Cinemeccanica and Barco take leading role in French digital cinema roll-out

http://www.digitalcinemainfo.com/barcodigitalcinema_06_03_09.php

June 3, 2009

Source: Barco

Cinemeccanica and digital cinema pioneer Barco are proud to announce a milestone contract with French exhibitor Cap Cinéma. Under the terms of the agreement, both companies will install eighty 2K DLP digital projectors in Cap Cinéma theaters across France.

With more tan 100 screens across the country, Cap Cinéma is one of the most renowned exhibitors in France. A long-term customer of Barco's Value Added Partner Cinemeccanica, Cap Cinéma selected Barco's DP series of projectors for its digital conversion, powered by financing from Ymagis. During the first deployment phase, running until September 2009, theaters in Blois, Saint-Quentin, Périgeux, Agen, Carcassonne, Montauban, Beaune and Fribourg will be digitized. Rollout for other complexes will start in October 2009.

“This digitization is the continuation of our long term relationship with Cinemeccanica,” says Philippe Dejust, General Manager, Cap Cinéma. “We deliberately opted for the Cinemeccanica-Barco offering of digital projectors, powered by Texas Instruments' DLP technology. As we want to give our audience a memorable movie experience, the image quality and universal 3D compatibility of Barco's projectors were key elements in our choice.”

Cinemeccanica and Barco are long term partners and signed a Value Added Partnership in 2007. Under the terms of this agreement, Cinemeccanica promotes and supports Barco digital cinema solutions across southern Europe.

Patrick Muller, General Director, Cinemeccanica, comments: “With this contract France is cementing its leading role in Europe's ongoing digital conversion. As a Value Added Partner, we are pleased to integrate Barco-powered projectors and continue our fruitful collaboration with Cap Cinéma. Barco's digital cinema projectors have a low cost of ownership, are easy to use and prove extremely reliable, exactly what our customers are looking for.“

Tim Sinnaeve, sales director EMEA of Barco's digital cinema business, adds: “We are pleased to take a leading role in the digital conversion of a country with such a rich cinema history and world famous film festivals. This project is the result of our great partnership with Cinemeccanica and will pave the way for more French cinemas to turn digital.”

“This is a major financing deal in digital cinema,” says Jean Mizrahi, Managing Director of Ymagis. “We have set up a business model to give cinema owners a smooth transfer to digital. I must admit we are very pleased to join forces with a worldwide digital cinema pioneer like Barco.”