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Technology
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March 23, 2005
Ireland Goes All Digital
IRELAND — Ireland will become the first country in the world to completely upgrade its movie theaters to digital projectors.
“Ireland is the perfect pilot test site for a project like this,” said Cummins. “Eighty per cent of the movies shown in Irish cinemas are Hollywood movies, along with the fact that we are an English-speaking nation and have a relatively small number of cinemas makes it the ideal choice.”
According to this report in the Register, the projectors will be installed on 500 screens at 105 diffrent theater sites at a cost of €40 million. Digital Cinema Limited (DCL), an Irish subsidiary of Avica Europe, will provide the equipment and installation.
Read the full report.
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March 17, 2005
Landmark Plans Digital Projection for its Theatres
According to this IndieWire.com article, Landmark Theatres will be launching a digital projection roll-out this summer with the installation of Sony’s new digital SXRD projectors in six Landmark locations, with eventual installation in all 59 of its theatres.
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February 28, 2005
UK Pioneers Digital Film Network
ENGLAND — The Arts Alliance Digital Cinema in the UK is setting up a network of 250 screens across the UK for screening of digital films. This BBC article gives interesting facts about this changeover from reels to digital.
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February 17, 2005
Old Movies Digitised?
Hello,
Does anybody know if old movies such as “Citizen Kane” or “Metropolis” have been digitised and are able to be distributed and screened digitally?
Thankyou,
Tom.
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November 11, 2004
“My Theatre” Concept Debuts In Thailand
BANGKOK, THAILAND — According to a report from the Bangkok Post, Shin Broadcast Internet is testing a new theater concept in Thailand.
The concept, dubbed “My Theatre”, is designed to deliver multiple forms of entertainment to small groups of people. Theaters are rented on an hourly basis by small groups of people — two, eight, or twenty-one patrons — who choose between watching films delivered via satellite, singing with friends in a karaoke session, or playing video games.
The test theater, which cost $250,000 to construct, was built in the Ratchaburi province. If the concept proves successful, the size of the existing exhibition industry in Thailand could double according to the theater’s backers.
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September 8, 2004
Sony Dynamic Digital Picture; Electronics Veteran Develops 4 K Projector
Just as we have begun to understand the significance of 2K resolution (2048 x 1080 pixels) in the upcoming standards for d-cinema, technology is forging ahead again.
With the June 3, 2004 introduction of plans for not one, but two digital-cinema projectors at 4096 x 2160 pixel resolution (4K) with ‘unprecedented features’ and ‘a high contrast ratio’ (2000:1), Sony declared itself ‘taking the lead in the rapidly emerging digital-cinema market.’
For more information, read this Film Journal International article.
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September 7, 2004
NATO Puts D-Cinema ‘InFocus’
“What, a casual industry-follower might ask, is going on out there?” asks Alma Freedman in the August/September 2004 issue of ‘InFocus' magazine, published by the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO).
“Have digital cinema’s files, servers, studios, consortiums, governments, and, finally, stars, somehow aligned for every land mass except North America? Have Asia, Europe and Latin America, beleaguered by piracy and a paucity of celluloid prints, taken U.S. exhibition’s spot in the digital-cinema vanguard?”
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April 26, 2004
Pacific 1-2-3 Rolls On As Digital Cinema Lab
HOLLYWOOD, CA — The Los Angeles Times reports that the Pacific 1-2-3 will remain a “showcase and lab” for digital cinema for the foreseeable future.
Following the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, the former Warner Hollywood Theatre was closed and later leased to the University of Southern California in 1999. Despite its unremarkable exterior condition, the Pacific 1-2-3’s main lobby and auditorium are in excellent shape.
The former balcony area, which was split in the 1970s to create a triplex, remains closed.
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April 21, 2004
Inside Lowry Digital
BURBANK, CA — In this past Sunday’s edition, the New York Times profiled the work of Lowry Digital, a state-of-the-art film scanning and restoration facility that’s been creating phenomenal digital transfers of classic films like “North by Northwest,” “Casablanca,” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
Using its own proprietary software system, a fleet of super-fast G5 Power Macintoshes, and its 4K Imagica film scanner (which can scan film at twice the typical resolution), Lowry is able to provide unparalleled negative scanning and restoration services.
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February 16, 2004
Digital Movie Licensing?
Where can I get information about digital movie licensing? No internet search engine seems to help much, but I’ve read articles that make vague references to how much the industry is saving and how much cheaper digital download high-def movies are. Anybody got any insight?