CinemaCon 2026

[Marco Giustini]

There will be a lot of flexibility for post-production to decide on the audio format to distribute, on top of the legacy format.

Well, the XD10/20 does support uncompressed sound (though it's not PCM) and I've only shown one Lossless DTS movie in my career. Of course it makes sense to have PCM available in 2026 but from a distribution perspective it would be another version to keep track of. "Do you have Legacy DTS or the New DTS?"

I feel it would take a while before we see a lossless 70mm in regular cinemas!

[Steve Guttag]

I would also question the value of creating another DTS format and how big an impact the PCM version will sound versus the existing compression.

Now, the IAB mix version, that does sound like a good move. The questions I have are:

• Will the player output AES67.
• Will the player render the IAB track or merely pass that along to a CP950A (or like device) for rendering. Ideally, I'd like it rendered in the TS-1 and outputted on AES67, much the same as an IMS3000 but it would be much simpler for the TS-1 to merely output the IAB track for the CP950A.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Even PCM data needs some kind of delivery format, especially if you have 16 channels that need to be mapped correctly. It would be great what container formats are accepted even a DCP wouldn't be necessary be a bad choice.

I guess for IAB, the studios will want the soundtrack to be encrypted, so using DCPs make sense. I guess one problem with using the DCP from the digital release as a source for digital sound is that it requires the film version to be in sync frame-by-frame with the general DCP release, which will not always be a given.

[Bobby Henderson]

Here is an example from some Chinese manufacturer. Those Chinese manufacturers are really making inroads and eating the lunch of the likes of Daktronics.

The Chinese "OEM" stuff is SHIT. I've seen a lot of that stuff in the sign business. It doesn't last.

The vast majority of the LED signs we sell are made by Daktronics. The LEDs and other components are much better quality than the crap from fly by night Chinese companies. Daktronics boards are more dependable. And if/when we need to do service work on the boards we can still get replacement parts several years down the road.

So many people who try to save a buck buying the Chinese OEM shit end up getting screwed in only a couple or so years. Some important component will fail inside, like the controller board. But the company is gone, changed its name or whatever. The customer can't get a replacement part. Then he's faced with having to replace the whole damned display.

The integration of loudspeakers into the LED array is interesting. Instead of having a big transducer behind the screen, have a whole bunch of small ones, perhaps between the LED pixels, or perhaps the LED pixels themselves could move. With a BUNCH of electronics, the source of the sound could precisely follow the image source of the sound.

This sounds a bit like what the Holoplot company has done with the beam forming audio at Sphere in Las Vegas.

[Leo Enticknap]

Is BLSI launching new readers (35mm and/or 70mm) to go with the player/processor?

Well, the XD10/20 does support uncompressed sound (though it's not PCM) and I've only shown one Lossless DTS movie in my career. Of course it makes sense to have PCM available in 2026 but from a distribution perspective it would be another version to keep track of. "Do you have Legacy DTS or the New DTS?"

Agreed that it introduces dual inventory problems. Owners of original DTS players would need old school DTS audio data (either on discs or a USB stick), whereas owners of the new player could play either. Realistically, you'd have to distribute both sets of audio files along with a print.

[Harold Hallikainen]

Now, the IAB mix version, that does sound like a good move. The questions I have are:

• Will the player output AES67.
• Will the player render the IAB track or merely pass that along to a CP950A (or like device) for rendering. Ideally, I'd like it rendered in the TS-1 and outputted on AES67, much the same as an IMS3000 but it would be much simpler for the TS-1 to merely output the IAB track for the CP950A.

This sounds complicated! The CP950 (I'm more familiar with the 850) receives time code (FSK or binary) from an AES3 output of the media block. It then fetches the bitstream file, decrypts it, renders it, forensically marks it, then sends the resulting channel outputs to the amplifiers. In digital cinema, content is either encrypted or forensically marked outside the security block. So, if a device is going to render an encrypted IAB, it needs all the security stuff present in the CP950, and you need KDM for it, etc. It's getting messy.

If the goal is to show a film image, and the auditorium has a digital cinema system, I think the simpler approach would be to play the movie on a digital player (server, projector, etc.) and send the time code from the playing movie to a box that phase locks the time code from the digital playback to the time code on the film by adjusting the film projector speed as required t maintain sync. This "box" would compare the time codes and send a signal to adjust a variable frequency drive that would adjust the film projector speed as necessary to maintain sync.

Harold

[Leo Enticknap]

That occurred to me, too, but I can foresee two potential gotchas:

The DCP and the 70mm print would have to be of the exact same version of the movie. So if the print has a few shots cut out or some R-rated dialogue changed (e.g. for a foreign market) and you have the DCP audio from a different version (or vice-versa), the player either won't be able to sync them at all, or will misread what the timecode on the print is telling it as to where it should be in the DCP audio.

Unless you synced the audio by matching timecodes both from the DCP server/media block and on the film (e.g. if you tried to do it by counting the number of perforations from the start of the reel), you'd have the same problem that existed with Vitaphone. If any footage was damaged and had to be cut out, you had to replace it with the exact same length of black spacing. If you didn't, or got the length wrong, the audio sync would go out at the damage point.

[Steve Guttag]

The dual strip approach brings the usual issues of if there is, say, film damage, then that section would need to be slugged so that the audio maintains sync. Having a film projector chase digital has challenges too. Perhaps, since they have AES3 audio output on the TS-1, that could be the time sync signal. The CP950A would have a KDM already for its DCP based Atmos shows. The TS-1 would need to, essentially, send the same IAB track and have the time code on the AES3 track.

This is all speculation. Sean can give us the details when he is ready.

[Harold Hallikainen]

That occurred to me, too, but I can foresee two potential gotchas:

The DCP and the 70mm print would have to be of the exact same version of the movie. So if the print has a few shots cut out or some R-rated dialogue changed (e.g. for a foreign market) and you have the DCP audio from a different version (or vice-versa), the player either won't be able to sync them at all, or will misread what the timecode on the print is telling it as to where it should be in the DCP audio.

Unless you synced the audio by matching timecodes both from the DCP server/media block and on the film (e.g. if you tried to do it by counting the number of perforations from the start of the reel), you'd have the same problem that existed with Vitaphone. If any footage was damaged and had to be cut out, you had to replace it with the exact same length of black spacing. If you didn't, or got the length wrong, the audio sync would go out at the damage point.

Don't you have the same issue with DTS content in general? The audio had better be for the same version of the movie. An advantage of this over Vitaphone is that we are continuously comparing time code instead of just synchronizing at the beginning of the show (just as DTS continuously compares time code).

[Mike Blakesley]

And by LCD you mean LED.

Yes, I did mean LED -- I think I typo'd it with something "LDD" and my phone "corrected" it. Anyway...

Having returned home from CinemaCon and finally gotten my ears to stop ringing, mostly, I'll say it was a pretty good show. Lots of good content on the horizon.

The highlight of the whole thing for me was having Steven Spielberg in the house. I'm amazed it took them that long to get him there. I'm stiil kind of in awe that we got to be in the room with the guy who made all those great movies. He got the longest standing ovation of anyone who was introduced -- two, in fact.

I do wish they would just stop showing trailers at CinemaCon, because the sound sucks without fail. This is because the sound on most trailers sucks. It's so loud that it's hard to understand the dialog. Every trailer is the same. BOOM (a few words) BOOM BOOM BOOMBOOMBOOM BADADDADABOOM! (A few more words and then five or six scenes featuring that sound of metal being scraped against other metal, multiplied by a hundred and cranked to 11) BOOM BOOM BOOOOOM!!!!

I've said this before but the effect of all the trailers adds up to this: Zero. I have zero recall of most of the trailers we saw because they are all identical, the cuts are 1 second or less, and you can't process it fast enough. Besides we're all going to see the trailers in our own theaters within days anyway.

Show us extended footage, behind the scenes, interviews with the cast, or (my favorite) the opening scenes of a movie, but please do away with the trailers unless it's not going to be released for a month or two. It's almost insulting when they go "You are the very first audience on the planet to see this trailer....it's going to be released in four hours."

I will say that the studio seem to FINALLY be coming around to the notion that longer windows are better for movies. Universal already committed to 45 days, and so did Paramount, and Disney trumpeted the fact that their windows are ranging between 57 and 90 days. There was even talk of....a 90 day standard window, which got a big round of applause. And the studios and all of the talent seemed genuine in their support of theatrical.

I'd write more, but I have catch-up bookwork to do. It was a good show overall and (as usual) and the "4-M's" team, along with our favorite Cinema United representative, Erin, all did a great job. I came home excited by what's on the horizon, and also ordered a new screen, so life is good.

[Steve Levy]

Nice work Sean and team!
It's great to know that 70MM releases will have a solid future as XD-10 and XD-20 players may no longer be serviceable.

[Sean McKinnon]

unfortunately one of the things that Prevents more films from being released on film Is cost and everything adds up. Having to go to a one source vendor to get a special mix made Is costly when you’ve already paid to mix a DCP version so that, and the ability to implement future improvements like IAB necessitate supporting both formats. I do agree that IAB with film is the “killer app” and that is a long term goal.

this is a big swing to try to keep film alive with modern hardware and reliable hardware that isn’t at best 10-15 years old or more. It has take years and substantial investment to get to this point and we are very happy with the results so far.

aes-67 is definitely on the roadmap. I will be happy if we can sell enough to Be able to support the project and keep improving it. If film is going to be a viable specialty distribution method we need a modern reliable way to handle the sound while also maintaining backwards compatibility.

[Steve Guttag]

I think with the new features, the new player has something to offer beyond it isn't 20-years old (not that isn't a big feature on its own). If it gets AES67 and IAB, it brings additional features such that the 70mm presentation isn't a lesser sound version of the movie.

[Mike Blakesley]

Disney introduced something called "Infinity Vision" which I took to be basically a list of standards for PLF theaters, the idea being for people to be able to identify which PLF meet the lofty standards for best picture and sound. Sounds like the old THX program. I wonder if they'll put the "report problems" slide somewhere besides the very end of the movie, like the THX did.

Some people thought it was a big middle finger to Dune 3, which is coming out on the same date as their Avengers movie, and will set up a fight to see who gets the best screens. I hope one of them blinks, I don't want to have to choose between those two.

[Marco Giustini]

it's going to be interesting to see how the studios react to the ability to make PCM 70mm. Yes it's simpler and "already done" but at the same time there will always be a need for a DTS aptx-100 version as well until all DTS players on the planet have been replaced. Which kind of negates the advantage of going simpler with PCM.

If Film was a bit more alive, it could be seen as a "mandatory upgrade", like moving to SMPTE DCPs or having to upgrade your server because not supported anymore. But with film it's going to be interesting!