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Topic: Sony Marketing of 4K. Have a look.

Martin McCaffery
Film God

Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-17-2009 01:15 PM

So when a patron complains they are told to go see the Crap Giver? [evil]

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 08-17-2009 01:53 PM

quote:
Sound systems are also generally the least expensive maintainance item to have to deal with unless of course you have all Smart Mod-2's and Peavey speakers or similar crap in your theater chain... then you have expensive upgrade problems to contend with. I think you must mean the latter where D-Cinema has been installed in chains like Carmike but no sound upgrades were done. Just about all of my customers have very good sound equipment and so adding D-Cinema would be iceing on the cake!!

Quality equipment is only part of what is required overall for a theater to provide good sound. The room design and maintenance of the equipment is also critical. I've visited brand new theaters that had good booth hardware but still had crappy sound because the equipment was out of adjustment or things like a blown speaker driver weren't fixed. In some cases certain staff members fart around with the knobs tweaking things that don't need tweaking in the first place. At any rate, the sound systems in commercial theaters need a lot more professional attention than they're getting.

In the case of Carmike, if the existing booth already had 5.1 surround sound then nothing else was done to it for adding digital projection. Many, but not all, of the theaters lacking 5.1 got upgraded to 5.1 surround when digital systems were added. If the rooms were originally built for THX certification then the booth rack had better quality gear than the usual variety of Smart branded stuff (the THX houses typically have Dolby processors and QSC amps). Carmike had to close some locations because there was just no point wasting money trying to upgrade them.

Regardless of theater chain affiliation it's going to come down to the individual theater manager to be driven enough to respond to problems and get them fixed rather than just leaving things broken.

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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 08-21-2009 11:03 AM

quote: James B Gardiner
If you think patrons care about 2k/4k, even if marketed to them. Your fooling yourself. They may drift towards 4k due to the marketing initially, but once they realise they cannot see the difference, they will not care. Convenience is the better option. round the corner for 2k or next suburb for 4k.. I assure you, it's the EASY option.

To the contrary, consumers will easily forgo convenience or price in exchange for value, even if it is only perceived value. Witness the proliferation of 1080p TV's in the past two years. In Spring 2007, 720p HD sets were the most common, and then Sony started pushing "1080p PureHD" and suddenly everyone wanted their TV's doing 1080p. It didn't matter that at their viewing distance, they wouldn't be able to discern the difference between 1080p and 720p on the size set they were getting, 1080p was better, and that's what they wanted. Try and find a 720p television greater than 37" in size now!

I think customers will drive past a theater for another one further away if there is 1) perceived value or 2) a problem with theater #1's presentation. People get ticked off about focus issues (focus, as well as jump and weave which many believe to be focus problems), sound issues, facility conditions, and patron behavior.

quote: Bobby Henderson
My opinion is the movie industry as we know it cannot exist without the commercial movie theaters. In a home video only model the movie studios will be reduced to marketing their best projects to TV broadcast and cable networks. You can't make a $200 million budget movie work within those confines. We all know the vast majority of straight to video movies are low budget crap. No studio is going to risk spending $100 million or $200 million on a project that will go straight to DVD and Blu-ray.

We've talked about this before, so I won't belabor my point, but it takes just one runaway success to change this forever. Studios are nibbling at this right now, and sooner or later, someone will hit upon the right combination that makes a simultaneous or direct-to-video release a success. Theaters should not use exclusivity as a crutch that prevents them from competing by delivering more than just a movie.

quote: Bobby Henderson
Yeah, commercial movie theaters do offer an experience one cannot get at home. Unfortunately, more often than not it is a negative, distracting experience. Many commercial movie theaters have more of a fast food feel about them than that of a classy establishment.

I experienced this just this week. Walked into the theater, and the seats I usually choose have some guy's feet draped over them from the row behind. Reluctantly choosing the row behind him and his friends (think Jerry Springer fans), the middle-aged woman in the party decided that the middle of the movie was a good time to do some texting by holding her phone up in front of her face. Not much the theater could do in that instance, but no one pulls that kind of crap in my home theater, but then I don't hang around with that kind of people.

3D is a gimmick that I don't think will take off in the home. People are more than happy to let theaters take the financial hit of installing the required equipment, but they aren't going to pay even a few dollars more for equipment that had that capability. Just because people pay a few dollars to walk through a fun house at the state fair doesn't mean they're going to go out and buy distorted mirrors for their home. Same with 3D.

Theaters need to have the stones to install the equipment that works best to deliver a great presentation that also makes it easy to maintain great presentations. If that is film, or 2K, or 4K digital, so be it. In most cases, film isn't going to satisfy the maintainability aspect because of the need for dedicated skilled projectionists to do it right. (My impression is that Digital Cinema makes it easier to deliver and maintain a good quality presentation.)

They need to have the dedication to their customers to hire and train qualified staff that provides an excellent experience, no matter how good/bad the movie being shown is. That good experience will keep audiences coming back.

Marketing is all about getting people in the door. If you don't have 4K, don't compete on resolution. If you do, someone will come along an install 4K and now you have just trained your audience that resolution is important, and they'll go for the higher number. No one cares that 2K digital is nearly the same resolution as 1080p HDTV, so don't even go there with your marketing.

Market all the benefits of coming to your theater and don't get hung up on things that someone else can throw a little bit of money at and do one better (like 2K vs. 4K). Deliver a message about things that matter to people, and deliver on that promise when they do come.

But that's just coming from a guy who gets to hear about poor theater experiences on a daily basis, so what do I know? [Smile]

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