It's official, I'm part of Deluxe

It's not exactly been a secret in some corners of this surprisingly small industry, but now it is official. I have joined Deluxe and there is a press release at DCinemaToday to prove it, backed up by a small article in Screen International, albeit a cut-n-pasted shorter version of the former. It's good to finally be able to talk openly about it and also to tell you the story behind the appointment.

I was tapped on the shoulder by Steve Bergman at this year's Cannes Film Festival and when he asked me if I would be interested in setting up Deluxe's European digital cinema operation it just seemed so, well, right. I've known Steve since his Boeing days; I have tremendous respect for the other guys working there, such as Jim Whittlesey and Steve Tsai; and I've always liked Deluxe because they get on with things with a very clear focus of what needs doing, but without making a song and dance about it. Working with theses guys to expand Deluxe's digital cinema reach to Europe was too good an offer to refuse. What reason could there be not to join?

Well, for a start there was Unique Digital, whom I was working for at the time and to whom I feel tremendous professional and personal loyalty. Not least as we were getting started with the NORDIC project (NORway's Digital Interoperability in Cinemas), which has been gathering considerable steam in its first quarter. But Deluxe, far sighted that they were, agreed to let me keep an active role in NORDIC, recognising that it was performing work that would benefit the industry as a whole. (Bless them!) So I will be devoting time to NORDIC until the project wraps in May '07. They have ten installations in place, five types of projectors (Barco, Cinemeccanica, Christie, NEC and Sony) and three servers (Dolby, Doremi and QuVis), with more to come. They are showing films (Pirates 2, Superman Returns) and if you have the stomach for it, click on this link to read about the live surgery on the big screen. They have uncovered lots of issues that are being fed back and are helping the hardware suppliers and service providers to improve their offerings. The project partners are rappidly becoming the foremost authorities on practical digital cinema know-how in Scandinavia.

But what about Unique Digital itself? Well, if you pardon the Biblical analogy, like Moses I seem to be destined to lead the Unique tribe through the desert to the promised land. Yet I was fated not to enter it myself. My role as heading up Business Development was nearing it's natural completion; I helped sign up several major new cinema advertising customers and did my bit to expand existing installations considerably, I co-devised the company's digital cinema strategy and have also been part of lining up several potential partners and interested investors in the business. You will be seeing several announcements and press releases from Unique in the coming months about all these things. Or if you just can't wait, contact my friend and colleague Dave Spilde (ds@upmail.no) now to begin discussions of what you and Unique might do together.

What it meant was that Unique didn't need any more business development. They had business enough to keep them occupied and happy for the foreseeable future. What they needed now was a Projects Co-Ordinator, which was not what I signed up for or might even be best suited to do. (Expect them to make an important announcement about this too soon.) Best of all is that we are on very good terms - they even let me keep my mobile/cell number - just as I stayed on excellent terms with my previous company Screen Digest. So don't be surprised to see me in the bar having a beer or two with Dave and Professor Perkis at IBC in Amsterdam. Who knows, I'm not even ruling out synergies between Deluxe and Unique. Like I said, just wait and see what both companies have in their respective pipeline. I know and I'm excited for both.

Apart from all that, second day at Deluxe has gone pretty well. The air-conditioning system sprung a leak - not my fault - and I've managed to memorize the entry code for the men's room. Yes, they really are THAT security conscious here at Dering Street.