More digital 3D news and developments

The release of Meet the Robinsons seems to have triggered a minor avalanche of digital 3D news, analysis and pontifications. Here are some of the recent items. Rick Munarritz at MotleyFool written a good article highlighting the 'duel' between IMAX and Disney - or rather large format Hollywood releases and digital 3D Hollywood releases - in providing an enhanced cinema goer experience. Not to spoil the ending of the article but Disney/digital 3D emerges the winner:

Take the recent success of Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) 300, for instance. The movie opened in 62 domestic IMAX theaters just as it hit your local multiplex. The stylized chronicle of Spartan combat grossed $70.9 million at the box office during its opening weekend on 3,103 screens, and $3.6 million of that came from 300: The IMAX Experience. The average conventional theater took in an impressive average of $22,000 over the weekend, yet the IMAX locations averaged a record $58,000 per screen.

The crowds kept coming. A weekend later, IMAX was accounting for a worldwide $9.1 million of the cumulative $154.2 million that 300 had generated. You're sitting pretty if you're producing 6% of the ticket sales on just 2% of the screens.

Yes, IMAX setups are a little larger. The company's MPX system, being tested by theater chains, takes up the space of two retrofitted screens. The transformation process doesn't come cheap, but the 300 math still works in its favor. Triple the ticket sales for double the space? An event-driven crowd that will be quicker to pay up for pricey concessions to make the most of the experience? That adds up for me.

However, let's check back in on our good friend Lewis. The $7.1 million in ticket sales generated by the digital 3-D version breaks down to just $12,220 per screen, but that's still 2.6 times more than the film drew from the traditional screens.

Disney has now given Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons the digital 3-D treatment with welcome results. Can you imagine how sweet it will be with a bigger Pixar flick? Meet the Robinsons in 3-D accounted for 28% of the film's opening-weekend gross, in just 17% of the theaters. Disney isn't going to shy away, especially since movie chains are making the digital migration anyway.

According to my calculations, there are now more than twice as many digital cinema 3D-equipped screens world wide as there are large format/IMAX screens.

Disney will re-release the digital 3D version of The Nightmare Before Christmas this Halloween again. The only thing different about it is that it will include a 3D re-rendered version of Tim Burton's first short Vincent this time. Don't be surprised of SPE also re-release Monster House in time for Halloween as well. Christie claims that 67 per cent of digital cinema projectors used by Real D were manufactured by Christie, perhaps not surprising given that almost half of them (220 out of 460) are part of the Christie/AIX deployment. World wide Real D claims to have 680 installations. Another major cinema chain to have embraced Real D and digital 3D is National Amusements, which has the system installed in half of all its cinemas according to this press release:

Currently, National Amusements circuit features 24 locations with 25 screens and brings the total of National Amusements 3D 2K projection systems to 44 locations on 45 screens. The installations will be completed for the opening of Disney's animated feature film, MEET THE ROBINSONS in REAL D on March 30, 2007 and will bring over 50% of National's locations into the realm of Digital 3D, the highest percent of any major USA circuit.

"We are pleased to be able to bring the excitement of REAL D 3-D technology to an even larger number of our patrons, and just in time to enjoy this new Disney film," said Shari E. Redstone, President, National Amusements. "This great 3-D technology allows National Amusements to bring patrons a broader range of unique film and entertainment programming options such as live sports and concert performances, building on our goal to make our theatres a community entertainment destination."

The REAL D 3-D installations complement National Amusements efforts to bring state-of-the art digital cinema to their patrons. The company is participating in Technicolor Digital Cinema's beta test of state-of-the-art digital projection equipment in 14 National Amusements sites, reaching 120 screens in select locations. This will bring National's total Digital Cinema presentation capability to a total of 165 Screens in it's U.S. locations. They have also recently signed a multiyear agreement with Screenvision to install its digital pre-show system on more than 1,000 of National Amusements' domestic screens.

A brief history of films released in 3D (digital and analogue) is provided in the following article that looks at 'The Three Ages of 3D', of which this is the first:

The 1950s

Although the stereoscopic technology used in creating 3-D movies was invented in the late 1800s, with the first debuting in the early 1900s, the 1950s was the decade of ''in your face'' 3-D action. It was part of Hollywood's response to the advent of television.

Following the success of 1953's ''Bwana Devil,'' with its thrown spears and leaping lions assaulting the audience, Hollywood embraced the technology. Later that year came ''House of Wax,'' and in 1954 ''Creature From The Black Lagoon'' and Alfred Hitchcock's ''Dial M For Murder.''

During this time, audiences used the classic, flimsy cardboard glasses with the red-and-blue cellophane lenses.

However, like most it gets the early history wrong. These first films were not shown using anaglyph (red and blue filter) technology but using polarized glasses. This Wikipedia article has a much better grasp of history:

The "golden era" (1952-1955)

What aficionados consider the "golden era" of 3-D began in 1952 with the release of the first color stereoscopic feature, Bwana Devil, produced, written and directed by Arch Oboler. The film was shot in Natural Vision, a process that was co-created and controlled by M. L. Gunzberg. Gunzberg, who built the rig with his brother, Julian, and two other associates, shopped it without success to various studios before Oboler used it for this feature, which went into production with the title, The Lions of Gulu.[citation needed] The film stars Robert Stack, Barbara Britton and Nigel Bruce.

As with practically all of the features made during this boom, Bwana Devil was projected dual-strip, with Polaroid filters. During the 1950s, the familiar disposable anaglyph glasses made of cardboard were mainly used for comic books, two shorts by Dan Sonny Productions, and three shorts produced by Lippert Productions. One should note, however, that even the Lippert shorts were available in the dual-strip format alternatively.

Because the features utilized two projectors, a capacity limit of film being loaded onto each projector (about 6,000 feet) meant that an intermission was necessary for every movie. Quite often, intermission points were written into the script of the film at a major plot point.

And here is a lovely poster of Bwana Devil to remind you of what 3D films aren't like any more.

THR claims more than 4,000 D-Cinema installations WW

Two major digital cinema milestones have been passed, according to Texas Instruments and The Hollywood Reporter. There are now more than 4,000 screens world wide converted to high-end digital, and 10 per cent of all screens in the US, since that is where the majority of the installs are.

According to the article this growth is being pushed recently by digital 3-D:

TI's figures are based on projectors using DLP technology. The TI chip is used in digital cinema projectors from Barco, Christie and NEC, and TI estimated that 99% of digital theaters rely on this technology.

"Meet the Robinsons" will play in 3-D on roughly 600 digital cinema screens domestically, and an additional 100 internationally. "There has been a 400% increase in 3-D screens using DLP Cinema projectors in the U.S. since Disney's 2006 release of "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D," said Nancy Fares, business manager for DLP Cinema Products Group. "Meet the Robinsons" will also be available in 2D on 122 digital cinema screens worldwide.

The burst of activity demonstrates some momentum in the transition, as the industry recorded 1,000 digital cinema screens in theaters about a year ago and reached 3,000 in early January.

If TI is right that 99 per cent of projectors deployed use the DLP Cinema chip, that means that there are around 40 Sony SXRD projectors from Sony in US, Norway and Japan.

But with a growth of about 400 projectors a month (most still for Christie/AIX) ad a projection of 5,000 screens this summer and 7,000 by the end of '07, Sony has some serious catching up to do.

Microspace-Carmike deal opens way for more movies over satellite in US

Carmike Cinemas, who as you know is the largest client of Christie/AIX, has signed an independent delivery deal with Microspace. This seems to mean that in the future studios would not have to go through AccessIT to send their films to cinemas in digital over satellite. Instead their preferred service providers (Deluxe, Technicolor) could use Microspace directly. This is a very interesting development, as highlighted by the article 'Movies from Space!':

As part of a pilot program, Microspace will install satellite and server equipment in more than 200 Carmike theaters, making it possible for digital satellite transmissions to reach more than 2,000 screens, Microspace officials said. Neither Carmike nor Microspace would divulge the cost of the agreement.

The deal, reached on March 7, will enable Carmike, already the biggest user of digital technology in the movie theater business, to accept films from more Hollywood studios. Carmike entered the deal with Microspace because some studios have preferences as to which satellite delivery company they use, said Tony Reed, senior vice president at Carmike.

Carmike has had a deal in place with Access IT of Morristown, N.J., since March 2004, to receive digital transmissions of movies directly via satellite.

Of Carmike's 2,447 total screens in 289 theaters, 1,711 screens in 85 theaters are set up for digital, Reed said.

"Access IT, to date, has delivered films to Carmike theaters from Buena Vista, Universal and a couple of others," he said.

Microspace executives say their company has delivered 10 first-run films -- "Glory Road," "World Trade Center," "Dream Girls," "Over the Hedge," "Mission Impossible III," "Eight Below," "The Shaggy Dog," "She's the Man," "Flushed Away" and "Cars" -- to eight theater chains across the country. The movies played on more than 2,000 screens at some 250 locations, said Curt Tilly, manager of digital cinema distribution for Microspace.

Note that studios like Sony Pictures and Fox are absent from this list, but that might now start to change.

This is a great step forward for Microspace, which now looks set to become the pre-eminent digital cinema satellite service provider for North America.

India rips into Hollywood's d-cinema standards

It's not often that you get an out-and-out assult on Hollywood standard-setting efforts for digital cinema. Mostly it is low key grumblings, punctured by the occasional inane idea of a 'French' or 'European' digital cinema standard. But it seems like the Indians, who have as much if not more experience in distributing films digitally to cinemas as Hollywood, have had it up to here according to this article in Variety:

Rajaa Kanwar, vice chairman of UFO Moviez and chairman of the Ficci (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) digital entertainment forum, described standards put together by the Digital Cinema Initiative's committee of Hollywood studios and vendors as "rigid, unrealistic" and "not appropriate" to many territories, including India.

Kanwar described a series of myths he ascribed to DCI and d-cinema systems that claim to be DCI compliant.

He said that theater chains do not generally invest in technology; that distributors are fragmented and not able to manage technology themselves; that interoperability is not a reality; and that the human eye is largely unable to detect the higher image quality delivered by DCI standards.

Kanwar said that the cost of a DCI -compliant d-cinema system is about $125,000; his company charges theaters as little as $4.60 per screening for 2K projection equipment.

UFO Moviez provides turnkey digital cinema systems that are typically leased or rented by multiplex operators. Antipiracy protection comes from satellite delivery of movies that requires no human intervention.

Company has e-cinema installations in 625 theaters in India and is selling its system in Singapore, Malaysia and Europe.

Bill Jasper Jr., prexy, director and CEO of Dolby Laboratories, admitted that he had not understood the DCI's decision to switch from MPEG to JPEG2000 standards for video compression. (JPEG2000 is a standard derived from technology for still images.)

He suggested problems ahead for the DCI as studios want to do away with the virtual print fee, which may be as high as $1,000, in a few years. But he said that 3-D cinema, made more possible by 4K DCI-compliant technology, was popular with auds and is an "effective antipiracy tool."

As Walt Ordway is always at pains to stress, a) DCI is not a 'standard' but a set of specifications, and b) it describes a baseline, but is open to expansions and extensions. Before you knock the Indians, remember that they are the only ones to have made e-cinema possible on a big scale without needing Hollywoods virtual print fee (VPF) solution. I'm also surprised that Jasper should not have understood the switch from MPEG to JPEG (even though he worked for an audio company at the time) and I'm sure that he is misquoted in linking digital 3D and 4K.

ShoWest review - digital 3D goes mainstream

It is difficult to tackle the ShoWest cinema trade show in Las Vegas earlier this month in one review, so I'm breaking it down into a few sections.

The most obvious one to start with is digitial stereoscopic cinema, or digital 3D, as this was by far the biggest topic. By now, pretty much everyone has woken up to the fact that digital 3D is the only visible differentiator that digital cinema has over 35mm film. This despite the fact that I attended my first digital 3D demo at ShoWest 2004, i.e. three years ago, albeit of a prototype set-up in a hotel room in Flamingo. What is perhaps most remarkable is how long it took Texas Instruments, maker of the DLP Cinema chip and hence keepers of the digital cinema flame, to wake up to this USP of their technology. Now even Sony are trying to get in on it with their SXRD projectors. But more about that in a minute.

We've only had three digital 3D features to day: Chicken Little, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and Monster House and as any of the studio technologists who had worked on either will tell you, there were heaps of problems to be overcome, not least in creating the 8-12 versions that had to be sent out (that's DCPs, not local language versions). But now we have Disney's Meet the Robinsons out and playing in digital 3D in over 600 locations, so we have reached the tipping point where digital 3D crosses over into the mass market. This article from the Detroit Free Press confirms this:

There are only about 600 theaters whose owners have been convinced that the new 3-D is not a fad or a gimmick, useful only for making an audience duck when baseballs or other objects seem to be hurled from the screen.

But if "Meet the Robinsons" is a success, more theater owners will be induced to buy the necessary projection equipment. (At present, theater owners want the studios to foot the bill, just as they do with basic digital projection.)

What it will take to bring about this change is the release of a blockbuster exclusively in 3-D digital. (Most theaters will show "Meet the Robinsons" in the flat, two-dimensional version). And that is exactly what is promised in 2009, when "Titanic" director James Cameron releases the live-action sci-fi fantasy-adventure "Avatar."

The hype and hoopla around "Avatar" is certain to be on a "Star Wars" level, which will mean every theater chain will want to have it on three or four screens. And once that technology is in place, more filmmakers will embrace it, first for animated films and action-driven spectacle -- as in "Mission: Impossible IV: 3-D" or the resurrection of the "Star Trek" franchise -- and then, as we adjust to and expect it, for everything that comes after.

At the pre-ShoWest meeting of EDCF Bob Kisor of Paramount predicted that by 2009 there would be enough digital 3D films out to keep at least one screen in a multiplex occupied full time with nothing but 3D films. Paramount will be the third studio to release a digital 3D title when Beowulf comes out later this year, by which time there will be over 1,000 screens equipped to show it in digital 3D. The Financial Times has a good, if not too deep, summary of the situation in an its article 'Hollywood sees its box office future in 3D revival'. A further note of optimism was injected by Jeffrey Katzenberg of Dreamworks Animation, who are going into CGI digital 3D in the near future, according to the article in Hollywood Reporter:

Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, which is readying two 3-D films for 2009, predicted that moviegoers will some day own their own glasses for 3-D viewing much like they own sunglasses today.

He said that moviegoers will gladly pay up to a 50% premium to watch 3-D films in a theater and that such a scenario will make the debate over collapsing distribution windows largely irrelevant. He noted that the exhibition industry hasn't used variable pricing strategies to boost it fortunes nearly to the extent that other industries have.

And one more added benefit: 3-D movies can't be easily pirated.

He also added some interesting news./gossip, such as the Pixar and Disney were considering releasing Toy Story 3 in digital 3D and that given enough screens, Dreamwork's 2009 title Monsters vs Aliens would only be released in digital 3D in cinemas and 2D would be saved for the DVD.

So what did we actually see at ShoWest? There were three major digital 3D events. The company that is behind most of the installations in the US and around the world, Real D, showed clips from films (the Robinson trailer). But as the Thursday event was billed as 'Hollywood and Beyond' they also went into some ODS (other digital stuff), primarily the two documentaries that they will be releasing with National Geographics, so expect lions and sea monsters in digital 3D at your local multiplex. More interestingly we were shown clips from the U2 concert in 3D. It was impressive, but to truly have been blown away I would have want to have seen it live.

The live digital 3D was the promise of the other major event, supported by Sony and post-poned a day after 'electrical' problems, “3-D and Alternative Content – Not Just for Movies Anymore”:

Presented by Sony Electronics
Alternative content for your digital theater moves to the next level with live events in 3-D. As demonstrated during the NBA All-Star Game weekend, sporting and concert events captured - live - by 3D Digital Camera Systems and exhibited - live - in 3D provide a new and more compelling theater experience. Game enthusiasts competing together in multiple HD windows on a single 4K projector can provide a way to monetize off-hours in your theater. A panel of Industry Experts will discuss the moneymaking implications of these new content avenues. Examples of gaming content and 3D "live" sports content will be exhibited during the session.

Sony caught some flack for pulling of this demo by stacking two SXRD 4K projectors, something that no-one is likely to be doing in their projection booth. I have less of a problem with this, as I'm sure that the technology will be good enough to be doing it with one projector within a couple of years. Also, the event was not about the Sony projector but about the ODS potential of digital 3D, as demonstrated by the 3ality production. Yet, there was a 'us-too' aspect to it in the fact that Sony does not want to be seen to be left behind in the rush to digital 3D.

Seeing the NBA basketball game in digital 3D was a revelation, even for an anti-sports person like myself, because it proved the valibity of the less-is-more adage. In this case it proved that less close ups, fast cuts, fast pans and zooms and general camera trickery, made for a more involving experience. The cinema screen is not your television at home and it is large enough for the audience to look where they want and let the eye follow the ball, rather than the camera. The whole event was captured with just six cameras and I didn't feel it needed any more. Plus, both Wayne Newton, Christina Aguillera and the cheerleeders looked great in digital 3D.

The third and last event was an invitation only demo in the Dolby room, where the company gave a preview of the new technology for displaying digital 3D that they are still working on in their lab. While it is far form ready for prime time, it has advanced much foruther than I thought it had. Put briefly, it combines the advantages of using cheap plastic glasses with not having to put in place a silver screen but keeping your normal old and dirty single-gain perf screen.

The clips were unimportant (Spy Kids 3-D and IMAX documentary Bugs), the techonlogy interesting (a spinning colour wheel between the lamp and the DLP Cinema chips that could allow for higher light output), but the business model was a killer. Unlike Real D, Dolby will not tie you in to a long-term licence fee. You buy the 3D-enabled digital cinema server and that's it. Other than the glasses, which will be cheap, there are no recurring fees. This is a return to the traditional Dolby business model of selling boxes and making money on mastering services.

I will return to this issue in the next ShoWest summary in discussing the technology and particularly why the server future belongs to Dolby, Doremi and Qube.

What keeps John Fithian awake at night

I found out the answer to the above question in a chat I had with John, the head of the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO - yes, but without the nukes), a few years ago. No, it was not digital cinema, nor film piracy/theft and not even Al Quaida targeting your local multiplex (but, yes they had one scare). It was the aging cinema population.

At this year the message from both Fithian and MPAA's Glickman was upbeat: 2006 had been better than 2005, box office takings had gone up, the summer was full of sequels that would drive the hoards back to the popcorn tills, the death of cinema was greatly exaggerated. What no one mentioned was that attendance in 2006 was DOWN on 2007, it's just ticket price inflation that grew the box office. And when I talked to cinema owners, they were more downbeat about the prospects beyond Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3, Pirates 3, etc. Kids just aren't going to the cinemas. It's not cool. Not like mobiles or MySpace.

What to do in this scenario? Embrace the oldies, that's what. At least, that's the message in a perceptive article from the Friday's Film section of the UK's The Guardian newspaper, by the very knowledgeable Geoffrey Macnab (he also writes for Time Out and helps program the National Film Theatre in London). Here is what he has to say:

The older audience is already the fastest growing sector in the market: recent research suggested that close to 60% of those clamouring to see Stephen Frears' The Queen were 55 or over - "77% female, mean age 59" is the official breakdown of the audience. Tellingly, only 1% of the film's audience were 18 and 19-year-olds and, if the statistics are to be believed, not a single per cent were 15 and 16-year-olds.

Films like Mrs Henderson Presents (audience: 62% female, mean age 59), The History Boys (57% male, mean age 51), Gosford Park, Calendar Girls, Ladies In Lavender and Miss Potter have also successfully attracted the older cinemagoer. "Five years ago, 38% of the cinema audience was 35 or over, whereas last year it was 46%," says Film Distributors' Association chief executive Mark Batey.

This is the audience that the digital cinema of the future will have to cater to. [Notice also that these films are cheaper to make and therefor have a better chance of a good return-on-investment ratio]. I myself do not think that cinema will ever die, but I fear that it is in danger of becoming jazz. That is, appreciated only by a small number of people in vanishingly marginal elite venues and too often looking back rather than innovating.

The fact that the future belongs to the old timers has already been spotted by the particularly clever exhibitors, such as Vue's Tim Richards. Yes, he is quoted in the article, but he has made these observations earlier too. I had a chance to speak to him briefly at both the BSAC conference before ShoWest and in Vegas. Vue may not have been first or even second to set up an all-digital multiplex in the UK, but when they do I bet that they will have the most innovative programming when it comes ot catering to the widest possible age bracket.

ShoWest review part 1 - EDCF trip to LA

Prior to the annual ShoWest cinema trade show a small group of Europeans make a tour of Hollywood studios, companies and places of interest in a two day event put together by the European Digital Cinema Forum (EDCF). This year turned out to be the best yet, thanks to stellar organising and planning by John Graham (EDCF), Thomas MacCalla (VisionInMotion) and Dave Monk (EDCF).

The first stop was perhaps the most important one as it was an informal summit between the various studio representatives (only Universal and WB were missing but sent their regards) hosted by Twentieth Century Fox, and a delegation of 30=odd Europeans. One nation dominated above all. I counted no less than 13 Norwegians at the first meeting, to which you could add three to four 'honorary Norwegians', people who work in, with or for Norwegians (myself included, given my Unique Digital consultancy clients). What was amazing was not the sheer numbers but that spread of interests they represented, including as they did exhibitors/cinemas, film distributors, public bodies, trade organisations, education and research institutions, cinema advertising providers, film archives, cinema installation and service companies and others.

Norway is serious about becoming the first country in the world to switch over all of its cinemas to digital and this gathering amply demonstrated that commitment to the Hollywood studios. Contrast it with Italy and France, who sent no representatives, or Spain and Germany who only had one small delegation each, both of them smaller than the Swedish delegation, which together with the British one was the second largest.

I won't go into detail of the discussion that was held as it Chatham House Rules applied. Sufficient to say that there remain plenty of digital cinema issues still to be resolved.

Lunch was held at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science (AMPAS). While best known for handing out the Oscars, AMPAS is true to the 'Science' in its title and Andy Maltz (the man with the greatest job in Hollywood - though not the easiest) gave an overview of efforts to preserve the past while also helping future developments of image capture.

The day finished in Chatsworth, home to the television series '24', the US porn industry and (the purpose of our trip) the up-link facility of AccessIT. It not only beams films to cinemas all over te Us but also handles television feeds. It impressed us all, not because it was slick and glitzy - it isn't - but because of its GTD (get things done) approach that had made it the world's largest digital cinema operation.

Next day started at an old United Artists multiplex on the outskirts of LA (La Canada Flintridge, anyone?), where we got to see National CineMedia's FirstLook cinema advertising programme. It has improved significantly since I saw it a year ago, when it was known as The 2wenty, but re-christened as people got the idea that it was 20 minuted of pre-show. It was now 720p resolution and slicker look. But as Dave Spilde from Unique pointed out, the good adverts are what caught the European audiences' attention, while the brief making-of proto-trailers left them cold. Maybe it's just a culture difference, or maybe it is the reason that US audiences don't like pre-show where most European don't seem to mind or even like cinema advertising.

No lunch from Technicolor, only coffee, so instead I got acquainted with the culinary delights of Panda Express in Burbank before heading to the digital cinema testing lab that Technicolor has created out of the old Disney animation screening rooms. The projectors and server testing was very impressive and the chief tester was surprisingly frank in his admissions about some of the technologies and systems, so I definitely won't be repeating that here. Technicolor is doing the industry a great service. My only worry for them is that they are losing track of their core business of film serives (last year they ranked third, behind Deluxe and AccessIT in mastering and distributing digital cinema copies!), while not rolling out fast in the US and struggling to get the Hollywood studios to sign on to the European plans that they announced prematurely last June.

The last stop of the second day was DTS Digital Cinema, which is being spun off from the consumer/audio bit of DTS. Everyone was very impressed with the image restoration business that is done by what was formerly done by Lowry Digital. I'm not sure what their plans are for the digital cinema server side, following the acquisition of Avica. Apparently they distributed a JPEG2000 version of 'Dirty Dancing' recently in Ireland and will also show Disney's 'Meet the Robinsons'. The reason they are able to do that is because they have swapped out the Avica MPEG servers for JPEG2000-enabled servers from Doremi. Watch this space for more announcements from them as we get into the review of ShoWest itself next week.

What's the digital cinema future for Éclair?

The above question is merited by the news that fell like a bomb on the European attendees of ShoWest last week that almost half of the shares (43 per cent) in French post-production and digital cinema pioneer Éclair had been bought up by Tarak Ben Amar. Who he? You wouldn't know it from his brief Wikipedia entry, but he is the 83 per cent owner of France's Quinta Industries, whose ownership includes both LTC and Duran Dubois, i.e. Éclair's greatest competitors in France's post production market. From an artcle in Cineuropa:

The buyout, through Holland Coordinator Italia, was made possible after Philippe Dormoy, father of Bertrand Dormoy, left his posts of CEO of Éclair Laboratoires and vice-president of the Éclair Group in September 2005. "I became close to Mr Ben Ammar, who I’ve known since 1975, in order to ensure the longevity and the name of a group founded by my family in 1907, to which I remain much attached," said the seller.

. . .

The Éclair Group (Éclair Laboratories and Télétota) has a presence on all audiovisual markets (features, shorts, television features, advertising, documentaries, magazines), from production to distribution (set rentals, photochemical processing and sorting, audiovisual post-production, print production and archive restoration).

The article neglects to mention that the company has also done a lot of work in digital cinema, mastering over twenty movies (including a 4K title), with an average output of two a month. The company has also announced plans for a 4,000 screen digital cinema roll-out in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Scandinavia and has the support of at least two Hollywood studios.
Much of this thanks to Gwendal Auffret.

This is where things get interesting, because Tarak is also head of Technicolor at Quinta Industries. In fact, the bond between Technicolor and Quinta go very deep, as this press release from 2004 reveals:

Thomson and Quinta Enter Into Partnership for Post-Production and Film Activities in France

Quinta Benefits from Access to Thomson’s Skills and Technology Expertise Thomson Strengthens Presence in Post-Production and Film Activities in France
Paris, November 11th 2004 - Thomson and Quinta, a company controlled by Mr Tarak Ben Ammar, have entered into an exclusive partnership agreement covering post-production and film release activities in France.

The agreement will create strong commercial and technical ties between Quinta’s post-production and film activities (Duran Duboi, SIS and LTC) and Thomson’s Technicolor Entertainment Services, a leading player in the field of film replication and digital post-production worldwide. Through the partnership, film producers and directors in France will be able to benefit from state-of-the art technology.

Quinta will draw on the technical expertise of TechnicolorTM and Grass ValleyTM to offer its customers the highest quality services in the film industry. This arrangement will reinforce Quinta’s position in the French market and strengthen its ability to adapt to the industry’s fast-changing technological environment.

That is why people kept coming up to me at ShoWest and asking if Gwendal is out of a job. What is clear is that this must be the end for the go-it-alone digital cinema strategy of Éclair. There are a lot of smart people at Technicolor, though they are outnumbered by the not-so-smart-people, with the latter too often in charge of digital cinema strategy in the past. Technicolor and Tarak would do well to keep Gwendal and his expertise on board. But that is not always how these things work.

One thing is for sure and that is that digital cinema just got a whole lot more interesting in France, which I had previously predicted would one of the last countires in Europe to go digital.

3ality gets real in Burbank

Digital 3D was this year's biggest thing at ShoWest, which I promise I will write about soon, but in the meantime the opening of 'Meet the Robinsons' (in "Disney Digital 3-D") and the unveiling of 3eality's new facility prompted the following article in the Hollywood Reporter, 3-D gets 3ality check with new production digs. This company 3ality is serious about the potential of digital 3D ('D-3D', 'd3D'?) and is planting itself in the heart of the film industry Burbank/North Hollywood with its new facility:

3ality is building a dedicated 20,000-square-foot 3-D production facility in Burbank that will house parent company 3ality Digital's two units: 3ality Digital Entertainment, a feature film development and production company, and 3ality Digital System, a 3-D production, postproduction and technology development unit. Partners in 3ality Digital are Art, David and John Modell; Jon and Peter Shapiro; Steve Schklair; and Sandy Climan.

"3-D over the years has been like a carnival sideshow," Schklair says. "We built this building to legitimize this business."

The new facility will include a 24-seat, 3-D-ready digital-cinema theater equipped with a Barco 2K digital-cinema projector and Real D 3-D system in order to screen the productions the way they would be seen in theaters.

Interestingly the article reveals that the company is branching out from concerts and is looking to do live sports within six months. While it may be interesting to watch a canned performance of Bono & Co. in Mexico City most sports fans are not known for sitting through repeats, whether in HDTV or 3D. But more on this in the ShoWest summary.

Russia gets first d-cinema mastering install

Russia has become the latest country to acquire digital cinema mastering capability, courtesy of Doremi of course. It thus joins the growing band of territories and companies that can offer 'DCI-grade' mastering for domestic titles , including France (Eclair), UK (Deluxe/CFX), Germany (Bewegte Bilder) and Norway (BUG/Unique). It's also not just any Russian company, the press release tells us:

The first Digital Cinema mastering station in Russia has been installed as a part of the national Digital Rollout programme developed by the Head Data-Computing Centre (GIVC) of the Federal Agency of Culture and Cinematography and the ComSat company, with the support of the Russian Ministry of Culture.

This installation means that now, not only foreign, but also national films can be projected onto digital screens with DCI-rated image quality. Coming only a few months after the opening of the first digital cinema in Saint Petersburg, this installation is a big step towards a full-scale digital rollout in Russia.

Russia is also only one of a growing number of emerging markets that could see faster digital cinema roll-out than several 'Old Europe' countries, to use Donald Rumsfeld's memorable description of France et al.

Why NCM is worth a cool billion

Many of you may have been amazed at NCM's stock market floatation at well over a billion dollars. Is this possible for a company that is responsible for what many consider to be the least popular form of advertising in the US? Yes it is and here is why, based on their own press release:

Total revenue of NCM LLC for the fourth quarter increased to $74.1 million from $44.6 million, primarily driven by the conversion of founding member legacy contracts to NCM LLC contracts, a 30.8% increase in advertising network theatre screens and a large CineMeetings multi-site event. National advertising inventory utilization was 100.2% and CPMs (cost per thousand) decreased 2.8% from the fourth quarter 2005. Net income increased to $0.7 million from a loss of $3.0 million in 2005 due primarily to the higher revenue, partially offset by increased payments to founding member theatre circuits, higher severance costs and option plan costs, and increased administrative costs associated with the digital cinema initiative and preparing the Company for its IPO. The increase in payments to founding members was driven by higher advertising revenue, as 68% of NCM LLC's advertising revenue was paid to its founding members in 2006, and 65% was paid in 2005.

Overall total revenue for NCM in the last year increased from $98.8m to $219.3m. Even if the previous year only counted nine months, that's still an adjusted near doubling!

But what is interesting is that NCM is now so rich that it cannot be in charge of digital cinema for Regal et al. Otherwise the studios would tell it to spend some of its own riches on 2K projectors and servers. Instead they set up Digital Cinema Implementation Partners (DCIP) and poached some of the smartest people from NCM as well as appointing Travis Reid.

Just don't expect DCIP to float for a coll billion any time soon.

Disney family believes in 3D

Given that they've christened digital stereoscopics after themselves (as in 'Presented in Disney Digital 3D') it should come as no surprise that Disney feel strongly about 3D. However, not just the company like it but so too does the investment company of Uncle Walt's nephew Roy. Shamrock Capital has invested $50m in Real D, which has been responsible for the majority of digital stereoscopic installations to date. From the LA Times article:

The investment will give Shamrock and its partners a minority stake in the Beverly Hills company. Real D's overall value is believed to be more than $200 million. Neither company would confirm the figure.

"We've been sniffing around the digital cinema space for a while," Shamrock Capital Growth's managing director, Stephen Royer, said. "It's really the only viable mass-market solution."

Based in Burbank, Shamrock Holdings is the investment vehicle for the family of Roy Disney, nephew of the late Walt Disney.

Shamrock's bet comes as Hollywood has become enamored again with 3-D movies, which some cinema owners believe could help smooth their volatile box-office returns.

Given that Real D's installation underpinned the digital 3D, sorry, Disney Digital 3D releases of 'Chicken Little', 'A Nightmare Before Christmas' and the upcoming 'Meet the Robinsons', it should perhaps be no surprise.

But I wonder if Roy has seen Dolby's new digital 3D solution. The technology is far from perfect - yet - but it has an attractive business model, which is buy the server box and never pay any licence fee. Real D has a good technical solution but a licensing fee that few exhibitors are happy with. More about this in my upcoming ShoWest 2007 summary.

Au revoir Deluxe, hello Electronovision

The business cards did not arrive back from the printer in time for ShoWest, the e-mail took me forever to sort and Vodafone takes a week to migrate numbers even internally, but now it is done. I can proudly announce my new venture. Having spent eight years reading, digesting, breathing and living digital cinema for three great and best-in-class companies (Screen Digest, Unique Digital and Deluxe) I have now outsourced my expertise and am about to sell it back to the industry though Electronovision Consulting.


Does the world need another digital cinema consultancy? No - but it does need electronovision, i.e. the ability to see clearly in the digital landscape. As my former US boss and mentor Steve Bergman put it, digital cinema is 'big drama, little money'. Most of the companies fighting to get into or stay in this small market will not make it. If you are going to succeed in the long run you cannot expect to do business as you have in other markets or as you used to do it in the film/cinema market.

Already I have my first client and it's none other than my old friends at Unique Digital. We have just come back from a very productive trip to LA and ShoWest, more about which I will come to in a later posting. So expect to see me around and if you want to get in touch just drop me a line. If you can tell me where I got the name from and the significance of it I will even by you a drink.

Empire Cinemas (UK) get all-digital multiplex

Hot on the heels of Odeon's two all-digital multiplexes, The-Spun-Off-Cinema-Chain-Formerly -Known-As-UCI, Empire has launched it's own all-digital multiplex at a six-screen site in High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, according to Screendaily:

The theatre chain, which has 16 sites across the UK, has partnered with Kodak, Barco and Bell Theatre Services to install the latest in digital cinema projection technology for all six screens at its 1697-seat multiplex in High Wycombe.

Justin Ribbons, CEO, Empire Cinemas said: "Empire Cinemas is the largest private cinema operator in the UK and the switch to all digital at High Wycombe demonstrates our commitment to delivering an improved and outstanding entertainment experience to our customers."

Kodak and BTS already supported one of Odeon's two all-digital multiplex sites near London and I wonder if, as rumoured, they are contributing to this one free of charge as well.

I have left Deluxe

The time has come to move on.

I've been at Deluxe UK/Europe for six months and the adrenaline rush of setting up the digital cinema operation from scratch has worn off. There is now a great team in place to look after the day-to-day running of all the aspects of the operation. But rather than me sitting and watching hard drives replicating while I wait for the time to come for the next big leap forward (satellite transmission), I have decided to look for opportunities elsewhere.

Digital cinema is starting to take off in a major way, even though significant obstacles remain in its path, particularly here in Europe. I aim to be part of that transition in many different aspects, so I guess I'd better get used to calling myself what I have now become; a digital cinema consultant.

See you all at ShoWest!

In memoria Dr Charles Swartz (1939 - 2007)

The sad news has reached me that Dr Charles Swartz has passed away. I had the privilege to know him through his running of the Digital Cinema Lab (DCL) that was part of the Entertainment Technology Centre (ETC), as well as contributing to his book 'Understanding Digital Cinema'.

Charles was one of those exceptional people that was not only thou roughly knowledgeable about digital cinema but also a supremely nice guy who would always have time for you. He had been battling cancer for over a year, though according to the website set up by hid friends and colleagues (http://www.charlesswartz.org/) he had seemed better recently. He had attended the 2k-4K demo last year at the Pacific Theatre, which was fittingly the last major event at the DCL, where he had devoted so much energy to advancing the cause of digital cinema.

Coming so soon after Lasse Svanberg's death, the digital cinema world in both Europe and America have been deprived of leading figures and I have lost another friend. Like Lasse, Charles also had a hands-on background in film (his IMDB credits). I remember the story he told me of how he and Stephanie, his wife of many years, renewed their vows, as well as the tales of the haunting of the Pacific Theatre by Jack Warner. I hope Charles' own ghost will rest because his spirit will be with me and everyone else who knew and worked with.

Variety has posted a fne article about Charles: Entertainment industry veteran Swartz dies. Amongst the many things I did not know about him was that he co-founded Dimension Pictures. The article gets it spot on when it says that "Swartz was admired as a mentor and a diplomat with a knack for resolving thorny arguments." Very true.

The Hollywood Reporter has posted a fairly bland article about Charles (Digital cinema educator Charles Swartz dies). The article in the LA Times is much better (Charles Swartz, 67; took film to the digital age), not least as it quotes some of the colleagues that knew him best:

"He was one of the fathers of digital cinema," said Jerry Pierce, senior vice president of technology for Universal Pictures. "Charles played an important role in bringing people into the same tent to nudge digital technology in the right direction."

Bob Lambert, senior vice president of worldwide technology strategy for the Walt Disney Co., called Swartz "a leader, a visionary and a collaborator" whose skills as a filmmaker and educator helped him broker understanding between the technical and creative sides of the business.

Amen to that. Memorial donations can be made to Save the Redwoods League, or the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.

Kodak & Technicolor layoffs - it's not all bad

If you have found it easy to get a parking space at either Kodak or Technicolor recently it's no surprise why. Even the press are writing about it.

Forget film, it is ink-jet printers for Kodak. I like their idea of cheaper cartridges, but the article with the stark headline (Kodak Plans to Cut Up to 3,000 More Jobs) does not go into detail about whether digital cinema will help save Kodak. They sure seem to be pulling out all stops to make the Odeon trial work and good luck to them. Before too long I'm sure they will even have players to share with Deluxe Europe and NORDIC. We await them keenly.

The article Technicolor Focuses on Future After Layoffs is subscription only, so I can only quote the introduction sentence: "In the wake of layoffs from its home entertainment division, Technicolor looks to the new high definition format of discs as a means to rebound in the DVD ..." So high definition DVDs will save Technicolor. But it won't save any jobs in Wales, according to this (non-subscription) article Pioneering Welsh DVD plant to shut, which tells us that:

Production at the unit, the first CD plant in Europe outside of Germany when it opened in 1984, is to be switched to a Polish plant at Piaseczno. Some 310 jobs will be lost as a result of the shutdown of the factory which had a reported capacity of 225,000 DVDs a day.

Another European facility in Luxembourg is also to close and the company’s US operations have not been spared with the announced shut down of a plant in Illinois and the threat of ultimate closure at its Camarillo HQ in California, which once employed 2000 people.

Technicolor blamed reduced growth in standard definition DVDs and demand for lower pricing for the closures.

I never even knew that my DVDs came from Wales. First Burberry closing factories in Wales and pulling out of BAFTA parties (Burberry drops Bafta party sponsorship in face of Welsh factory closure protest) and now this. But at least Kodak still sponsors the Academy Awards theatre: Kodak moments - coming to a colour ink jet printer near you soon!

Zemeckis goes all motion capture at Disney

There are no less than 57 articles tagged by Google about the news that Robert Zemeckis is setting up a motion-capture animation studio at Disney. However, it is best to start off by reading the official press release first (The Walt Disney Studios and Academy Award(R)-Winner Director Robert Zemeckis and Producing Partners Form New Company That Will Produce 3D Performance Capture Films). Disney has always been a driver of new cinema technology (pace digital cinema), so this makes perfect sense, even though Zemeckis did 'Polar Express' at WB, 'Monster House' at Sony Pictures and 'Beowulf' at Paramount.

However, to me it seems like Disney is hedging its bets. They closed down the hand-drawn animation division and its CG-animation division got absorbed into Pixar. So while they like Steve Jobs, they definitely don't want to trust their entire future to him when it comes to animation. So this makes perfect sense. I am not a huge fan of motion capture, as used by Zemeckis, as it makes the character's eyes seem lifeless. It can be put to great use if you have Andy Serkis doing the dotted leotard honours, as witnessed in the Lord of the Rings and King Kong films. Let's hope Zemeckis puts him under contract at his new studio.

AAM, QuVis and Doremi; the awkward menage a trois.

You would never guess the significance of the technology u-turn that Arts Alliance's rejection of QuVis servers in favour of Doremi players represents from their up-beat press release (Arts Alliance Media Purchases Doremi Cinema's DCP-2000 Digital Cinema Servers), nor from the bland re-write that is the article covering the deal in Screen Daily (Doremi servers to power UK Digital Screen Network).

When Fiona Deans is quoted as saying, "We are delighted to be able to install the Doremi server in cinemas, and believe it underscores the advantage to cinemas of working with a third party integrator who is committed to evolving with the market and providing the best possible technology solutions," it reads between the lines as "we have no choice but to get rid of the QuVis servers, but this underscores how lucky DSN cinemas are that we will shoulder the considerable financial cost of having bet on the wrong digital horse."

This deal has multiple implications, not all of which can be explored fully here.

It is difficult to see where QuVis go from here digital cinema wise, apart from possibly doing an Avica and selling whatever IP assets they have. As one industry contact noted to me, "QuVIS continues to demonstrate the risks of complacency and the danger of failing to heed customers." He was being charitable.

Put simply, QuVis lost the DSN contract because they made Fiona and Thomas look stupid. And neither Fiona nor Thomas like to look stupid. By firing their only European client support rep, this is the sort of telephone call I imagine QuVis' action must have triggered.

Kenbe Goertzen (CEO of QuVis): Don't worry, Fiona, we can handle all the support from here in Topeka just fine.
Fiona Deans (AAM's Director of Digital Cinema): We're not in Kansas, Kenbe.

QuVis were already under fire from Hollywood studios for being slow to implement watermarking and USB interface (both of which are flagged heavily as benefits of adopting Doremi in the press release) and the time had come for AAM to cut their losses and bit the bullet.

QuVis thus looks set to join the growing list of other digital cinema server casualties: Grass Valley, Tektronix, Boeing's ICE, the Thomson/Technicolor JPEG2000 server that never left the lab, NEC's own-brand server, Avica with more yet to come. I have always said that this market is too small to support more than at most three players, so expect more to be out before the end of 2007. At the moment only Doremi, Dolby and Qube appear to have wind in their digital sails.

For Doremi this is a glorious start for 2007. Not only does their server rule the US, now they have in one fell swoop conquered their home market as well. XDC might swap out their MPEG for JPEG servers faster than Doremis replace QuVis servers, with a greater installed basis as well (100 XDC installations in Germany alone). But what matters more here is perception. When things go wrong, who do you turn to? Your trusted friends at Doremi, that's who. I'm sure they offered AAM a good price, heck, perhaps even a two-for-one deal. They know that it will cost AAM dearly enough anyway to completely re-engineer their back office software, re-train projectionists, adapt service and support, carry the burden of dual inventory of physical distribution media, not to mention to re-master all those films that were encoded in QuVis' proprietary QPE format. AAM's website proudly proclaims:

# of digital screens installed in UK: 136

# of films played on UKFC’s Digital Screen Network: 075

Each one of those screens and almost all of the films are now a cost liability to AAM. There's no need for Doremi to rub it in by offering only a small discount.

QuVis and Doremi will have to co-habit awkwardly for eight to nine months. AAM will continue the roll-out as per previous plans, but with Doremi servers, until all installations are in place by May. Then they will go back to the older sites and swap out the QuVis servers for Doremi players. They have no choice but to do it this way, or they will not meet their deadlines and contractual obligations to the UK Film Council. But apart from being costly, this also risks alienating cinema owners in the transition period, not least when they discover that Hollywood studios - and their specialty film divisions - will support DSN screens with Doremi players, but not always ones with QuVis. Upgrading QuVis players with watermark and USB ports only adds to the costs in this situation.

What no-one is saying yet is where this leaves Norway. AAM has replicated the DSN on a miniature scale with the Kristiansand D-Kino Allians (KDKA), complete with QuVis servers, Christie projectors and films distributed in QPE in ten cinemas in parts of Norway. The venture has just appointed its third head, after two resignations in less than a year. Will AAM treat Norway as a third world market for dumping legacy equipment on or will they upgrade to Doremis there as well? We will soon know.

The real winner in all this, however, is the UK Film Council. They were smart enough never to rely on or sign direct contracts with any technology vendor, but to appoint a third-party integrator. They also made clear from the start that there was a risk involved and that this integrator might be forced to swap out the servers half way through. How prophetic, I now think, as I look back on the meeting with Pete and Steve when this was said. Fair warning all around and AAM walked into this with eye wide open. Hats off to them for acknowledging that they made a bad bet and are now correcting the mistake, even if their press release puts a more positive spin on what is a costly change of plan.

Odeon's two all-digital multiplex plans revealed

It's been the biggest open secret in Britain's small digital cinema community, but now the cat is officially out of the bag; Odeon has retrofitted two multiplexes with digital for every screen. An article in The Guardian (Celluloid dreams set to disappear in a digital puff) pre-empts Odeon's official announcement by a week:

Next week the UK's largest cinema chain will announce that it is to convert two of its big multiplexes, one in Hatfield in Hertfordshire and another in London's Docklands, to digital projection.

Odeon already has 30 digital projectors dotted around the country, but these two multiplexes will be the first in Europe to dispense with film altogether.

I'm sure Rupert Gavin is too clever to have ordered the 35mm projectors to be ripped out, but this would indeed be Europe's first multiplexes with all screens digitally enabled. The test should enable Odeon to test how digital copies move between screens for holdovers, as well as things such as alternative content and advertising in digital. (Though in fairness to the UK Film Council, Odeon already has a small multiplex that is 75 per cent converted to digital - London's Odeon Covent Garden, where screens 1,2 and 4 have been digitally equipped as part of the DSN plan).

It will be interesting to see if any of Odeon's cinema competitors follow suit.

I get quoted at the end of the article, defending film as an archive medium. Not only does it make me sound like Denis Kelly (though I stand by what I am quoted as saying), but I have also been promoted sideways to Deluxe Laboratories from Deluxe Digital Cinema! Never mind that I was interviewed mainly about digital and supplied a lot of the background information, but that's what journalists do. I should know, I used to be one. Overall, it's a good article and I'm glad that the Odeon news is out. We look forward to supplying them with plenty of digital titles in the months and years ahead.

New members of Deluxe digital cinema group

New year, new beginnings and new faces at Deluxe! We have had two significant additions to the Deluxe Digital Cinema Europe team this month.

The first one is Laurence Claydon, who is so famous that he needs no introduction or picture. Many of you will have known him for the stellar work he previously did for Bell Theatre Services (BTS), such as the sound work on the London Empire flagship cinema, which you can read about here (Empire Cinema - DriveRack 4800). Laurence will be our imaging guru and we are extremely lucky to have his skills and expertise on our side. Those of you who haven't met him yet will do soon, no doubt.


The second is Caroline Wignall (above), who has joined us from the On Demand Group (ODG). Her previous career reads like a Who's Who of media companies, taking in as it does everything from MTV to Disney. Caroline is our Operations Manager who makes sure that everything runs smoothly and keeping an eye on all our projects.

Sitting as I do next to her in our office I can confirm that not only is her desk tidier than anyone elses in the building (although it is only her first week), but that she also has an amazing grasp of tools such as MS Project Professional, Visio and other software tools. She also asks all the right questions and offers insightfull input into how we should plan and structure our effoerts. All of which will help transform our efforts from ad-hoc crisis management solutions to a slick and well oiled digital cinema machine.

She is also very smart and friendly, which you will find out for yourselves when you see her at the next meeting of the usual digital cinema suspects.

Looking back on the year past - and ahead

Much like the Japanese man who survived 24 days in a mountain forest, Deluxe goes into a state of semi-hibernation over the holidays. Cinemas will still be showing Deluxe mastered and distributed digital films, not just in US but across the world, throughout Christmas and New Year. A small dedicated team of Santa's Little Helpers will still be manning their posts at Deluxe's Hollywood HQ. The call-centre will still be operating 24/7. But there will be well deserved rest too for my colleagues who have worked so hard this year.

Modesty prevents me from crowing about the achievements of my US colleagues. But having started from practically nothing in March, they have now surpassed everyone else in the
digital cinema mastering and distribution field. Hopefully the statistics will be published next year to show by just how much, but hats off to them for now anyway. This had little to do with technology and everything to do with all the terrific people that Deluxe has assembled. All of them deserve a special mention, but I will just single out Jim Whittlesey, the Isambard Kingdom Brunel of digital cinema.

Our achievements in UK/Europe have been more modest by comparison, but achievements they are nonetheless. We distributed the first Hollywood feature in JPEG2000 i Europe (Ice Age 2 in Denmark in April) and the DCP of 'Casino Royale' playing in Japan right now was made here in London, in the very room that I'm typing this from. We have even distributed films to the UK Film Council's DSN ('Life & Lyrics'). But for most of the year we have been gearing up for the big launch next year, when we expect the DSN to open up and for significant digital cinema installations to appear all over Europe.

I look forward to seeing you all and working together with many of you in 2007. Digital cinema is and remains a team effort, not just within Deluxe but for all of us.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and a Great New Year to all of you.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - European consultants roll out D-Cinema proposals

I was unable to attend the recent Europa Cinemas conference in Paris, where I was due to talk about the NORDIC project, due to family reasons. This is a shame, as it turned out to be a very interesting conference with a lot of important things said. Mike Gubbins did a terrific job of summarising the even in Screen International's November 24th issue, though sadly, Screen Daily does not appear to have that article available in electronic format. For one thing, the conference seems to have decided once and for all that different European digital cinema standards would not be a good idea and that the DCI specs/SMPTE standards are our best hope of having a unifying standard.

As the UK Film Council's Peter Buckingham was quoted in the article:

"For the smaller players [multiple standards] would be a nightmare and I cannot see how on God's earth that would benefit diversity."

Well put. Sadly, not everything else that got said and presented there was equally well informed or level headed. Two consultants reports dominated discussions; the previosuly published Daniel Goudineau's "FAREWELL TO FILM? What is at Stake in Digital Projection? and a specially commissioned report by Thomas Pintzke and Kim Ludolf Koch of Rinke Medien Consult. From what I can tell these overshadowed a presentation from the European Investment Bank by Patrick van Houdt.

The first of these (Goudineau) accepts DCI/SMPTE but wants additional capabilities for digital cinema systems (i.e. MPEG-2) and proposes that vulnerable cinemas be helped by nationalising the KDM (security key) handling, making it the responsibility (nay, exclusive legal obligation) of a government body, at least in France. If these are the 'ugly' years for digital cinema, then this proposal would in my personal opinion make it the downright unwatchable digital cinema years. Litterally. Because the screen would all too often be black.

The second is written in very bad English and I'm not convinced by the thinking behind it. On page 18 it assumes a fixed VPF of €800 per DCP. That's just over $1,047 at today's exchange rate. The author's are obviously assuming that the Hollywood distributors are goin to be exceptionally generous when it comes to help fund digital cinema in Europe. I'm also not convinced about their thinkingg about how digital cinema equipment will wear out.

This just leaves the EIB report. Whoever works it out (and it's not rocket science) has the best chance of dominating digital cinema deployment in Europe. It won't be Deluxe, because we've always said that we will not get involved in deployment. It makes life easier for us and means that we have no hidden agenda or gate keeper aspirations. Lastly, David Hancock of Screen Digesr did his usual brilliant job of providing the best overview of the digital cinema situation out there in the market today. Why didn't they hire him to write a report, I wonder. Though like I said, I wasn't there, so all I have is the Screen Adrticle and the reports on-line.

Is Australia copying UK Film Council's DSN?

While I have some big news about the UK Film Council's Digital Screen Network (DSN), I cannot reveal them just yet to protect my sources. So instead I'll share with you some news that has reached me from the other side of the world. From Australia, to be precise.

The Australians are setting up something called the Regional Digital Screen Network (RDSN), where digita projectors around the country (continenet?) will be used to promote the greater access to and distribution of Australian films. Here is a snippet from the article I heard about it from (thewest.com.au - Albany to get digital movies):

Albany will be one of eight towns around Australia to get a digital cinema in a bid to bring more Australian content to country audiences.

Among other benefits, the Regional Digital Screen Network will allow country audiences to watch films they would have previously had to wait several months to see.

The Australian Film Commission will oversee Australian programming for the network, including first-release movies, festival programs, documentaries, shorts, programs for schools and other local works from a digital content database.

The scheme will install digital cinema systems by early next year in eight independent venues in Albany, Port Augusta in South Australia, Yarram in Victoria, Katherine in the Northern Territory, Devonport in Tasmania, Hervey Bay in Queensland and Wagga Wagga and Singleton in New South Wales.

Does this remind you of something? It's a lot like the UK Film Council's Digital Screen Network, isn't it? Here is the original press release setting out the project: AFC’s Regional Digital Screen Network takes Australian films to more Australians. No word on whether this is set at a DCI level or even 2K (if you have insights - leave comment, or even crack a joke about Crocodile Dundee in digital).

Had I still been at Screen Digest, I would most likely have spotted this months ago, as indeed my colleagues have done already: Australia establishes regional digital centres, where they also note the "echoes" of the UKFC's DSN. Well done Charlotte and David.

Hollywood d-cinema titles for China dry up

There was great hope for digital cinema in China for many years. The country topped the Asia-Pacific league of digital installations; digital cinema was seen as a way of both beating piracy and showing more Hollywood films than the foreign film quote would otherwise allow and rolling out digital is always easier when you can write it into a Five Year Plan, as I joked. But based on the first day of CineAsia, things are apparently no longer going so well.

At least, that seems to be the message of this article from Screen Daily (China’s digital loop stymied by lack of US product):

The Chinese government started to develop the country’s first digital cinema circuit in 2002 with an initial investment of $25m. Local cinema owners then began to lease equipment - mostly from state-owned China Film Digital - which has been sourced from global digital cinema service suppliers such as Barco, Christie and Panasonic.
...
However, few digital cinemas in China are compliant with the Digital Cinema Initiative’s 2K technical standard announced in July 2005. Therefore the US studios have stopped distributing digital versions of their films in China even though such films bypass the country’s import quotas.
...
Barco and GDC Technology are business partners with Guangdong Dadi Cinemas and have supplied its six cinemas and 14 screens with 2K - 4K resolution equipment.

But as the US studios say there are not enough screens to make it worthwhile releasing any digital versions.

It appears that no major Hollywood film has been released since Dreamwork's Shark Tale in April 2005. That's over a year without a digital titles from Hollywood! And that's not the only bad news:

Separately from d-cinema expansion in China’s major cities, China’s Film Bureau is rolling out cheaper, lower-resolution e-cinema in smaller cities and rural villages.

Good news for small villages, as long as they don't want to watch Eragon or Bond, but not good if you want a global digital market based on one standard.

CineAsia 2007 moving to City of Sin and Vice

I did not make it to CineAsia this year, nor have I ever been to one, but if ever there was a time to go it, it will be next year. It was nothing to do with cinema or digital and everything to do with the location. Of the three major Sunshine conventions, spot the odd one out for locations: Las Vegas, Amsterdam and Beijing. That's right, Las Vegas has gambling and prostitution (though latter only outside Clarke County city limits), Amsterdam has drugs and prostitution, while in Beijing, such things are verboten even in the Forbidden City.

But as of next year CineAsia is moving to Macau, according to this article in the Hollywood Reporter ( CineAsia could move to South China resort ). Macau is well known for gambling, there might be prostitution, though I doubt that they are the sort of 'coffee shops' that you would find in Amsterdam. The official reason is that it will make travel for exhibitors from Taiwan easier, as well as impose less restrictions on the organisers than holding it in Beijing does. This year, apparently, a digital trailer that was supposed to be shown on the opening night was held up. But a contact also told me that mainland Chinese exhibitors aren't interested in going to Beijing, but want to get away from home for this type of convention. To quote from the article,

"For networking, we must go where the exhibitors want to go and I would bet that when they're making their December plans in October, they'd rather go to Macau than Beijing. It's more fun," said Rieder, CineAsia's Distributor of the Year."

Not that any of us at Deluxe go to ShoWest or CinemaExpo for 'fun'. It's hard work and lots of it, I will have you know. And before someone leaves a comment about ShowEast disproving my theory that these conferences are only located in areas of major vices, I have one word for you: golf.

In another article about shooting Chinese films in digital, we are told that:

Digital shoots may be increasingly, popular but digital distribution is still underperforming. The country's rush to a digital cinema future has slowed over the past year or so; there are fewer than 200 digital screens, and compliance with international standards is still a major issue.

Don't expect China's two-tier system of having a digital equivalent of 16mm projectors to go away any time soon.

Deja Vu all over again as Kinepolis rolls out digital opening night red carpet

It's been a while since I heard from my friends at Kinepolis, maybe because they are still trying to resolve with Technicolor and Dolby how to manage to circuit-wide switch-over to digital.

In the meatime, Kinepolis is hosting a real-time screening of celebrities walking down the red carpet for the opening of the Tony Scott thriller Deja Vu to cinemas in belgium and France. This is what the Hollywood Reporter article French filmgoers to get taste of red carpet had to say about it:

Footage of cast members arriving at the Kinepolis Le Chateau du Cinema in Lomme next Wednesday, will be beamed to more than 5,000 filmgoers in Mulhouse, Thionville, Metz, Nancy, Nimes, Brussels, Liege and Antwerp.
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Next Wednesday's gala event will be introduced by a journalist from popular Gallic cinema magazine STUDIO and a bilingual hostess will interview the stars in English with a concurrent French broadcast via direct video transmission on Kinepolis' various screens, the company said.

It will only cost you eight euro to see this event in France and Belgium. For those of you getting a feeling of deja vu about it, yes, this has been done before.

Four years and two days earlier to the day (8 December 2002 to be precise) Regal CineMedia hosted a red carpet digital projection of the opening of Maid in Mahattan. You can cast your mind back with this article Regal CineMedia to feature 'Maid' premiere and this letter from Kurt Hall to someone complaining about adverts in cinemas.

For those of you looking for a more refined experience, the unstoppable Marc John has secured the live transmission of the Magic Flute from the New York Metropolitan Opera House to City Screens all across the UK. Read about it in the newsletter from the York Picturehouse.

The event was made possible bacuase Met Reaches Groundbreaking Agreements with Unions and Develops Range of Media Partnerships, a press release tells us. Would you know, National CineMedia (nee Regal CineMedia)and its Canadian partner, Cineplex Entertainmen, are also doing it (“Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD” Now Playing at a Theater Near You”). Tickets went on sale on Nov 18th in the States and I'm sure your local City Screen is also touting them now.

I know it will be great because not only has Julie Taymore directed it, but the wizard in the control booth is my friend the great Mark Schubin, who is now also available as a podcast. I look forward to his take on this.

Sweden falls for Unique's digital charms

My old colleagues at Unique Digital have done good, very good in fact, to have won the contract to digitise Swedish cinemas in what amounts to the largest digital screen advertising network in the world outside of the US. You can read the full press release on DCinemaToday.com (Unique Digital selected to digitise Swedish cinemas for advertising network):

Unique Digital Ltd. has won the contract to build and operate the digital screen advertising network for Sweden's SF Media, the largest cinema advertising company in the Nordic region. The deal was announced after an 18-month long evaluation of different digital advertising solution systems and providers, which was aimed at selecting the most advanced technical solution available. Unique's system will replace 35mm advertising in the cinemas that are part of SF Media's country-wide exhibitor partnership, with the entire digital network in operation by early 2007. Unique Digital is installing digital advertising in a total of 426 cinema screens. Together with its other installations across Europe the new deployment will make Unique Digital the world's largest independent digital screen advertising operator.

The number of screens may have grown to more than the 426 mentioned above, due to the near collapse of Sweden's second largest exhibitor (Astoria), where SF stepped in and bought/rescued many of the at-risk cinemas.

And a little bird tells me there is yet more news to come from Unique.

Night of the Long Knives at QuVis

News reaches me that there has been a major "reorganisation" at QuVis; the euphemism for a lot of good people getting the sack, in this case. It seems like some of my oldest and dearest colleagues, such as Jim Graham and Joel Schiffman, are no longer part of the new QuVis (www.quvis.com). This is sad because QuVis was a great pioneering company that did a lot of good, particularly in the early years of digital cinema. Obviously there is no press release heralding this change, so I go on the word of people with good contacts, though I have not spoken to anyone at QuVis.

Such a change will obviously have major impact on the UK Film Council's Digital Screen Network, now more than half way through its deployment. Does this make the upgrade to USB 2.0 interface more or less likely to come soon? If anything, I would think that Fiona et al at Arts Alliance would be digging around for Patrick Zuchetta's business card to see if he would be prepared to cut them a deal for 100 Doremi units, with a possible swap out of the old QuVis units down the line. I am not saying that this is what they should do. I am simply speculating about what they might want to do.

It is too soon to write off QuVis. The company still has a strong foothold in Korea, Japan and the UK, but they lost out in the early race in the USA to Doremi when AccessIT selected the French server maker for it's Christie/AIX network. Not upgrading fast enough to USB 2.0, lateness in implamenting watermarking and other issues meant that there many of Deluxe's clients were in no rush to supply content to their servers. It was common knowledge that there were too many server makers pushing into the small digital cinema market, but I had not anticipated that QuVis would the first to stumble. I do wish both QuVis and the ex-QuVis guys good luck.

Tis the season...for not much happening

Actually, the headline is not quite true, at least not for Deluxe Digital Cinema Europe (DDCE). We are currently what I would describe as out 'swan' mode, which is that we appear to glide along slowly and effortlessly on the surface, while below, there is furious paddling going on.

Right now I'm sitting in between two stacks of boxes (hard drives from WD and casings from Addonics) and I have even screwed together a few myself. They will either be the founding cornerstone of DDCE, or the ones that fall aprt first as we realise that my strength was never electronic assembly. But I do like to get stuck in.

Congratulations to our friends at Sony Pictures Entertainment as Casino Royale has its royal gala opening tonight in London and will then be screening in hundreds of US cinemas later this week. Having seen bits of it as we've done some work on it, I strongly urge you all to see it. It looks absolutely terrific.

And if it comes down to a fight between Borat and Bond at the box office this weekend, who will win? Why, it's Deluxe, as our US colleagues distributed both. I'm looking forwards to when we will shortly be doing it too.

But now back to furious paddling.