforms, DVidea's TMS integrates easily with industry-standard operating systems and hardware, including third-party automation systems. The system is DCI compliant, handles multiple formats and includes security protections with full control of the workflow processes.

 

Digital Cinema In Europe - Progress At Last

http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003817696

 

PROGRESS AT LAST

 

by Bill Mead, Digital Cinema Editor

 

Until recently, the European digital rollout was similar to watching a glacier in motion. At times, there seems to be no forward movement. Only when viewed over time and from a distance was there any apparent progress. However, in the past year, we have seen announcements from two major European-based digital-cinema providers that they are now able to offer exhibitors Hollywood-supported incentives covering up to 15,000 screens. These new business plans provide the European market with a solid foundation for future growth.

 

Last fall, London-based Arts Alliance Media (AAM) was the first to offer European exhibitors a funding package that includes incentives for up to 7,000 screens from four major Hollywood distributors. With the studio deal in hand, AAM has been busy expanding their footprint outside the U.K. with the November 2007 announcement of a 400-screen commitment from CGR Cinemas in France and also in Norway working with the country-wide changeover.

 

Belgium-based XDC, Europe’s first digital-cinema provider, announced this past May that it has also secured incentives from Warner Bros., Paramount, 20th Century Fox and Walt Disney Studios covering up to 8,000 screens. XDC also announced it expects to complete similar negotiations with Sony and Universal in the near future. Serge Plasch, XDC’s CEO said: “We are very happy to announce these milestone agreements which offer European exhibitors a viable business model to convert their screens to digital cinema. The support of Warner Bros., Paramount, Fox and Disney is a key factor for XDC and will allow us to keep our momentum in Europe, where XDC along with over 120 staunch pioneer customers have shown that commercial digital cinema works.”

 

The new XDC plan, along with the ongoing AAM plan, provides the long-needed boost to get digital cinema moving in the European market. Both plans offer studio incentives that will lower initial costs for the exhibitors, include integration and support services, and provide exhibitors with a flow of digital titles and exciting new content.

 

Currently, there are slightly more than 900 DCI-capable systems installed in European screens. (See table below.) During the past year, France, Belgium, Norway and Russia have increased their number of DCI-capable systems. In a few other countries such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, exhibitors have added 3D-enabled systems on a screen-by-screen basis primarily to play those titles available in 3D. Until the studio incentives are in place, exhibitors in these markets seem willing only to convert selected screens when immediate box-office returns are expected.

 

United Kingdom

In the spring of 2007, AAM completed the U.K. Film Council digital-cinema rollout of 240 screens. In addition to managing the UKFC’s Digital Screen Network, AAM has been completing trials with Odeon Cinemas at their nine-screen multiplex at Surrey Quays and has upped its offering to its exhibition partners. AAM is currently showing the La Scala opera series in the U.K. and in Norway—a series of seven operas from La Scala and also Venice and Florence at 29 sites across the U.K. and seven screens in Norway.

 

AAM also just signed a deal with Opus Arte (the production company of the Royal Opera House) to show their content in cinemas across Europe starting in September 2008. The schedule has yet to be finalized, but will include both live and recorded content from the Royal Opera House, and also other opera houses across Europe. The season will have both opera and ballet. This will be the first time ballet will be shown in cinemas.

 

In the fall of 2007, Real D finalized an agreement with Odeon Cinemas (now including UCI) to install up to 500 of their 3D cinema systems in theatres across Europe. So far, approximately half of Odeon’s estimated 50 digital screens have been equipped with Real D 3D systems. Odeon expects to continue their digital rollout over the next two years with plans to equip approximately one-third of Odeon’s screens with Real D 3D systems.

 

France

In November 2007, AAM announced a commitment from CGR to install digital in all of CGR’s 400 screens over the next few years. France currently has around 65 digital systems installed, with around 20 being the result of last fall’s announced deal between AAM and CGR theatres. CGR has also committed to use DLP Cinema projectors from Christie and servers from Doremi.

 

Recently, AAM installed France’s first all-digital multiplex with 12 screens at CGR’s La Rochelle Multiplex. Additionally, AAM has completed single-screen installations at CGR sites in the cities of Blagnac, Brignais, La Meziere, Lattes, Niort, Villenave d’Ornon and Torcy. Gwendal Auffret, AAM’s managing director of digital cinema, said, “La Rochelle is a benchmark for the digital-cinema transition in France and in Europe. Thanks to CGR, the French cinema industry has now a great opportunity to witness and understand the operations of a fully digital cinema. We look forward to the next phase of our rollout with such a great, innovative partner.” AAM’s target is to get the first 100 CGR systems installed by the end of 2008.

 

Norway

Norway has arguably the world’s most organized digital transition plan in progress, thanks to government support and coordination provided by Film&Kino, an industry organization owned by the local municipalities who are the primary owners and operators of the cinemas and with close connections to Norway’s ministry of culture. Currently with 40 DCI-grade systems, Norway is completing its initial beta deployments with two competing consortiums that are providing the systems integration and supplying the digital-cinema packages (DCPs).

 

Approximately half of the systems have been installed by the NORDIC (Norway's Digital Interoperability in Cinemas) consortium formed by Unique Digital—Norway’s largest cinema-advertising network, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and Telnor—the Norwegian telecommunications giant. Approximately 16 systems have been installed by Nordic Digital Alliance, which is made up of several local partners and U.K.’s Arts Alliance Media.

 

The current trials have used projectors from Christie, Barco, NEC and Sony and servers from Dolby, Doremi and Kodak. Seven of Norway’s 40 systems have been equipped with XpanD’s (formerly NuVision) 3D system. Film&Kino, along with technical support from one or both of the major Norwegian integrators, is planning to convert the entire country, with completion expected by late 2010. Film&Kino is currently in discussions with the Hollywood studios to provide virtual print fee (VPF) incentives to support the Norwegian rollout.

 

Russia

Russia has experienced a dramatic rebirth in its cinema industry, considering that in the early 1990s there were virtually no commercial theatres open. The first modern multiplexes began in 1996. Since then, the number has grown to over 1,500 screens in operation. Digital cinema began with a single installation in late 2006, and as of May 2008 there were 47 commercial digital screens at 38 sites.

 

Digital cinema in Russia is driven primarily by 3D. Since there has been no studio or government funding of systems, all have been purchased by the exhibitors, who have found that the popularity of 3D titles has supported a 70% price increase over the standard ticket. Approximately two-thirds of the screens are equipped with either the XpanD or the Dolby 3D systems.

 

Nine digital screens in Russia are operated by independent exhibitors, while the remaining cinemas are operated by nationwide circuits. The largest exhibitor is Cinema Park with 14 digital screens, with at least one at each of its 11 multiplexes, including nine equipped with 3D. By mid-summer 2008, Cinema Park plans to have two digital screens at each site, bringing their total to 22. The Russian installations have used DLP Cinema projectors from all the vendors and servers from both Dolby and Doremi.

 

Growth in Russia is expected to continue with around 60 digital screens by mid-year and over 100 by the end of the year. Running in parallel to the increasing number of digital screens is an increasing flow of digital releases. So far, over 50 digital titles have been released in Russia, including six in 3D and 11 from Russian productions. Nevafilm Digital is the local expert largely responsible for overseeing digital-cinema mastering and managing the delivery of the security keys used in Russia.

 

Picking Up Speed

The new deployment plans go a long way in providing European exhibitors with the funding mechanisms they need to move forward with essential deployment of the base-level digital-cinema systems needed for the strong slate of digital 3D titles expected in 2009 and onwards. Now, with two major European digital-cinema providers offering their exhibitor partners attractive financial deals backed by Hollywood studios, the forecast is for a fairly rapid increase in digital screens in 2008 and 2009.

 

 

Digital cinema screens by country

Country Digital Screens

United Kingdom 283

Germany 153

France 131

Belgium 85

Russia 46

Italy 43

Norway 41

Spain 38

Ireland 36

Netherlands 36

Austria 34

Portugal 27

Poland 16

Luxembourg 14

Switzerland 13

Bulgaria 8

Denmark 4

Greece 4

South Africa 4

Sweden 4

Iceland 3

Finland 2

Turkey 2

Czech Republic 1

Hungary 1

 

Total 1029 Screens

 

Source: DCinemaToday.com. Based on manufacturer-supplied data as of May 2008.

 

Sony unveils new 4K projector - Demoing new equipment at Cinema Expo

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/technology/news/e3ic57bdde562fb5f0948733c56adfad597

 

By Carl DiOrio

 

June 25, 2008, 06:00 PM ET

 

Related Content

More Cinema Expo coverage

 

AMSTERDAM -- The trade show floor at Cinema Expo 2008 is filled with the customary popcorn, theater-seat and tech vendors, but Sony Electronics reps are steering prospective customers to a secret demo suite to view something potentially much more watershed.

 

Sony has unveiled a 4K digital projector with easy adaptability to 3-D projection. Previously, two of the pricey projectors were necessary to rig an auditorium for 4K 3-D, preventing the wide use of the high-resolution systems for 3-D exhibition.

 

Once considered the next-generation technology for digital cinema, Sony's 4K systems have been struggling to overcome cost and manufacturing woes, and more conventional 2K d-cinema systems have remained the prevalent hardware in the marketplace. So Sony executives -- hoping soon to remedy the additional 3-D headache -- are demonstrating prototypes of the new 4K projectors with the aim of bringing the hardware to market by Christmas.

 

"It's from the customer that you get the best feedback," said Tore Mortensen, a Sony business manager now working with theater operators in Norway to test 3-D 4K projectors in four multiplexes.

 

Elsewhere at the confab Wednesday, Arts Alliance Media announced a 3-D addition to its alternative-programming offerings for d-cinema.

 

Arts Alliance will feature a first-ever 3-D opera presentation when it adds a Royal Opera House production of "Hansel and Gretel" to its programming lineup next year. Plans call for up to a half-dozen Royal Opera performances to be offered to patrons at cinemas throughout Europe and Australia.

 

Earlier in the day, two more studios offered energetic slate presentations.

 

Warner Bros. showed a brief montage of clips from "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," a sixth installment in the $4.48 billion franchise that's set for a holidays release. By video, Daniel Radcliffe also introduced a "Harry" retrospective.

 

Warners international distribution president Veronika Kwan-Rubinek told exhibitors that "Prince" would be distributed in "digital, 35mm and Imax, with select scenes in 3-D."

 

Exhibitors also saw new footage from another fourth-quarter debutante -- "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett -- and got a peek at the first trailer for the fall's Leonardo DiCaprio-Russell Crowe starrer "Body of Lies," with a brief intro by director Ridley Scott. An extended clip from Guy Ritchie's fall-slotted "Rocknrolla," starring Gerald Butler, Tom Wilkinson and Jeremy Piven, drew a good audience reaction.

 

Warners also screened its soon-to-bow Batman sequel "The Dark Knight" in a local Imax auditorium, the first time the Christian Bale starrer had been screened in the Imax format. Helmer Christopher Nolan shot about 30 minutes of the two-hour, 25-minute film with Imax cameras.

 

Disney, which followed its slate presentation with an evening screening of this weekend's animated feature "Wall-E," presented trailers and sneak peeks from year-end titles. Those included the youthful sequel "High School Musical 3: Senior Year," the family comedy "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" and "Bolt," its 3-D-animated feature about a TV star superdog.

 

With five 3-D movies in various stages of production, Disney execs also touted extra-dimensional 2009 releases including Robert Zemeckis' "A Christmas Carol." Disney international distribution topper Anthony Marcoly said next summer's "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" -- one of three titles involving uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer -- is expected to launch the studio's next major film franchise.

 

Arts Alliance and Christie Digital co-hosted a soccer-watching party at night for the throngs of European exhibitors anxious to catch a telecast of the Euro 2008 semifinal match between Germany and Turkey. Afterwards, Universal screened its summer musical comedy "Mamma Mia!" in a last-minute addition to the nighttime schedule.

 

Cinema Expo -- produced by the Nielsen Film Group, a division of Nielsen Business Media, parent company of The Hollywood Reporter -- concludes is four-day run at the RAI convention center Thursday with some final screenings and an awards banquet.

 

 

Hyundai Launches a New 3-D LCD Monitor

http://fullres.blogspot.com/2008/06/hyundai-launches-new-3-d-lcd-monitor.html

 

Hyundai announced its new W220S TriDef 3D LCD which packs the standard list of specs we expected in a 22-inch monitor: 1,680 x 1,050 WSXGA+ resolution, 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 300cd/m2 brightness and 5-ms response. Unfortunately the viewing angle is a mere 150-degrees up/down or 160-degrees side-to-side. Should you be bold enough to step into a pair of included polarized glasses then you'll also be treated to a suite of bundled 3D-apps including Google Earth 3D, a pair of 3D games, and TriDef Media Player for 3D video content. The W220S will be launched in Japan for ¥98,000 (about $913).

Developments in OB: Stereoscopic and 3-D

http://fullres.blogspot.com/2008/06/developments-in-ob-stereoscopic-and-3-d.html

 

Could the future of live sports broadcasts lie in 3-D? A number of trials could pave the way for widespread broadcast either to cinema screens or to the TV screen. France Telecom is planning to trial stereo production of France Premier League football matches, with a plan to debut stereo transmission over its 100Mbps FTTH network by 2010.

 

Adrian Kingston, SIS lead engineering manager for Wimbledon, contends that if there is to be widespread production in 3-D, it will end up as parallel, not separate. That means one set of cameras providing images for 3-D HD, 2-D HD, Internet and mobile applications.

 

The BBC was behind the world's first satellite-delivered 3-D HD OB, covering an international rugby match in conjunction with The3DFirm in March 2008. A few weeks later, regional U.S. network FOX Sports Net Southwest broadcast via satellite a Dallas Mavericks NBA game with 3-D pioneer Pace. In both cases, signal transmission rather than production was the key challenge.

 

The BBC and The3DFirm production rigged three pairs of Sony 950s with wide-angle HD zooms. Each pair of 1080i streams was uplinked at 19Mbps to reduce bandwidth, but 40Mbps per stream is anticipated for future projects. The bandwidth implications are significant. Each Pace Fusion camera unit delivered two uncompressed 1.5Gbps HD signals that were conveyed to two digital cinema projectors. Harris MPEG-4 encoders compressed the feeds to two 20Mbps streams that were combined into one 40Mbps ASI stream to fit on a C-band satellite transponder. The satellite signal was received at the cinema, decoded back to two uncompressed signals and fed to Sony 4K projectors.

 

Future experiments for The3DFirm include producing super-slow motion 3-D, mixing crowd atmospherics into a surround mix and inserting replay action into sections of the viewing area. Even something as standard as a graphical dock indicating game progress needs reworking in terms of presentation. Does it sit on the screen plane or closer to the audience?

 

All stereo OB pioneers are wary of deterring audiences with gimmicks that don't work. Stereo works best by trying to replicate the atmosphere of being in a stadium, not mimicking traditional 2-D coverage, It's currently a niche application, but advocates argue that it could have as much impact as high definition.

 

Other problems with OB recording include minimizing the size of the camera rig so it doesn't obscure the view of spectators and increasing the number of cameras to provide new angles and focal lengths. Since multicamera 3-D shoots are perfectly fea-sible, the remaining hurdles are logistics and negotiation. We need to get to the point where 3-D isn't just bolted onto standard 2-D coverage but starts to achieve a higher status.

 

By Adrian Pennington, Broadcast Engineering

The coming 3D revolution: Hype or reality?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13555_3-9971037-34.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5/

 

June 18, 2008 6:05 AM PDT

 

Posted by Steve Tobak Post a comment

 

One of the benefits of being a consultant is that you sometimes get to see really cool stuff before it hits the market.

 

I recently visited Kerner Optical--the stealthy special-effects unit that split off from Industrial Light & Magic a couple of years ago.

 

Retro 3D glasses

 

Among other things, Kerner is now focused on developing disruptive technology for a broad range of 3D applications. Without getting into specifics (because I can't) or technical gobbledygook--which you can get by checking out the company's research website--this stuff goes way beyond the current state of 3D movies, video games, virtual reality, and TV.

 

A recent James Cameron presentation provided some hints on what might be coming, but as some readers of this story observed, he stopped short of getting into any real specifics. Make no mistake, just like Kerner and others, Cameron has a lot invested in the 3D world. Still, I viewed his talk as more of a "heads-up and be prepared for what's coming" sort of thing. And something is indeed coming. But before we get into that, a brief caveat.

 

Some time ago, I wrote a post called "Top 10 technology flops" where I essentially trashed over-hyped technology that was destined to change the world and, well, didn't. So the last thing I want to do is overhype this.

 

In fact, you can read an entire history of 3D film-making here, and none of that technology is part of our current day-to-day lives. That said, I'm here to tell you that the 3D technology being developed today isn't your father's 3D technology.

 

The new stuff bears about as much resemblance to Creature from the Black Lagoon with the funky glasses as the consumer electronics and entertainment world of today resembles what my folks had back in the early '60s: a transistor radio, a hi-fi record player, and an 11-inch black-and-white TV with six whole channels of content.

 

Moreover, this new generation of 3D technology has the potential to be more disruptive than the introduction of the television set. You see, we currently spend a good portion of our waking lives communicating via two-way voice and viewing and interacting with flat video images. When you bring 3D imaging into the picture (no pun intended), the way we work, learn, play, shop and communicate changes. That covers a lot of ground.

 

Remember, we're not just talking about computer graphics, virtual reality, and displaying 2D content in 3D. We're talking about actual 3D data acquisition and display, and without the funky glasses. We're talking about the potential to visually immerse and interact with 3D versions of the Web, computer applications, games, TV, and, of course, movies. And let's not forget communications. This will take personal and business communications and conferencing to a whole new level. Add sensors and the visual experience can become physical as well, i.e. full immersion and interaction.

 

Some of the more advanced forms of the technology are already being used in scientific and medical research. And you know what that means. If there's a big market for it, the technology will eventually come down the cost, size, performance, and power learning curve. And the next thing you know, it'll be in your living room.

 

Of course, there are hurdles to overcome: hardware, software, display, power, eye fatigue, and communication bandwidth. It won't all happen overnight. But it will happen. And unless you're a really old fart, it will all happen in your lifetime.

 

If you have rugrats running around the house, bumping into and chewing on everything in sight, they will almost certainly raise their children in a computing and entertainment world that isn't reduced to a flat image. They will interact with objects and people thousands of miles away as if they're right in front of them.

 

Based on what I've seen, this isn't hype. It's the real thing.

Now Shipping: QubeMaster Xpress from Qube Cinema

http://www.uemedia.net/CPC/digitalcinemamag/articles/article_17096.shtml

 

By Staff

 

Jun 23, 2008, 07:14

 

North Hollywood, CA -- Qube Cinema, Inc announced the availability in the North American and European markets, of its latest offering â€" QubeMaster Xpress. The powerful and easy-to-use QubeMaster Xpress software provides users the ability to convert slides, animations and videos into ready-to-use Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs) that will work on any Digital Cinema Server.

 

Aimed at theaters equipped with digital cinema systems that would need to seamlessly screen custom material as part of their digital cinema presentation, QubeMaster Xpress allows statutory messages, custom slides and local commercials to be quickly and easily produced in-house without any prior experience in the complexities of digital cinema mastering.

 

Visitors to the Cinema Expo International convention being held June 23-26, 2008 at the RAI in Amsterdam can purchase the software from Booth #342 at a special show price.

 

QubeMaster Xpress guides the user through the process of converting JPEG and BMP images; Flash animations; and AVI and QuickTime movies into standards compliant DCPs in the DCI JPEG2000 format. Three easy steps are all it takes â€" choose one or more files; configure the picture and sound; name the Composition and hit go!

 

Rajesh Ramachandran, President and CTO of Qube Cinema says, “We tried to take all of the power, flexibility and speed we had in our QubeMaster Pro product for post-houses and bring that to the user in a package that anyone could use without any advanced digital cinema knowledge. We hope QubeMaster Xpress helps spread digital cinema far and wide.”

 

QubeMaster Xpress runs on any desktop or laptop computer with a dual-core processor running the Windows XP Professional, Vista Business or Vista Ultimate operating systems. A Mac OS X version is also under development.

 

The Qube product family has been conceived with the future in mind and provides an integrated workflow â€" from mastering to distribution to playback to reporting and archival. Being almost entirely software based allows the Qube system to leverage developments in the computer industry and bring to market, format independent, powerful and flexible products.

 

Resolution Purists and the Real World

http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/resolution-purists-and-the-real-world/

 

May 27, 2008 by Oliver Peters

 

I love to lurk over at RedUser.net, the unofficial online forum for RED owners and enthusiasts. It’s a great place to gain insight about the technology, but it’s also just pure fun reading the various perceptions of the lesser experienced RED aficionados. The RED One camera employs a single 4520 x 2540 CMOS sensor to capture various image sizes – the most popular of which is 4096 x 2048. This is considered to be a 4K file with a 2:1 aspect ratio. Many people confuse resolution and file size, so a 4K file isn’t necessarily 4K worth of resolution. There’s also a lot of confusion between the terms resolution and sharpness. The simplest explanation is that resolution is the measurable ability to resolve fine detail, while sharpness relates to your eyes’ and brain’s perception of whether or not an image is crisp and shows a lot of detail. Both Mark Schubin (Videography magazine’s technical editor) and Adam Wilt (Pro Video Coalition) have written at length on these subjects.

 

As a poor country editor who isn’t a DP or image scientist, I defer to the authorities on these subjects, but I have spent several decades working in all sorts of image formats, resolutions and display technologies. From this experience, I can say that often the supposed resolution of the sensor, as expressed in pixels, has very little to do with how the image looks. I see a lot of folks online expressing the desire to finish in 4K, without any understanding of the real world cost or desirability of 4K post and distribution. Not to mention the fact that true 4K theatrical displays are quite a few years off, if for no other reason than the lack of financial incentive for major theater chains to convert all their 35mm film projection to something like Sony’s SRX-series digital cinema projectors. So in spite of an interest on the part of content producers to see 4K presentation venues, the reality is that high-resolution-originated product will continue to end up being viewed on various displays, from web movies to SD and HD television up to film projection and/or digital cinema projection at 2K or less.

 

Been There – Done That – Got the Belt Buckle

 

The irony of all of this is that we’ve been there before. I even have the limited edition belt buckle to prove it! In the late 70s I worked with the CEI 310 camera. This was a 2-piece electronic field camera that was definitely geared towards high-quality production and not news. The CEI 310 eventually became the basis of Panavision’s Panacam – their first foray into electronic cameras equipped with Panavision film lenses. Bear in mind that the 310 and Panacam were always SD cameras without any 24P capabilities. On the plus side, the colorimetry of the CEI camera appeared more “filmic” than its ENG counterparts, which was further enhanced by the addition of Panavision lenses and accessories.

 

At the time, I was responsible for a facility that cranked out a ton of grocery store commercials. “Painting” the camera to get the most out of tabletop shots was the job of the video engineer (often called the “video shader”). A lot of what I learned about color correction (and have since passed on to others) came from trying to get a cooked ham or roast to look appetizing using our RCA studio cameras! When Panavision set up the deal with CEI to market Panacams, they established a number of authorized rental/production facilities who would supply the camera accompanied by a trained technician. Again, this person’s job was to paint the image for the most pleasing look. Fast forward a couple of decades and you have the position of the DIT (digital imaging technician), who today fulfills the role of video shading, among other tasks, when HD cameras are used on high-budget shoots, like feature films.

 

These early attempts at electronic cinematography really didn’t go far, due to the limiting resolution of NTSC and PAL video. Sure the images looked great, but you were really only working in a medium that was acceptable for television and not the big screen. Nevertheless, companies like Panavision, CEI and other competitors (like Ikegami with the EC-35) proved that properly adjusted video cameras coupled with high-quality glass could be a good marriage, regardless of the resolution of the camera.

 

High Definition to Small Definition

 

Fortunately HD came along, reviving the ongoing interest to use electronic cameras for theatrical distribution. The company I worked for in the 90s was an early adopter of HD. We bought two of Sony’s HDW-730 cameras, which were interlaced 1080 HDCAM camcorders. Interlacing causes many of the purists to snub their noses, preferring the later 24P models as true film-style images. In spite of this, we produced quite a lot of impressive content, including a Biblical-based dramatic production for a themed attraction called “The Holyland Experience”. Our 20-minute film was shot on location in Israel and projected in a custom theater that rivaled any big screen movie theater in size and scope. The final master was edited in 1080i but encoded into 720p and projected using a Barco data-grade (not digital cinema) projector. Interlaced or not, this image was as impressive and as high-quality to the eye as if this had been a full blown 35mm film production.

 

On the other end of the scale, I’ve also posted the video portions of IllumiNations: Reflections Of Earth, Disney’s nighttime show at EPCOT - a fireworks and laser extravaganza choreographed to music. ROE’s video segments are presented on a 29’ tall rotating earth globe mounted on a barge in the middle of the EPCOT lagoon. The continental masses on that globe consist of LED displays. The final image that fills these screens is actually a 360 x 128 pixel video movie composited like a world map. The pixels for the continents are, in turn, mapped onto the matching LED coordinates of the globe. Australia only has the resolution of a typical computer desktop icon, yet it is still possible to discern imagery with a display this coarse. The trick is in the fact that viewing distances are 500’ to 700’ away and your brain fills in the gaps. This works much like the image of Lincoln’s face that’s made up of a mosaic of other images. When you get far enough back, you recognize Lincoln, instead of focusing on the individual components.

 

High Definition and the Silver Screen

 

 

 

Most folks now agree that the actual resolution of the RED One camera with proper lenses and accurate focus is in excess of 3K, though not quite as high as 4K. Compare this to film. 35mm negative is said to be as high as the equivalent of 8K (though 4K is generally accepted by most as “full” resolution), but typically is scanned at 4K or 2K resolution. However, the image you see in the theater from a projected release print, is generally considered to be closer to 1K. This varies with the quality of the print, projector lens and dimness of the projector lamp. Meanwhile, most of the popular HD cameras used for digital cinematography (Grass Valley Viper, Sony F900, Sony F23, etc.) capture images at 1920 x 1080, leaving you with a 16 x 9 image that’s comparable to a 2K film scan when the aspect ratio is 1.85:1. I’ve seen quite a few of the movies in theaters that were “filmed” using digital cameras (Collateral, Apocalypto, Zodiac, Star Wars, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, etc.) and I find very little to quibble about. In fact, Star Wars was shot with the wider 2.35:1 aspect, meaning that the top and bottom were cropped. So really only about 700 pixels out of the actual 1080 pixel height show up in the final prints.

 

I’ve also edited a film that was finished through a DI process using Assimilate SCRATCH. Our film was shot on 4-perf Super35mm negative and transferred to HDCAM-SR. Since we intended to end up in 1.85:1, the 4-perf Super35mm frame provided the closest fit to the 16 x 9 aspect ratio of HD, without wasting part of the top and bottom of the negative’s frame. This technique results in smaller film grain within the HD frame because more of the whole film frame is used. Internally our SCRATCH files were 2K DPX files and the output was back to an HDCAM-SR master. I’ve seen this film projected at DCI spec in the lab’s screening room, as well as HDCAM running through a projector at 1080i (interlaced with added 3:2 pulldown) and I must say that this image would not have looked any better had we worked off of a 4K film scan.

 

The reason I say this is due to the general texture of film and the creative choices made for exposure, lighting and lens/filter selection. Images that are often more pleasing to the eye are sometimes technically lower in sharpness. In other words, when you stick your nose up close to the screen, the image will tend to appear soft. Having higher resolution doesn’t matter, because there is no more real detail in the image to bring out except bigger film grain. One interesting comparison is last year’s There Will Be Blood versus No Country For Old Men. Blood went through a traditional film, rather than a digital finish, whereas No Country was completed at 2K resolution using a digital intermediate process. Both were nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography. By all rights, Blood should have had the higher resolution image, yet in point of fact, both looked about the same to the casual eye when seen in the theaters. The cinematography was striking enough to earn each a nomination.

 

It’s in the Glass

 

Going back to the Panacam example, what you start to find out is that the quality of the glass is a major factor in what ends up being recorded. I once did a film shot with a Sony F900 camera (24P). The DP/owner-operator opted to rent a “Panavised” Sony F900 (like those used on Star Wars) instead of using his own camera, so that he could take advantage of the better Panavision lenses. The result was a dramatic difference between the image quality of those lenses as compared to standard HD lenses. Likewise, some of the RED examples I’ve seen online that were shot with various non-optimized lenses, such as prime lenses designed for still photo cameras, exhibited less-than-superb quality. This is also why there have been a number of successful indie films shot with a Panasonic VariCam. Technically the VariCam, with its 1280 x 720 imager, should look significantly worse on the big screen than a Sony F900. Yet, many of these have been shot using 35mm lens adapters and high-quality film lenses. The results on screen speak for themselves. The funny thing is that there’s a lot of talk of 4K, yet when I’ve seen Sony’s 4K projector demos, the content comes from 1920 x 1080 sources – shot with various Sony or Panavision digital cameras. I can assure you that these look awesome.

 

You ARE Paying for Something

 

Aside from lenses, another thing to keep in mind is the electronics used by the camera for image enhancement and filtering. Part of the big difference you pay between a RED One and a competing Sony, Grass Valley or Panasonic camera is for the electronics used to enhance the image. The RED One generates a camera raw, Bayer-pattern image. The intent is to do all processing in post, just like sending film negative to a lab. The other cameras have a lot of circuitry designed to control the image in-camera. You may opt for a neutral, flat image, but there’s still processing applied to generate that finished RGB image from the camera, regardless of whether it’s flat or painted. This processing not only applies color matrices but also sharpens detail and reduces noise. By contrast, RED not only doesn’t apply this in-camera, but also uses OLPF (optical low pass filtering), common in digital still camera sensors. OLPF essentially filters out the highest resolution transients so that you don’t have excess aliasing in the image on things like contrasting diagonal lines, such as on a car grill. The design goal is to leave you with true and not artificial resolution. This means the image may at times appear soft, so sharpening and detail enhancement have to be added back (to taste) during the post production conversion of the camera raw files.

 

The dilemma of all of this file conversion needed in post is that you often don’t get the best results. On the plus side, you may reap the benefit of oversampling, meaning that at times an HD image downsampled to SD may look better than it if had been shot in SD to begin with. I have, however, also found the opposite to be true. HD is a very high resolution image that has more actual resolution than our monitors and projectors can truly display. An image looks more natural in HD when less detail enhancement is dialed in. If you crank up the enhancement, like you typically do in most SD cameras, then that image would look garish in HD. Unfortunately, when you downsample this very natural looking HD image into SD, the image tends to look soft, because we are used to the look of overly-enhanced SD cameras. Therefore, downsampling by a dedicated device like the Teranex Mini will give you better results than using the built-in functions of Final Cut Pro or a Kona card or an HD deck, because the Mini lets you subjectively add enhancement, color control and noise reduction as part of the HD-to-SD conversion.

 

Aliasing is another issue. A lot of HD content is captured in progressive formats (such as 24P). Progressive HD images on a native progressive display (projectors, plasmas, LCDs) look great, but when you display these same images as scaled-down NTSC or PAL on an interlaced CRT, something’s got to give. If you take a high-contrast transition, such as the light-to-dark changes between the metal bars in our car grill example, the HD image is able to retain all the anti-aliasing information for the in-between gradients in those transitions from light to dark and back. When this image is downsampled, some of this detail is lost and there’s less anti-aliasing information. The transitions becomes harsher when displayed on the interlaced SD CRT and the metal of the grill appears to scintillate with any movement. In order words, the diagonal edges of the metal grill appear more jagged and tend to “dance” between the scanlines.

 

Unfortunately this is a normal phenomenon and can exist whether you shoot digitally or on film. A few years back Cintel, an established telecine manufacturer, introduced SCAN’dAL, a feature designed specifically to deal with this issue when transferring 35mm footage to video. Although a lot of ink has been spilled about the benefits of oversampling, in some case the matching size yields the best results. I go back to SD videos I’ve cut, which were shot using a Sony Digital Betacam camcorder and am amazed at how much better these look in SD than newer versions of the same program shot on HD and downsampled for SD presentation. When downsampling is part of the workflow, then it is important to try a number of options if quality is critical. For example, sometimes hardware does a better job and at other times software is king. Some of the better HD-to-SD scaling in software is achieved in After Effects and Shake. Often just the smallest touch of Gaussian blur will help as well.

 

Reality Check for the Indie Filmmaker

 

One of the reasons this isn’t cut-and-dried is because camera manufacturers play so many games with the image. For example, the Panasonic HXV200 makes outstanding images and is popular with indie filmmakers. Yet it only uses a 960 x 540 pixel sensor to generate 720 or 1080 images – getting there through the magic of pixel shifting (See Adam Wilt). As good as the camera looks, when you put it side-by-side with Panasonic’s VariCam, the latter will appear noticeably sharper than the 200, because it indeed has higher resolution.

 

I’m sure you’re wondering if this is all just a can of worms. You’re right. It is. But often, the most calibrated measuring devices are simply your two eyes. Forget the specs and trust your instincts. A recent example is Shine A Light. This film was shot using a combination of 35mm film cameras and one Panavision Genesis. All footage ended up on HDCAM-SR (1920 x 1080) and the master from this not only was recorded out to 35mm film for release prints, but also IMAX. Even though HD isn’t close to the resolution of a 70mm IMAX negative, the Stones’ concert in Shine A Light looks incredible in IMAX projected onto a 5-story-tall screen!

 

In the real world, it’s amazing what you can get away with. Last year the Billy Graham Library opened with video modules that I edited and finished. The largest screen is in the Finale theater - an ultra-widescreen format that’s a horizontal composite of three 720p projections. Our sources were largely HD, but there were also a smattering of audience close-up shots from Graham’s last crusade in New York City that originated on a Panasonic DVX100A (mini-DV) camera. It was amazing how well these images held up in the finished product. Other great examples are the documentaries Murderball and The War Tapes. Each was shot with a variety of mini-DV cameras, yet in spite of the image defects, the stories and personalities are so enthralling, that image quality is the least important factor.

 

I have a lot of respect for what the team at RED has done, but I’m not yet willing to concede that shooting with the RED One is going to give you a better film than if you used other cameras, like an Arri D-21, Sony F23 or Panasonic’s new HPX3000, just because RED has a higher pixel count for its sensor. In the end, like everything else in this business, content and emotion is the most important ingredient. When it comes to capturing an image, the technical resolution of the camera is a big factor, but it doesn’t automatically guarantee the best image results from the point-of-view of your audience.

 

© 2008 Oliver Peters