This is topic First Major Cinema in Denmark goes Digital in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 08-11-2004, 04:04 AM:
 
On next friday, - aug., the 20th., local flagship, Copenhagen Imperial Bio will open I, Robot on
Noone, I have talked to, seems to know anything at all, and the only official notice, goin out from the theatres owner, Nordisk Film, just tells, that we are talking about "a genuine 2K projector", which now is at last giving better results on the screen than "the ordinary analog way",and that should be the reason for converting here and now.
Until now, the only film to be presented on here, was a docu about the late danish silent star Asta Nielsen, being presented in five theatres with portable gear, from which the team, travelling around to put up the projector, learned that cables for signal and currant should not cross each other (cost them 45 mins delay in Aarhus, when they had "a frameline standing in the middle of the picture"
I was not able to get to this much talked about demonstration, but saw a swedish film at "the Scandinavian Film-week" in Lübeck, Germany two years ago - showing nice sharp picture (about 35-40 feet scope) only a bit lacking in contrast, which was excused by film delivered on tape instead of discs.
When talking about this 2K and better than 35mm - what would this be - and how is the film delivered ? What is the norm in USA today ? -And how many theatres are running yet ?
Any rumors about how fast the total conversion will go ?
Any idea of the price per screen ? Local rumours say about 100.000 $ for the one, they tried for portable, and 140.-150.000 $ for the stationary thing for big houses. With a total boxoffice in my little flea-circus' 2 screen 'round 220.000 $ a year, this may be goodbye...

p
 

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 08-11-2004, 04:58 AM:
 
The last I heard, the total number of digital cinema projectors in use worldwide was somewhere in the low hundreds. Many of then are in China, and somewhere in South America, Brazil I think it was. I can understand why China would be buying into this in a big way, but why Brazil, rather than any other country, should be the other leaders in the field I don't know.

The costs you quote are probably not too far off, but I believe that many of the installations so far have not been on a normal commercial basis, but have been sponsored or supported in some way by equipment manufactures or other organisations, basically as a try-out, or to promote their systems, and therefore the cost to the theatres has been much lower.

The costs are likely to come down, but digital cinema projectors are never going to be cheap, the development costs are huge, and the potential market is quite small, it's not like DVD players or PCs, where you can spread the development costs over very large production volumes.

Given the high cost of digital projectors, and the much shorter expected life of them compared to film projectors, I think the costs are going to have to come down a long way before they become an attractive proposition on purely commercial terms.

Is this place going to be purely digital, or will it be equipped for film as well? From the few people I have spoken to that have these things, they don't get a great deal of use, most programmes are still run on film.
 

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Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 08-11-2004, 05:35 AM:
 
Thanks, Steven

I'm sure, the Imperial Bio will keep the original equipment running. The cinema is without doubt the most well-equipped in all of Scandinavia, based on a pair of mint-conditioned Philips DP70 (got it, Brad !?) and top line sound (check Thomas Hauerslevs great webside), and the fact, Nordisk Film goes digital right now in Imperial and next month in two other cinemas can only be a question of the company's wish to be first in competion against german intruders, who had been kept out of game, if danish government not allways were drawling for big company (United States of Europe ). -But no politics here !

p
 

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Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 08-11-2004, 08:02 AM:
 
There is a realy good artical talking about overseas instalations of digital projectors in the August or September edition of In Focus. Can't remember if they send Septembers in August or not.
 

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Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 08-12-2004, 02:41 AM:
 

quote: Stephen Furley

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From the few people I have spoken to that have these things, they don't get a great deal of use, most programmes are still run on film.

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quote: Per Hauberg

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if danish government not allways were drawling for big company (United States of Europe [puke] ). -But no politics here !

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Isn't it funny how those who like the idea of a US of E try to tell us that it'll make it easier for us to sell goods and services in each others' member states, but the reality ends up being exactly the opposite?

quote: Stephen Furley

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The last I heard, the total number of digital cinema projectors in use worldwide was somewhere in the low hundreds. Many of then are in China, and somewhere in South America, Brazil I think it was.

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There is also the issue defining the term 'digital projector'. A friend has just come back from India and visited a cinema in New Delhi which was proudly advertising its digital projection... which consisted of an ancient CRT video projector running what looked to her (mainly on the evidence of loads of dropouts) to be a worn-out VHS. Furthermore the picture couldn't have been brighter than 2-3 ft-L, apparently.
 

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 08-12-2004, 08:06 AM:
 
TI were listing something over a hunderd installations for machines using their cinema system some time ago. Obviuosly there will have been more since then.

The venues chosen are sometimes surprising. The National Film Theatre and the Odeon Leicester Square might be expected, but the Ritzy Brixton, for those who don't know it, was a small, early cinema, dating from 1910 I believe. Over the decades it went through various changes of name, finally closing in the eatly '70s as one of the classic chain, by which time it was a real flea pit.

It re-opened as the independent 'Little Bit Ritzy', later becoming just the Ritzy. It was run on a shoestring budget, but managed to survive, and a few years ago underwent a major refurbishment, and the addition of several (4?) extra screens an an ajoining site. It is now one of London's major ArtHouse venues, and I understand that it has digital installed in two screens, though how much they are used is anoher matter.

Somebody was promoting a scheme recently, it was discussed in this forum, to equip a large number of British cinemas, over 100, with digital projectors to show Art House material. Who is going to pay the cost of transferring this material to digital, I don't know. Maybe nobody will, and the equipment will just sit there unused. Of course, this is the sort of material of which only a small number of prints are made. How many films could you make ten, or twenty, good 35mm prints of (which could be shown just about anywhere) for the cost of buying all of those digital projectors, and making transfers to run on them?

Mainstream films, where a large number of prints are required, might be a more attractive proposition for making transfers, but then you would need to equip many more cinemas to show them.

What does a cinema gain by installing digital projection equipment today? They can put a big 'digital' sign up on the wall. They can show films which are available only on digital, and not as film prints, I wonder how many of those there have been? They could show live events on screen, if any were made available.

To set against this, there is the cost of the equipment. the higher wattage lamps required, with their higher cost and shorter life, higher power consumption to run them, and the fact that whatever projector you buy this year, there will almost certainly be a better one available, for a lower price, next year. Then you have the cost of much more frequent replacements. 35mm film prints cost a few pounds per show, a few pence per ticket sold, and the equipment lasts about fifty years. I simply cannot see how it makes economic sense at the moment.

If I was building a cinema today, I wouldn't install digital; I wouldn't ignore it, I'd provide space for a possible future installation, and keep an eye on developments, but that's all at the moment.

Where's Darren, I haven't seen anything from him recently? How's the digital system in York? What's it being used for? I've seen a couple of Powerpoint slides on it, but that's all.
 

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Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 08-12-2004, 09:51 AM:
 
Per, my digital content is delivered on hard drives.

I can't see how they can use the excuse that it was delivered on tape vs. disk. I mean, data is data regardless of the medium.

All in all, I have had about 13 titles already this year on my projectors. Each major release for the month of July opened on DLP, I, Robot, Catwoman, The Village, Collateral.

Shark Tales will be the next release.
 

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Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 08-12-2004, 10:27 AM:
 
Sure, there is no idea in fighting it - It's coming - no: it's here, and it's the future.

On the barricades - still ready to fight (a bit)- stand a bunch of old men - funny enough, the same that are still shouting about 70mm being better than 35. -Maybe it's time for us to learn how to sing along, when the choir is singing - or to go home and watch the old blockbusters on dvd and let the kids take over. Modern Times are here !


 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-12-2004, 10:29 AM:
 

quote: Stephen Furley

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Somebody was promoting a scheme recently, it was discussed in this forum, to equip a large number of British cinemas, over 100, with digital projectors to show Art House material.

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quote: Stephen Furley

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If I was building a cinema today, I wouldn't install digital; I wouldn't ignore it, I'd provide space for a possible future installation, and keep an eye on developments, but that's all at the moment.

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quote: Stephen Furley

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Where's Darren, I haven't seen anything from him recently? How's the digital system in York? What's it being used for? I've seen a couple of Powerpoint slides on it, but that's all.

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quote: Leo Enticknap

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That someone is the UK Film Council, and they're insanely wasting taxpayers' money for all the reasons you mention (link to information about this funding scheme). The people there who are in charge of the spending decisions have probably never been near a projection box in their lives. I know of most of them and have met one of them - this lot are all very good at arts funding politics and know bugger all about the technicalities. Furthermore their inclination is to see people who do know anything about the technicalities as being a threat, hence all the money they're throwing away.

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Currently, access to specialised film is restricted across the UK. Although London’s West End and some other metropolitan areas offer a genuine variety of films, the choice for many outside these areas remains limited.

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As with all films, distribution of specialised product is currently via 35mm celluloid prints.

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Furthermore, exhibitors are often inhibited in their ability to build an audience for specialised film because of this restriction on prints. 35mm cinema, therefore, does not encourage the wider distribution and exhibition of specialised product.

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quote: Leo Enticknap

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The York 1.3k projector was used for a one-off special screening of The Village on Monday, but as far as I'm aware hasn't shown any other features to the public since Touching the Void a few months ago.

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quote: Leo Enticknap

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There is also the issue defining the term 'digital projector'. A friend has just come back from India and visited a cinema in New Delhi which was proudly advertising its digital projection... which consisted of an ancient CRT video projector running what looked to her (mainly on the evidence of loads of dropouts) to be a worn-out VHS. Furthermore the picture couldn't have been brighter than 2-3 ft-L, apparently.

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quote: Leo Enticknap

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Isn't it funny how those who like the idea of a US of E try to tell us that it'll make it easier for us to sell goods and services in each others' member states, but the reality ends up being exactly the opposite?

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Elgibility and Assessment
ALL types of full time licensed cinemas are eligible. Assessment will be based on a number of criteria relating to specialised film, including for example:
a) the lack of existing provision in an area (eg a rural single screen cinema)

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So, for the many communities in this country which have no cinema within a reasonable distance this scheme offers ... precisely nothing. Of course, these are probably the places where people have little or no access to the arts in other forms either, and where te need is greatest. On the other hand, if you have a cinema, one that operates full time, and is therefore presumably not doing too badly, maybe could do with a bit of help and advice to broaden their programming somewhat, you stand to gain a highly expensive digital projection system, with little benefit, and which will probably sit gathering dust in a few years time because spares are no longer available, repairs are too expensive, films are no longer available in the right format, or whatever other reason you care to think of.

Having only one screen in a rural cinema is seen as a problem, but having no cinema at all is not.

I've no objection to the spending of taxpayers' money, I'm a taxpayer, and I expect to see my money being spent on something, not just disappearig into a black hole.

Ok, what would I do with the money? Encourage the opening, or reopening of cinemas in communities which presently have none. This needn't be full time, there are many venues which ran film at one time, and could do so again. In some cases equipment is no longer installed, or it is totally inadequate, and total re-equipment would be needed. In other cases projection equipment is still installed, and only through servicing, and suitable upgrading, would be needed. For example, upgrade to stereo sound system, and new screen might be required. Where projection equipment has to be installed, good quality secondhand machines are available at reasonable cost.

The aim should be to be able to show all common aspect ratios, and with Dolby SR sound. At least one programme of film should be presented per week, and a significant proportion of this, say 25% should be 'non-mainstream'. Video, digital sound, 70mm etc. might be nice, but the aim should be to get a functionig 35mm cinema as a starting point.

Next, turning to existing cinemas, they should be encouraged to broaden their programming policy.

Make a number of good-quality prints of 'specialised' films available to enable this. Not all cinemas need to show films at the same time, the films could circulate around the country for several months. Provide suitable training for film handlers to keep the prints in good codition.

Circulate some of the specialist programming from venues such as the NFT (National Film Theatre) and ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) more widely around the Country. Whatever became of the Regional Film Theatres, they never seem to be heard of now.

Encourage cinemas to put on 'special events', and provide help with publicising those events. These things shouldn't happen just in London.

Programming film events can be damned hard work, I did a bit of it very briefly, many years ago, I can't say I was very good at it, but there are those that are. To mention just two, from the other side of the water, Jeff Joseph for the 3-D festival last year, and Bob Furmanek for two very successful seasons which he programmed for the Loew's Jersey. I believe he was also involved with the 3-D festival. It's a pity that the material presented at these events couldn't be seen more widely.

All of this should be possible for about 10% of the cost of this digital exercise Their aims are admirable, but they really haven't got a clue, have they?
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-12-2004, 04:50 PM:
 
I couldn't agree more. These were precisely the arguments I made at a consultation meeting of FCUK's north-east regional agency soon after this all kicked off. But, apart from one sane and sensible person there who I get on well with, I was laughed out of court; basically, because this lot have the ear of the government and can spend our money how they like, without having to listen to anyone who knows or cares about the technologies they're dealing with.

Oh, and these people have rented as their HQ almost the whole ground floor of one of Newcastle's poshest, most expensive office blocks. Glad to see that our money is being spent wisely...

Even the people I know and talk to who are actually involved in using this technology basically agree that it is nowhere near the point at which a large-scale rollout is anything other than a waste of money.
 

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Posted by Thomas Hauerslev (Member # 566) on 08-13-2004, 02:12 AM:
 
Imperial Bio = Barco DP100
Palads Teatret #9 (CPH) and CineCity (Århus)= Barco DP30

Btw. a Barco also have a DP70
 

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Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 08-13-2004, 02:33 AM:
 
Most interesting, Thomas

Compact Digital Cinema Projector
A mid-range DLP Cinema™ projector designed to meet the need for the highest quality movie displays of up to 10m (33 ft) wide. Ideal for feature screenings in smaller cinemas

BioCity Århus, Screen 1 is 46 feet
Once again, the cinema goes for the Sign, not for the right product, as when they opened the place, screaming THX in all screens, and whispering "digital in screen 1 only"

But people, having read in their newpaper about this new giant step into the future will be impressed. We are not for noting living in the land of H C Andersen and The Emperor's New Clothes


 

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Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 08-13-2004, 05:43 AM:
 

quote: Per Hauberg

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Compact Digital Cinema Projector
A mid-range DLP Cinema™ projector designed to meet the need for the highest quality movie displays of up to 10m (33 ft) wide. Ideal for feature screenings in smaller cinemas

BioCity Århus, Screen 1 is 46 feet
Once again, the cinema goes for the Sign, not for the right product, as when they opened the place, screaming THX in all screens, and whispering "digital in screen 1 only"

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Underlit and dim digital screens are just as likely as with film, perhaps even more so due to the higher cost.

IMHO, vendors and dealers do a great disservice to the technology if they knowingly allow theatres to install inadequate equipment that falls far below SMPTE standards.
 

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Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 08-13-2004, 09:52 AM:
 
Hear, Hear !

And today's newspaper brings another breakthrough in this matter: Nordisk Film's head of Cinema Branch declares about : "It will be like premiere every night - No more scratches and no more dirt".
Now we know, who's ruining the prints before they reach second ring og theatres in Denmark !!
 

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Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 09-06-2004, 10:57 PM:
 
Infocusmag Digital Divide

Since ‘Attack of the Clones’ exited cinemas two years ago, few American exhibitors have taken on new digital
cinema installations – but the story seems different overseas, where a number of companies have been making d-headlines.

by Alma Freeman

Moviegoers in China last April who wanted to see Bugs Bunny and Pepe Le Pew’s new movie on the big screen didn’t just have the option of seeing them in a digital cinema. It was their only option.

In a move that garnered worldwide attention, Warner Bros. unleashed “Looney Tunes: Back in Action” there without a single print or film projector. Utilizing a number of the nation’s 54 public auditoria equipped with high-end Digital Light Processing Cinema (DLPC) technology, the release marked the first time a Hollywood studio had opted for digital-only distribution and presentation. (As a bonus, because the Chinese government allows an unlimited number of revenue-sharing digital titles, “Tunes” carried the added benefit of not counting against the nation’s annual cap of 20 foreign 35mm releases.) The idea of a digital-only release of a major motion picture in the United States, meanwhile, still seems years, even decades, in the future.

Largely overlooked at the time, however, was the fact that China’s “Looney” rollout was small, isolated – and unique. China Film Group (CFG), the government agency that engineered the all-d release, reportedly has no current plans to exhibit another U.S. release this way.

Some reports are even more misleading. Over the last two years, while exhibitors installed new DLPC equipment in only 15 public North American auditoria (bringing the continent’s total to 88), reports of dramatic “d-cinema” activity overseas have been pouring in:

• “India taking lead in digital cinema: By year’s end, country to have more screens than U.S.,” boasted a headline in Variety last November.

• “Brazil could soon have the largest network of digital cinemas in the world,” gushed a headline in the United Kingdom’s Guardian Unlimited last December.

• “Ranked second in the world in terms of digital cinemas, China is eyeing building 2,500 more such cinemas within five years,” confided a February story on the English-language China View Website.

What, a casual industry-follower might ask, is going on out there? 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?

Confusing Terminology
Answering that last question is tricky, say experts, because “digital cinema” means different things to different people, and too many compare apples to oranges.

• The Variety scribe put India just five d-screens shy of surpassing the United States, and already soaring beyond China. But India’s “digital cinemas” do not use the costly DLPC projectors U.S. and Chinese exhibitors use to screen major motion pictures. India’s exhibitors are using far less expensive non-celluloid projectors (commonly known as “electronic projectors” or “e-projectors”), much like those often used for U.S. pre-show cinema advertising.

• Similarly, the expected 100 Brazil “digital cinemas” described by Guardian Unlimited are expected to use an MPEG 4 compression system with Microsoft Windows Media 9, a system generally rejected by Hollywood as a viable standard for replacing 35mm.

• As for the China View story, sources indicate the announcement is misleading because all 2,500 of the “more such cinemas” will actually utilize LCD projectors and TiVo-like servers, also similar to U.S. cinema advertising systems.

D-Cinema Glossary
Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) (n) a consortium of seven major movies studios – Disney, Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. – formed in March 2002 and charged with establishing technical standards and brainstorming business models for high performance digital cinema.

Digital Light Processing (DLP) (n) a Texas Instruments “micromirror technology” used in certain digital projectors and TV sets.

Digital Light Processing Cinema (DLPC) (n) the highest grade of DLP, and the grade of DLP that most closely approximates projected 35mm film. In the United States, all non-celluloid “digital prints” of major motion pictures like “I, Robot,” “The Village,” “Alien Vs. Predator” and “Collateral” play only on projectors equipped with DLPC technology.

1.3K (adj) pertaining to a visual field of 1,280 by 1,024 pixels. DLPC’s 1.3K chip was first utilized commercially in May 1999 with the release of 20th Century Fox’s “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.”

2K (adj) pertaining to a visual field of 2,048 by 1,080 pixels. DLPC’s 2K chip was first utilized commercially in the United States in November 2003 with the release of Warner Bros.’ “The Last Samurai.”

4K (adj) pertaining to a visual field of 4,096 by 2,160 pixels. Sony currently intends to commercially introduce 4K digital cinema projectors in 2005.


“If you say ‘I’m a digital cinema,’ there’s nobody stopping you from saying that, even if you have a $2,000 Sony projector, and I wouldn’t go so far as to argue with that person,” says Bill Mead, creator of the DCinemaToday Website. He points out that the term “digital cinema” is comprised of two very generic terms and that even a cinema owner projecting a DVD can legally and legitimately claim “digital” status, because he is technically correct.

Unfortunately, many engineers and executives involved in the fast-growing field of digital movie distribution and exhibition simply don’t see it that way. They prefer the terms “digital cinema” and “d-cinema” be used only to describe expensive, ultra-sophisticated equipment like DLPC’s, while the terms “electronic cinema” and “e-cinema” be used to describe lower-end, less expensive non-celluloid equipment. (Even among these professionals, however, there is often confusion as to whether “d-cinema” should be considered a subset of “e-cinema,” or an entirely separate category.)

Too many journalists seem not to be buying into the professionals’ terminology – while too many laymen are simply confused by it. Using the dictionary definitions, all DLPC systems can be described as both “digital” and “electronic,” and so can all of DLPC’s cheaper and less-sophisticated cousins.

One way to abate much of the d-confusion, says Mead, would be to use the term “digital cinema” more sparingly and the term “DLPC” more frequently, since only projectors utilizing DLPC technology are currently authorized to exhibit first-run major studio releases worldwide.*

Mead admits his is only a temporary solution, since the major distributors will almost certainly eventually allow exhibitors to use sophisticated, non-DLPC technologies – Sony’s anticipated 4K system, which uses “SXRD” chip technology, is a likely example – to exhibit their movies digitally. Another term (“High Performance Digital Cinema”? “35-Comparable”?) could emerge to describe DLPC and other, emerging formats that strive to mimic 35mm.

Germ of Truth
But even when one sorts out the confusion precipitated by the term “digital cinema,” there is no question that, over the last two years, far more new DLPC systems were installed overseas than in the United States.

Since the May 2002 release of “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones,” North American exhibitors have equipped only 15 auditoria with new DLPC projectors. European cinema owners, over the same period, equipped 21. Asian exhibs equipped 90 and, in March 2004, Asia overtook North America as the continent with the most DLPC-equipped public auditoria.

Insiders agree that the stall in the United States is largely a reaction to the formation of Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI). Created just two months before the “Clones” release, DCI is a consortium of seven major movie distributors charged with recommending technical specifications and brainstorming business models.

The studios that formed DCI are excited about the idea of 35mm-comparable digital projectors because they would save distributors the cost of striking celluloid prints, an expense of hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Cinema owners, however, have been slow to buy DLPC projectors because they’re generally three or four times more expensive than their celluloid counterparts.

Since the formation of DCI in 2002, most U.S. exhibitors have adopted a wait-and-see attitude, hopeful that DCI will be able to engineer a plan whereby distributors, which would benefit most from the switch, can somehow subsidize d-projector installations.

John Wolski, Loews vice president of projection and sound, says that although his circuit leads the “d-pack” domestically with 17 DLPC installations (he is careful to point out that all the systems were donated by 3rd-party players), the circuit’s number-one motivation was to test the systems and work out the kinks before a major rollout. But until a business model is set, the circuit has no plans to move forward. Aside from a 2K installation made in the spring that will be used solely for industry screenings, the circuit hasn’t installed a single DLPC projector since DCI’s formation.

Regal Entertainment Group (REG), the world’s largest cinema chain, has installed more than 5,000 non-DLPC e-projectors as part of its advertising and alternative content (business meetings, concerts, etc.) network, but operates only four DLPC projectors. “The only thing that will increase the amount of digital cinema-quality projectors will be the development of a studio-funded nationwide deployment and financing plan,” says REG co-CEO Kurt Hall. “Until then, the business model makes no sense for an exhibitor given the cost of these higher-priced projectors.”

With the June announcement of DCI’s final technical specifications, the last remaining obstacle blocking a full conversion remains a viable business model, says Doug Darrow, business manager of Texas Instruments DLPC products. “There really aren’t any technical questions anymore, and we’re getting close to the resolution of the business model question,” he says. “After that, it’s a question of, ‘How fast does the industry want to go?’”

Subsidies Overseas
So if most American exhibitors have been waiting for a business plan, why haven’t their counterparts overseas?

The simple answer is most exhibitors outside North America haven't been as patient as their Yankee brethren.

While 113 Asian auditoria with DLPC is not inconsiderable, these facilities continue to represent a tiny percentage of the tens of thousands of cinema auditoria that dot the planet’s largest land mass.

Meanwhile, most of the exhibitors who have implemented DLPC equipment during the DCI era are taking advantage of subsidies engineered outside of DCI.

D-cinema subsidies are nothing new to U.S. exhibitors. During the “Clones” rollout, says Screen Digest analyst Patrick von Sychowski, the bills for at least two thirds of U.S. DLPC installations were footed by 3rd-party operators like Technicolor or Boeing. Many very familiar with the digital cinema landscape go further, indicating doubt that even one U.S. exhibitor ever paid full price for its DLPC equipment.

Overseas exhibitors during the “Clones” era, however, paid for their (much smaller number of) DLPC installations mostly by “putting their hand in their own pocket,” according to von Sychowski. Since that time, execs at the Belgium-based cinema chain Kinepolis say they found a better way.

Kinepolis, which operates more DLPC installations than any other European exhibitor, installed its 10th in May. All 10 installations represent joint ventures between Barco (which, like rivals Christie and NEC/DPI, manufactures DLPC projectors), EVS (which builds servers), Screenvision (which books cinema pre-show advertising) and Kinepolis. According to circuit managing director Gilbert Deley, Kinepolis plans to follow the same business model for its upcoming DLPC installations in France and Spain.

“I knew DCI didn’t have the business model, but at some point we had to step out of the chicken-or-the-egg situation,” remembers Deley. “It was always studios saying, ‘We have committed the standards,’ and exhibition saying, ‘We won’t install until we know there are certain conditions.’”

Other investments in overseas DLPC installations come from government initiatives charged with steering national economies, such as the CFG.

There are 7,000 commercial cinemas in China, according to CFG chief technology officer Chen Fei, but most are poorly equipped. The top 1,000 sites in major cities account for 80 percent of the nation’s box office, which, says Chen, makes for a very unbalanced cinema market.

Through state-owned CFG, the Chinese government has funded 100 percent of the 40 DLPC facilities installed since the “Clones” release.

“The Chinese government realizes that digital movie technology is a good opportunity to push the Chinese cinema industry to reach [that of] the developed countries’ level,” says Chen. With international standards yet to be created, he says, it’s impossible to expect private exhibitors to fund the rollout themselves. Rather, the Chinese government intends to invest in a total of 100 initial DLPC installations on an experimental basis to test their viability and work out any kinks.

Adds Jack Kline, president of DLPC projector manufacturer Christie Digital U.S.A., many Asian markets “are in a position now where we were years ago in redoing all their theatres. That’s a time when you are most apt to look at new technologies because you are already in a process of reinventing your cinema industry.”
Millard Ochs, president of Warner Bros. International Theatres, says CFG donated all three DLPC systems at each of the circuit’s three China sites. He adds that had the group not funded the systems completely, with a price tag reaching between $112,000 and $125,000 per installation, the circuit would not have likely moved forward on its own.

“The Chinese government has taken an initiative to place a digital system virtually in every cinema in the country, and as more digital systems are in place, they really feel this is a great way to show local production as well as other types of materials and information, [such as] the Olympics and sports,” he says.
 

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