Dolby's server good enough for FIPS

With MPEG-2 soon a distant memory for Hollywood-quality digital cinema servers, the next big hump is FIPS compliance. The magic number to learn is 140-2 and servers that have Level 3 validation will soon be the only ones good enough to play Hollywood content. Dolby is one of the first manufacturers to claim to have achieved recommendation for it, according to their press release:

InfoGard Laboratories, an accredited Cryptographic Module Testing Laboratory under Lab Code 100432-0 of the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program, submitted the recommendation for the Dolby Digital Cinema server to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validation, as outlined by the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) specifications.

Through this achievement, Dolby Digital Cinema has moved further toward comprehensive DCI compatibility.

...

Achieving FIPS Level 3 compliance would mean that the Dolby Digital Cinema server meets the highest level of protection required by DCI to prevent thieves and hackers from accessing the "master-quality" motion picture files used in digital cinema systems. FIPS are security standards developed by the NIST and cover detailed specifications for physical and mechanical design, electronic circuitry, software, interfaces, and algorithms.

Though they have not put out a dedicated press release about it, Sony have achieved this too. At their presentation earlier this week, they told the brave souls that stayed for the in-depth techy talk just what the testing involved. Amongst other things the testers would insert inflatable balloons that would then be expanded so that the casing is dented enough to insert a hand, finger or instruments. It would seem that both Dolby and Sony are thus balloon-safe.

Bill Mead gives d-cinema global overview

For those of you that missed Bill Mead of DCinemaToday fame give his presentation of the state of digital cinema around the world at ShoWest, now is your chance to catch up. An article published in Film Journal International gives a condensed version of the talk. It is worth quoting the first few paragraphs:

By this spring, approximately 3,000, or three percent, of the world's estimated target screens (100,000-plus) will have been equipped with DCI-specified digital projectors and servers. Of the early adopters, approximately two-thirds are in North America, with the rest spilt between Europe and Asia. Significantly, most of the installation occurred in the past 12 months, making 2006 stand out as the pivotal year in the digital conversion timeframe.

Almost 50% of the world's d-cinema installed base can be attributed to one organization, Carmike Cinemas of Columbus GA, who early in 2006 made the extraordinary commitment to equip all of its 2,300 screens with digital projection. Working with Christie/AIX, North America's leading d-cinema systems provider, Carmike has already converted over 1,350 auditoriums to digital. Christie/AIX is a partnership formed in June 2005 between projector manufacturer Christie Digital and d-cinema business provider AccessIT of Morristown, New Jersey.

The United States had an astounding growth in 2006 of over 400%, from just over 500 to over 2,000 installations by year's end. The rapid pace was driven by the maturing and acceptance of digital conversion plans, the convergence of various proprietary formats into the soon-to-be-ubiquitous DCI JPEG2000 MXF format, and an ample supply of U.S. digital titles. By mid-year 2006, virtually all Hollywood studios were making their major "tentpole" titles available in the DCI format, with over 100 titles distributed in the U.S. in 2006.

It gives the facts straight and without editorialising, plus you don't have to put up with the non-working A/C system that those of us who sat through the one hour presentation had to suffer. But it was well worth it.

Sony shows off its new 4K projector

Sony has taken the wraps of the latest generation of 4K SXRD projectors and invited the whole world to come and see it. Well, maybe not the whole world, but it seemed like most of the key cinema moves and shakers came to London for the two one-day events.

Once again the event was held at the Odeon Leicester Square, but unlike the previous time Sony demoed the 4K there, this time it went much smoother. It's no secret that Sony has had a bit of a management shake up for its digital cinema business in Europe recently, but it seems like things are paying off with a good product and a clearer strategy.

There was a lot of press coverage about the event, though for all those of you that cannot read the Norwegian article, you will have to make do with the IDG/PC World write up:

The projector, which was used earlier this month to project the "Spiderman 3" movie at its world premiere in Tokyo, is a giant. It stands more than 1.5 meters high, is 1.4 meters deep and 74 centimeters wide and weighs 300 grams.

At its heart sits a 4.2kW bulb (an average household bulb is about 60W) and light from here is bounced off mirrors and through a prism to be split into red, green and blue streams. Each of these goes through a 1.55-inch flat-panel display based on Sony's SXRD (Silicon Crystal Display) technology before being combined and magnified through a lens as wide as a man's hand.

The result, as Sony demonstrated on Wednesday, is a spectacular image that's a rank above what you might be used to seeing at the movies. The projector outputs an image with 4,096 pixels by 2,160 pixels resolution, which is double that of HDTV both horizontally and vertically to result in more than 8 million pixels versus about 2 million on HDTV.

So far, so pedestrian and unspectacular. But the image that it put up on Britain's largest cinema screen looked very good. You will have noticed that the shape has changed too. Gone is what I though looked like a hulking giant black cyclopic toad and now we have something that more closely resembles 35mm and DLP Cinema projectors - if only it was a little less wide to fit more easily through the doorway of the average projection booth. It has been recommended for FIPS certification (as I discussed in the Dolby article).

What is equally impressive is the business side. Sony seem to 'get it' more than they did even 12 months ago. The pricing of the projector is reasonable at 75,000 euro (sans lens) and they are even hinting at a financing vehicle to help pay for it.

But some things remain frustratingly unchanged. The article says that "Sony launched its first 4K digital cinema projector two years ago, but it's only in use in four of Japan's roughly 3,000 cinema screens, the company said." That ignores the 11 4K SXRD projectors that have been sold in Norway - MORE THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD (including Sony's native Japan) - of which four are in cinemas or screening rooms, i.e. as many as Japan. Do not ignore your biggest customer, however small, or risk driving them into the arms of the competition.

But, like I said, overall it was an impressive presentation and while there are issues to be resolved with the projector technically and the organisation around it, at least it shows that Sony are heading in the right direction.

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.

Disney goes very big with Robinsons

Thomson has put out a press release trumpeting just how wide the have released the digital 2D and 3D version of Walt Disney's Meet the Robinsons. This is how many:

Technicolor digitally mastered and distributed Meet the Robinsons for 892 screens worldwide. Domestically, the feature was distributed to 582 screens in Disney Digital 3-D (TM) and 138 screens in digital 2-D. The feature was distributed internationally to 105 screens in 3D and 67 screens in 2D. In addition, Technicolor created all traditional 35mm film prints for the release.

"Thomson is very pleased to have participated with Walt Disney Pictures to the widest digital cinema release to date," said Curt Behlmer, executive vice president of Technicolor Theatrical Services and COO of Technicolor Digital Cinema.

I beleive that the previous record was held by SPE's Casino Royal, done by Deluxe, even though it only went out in 2D and had a limited international play. It is interesting to note how few screens showed it in 2D, with digital 3D ones outnumbering them 4-1. This means that digital 3D will soon be the ONLY way to release (computer) animated films and that children will compain if they get taken to a 2D rather than 3D showing.

I'm reminded of the friend's daughter who complained that the television set upstairs was broken because she could not pause it. Digital changes expectations and consumption preferences.

Getting national(istic) about digital cinema

Even those of us ho did not attend NAB2007 and the Digital Cinema Summit could not fail to notice that Germany has been profiling itself particularly prominently this year. The Germans have been part of the digital cinema scene for a while, particularly in recent months through the work of Fraunhofer, but this is the largest concerted effort yet to group it all together under one banner. There was even a press release issued about it:

Under the heading "D-Cinema and Beyond," the full digital-cinema process chain was presented to the professional public. The event was realised by "Invest in Germany - Land of Ideas" a common project of the initiative "Germany - Land of Ideas" and the federal investment promotion agency "Invest in Germany". The presentation centred on the 5k Multi-Projection technology developed for digital cinema by the Fraunhofer Society's Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) in Berlin.

Source: Germany - Land of Ideas
· (Graphic: Business Wire). View Multimedia Gallery

Apart from the Fraunhofer Institutes in Berlin and Erlangen, the cooperation partners also include the camera manufacturer ARRI, T-Systems' Media&Broadcast arm as a service provider to the media and broadcast industry, and the software and hardware manufacturer DVS.

It reminded me of the effort last autumn to bring together various French digital cinema interests under the ISA banner, particularly for the screening of the 4K mastered 'Paris Je Taim' at the ETC (link to PDF), which united CN films, CST, Doremi, Eclair Digital Cinema, Open Cube, SmartJog and Thomson Content Security (but not Technicolor). And the first one ever was ofcourse the UK's Department of Trade and Industry that united Britain's various manufacturers and interest parties through the Electronic Film Group. Italy has also attempted this type of thing, but on a much smaller scale (primarily Elsacom and Marina Studios) and I guess it would be possible to include Japan's original T-Joy consortium under this banner too.

Do such groupings work? The track record seems to be that they can raise awareness in the short term and pull off individual demonstrations and events, but work less well for establishing a long term united business. Ironically, digital cinema is too small to depend on all the businesses in one country being a perfect match. The ideal grouping is often an international effort with servers, projectors, and software coming from different countries. The countries that have done best were those that had a strong government drive to push together hardware partners with the cinemas, something that appears neglected in groupings such as those of France and Germany.

Countries that did well in this early on were China and Singapore. Today the crown is carried by Norway, thanks to the D-Cinema Alliance that has managed to get all stakeholders around the table to thrash out a roadmap for the all-digital future. Just don't expect them to sponsor a breakfast or coctails in Las Vegas.

DCI announces digital 3D specs and certifier

At the second day of the digital cinema summit held at NAB 2007 two major announcements were made by DCI. The first was that there was agreement on a single distribution format for digital stereoscopic films. This is what Variety had to report on it:

The DCI, a joint venture of the studios, did not originally anticipate the 3-D boom that has grown out of digital cinema and was silent on 3-D technical specifications. As a result, incompatible 3-D systems have proliferated.

Studios releasing a film in 3-D have since had to create as many as seven different 3-D digital cinema "packages."

Digital cinema consultant David Reisner said that Sunday's announcement, which is a one-page addendum to the DCI specs, would put the business on notice that there should be "only one format for distribution, not multiple formats for distribution."

Which format wins out, though, remains to be seen.

DCI also announced that Cinecert had been selected as the first testing company for so-called DCI compliance. More from Variety:

The selection of Cinecert as DCI's testing company moves the industry a step closer to answering one of the major questions remaining for d-cinema: Who will decide whether a product can be called "DCI-compliant"?

The question is vital to manufacturers, because there is little market for non-DCI-compliant d-cinema hardware, and exhibitors need assurances their expensive d-cinema hardware will work as advertised.

DCI had contracted with a German research institute, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, to develop tests for DCI compliance. Cinecert has a six-month contract to complete the work Fraunhofer started and to develop a set of testing procedures and standard tests. Once Cinecert has finished, DCI will choose testing entities.

In other announcements, DCI has published a list of errata corrections to the original specification and Sony and Warner Bros will take over technical and management responsibility from Paramount and Universal, so expect Al Barton to have even less free time than he already has from October onwards.

At the same event, WB's CTO Chris Cookson gave what sounds like an excellent keynote advocating a baseline capture of 4K for archives.

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.