JVC Joins the 4K Projection Club

"If you've been tuned into Digital Cinema Projection for the past couple of years, you'd know that when it comes to 4K projection (4Kx2K image), sony's SXRD series was pretty much the only game in town. DLP is limited to 2K and most of the projectors out there (Christie, Barco, NEC) are all 2K projectors.

A downside of Sony's projector is that although it is as hefty as a small car it only has a 2000:1 contrast ratio (measured less than that calibrated). Its rated aggresively for 40ft screens which is not nearly big enough for true cinema applications.

That was true until JVC announced their 1.27-inch 4Kx2K D-ILA (Direct-drive Image Light Amplifier) chip at InfoComm 2007. The chip can produce a 4096x2400 pixel image with a 20,000:1 contrast ratio. That's nearly 10x the contrast ratio of the Sony behemoth.

Major Specifications:
Device size: 1.27-inch diagonal
Number of pixels: 4096 x 2400
Pixel pitch: 6.8 µm
Gap between pixels: 0.25 µm
Aperture ratio: 93%
Device contrast ratio: 20,000:1
Response time (tr+tf): 4.5 ms

The DLA-SH4K, which packs the 4k D-ILA chip, touts a 4,096 x 2,400 resolution, 10,000:1 contrast ratio, 3,500 lumens, a dual-link DVI input, multiscreen mode, an Ethernet port for remote operation and RS-232 / USB connectors. It measures 660 x 827 x 340 mm and is slated for launch in the first half of 2008."

Source: Digital Cinema Buyers Guide

Thomson Signs Agreements with Three North American Exhibitors to Provide Digital Cinema Projection Systems

"Thomson, through its Technicolor Digital Cinema business, has signed agreements with Clearview Cinemas, iPic Entertainment and Cinemaworld to install digital projection systems as part of its North American digital cinema equipment deployment.

Clearview Cinemas is a Chatham, New Jersey-based exhibitor that operates 50 theatres with 254 screens, 246 of which are in the New York DMA, the country’s largest metropolitan market. Clearview also owns and operates New York City’s legendary Ziegfeld Theatre, one of the country’s most famous movie palaces and the location of countless movie premieres and red-carpet events.

IPic Entertainment, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is a new company founded by Hamid Hashemi, former president and CEO of Muvico Theatres. With its first location set to open in the Milwaukee suburb of Glendale, Wisconsin on December 7, iPic’s innovative entertainment complexes will include luxury movie theatres, an upscale bowling venue, a restaurant and bar, and an auditorium for live events. iPic has additional locations currently under development in Texas, Illinois, Ohio, California and Florida.

"Digital Cinema is the future of movie exhibition, and we are excited to be on the cutting-edge working with Technicolor so that our guests can experience movies with the highest quality image and sound possible,” said Hamid Hashemi, president and CEO of IPic Entertainment. “We’re also excited about the innovative new programming options that this technology enables, such as 3-D and live events."

Vero Beach, Florida-based Cinemaworld operates 32 state-of-the-art, all-stadium screens in Florida and Rhode Island, and plans to expand into two new markets beginning in early 2008. Cinemaworld’s West Melborne, Florida site has been a test bed for Technicolor’s prototype digital systems since 2002.

Each theatre installation will feature Technicolor’s fully integrated networked systems, which include a satellite system for content delivery and the Technicolor Theatre Management System. The Technicolor Theatre Management System is a software solution that enables exhibitors to control theatre automation and manage all content such as trailers, advertisements, and features with simple drop and drag technology. The digital cinema systems will be supported by Technicolor’s maintenance services with 24/7 remote monitoring to ensure system health.

Technicolor Digital Cinema has installed digital cinema systems with several prominent exhibitors in North America and Europe including ArcLight Cinema Company, Mann Theatres, National Amusements, Wehrenberg Theatres, Zyacorp’s Cinemagic Stadium Theatres, and Kinepolis Group in Belgium.

Thomson intends to complete the first phase rollout of digital projection systems in up to 5,000 screens over the next three to four years, with 15,000 screens in the United States and Canada over the next 10 years.

All hardware and software placed in each site will conform to industry-standard specifications published by Digital Cinema Initiatives LLC (DCI). Furthermore, the Technicolor Digital Cinema plan is technology agnostic, enabling both exhibitors and studios to benefit from the best available technology, including both 2K and 4K projection.

As previously announced, Thomson has signed digital cinema equipment usage agreements with DreamWorks SKG, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros. to support its plans for the distribution of digital cinema content and systems throughout North America. Under the separate, long-term accords, each of these studios has agreed to distribute content digitally throughout the United States and Canada, and pay a virtual print fee to Thomson for screens equipped with Technicolor Digital Cinema systems, which began in late 2006."

Source: DCinemaToday

Disney Brings 3-D Thunder to 'Bolt'

"Disney Feature Animation's "Bolt" -- previously titled "American Dog" -- will be released in digital 3-D when it opens Nov. 26, 2008.

"We are going to have fun family 3-D at Thanksgiving," Disney president of domestic distribution Chuck Viane said. "We absolutely believe in the whole concept of 3-D and the enhancement that it brings in the ability to separate us from any of the other mediums."

"Bolt" is the latest digital 3-D announcement from Disney, which has been a pioneer of the format. The company's digital 3-D releases have included "Chicken Little," "Meet the Robinsons" and "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas."

Burton also recently signed a two-picture deal with Disney through which he will direct and produce 3-D features of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" and Burton's short "Frankenweenie." Disney next releases in 3-D the "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour," which will play in theaters Feb. 1-7.

The "Hannah Montana" release should be available on about 700 screens. "By the time we get to 'Bolt,' I think you may be looking at somewhere between 1,200 and 1,500 potential 3-D screens (domestically)," Viane said. "That would be terrific."

John Travolta and Susie Essman lead the voice cast of "Bolt," the story of a TV star dog named Bolt (Travolta) who is accidentally shipped from his Hollywood soundstage to New York, where he begins a cross-country journey through the real world. Chris Williams directs."

By Carolyn Giardina, The Hollywood Reporter

'Beowulf's' Bow Takes 3-D to the Next Level

"If you're looking to see Beowulf take on Grendel this weekend in 3-D, you have some choices. Paramount/Warner Bros.' anticipated "Beowulf," from director Robert Zemeckis, will be the first Hollywood feature to open simultaneously in Imax 3-D and digital 3-D. This looks like the beginning of a new trend. More 3-D features will open in both digital and Imax 3-D formats in 2008. Already scheduled are the U2 concert film "U2 3D" and Summit Entertainment's CG-animated "Fly Me to the Moon." Also, DreamWorks announced this week that its animated 2009 3-D releases "Monsters vs. Aliens" and "How to Train Your Dragon," as well as the 2010 opener "Shrek Goes Fourth," will be released in both digital and Imax 3-D formats.

The release of "Beowulf" will help expose the 3-D format to the widest audience to date. The film will open in 3-D on about 800 screens domestically. Stakeholders agree that this activity is good for 3-D. Says Richard Gelfond, co-chairman and co-CEO of Imax Corp., "The more 3-D the better it is for Imax because as films are produced in 3-D there's more content available." Still, Imax 3-D and digital 3-D represent immensely different economic models. In fact, even digital 3-D has variations, with vendors offering different approaches to projection and viewing. The industry will be closely watching how each of these 3-D models fare as the format evolves.

Digital 3-D is still young, having hatched in late 2005 with the release of Disney's "Chicken Little." This method is enabled by a 3-D system being installed in a theater that is equipped with a digital-cinema projector. About 4,600 digital-cinema projectors have been installed domestically, and many more deployment plans are being worked out. Current 3-D system providers include Real D, Dolby and NuVision. The content is typically distributed on hard drives.

Real D was the first 3-D system out of the gate and represents the lion's share of current installations. At press time, it was expected that there would be about 620 Real D-equipped auditoriums showing "Beowulf" in 3-D this weekend. Real D's technique requires the use of a "silver screen" and "circular polarized" glasses. It enables 3-D on screens maxing out around 47 feet high. For any system, screen size comes down to how much light can get to the screen from the projector.

Dolby recently completed its beta phase, and deployment has started. It expects to have about 30 screens domestically and 75 worldwide for the "Beowulf" opening. Installed systems support on average 40-foot-high screens. Dolby's system doesn't require a special type of screen, using those that are standard in today's theaters, but audiences would use special Dolby glasses.

NuVision also recently began U.S. deployment of its 3-D system, and the company estimated it would have six screens showing "Beowulf" in the U.S. and about 100 in Europe. It doesn't require a special screen.

Imax has been in business for 40 years. Its system is a 70mm film-based projection and distribution model, where the images are rendered on screens reaching from 50 feet high to 70 feet wide to as large as 80 feet high and 100 feet wide. Imax positions itself as a premium experience. "Imax 3-D is the first-class experience," Gelfond says. "Imax 3-D alows people to be 'inside' the movie. ... The screen goes to the peripheral vision of the viewer." He adds: "Digital 3-D has its place. Because of its footprint, it allows a lot of people to see features in 3-D where they otherwise couldn't."

Michael Lewis, CEO of 3-D provider Real D, says: "We feel digital is really the future of where 3-D is going to be. We've focused on 'how do we get this to every multiplex in the world.' "

Deployment costs and models vary. For digital, the projectors in many cases are installed via the virtual print fee model used for 2-D digital cinema by exhibitors -- a separate deal from that with the 3-D provider. Imax models include joint ventures and leasing.

"It actually is two different sets of economics," says Howard Lukk, Disney's vp production technology. "(For instance), the preparation of (Imax) prints is expensive. It's a lot more expensive than for a digital 3-D model." He said models also vary as to who supplies the glasses for digital presentations.

Adds Shindler of digital technology in multiplexes: "From an exhibitor's point of view, in digital, if a movie doesn't play well, they can move another movie in there instantly. In a megaplex, there are always going to be enough movies playing that they can move (a title)."

Shifting to boxoffice expectations, generally insiders predict that the per-theater average for "Beowulf" in 3-D will be two-and-a-half to three times that for the 2-D version. Some say Imax's average might go even higher.

With so many more theaters playing digital 3-D than Imax 3-D, digital would presumably have the higher total boxoffice of the two formats, Schindler says. "Imax can't complete with (about 85) screens, even though seating capacity in many of the Imax theaters is much bigger," he says.

Looking to 2008, many are eager to see what technological developments are on the horizon and what impact they might have on these models. Notably, Imax is developing a digital projection and distribution system for its format that the company expects to launch in June. This could prompt significant change in the company's economics.

As well, Real D has developed a technology it plans to launch next year that it says will allow its system to reach screens as high as 70 feet with a single projector, which the company hopes will help step up deployment in larger auditoriums. Newcomers Dolby and NuVision are only just starting to deploy systems, making them a factor to watch in the coming years.

Digital delivery methods also are likely to shift as more screens mean that distributors can take advantage of economies of scale. Explains Lukk: "It's going to be a hybrid world with some hard drives, satellite and networked fiber-delivery systems."

For the consumer, all of this simply means that there are more opportunities to view a motion picture in 3-D. Shindler points out: "There are a lot of consumers that are not familiar with 3-D, and they are going to go to whatever theater is most convenient for them."

Lewis looks forward to continued movement in 3-D. "Clearly, 3-D is where cinema is going," he says. "We've seen every major studio plus major film directors embrace it. It's going to be the platform for releasing tentpole movies."

By Carolyn Giardina, The Hollywood Reporter

Imax Signs 4-Film Deal with DreamWorks Animation

"Imax and DreamWorks Animation have agreed to release the studio's first three 3D motion pictures worldwide in Imax 3D: "Monsters vs. Aliens" in March 2009, "How to Train Your Dragon" in November 2009 and "Shrek Goes Forth" in May 2010. A fourth DreamWorks title, "Kung Fu Panda," will be released in Imax's 2D format in June 2008. The films will be distributed by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom.

Earlier this year, DreamWorks announced plans to release all its computer animated films in 3D starting in 2009. It was welcome news for all that had a stake in the emerging 3D film industry, such as privately held Real D, the leading provider of digital 3D projection technology. At the time, DreamWorks made no specific mention of Imax and its giant-screen format.

DreamWorks had planned to release the original "Shrek" movie in Imax 3D in 2000, but the idea proved to be several years ahead of its time. The release was cancelled due to financial issues gripping Imax and the exhibition industry back then.

But Imax is now on the threshold of a transition to digital, and the slate of DreamWorks 3D titles it announced Wednesday is expected to be among the first presented with its new digital projection system, scheduled to be launched in June. Gelfond said the potential of the new Imax digital projector "facilitated" the agreement with DreamWorks because the cost drops to almost zero compared to $45,000 for one Imax 3D print.

One exhibition industry source said the expense of Imax prints and the complexity of transporting them has long been an issue for Hollywood studios and commercial exhibitors, but should be addressed with the introduction of the Imax digital projector. "When it becomes digital, you're talking about a whole new model," the source said.

If the DreamWorks films are big at the Imax box office, that could be enough to lure other studios, namely Walt Disney, into the Imax camp as well, the source added.

While a 40-minute computer-animated film, "Sea Monsters," opened in both digital 3D and Imax 3D last month, the release of Paramount's "Beowulf" this weekend marks the first time a feature film is released in both 3D formats. The source said the overall results at the box office were modest, but sales at Imax theaters were "substantially higher" compared to the majority of digital 3D presentations.

"Beowulf" is expected to be the widest digital 3D release ever, in the neighborhood of 1,100 digital screens. By comparison, the film will open in 124 Imax theaters worldwide.

A film industry source said the Imax-DreamWorks deal shouldn't come as a surprise, as the studios want as many "eyeballs as possible" for their 3D films and Imax understands it's not alone in delivering 3D to audiences. Most studios see 5,000 screens as the magic number, and a pipeline of 3D content, such as James Cameron's "Avatar," together with the Imax-Dreamworks releases, should help make that happen by 2009, the source added."

CNN Money

$8 billion Digital Cinema Market Beckons: Half of All Screens Will Be Digital by 2013

"The conversion of the world’s cinema screens to digital technology is at last under way, opening up a potential $8 billion equipment market at today’s prices. As soon as 2013 half of all cinema screens worldwide could employ digital technology in place of traditional 35 mm projectors, according to the latest Digital Cinema Report by analysts Dodona Research.

After more than a decade in development, digital cinema took off in 2007 with 4,627 screens converted by September, approaching 5% of the global total. The beginnings of widespread adoption of the new technology has been facilitated by the emergence of third parties willing to finance the huge conversion costs. These so-called integrators typically finance purchase of the equipment, seeking to repay loans by levying an array of usage charges. While the cost of installation, maintenance contracts and sometimes content delivery charges are paid by exhibitors, the main source of revenues to support conversion comes from so-called virtual print fees. These are paid by film distributors out of their notional savings from not having to strike 35 mm film prints.

The report observes that, while most of the debate about digital cinema has revolved around film distributors and exhibitors, in practice these businesses will be relatively little affected compared to film processing laboratories and the film transport business. In particular, the $1.5 billion market for release printing will, the report predicts, all but disappear, while in the long run the film transport business will be superseded by delivery by satellite or over other digital networks.

With one provider, Access Integrated Technologies, responsible for 80% of digital cinema installations to date, it would be premature to judge how robust current business models will prove. In essence most participants in this market are seeking to develop networks of digital cinemas and then build revenues from providing a range of services such as mastering and delivering digital films, supplying alternative content, screen advertising services, and upgrades and maintenance of software and equipment.

After Access, the three leading companies in this area are XDC, Arts Alliance Media and Technicolor, each with a market share in the region of 6-7%. Equipment markets are also dominated by a small number of companies. Christie has a 77% share of the 2K and 4K digital projector market, followed by Barco with 14% and NEC with a little under 8%; in servers Doremi has a near 80% share of 2k and 4k installations, followed by Dolby with 9% and XDC, with 5%.

Digital cinema primarily makes sense in terms of networks, so installations tend to be concentrated in clusters. 78% of all digital cinema screens are in the United States, and 40% in the cinemas of a single circuit, Carmike Cinemas. The second largest number of screens is in the United Kingdom, thanks to the UK Film Council’s initiative in establishing the Digital Screen Network, while South Korea, where three exhibitors, Megabox, Lotte and CJ CGV, are committing to digital cinema to serve one of the world’s most tech-savvy audiences, is third.

The countries where the progress of the technology is most advanced, however, are Luxembourg, Singapore and Belgium. Half of Luxembourg’s screens are already digital due to the rapid embrace of the new technology by its leading exhibitor, Utopia. In Singapore the Eng Wah circuit was supported in converting to digital as long ago as 2004 by the city state’s development agencies, as part of a strategy to establish Singapore as a digital hub in the region. In Belgium, another initiative by a leading exhibitor, the Kinepolis Group, saw 10% of the country’s screens converted by September 2007 with plans to convert most of its circuit by the end of the year.

With more than 50% of the market soon to be digital in Belgium and Luxembourg, it is likely that there will soon be pressures to complete the conversion process, due to the high costs of so called dual-running of digital and 35 mm distribution systems. This could become a highly politicized process if, as is widely feared in Europe, smaller exhibitors are not able to access equipment at an affordable cost.

The main factor slowing further adoption, according to the report, has been the absence of any obvious source of extra revenues from installing the new technology. While cinema exhibitors have been quick to note the benefits to distributors of much lower print costs, they have been sceptical about the potential impact of alternative or non-traditional content, for example sports events or concerts, on their bottom lines. Although Dodona believes this scepticism is misplaced, seeing classic movies as a particularly promising source of higher revenues, instead there is a consensus building up that 3D will be the driver that takes the market to the next level.

Two rival systems from Real-D and Dolby have different advantages and disadvantages but Real-D, which was earlier to market, dominates in installations, with 423 in place by September 2007 and more than 1,000 expected for the North American release of Beowulf, compared to perhaps 75 to 80 Dolby systems by the same date. Barring mishaps, these numbers are expected to grow exponentially to 2009, when a number of high profile films, made explicitly to exploit the 3D medium, are due to be released, including Avatar from James Cameron, Monsters vs Aliens and the first film in a series featuring TinTin.

With at least 5,000 3D systems expected to be in place by 2009, this will clearly provide a considerable impetus to the digital conversion process, as these 3D systems need a digital projector to bolt onto. The Odeon UCI circuit, for example, has announced its intention to install 500 3D systems despite today having fewer than 100 screens converted to digital.

The consultants counsel against over-confidence in this market. Financing the equipment is complex and difficult conditions in financial markets could derail progress by making money more expensive and leading financiers to question future revenue assumptions more stringently. The report’s author, Karsten-Peter Grummitt notes the importance of game theory in understanding this market. The equipment manufacturers want to defray their R&D costs; the distributors want to make the minimum financial contribution possible to conversion; exhibitors wonder whether potential new revenue sources will justify the investment. “Nevertheless,” says Grummitt, “the next step in the market’s evolution is probably going to need a fall in the price of equipment, or higher virtual print fees, or bigger exhibitor contributions, or all of these. Strategies in this market need to move on from the ‘who pays?’ face-off of the last few years to focus on how to get this done.”

Source: Digital Cinema Buyers Guide

QuVIS Announces 3D JPEG2000 Support for the QuVIS Cinema Player

"QuVIS has successfully integrated support for the new DCI JPEG2000 3D format in the QuVIS Cinema Player. The DCI JPEG2000 3D format is comprised of two 12-bit 4:4:4 video streams, left eye and right eye, stored in a single image track file. During playback, the QuVIS Cinema Player decodes the image track file and separates left eye and right eye picture data into two separate synchronized output video streams.

The QuVIS Cinema Player can be used for 3D stereoscopic exhibition using either passive or active visualization technology. 3D Passive viewing is achieved by projecting two images onto the same screen using orthogonal (linear) or circular polarizing filters. The viewer wears low-cost eyeglasses fitted with the polarizing filters needed for that display type. In 3D Active viewing the viewer wears LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) shutter glasses that receive a wireless signal from the projector to open and close the lens shutters on the glasses in an alternate-frame sequencing method.

The QuVIS Cinema Player, the central component of QuVIS’ Digital Cinema Network solution, is an elite multi-format playback server that has been designed to meet the performance, security and reliability needed for years of faithful service. The QuVIS Cinema Player not only provides the basic Digital Cinema functionality (e.g. 2K and 3D JPEG2000 playback and local content loading) but also features many advanced server capabilities including: 2K playback of a 4K Digital Cinema Composition, Network-based content loading even during active playback, Secure Logging and Reporting, Forensic Watermarking, and full theater automation programming and controls."

Source: DCinemaToday

Real D Eases Path to 3-D for Theaters

"Digital 3-D system provider Real D has developed a technology with the potential to allow a greater number of digital-cinema-equipped theaters to offer the stereoscopic format.

"It will allow us with single projectors to reach much bigger screens," Real D president Joshua Greer said. "Where we've been limited to much smaller screens, we can now reach as high as a 70-foot screen with a single projector. We were typically maxing (out) at about 46 or 47 feet for scope."

The challenge has been the inefficiency of light in 3-D projection. "3-D is about sending images to your left and right eye," Greer said. "We basically divide up the light. Half of the light is conditioned to work for one eye, and half is conditioned to work for the other. Light that has not been passed from one eye to the other has essentially been lost in the past. Now we can be very efficient."

Real D CEO Michael Lewis said the challenge of light has until now resulted in missed opportunities, noting that the problem was keeping 3-D from being a viable option in about 15%-20% of domestic screens -- those being the largest.

Added Greer, "Now we get demands from our exhibitors saying that they want to be in the biggest house, and we have to say no because we want to make sure there is enough light on the screen."

Today, projection of 3-D imagery on larger screens typically is accomplished with two d-cinema projectors stacked one on top of the other and used simultaneously. But acquiring and maintaining two d-cinema projectors for a single auditorium is not practical for exhibitors.

Real D expects to have the modified 3-D systems for larger theaters and incorporating this new technology available in 2008."

By Carolyn Giardina, The Hollywood Reporter

Dolby, Real D Taking on Another Dimension in Movies

"For more than 30 years, Dolby Laboratories has enriched the sound of movies. Now, the San Francisco pioneer is looking to revolutionize the visual experience as well, with newfangled 3-D films.

The company is marketing filtering technology that enables theaters to show high-definition, 3-D movies with the digital projectors they already use.

This week will mark the first real, albeit small, deployment of Dolby's new product, with the release of the adventure film "Beowulf." The motion-capture animated film, by director Robert Zemeckis and featuring Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie, is at the vanguard of a new wave of digital 3-D movies backed by some of Hollywood's most talented directors.

Dolby's just getting started in the market, where its biggest competitor is Real D of Beverly Hills. About 80 theaters will be using Dolby's product to show "Beowulf," compared with 1,100 worldwide that will be employing Real D's technology.

Together, the companies and the studios are providing consumers with an experience that promises real visual immersion. It's more than gimmicks, such as objects being tossed at the audience.

"Digital 3-D is like high-definition TV," said Jeff McNall, cinema product manager for Dolby. "Once you see it, it's hard to go back to old TV."

Dolby is not new to images. Founder Ray Dolby started his career making videotape recorders. But his business primarily was dedicated to noise reduction, and later to high-quality audio technology now used in movies, CDs and video games.

A few years ago, the company began manufacturing video servers that allow theaters to store their movies digitally and decrypt them for playback using digital projectors, which started gaining popularity in 2005.

It's these digital projectors that are enabling high-definition 3-D movies to come to life on the consumer end. Instead of lining up two film projectors, theaters can use one digital projector and then convert it to 3-D using technology from Real D and Dolby.

Dolby has created a filter for projectors that breaks 3-D images into red, blue and green bands of light that are recognized by layered 3-D glasses. Gone are the days of the throwaway paper-frame glasses. With the Dolby glasses costing about $50 each, theaters will need to wash them after each viewing, and viewers won't be able to take them home as souvenirs.

The advantage of Dolby's system is that theaters don't have to install aluminized silver screens like they do with the Real D product. And theater owners can move 3-D movies to any of their screens, making room on bigger screens for new releases.

"This allows a multiplex to be able to use 3-D efficiently," said McNall. "They can open a 3-D movie on opening weekend with a large screen and then they can go to a smaller screen later."

The Real D system projects sequential polarized images onto the aluminized screen, which maintains the polarization so viewers can see the images on their glasses. Real D Chief Executive Officer and founder Michael Lewis said past projection systems have never provided a dynamic and consistent 3-D experience. The digital 3-D system, he said, is finally delivering on the original promise of 3-D in the 1950s.

"We're binocular beings. We see with depth, yet all our media is flat. We've tried with red and green glasses, but it's never been good enough until now," Lewis said. "We're using this combination of 3-D science and digital projectors to create a perfect experience every time."

Hollywood's biggest names are lining up behind 3-D. Director James Cameron of "Titanic" fame has been working for the past decade on 3-D cameras that are lightweight, incorporate two lenses in the body and are able to capture big action and close-up scenes, something older 3-D camera setups were unable to do.

The technical advances have excited the likes of directors Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg, who are collaborating on a series of animated films about a Belgian character named Tintin.

George Lucas is intrigued by the potential of 3-D, his company said, and is considering re-releasing his "Star Wars" movies in the format. All of the major studios have 3-D movies in the works, including a $195 million blockbuster titled "Avatar."

The first live-action movie to be shot in digital 3-D, as opposed to being animated or altered from 2-D, is next year's "Journey 3-D," a retelling of Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth." Beau Flynn, a producer on "Journey," said Hollywood is falling in love with digital 3-D now that the technical hurdles have been cleared.

"We're able to make a real story and not rely on 3-D gimmicks," said Flynn. "We owe it to the audience because we haven't really changed the theater experience in over 30 years."

For movie theater chains, digital 3-D is appealing on a number of levels. Regal Entertainment Group, the largest in the United States, will charge $2.50 more for a 3-D presentation. And they're popular: "Meet the Robinsons," a 3-D animated film released earlier this year, earned more than a third of its $98 million domestically from 3-D showings, even though only one-sixth of the screens were able to show the film in 3-D.

Dick Westerling, senior vice president of marketing for Regal Entertainment Group, said the company has outfitted 134 of its more than 6,000 screens for 3-D.

But he imagines that theaters could eventually deploy 3-D on about 20 percent of their screens because of its appeal with viewers and its money-making potential.

Chris Chinnock, president of Insight media, a market research firm focused on the electronic display industry, said the next few years will be big for 3-D, as digital projectors become more common and more creators see the potential behind 3-D storytelling.

"There are a lot of titles coming up in the next couple years that will build up to 2009. That's shaping up as a critical year for 3-D movies," Chinnock said. "If we continue to see good returns and enthusiasms from consumers, we should get some good hits from these movies."

Upcoming 3-D projects :
- "Beowulf," the motion-capture animated retelling of the epic Anglo-Saxon poem. Nov. 16.

- "U2 3D," a 3-D movie of the Irish band's Vertigo tour. January 2008.

- "Journey 3-D," a remake of the Jules Verne story "Journey to the Center of the Earth". August 2008.

- Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson have plans to direct and produce three 3-D films based on Georges Remi's Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin. Expected 2009 release.

- Beginning in 2009, all DreamWorks films will be in 3-D, starting with "Monsters vs. Aliens," "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Shrek 4."

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Half of Screens to Be Digital by 2013

"Half of worldwide screens will be digital by 2013, according to a report by cinema analysts Dodona Research.

This year has seen an explosion in digital conversion with 4,627 screens, 5% of the global total, switched to digital up to September.

Penetration is deepest in the U.S., home to 78% of the world’s digital screens. The U.K. and South Korea boast the second and third most digital screens.

Other advanced Euro digital cinema territories are Luxembourg and Belgium, where aggressive conversion led by forward thinking exhib circuits Utopia and Kinepolis, respectively, means almost 50% of both small markets are digital.

Report predicts upcoming slew of high-profile 3-D releases will increase exhib’s appetite for digital conversion.

Dodona points to the example of the Odeon UCI circuit, which has announced its intention to install 500 3-D systems, despite having fewer than 100 screens converted to digital at present.

Recent widespread adoption has been facilitated by the emergence of third party integrators willing to cover the large conversion costs, says the Dodona report.

These integrators typically finance purchase of the equipment, seeking to repay loans by levying an array of usage charges. While the cost of installation, maintenance contracts and sometimes content delivery charges are paid by exhibitors, the main source of revenues to support conversion comes from virtual print fees. These are paid by distributors out of their notional savings from not having to strike 35 mm film prints.

The report, although upbeat on the prospects for continued conversion, does identify a variety of hurdles standing in the way of the d-cinema revolution.

“The next step in the market’s evolution is probably going to need a fall in the price of equipment, or higher virtual print fees, or bigger exhibitor contributions, or all of these,” report author Karsten-Peter Grummitt said. “Strategies in this market need to move on from the ‘who pays?’ face-off of the last few years to focus on how to get this done.”

Source: Variety

Digital Will Take Hold in 2008

"This week Access Integrated Technologies announced the completion of phase one of its digital cinema deployment and unveiled phase two, a three-year, 10,000-screen rollout that will commence in the first quarter of next year. Although the company’s release was short on details—which exhibitors and distributors would be participating in this second stage have yet to be revealed—the move is significant for a few reasons.

First, it solidifies what Boxoffice reported in the pages of its November issue—that 2008 is poised to be the year that a hypothetical chart of digital cinema installations goes into a steep curve toward complete conversion. AccessIT is the uncontested leader in North American deployment. Nearing 3,750 screens, the software firm and third-party integrator has digitized 10 percent of the U.S. marketplace. 10,000 more accounts for more than one-third.

Meanwhile, Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, a joint venture owned by top circuits AMC, Cinemark and Regal, is poised to pull the trigger on digitizing the 15,000 screens it represents in the first half of 2008. Technicolor Digital Cinema, another third-party integrator, expects to segue from its digital beta test to a larger deployment now that Digital Cinema Initiatives has announced a Compliance Test Plan for the integration of its technology specification. And Cinema Buying Group, a digital cinema co-op for independent exhibitors, met to discuss the responses to its Request for Proposals during ShowEast, with implementation possible as early as the first part of next year.

In 2008, digital will be coming more and more often to a theatre near you.

What’s particularly interesting to the industry about AccessIT’s announcement is that the new plan “will build on the valued relationships established with Christie USA and Doremi Labs Inc. ... while tapping into the substantial additional resources of other interested vendors.” When AccessIT Digital Cinema launched in June 2005 as Christie/AIX, the company had an exclusive agreement with its namesake projector manufacturer. Both firms deserve kudos for kick-starting the process, but the arrangement limited equipment options for exhibitors.

In my conversations with AccessIT execs over the past year or more, they’ve emphasized that Christie “has been and will continue to be a valued partner” but that the quantities of equipment that will be required for a phase-two deployment demand relationships with additional vendors. In addition, exhibitors may prefer to work with another supplier.

As a result, Barco and NEC, who, like Christie, are licensees of Texas Instruments’ DLP Cinema technology but have been shut out of the industry’s most aggressive rollout of digital cinema, may be able to join AccessIT’s deployment. And exhibitors may have the option of choosing Sony’s 4K-resolution projection system or Dolby’s 3D solution (versus Doremi-compatible Real D).

Note, however, that no additional vendors have been named yet.

Finally, AccessIT’s phase-two agreements with distributors, which use “substantially” the same virtual print fee model as in phase one, are “structured so they may be amended to international deployment as well.” The rollout of digital cinema overseas has been more challenging than in the U.S. due to more fragmented markets with less reliance on Hollywood studio product. That an international consideration has been worked into AccessIT’s phase two agreements indicates global digitization is one small step closer to being realized."

By Annlee Ellingson, Boxoffice

EDCF Guide to Digital Cinema Mastering

L'European Digital Cinema Forum (EDCF) a publié un excellent guide du mastering en cinéma numérique.

Choice in 3-D Digital Cinema

"Digital 3-D is the buzz today in cinema. Innovation in both content production and in presentation has elevated stereoscopic 3-D to a quality of audience experience never before possible. On the content production side, live stereoscopic capture and editing techniques make possible productions like the upcoming U2 3-D movie. Improvements in computer graphics rendering, such as that developed by Sony ImageWorks, has led to visually stunning 3-D imagery seen in Beowulf. Conversion of live 2-D productions into 3-D, perhaps best known through In-Three's demonstration clips of the Star Wars series, will make possible the re-release of popular 2-D blockbuster movies in 3-D.

Advances in the presentation of stereoscopic images through digital projection, however, have made the resurgence of 3-D possible. The Texas Instruments' DLP Cinema technology makes it possible to project stereoscopic 3-D images with a single projector and with a quality level not possible with 35mm film. In contrast, LCOS projectors, such as the Sony SRX-R220/R210 cinema projectors now in trial installations, require two projectors to present 3-D images. By outfitting either the DLP or LCOS projector with a 3-D presentation kit and glasses (available from a few companies), the exhibitor has the opportunity to present 3-D movies worthy of a premium charge to audiences.

All digital 3-D content is distributed in a 48 frame-per-second (fps) format. In the stereoscopic format, images for the left eye are distributed at 24 fps, and similarly, 24 fps for the right eye images. (The sum of these image rates equaling 48 fps.) However, there are other factors which affect the single-inventory nature of 3-D distributions, leading to disparate distribution methods. To overcome this, Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), a coalition of the six major motion picture studios, announced in April its draft specification for 3-D content distribution, stating that all 3-D presentation methods must utilize a common distribution format. While this ideal has not yet been realized in existing 3-D systems, the goal is technologically feasible. To accelerate progress, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is now standardizing a single 3-D distribution format. As importantly, the various providers of presentation systems either now or will in not-too-distant future offer systems that support single inventory 3-D content.

DLP technology can project 3-D images with a single projector by presenting the stereoscopic left/right image pairs sequentially. This means that a left image is presented, and then a right image is presented, and never will both a left and a right image appear on the screen at the same time. However, presenting left/right images to the audience at a 48 fps rate is less than ideal as the sequential nature of the images are perceivable and distracting. To overcome this, sequential projection requires that the stereoscopic pair of images are "flashed" on screen. This involves, within the time frame of 1/24th of second, the repetition of a left/right sequence three times before presenting the next left/right sequence. This process is called "triple flash." With triple flash, the rate in which images are presented to the audience is a speedy 3 x 48 fps, or 144 fps. The triple flash rate is a property of the projector, and is the flash rate employed with all add-on technologies for presenting 3-D images in the theatre.

As pointed out, several add-on kits and glasses for 3-D presentation are now available. These can be categorized by technique: polarization, spectral division, and shutter glasses. While all three techniques can be used with DLP Cinema projectors, only polarization and spectral division work with dual-projection systems. Where the 3-D add-on technologies differ is in the method employed to direct left images to left eyes and right image to right eyes.

Polarization is most widely used technique today. It involves optically encoding each left image with a particular direction of light polarity, and each right image with an opposite direction of light polarity. In the Real D system, the encoding takes place at the projector using an electronically controlled polarizer, which Real D calls the "Zscreen." Images are decoded when the audience wears complimentary decoding polarized glasses. To allow head movement without upsetting the decoding quality of the glasses, Real D uses only circularly polarized filters in its system. Polarization alone, however, does not offer sufficient protection from crosstalk, also referred to as extinction ratio, with stereoscopic images. The audience experiences such crosstalk as a ghost in the motion picture. To enhance the ability of its polarization method to reject ghosting, Real D employs a "ghost busting" technique, which requires pre-processing of the images prior to projection. In its early systems, Real D's ghost-busting is applied prior to distribution. In future systems, ghost-busting will be applied in real-time by means of a processing box in the playback system.

Spectral division technology optically encodes left and right images by projecting each with a differently filtered spectrum of light. In the Infitec spectral division technique licensed by Dolby Laboratories, the light is filtered such that the left spectrum appears as white light (or near-white light), as does the right spectrum. In this way, this technique is importantly differentiated from the older, much lower quality, anaglyph method of using red filters for one eye and blue filters for the other. In Dolby's implementation, the light path in the projector is modified with a filter wheel to achieve spectral division of the stereoscopic images. Prior to projection, some color-balancing is applied to the image signal inside Dolby's digital cinema server. Complementary spectral division glasses are worn by audience members for decoding the images so that left eye images are seen only by the left eye, and right eye images are seen by only the right eye. To accomplish this, Dolby's glasses employ some 50 layers of thin-film coatings to create the appropriate optical interference filters. As interference filters require the light to pass through at a 90-degree angle, the glasses are curved to allow for eye movement without losing decoding quality at the viewer.

Shutter glasses, promoted for cinema use by Nuvision, take direct advantage of the sequential nature of the projected images. No special optical encoding is required with shutter glasses. To "decode" the sequential images, the audience wears glasses that allow only one eye to see the screen at any one time. By synchronizing the shutter-nature of the glasses with the flash rate of the projector, the audience correctly sees only left images in the left eye, and right images in the right eye. Synchronization of glasses takes place through infrared transmission inside the auditorium. To achieve the shutter action, the glasses must have battery-powered electronic circuitry in them that drives the liquid crystal (LCD) lenses.

The three methods described have important points of comparison. To preserve the polarized nature of the projected light in the auditorium, the polarization method requires the use of a silver screen. In contrast, the other methods, both spectral division and shutter glasses, work well with a normal mat white projection screen. Polarization, however, allows the use of very-low-cost glasses, such that they can be given away to the audience members. Both spectral division and the shutter method require expensive glasses that must be recycled (and thus regularly washed) for the method to be economical.

Manipulating projected light for the presentation of 3-D images has its price: all methods severely reduce the amount of light that reaches the eyes of the audience, typically around 85-88%. To the exhibitor, the light level determines the maximum screen size possible to present an acceptable 3-D image. Fortunately, it is acceptable to project 3-D images at significantly lower light levels than 2-D images, typically around 4 foot-lambert (ft-L), versus the standard 14 ft-L for 2-D. To compensate for low light levels, a high gain screen can be employed. Silver screens, of course, are very high in gain. It's understandable, then, that the polarization method, which requires the use of silver screens, adapts well to large screen applications, as indicated by IMAX's choice to use polarization for its 3-D presentation systems.

There is good reason for the recent resurgence in cinematic 3-D, spurred on by recent advances in both content production and in digital cinema presentation. For exhibitors, excellent choices exist with 3-D add-on technologies for 2-D digital cinema systems, all revealing high quality 3-D images to the audience. However, each 3-D add-on system presents a unique set of tradeoffs, clearly leaving the choice of system to exhibitor preference."

By Michael Karagosian, MKPE Consulting