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

$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

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

CN Films choisit SmartJog comme partenaire stratégique

CN Films a chargé SmartJog, leader mondial de la transmission numérique sécurisée de contenus multimédias, d'opérer une plate-forme de distribution numérique de films indépendants européens.

Les exploitants de salles pourront ainsi consulter un catalogue de films, visionner les bandes-annonces en faible résolution puis transmettre le fichier via SmartJog directement vers l’emplacement connecté au réseau, une fois l’accord de programmation défini. Cette plate-forme, qui sera développée par CN Films et opérée par SmartJog, s’inscrit dans le cadre d’un projet soutenu par le programme MEDIA de la Commission européenne, qui vise à créer de nouveaux services de distribution dédiés aux distributeurs et aux exploitants indépendants.

« Cette collaboration avec CN Films est une formidable occasion de démontrer la polyvalence de SmartJog, tout aussi apte à travailler avec les studios hollywoodiens qu’avec les distributeurs européens indépendants », dit Matthieu Sintas, Directeur de la section Cinéma numérique chez SmartJog. « L’offre de SmartJog inclut des solutions adaptables pour répondre à tous les besoins de nos clients ».

CN Films souhaite utiliser les services de SmartJog pour garantir une livraison rapide et sécurisée des supports multimédias à ses partenaires actuels, mais aussi dans l’optique d’attirer de nouveaux exploitants dans le monde entier. CN Films développera elle-même son site Internet en utilisant la technologie SmartJog et un réseau de transmission numérique. Le système SmartJog, entièrement automatisé et contrôlé, se chargera de la logistique de bout en bout et assurera la sécurité et l’intégrité des contenus.

« Nous avons choisi SmartJog comme partenaire stratégique compte tenu de son expérience dans la transmission de contenus audiovisuels. L’avenir dans la distribution cinématographique passe par une rapidité et une sécurité accrues au maximum pour la transmission des contenus », explique Thierry Delpit, Directeur du développement chez CN Films. « La société SmartJog nous apporte tout cela et, de plus, son système est d’une très grande facilité d’utilisation ».

Thomson délivre "Transformers" par satellite aux US et à l'international

Thomson diffuse Transformers, premier film distribué par satellite en simultané aux Etats-Unis et à l'international
Le film de Paramount/DreamWorks a été transmis via le plus grand réseau numérique ouvert de distribution cinématographique par l'activité Technicolor de Thomson
Paris (France) et Burbank (Californie), le 11 juillet 2007 - Thomson (Euronext Paris : 18453 ; NYSE : TMS) vient de réaliser une première le 3 juillet dernier avec la distribution par satellite de Transformers, le film de Michael Bay, produit par Paramount / Dreamworks en association avec Hasbro.
Thomson, via son activité Technicolor Digital Cinema au sein de sa division Services, est ainsi le premier groupe à diffuser un film par satellite à la fois vers les salles des Etats-Unis et vers les salles internationales, grâce à un réseau de distribution numérique ouvert.
C'est la première fois également qu'un distributeur comme Thomson diffuse un film à la fois vers des salles équipées de ses propres systèmes de projection numériques et vers des salles dont les systèmes sont gérés par d'autres groupes.
" Il s'agit d'une étape importante dans la mise en place d'un modèle de distribution "agnostique" tel que l'attendaient les studios ", explique Curt Behlmer, directeur d'exploitation de Technicolor Digital Cinema.
Thomson fournit désormais un réseau de distribution numérique complet, aussi bien pour la distribution électronique que pour la distribution physique de films numériques vers les salles du monde entier. " Pour la diffusion numérique par satellite, nous ne sommes plus limités aux seules salles équipées de nos systèmes de projection numériques", se félicite Joe Hart, vice-président en charge des services de distribution numérique de Technicolor. " Notre réseau de distribution numérique parfaitement ouvert et donc neutre, combiné à notre réseau mondial déjà existant de distribution physique, nous permet de fournir n'importe quel film sur n'importe quel système, partout dans le monde et à tout moment. "
Diffusant actuellement des films numériques dans plus de 200 salles en Amérique du Nord et en Europe, le réseau de diffusion par satellite de Thomson devrait se développer parallèlement à l'expansion des systèmes de projection numériques.

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