Digital cinema comes to Kuwait

Kuwait looks set to be the first Arabic cinema to install a 2K digital cinema system, though Isreal beat them to it in the Middle East region. According to the press release this could shortly be followed by a complete conversion of the participating exhibitors entire cinema network:

Kuwait National Cinema Company (KNCC), one of the largest theatrical exhibition companies in the Middle East, the Chennai-based Qube Cinema, Inc. and Cinemeccanica Theatrical Equipment Co.,(Italy) have partnered to bring the first digital cinema to the Middle East and Gulf Region. A pilot DCI quality digital cinema is under installation in KNCC's theatre (Cinescape) in Kuwait City using a Qube XP-D DCI Compliant digital cinema server and a Cinemeccanica 2K digital projector.

This pilot phase will, if successful, be followed by a complete digitisation of KNCC's screens all over Kuwait and upcoming cinemas in Gulf States, i.e. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Qatar. KNCC and Qube Cinema also plan to setup a digital cinema mastering unit in the region to convert Arabic content to DCI compliant Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs).

Interesting to note that it is Qube supplying the server. Although they haven't made a great fanfare about it, GDC Technology supplied the first digital cinema server to Africa (Kenya, if memoriy serves me correctly) and the likes of Qube and GDC could come to dominate 2K/DCI deployments in developing nations, given their lower costs and better understanding of these markets.