Irish cinema set to go completely digital within a year

**peter_g** · March 19th, 2005, 11:46 PM

This is taken from here

Ireland is set to become the first all digital cinema nation when all 500 cinemas are equipped with digital projectors.

An American company, Avica, is installing digital projectors in cinemas to replace the traditional 35mm film projectors.

The Irish Film Board said it would lead to a "pretty amazing" picture quality for cinemagoers.

Spokeswoman Moira Horgan said: "We're very excited about it. It's pure digital projection and picture perfect quality."

It will allow cinemas to download new films to a computer server via satellite at the press of a button. Along with a much higher picture quality, the digital format promises to eliminate the flickers and scratches which develop when 35mm film degrades with age.

The cost to cinemas of getting a film in digital format will also be much lower than the current price of up to ?1,400 for a single 35mm print.

Ms Horgan added: "We don't have big Hollywood budgets to market those films so any way we can save money on distribution costs and actually spend it on promotion and advertising can only be a good thing."

The reduced cost will also allow Irish films and foreign films to be distributed more widely to cinemas across the country.

I'm pretty surprised that they are rolling out digital distribution country-wide here so quickly. I imagined there'd be a gradual rolling out of this technology. While I welcome the move, we all know it is bullshit to say that it will bring "much higher picture quality". I guess it?s in their interest to hype it up as much as possible.

**miker** · March 20th, 2005, 05:38 AM

IIRC Avica uses Microsoft Windows Media and their DRM, and has already been rolled out across some cinemas in Brazil too.

Microsoft have never been ones to take it slow. No doubt Irish cinema has just entered into the two-year upgrade cycle.

The silverscreen? Now it'll be the bluescreen .... [img]wink.gif[/img]

**miker** · March 20th, 2005, 07:14 PM

Just checking out my memory, unsurprisingly it is flawed.

Brazil is using KinoCast which definitely is based on Microsoft technology.

http://www.rain.com.br/english/kinocast.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/brazil/sto...099223,00.html

Interesting to find out more about Avica and what their tech is based on (though they are mentioned in a Microsoft press release they do not explicitly say they are using MS DRM).

**miker** · March 20th, 2005, 07:32 PM

Avica seem quite slippery with their product descriptions being "Hollywood approved" and "THX certified".

But I finally tracked down this nugget which implies it is based off Microsoft technology:
http://www.paulrother.com/resume/PaulRotherResume.html

Experience:

2001
?to 2002

Avica Technology Corp. (www.avicatech.com), Santa Monica, CA
Director of Development, overseeing engineering team of 15.

Avica Technology product line included: FilmStore - a High Definition (HD) video playback system for theatrical exhibition use. (Digital Cinema) System features Digital Rights Management (DRM), remote content loading / remote control (via network application interface SDK).

Technologies used includes: Windows W2K/NT, VC++, ATL/COM, Source Safe, SMPTE-292, DVB-ASI, MPEG-2, RAID-0/10, etc..

I thought the "Source Safe" might be non-MS DRM (security through obscurity) but it seems it's just a software versioning system.
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SourceSafe

You can see more about Avica's FilmStore products at their website, though it doesn't reveal much at all.
http://www.avicatech.com/

**peter_g** · March 21st, 2005, 12:12 AM

It doesn't surprise me that Ireland would try such a foolish thing

I think that it is a very smart move on their part. It is doubtful that the middle class moron finger banging his ugly girlfriend in the back row of a darkened movie theatre ? the typical Irish cinema go-er ? is going to be lamenting the dearth of the traditional 35mm print any time soon.

I will miss 35mm prints. But, I also realise that it is economic realities that keep a lot of good films out of mainstream Irish cinemas. A few days ago, getting the little 90 minute super 16 feature film that I plan to make some kind of limited theatrical release seemed an impossibility, what with the huge expense of a 35mm blow-up and the considerable risk a distributor would have to take. Now, with digital projection, I am a lot closer to having that ambition realised.

They [the Irish] did ride the Tech-Boom and are quite savvy.

Who told you that? It?s a lie! We are simple, god-fearing men of the land. Things like ADSL, cocaine, excessive tobacco taxes and sex are unheard of.

**Nigel** · March 21st, 2005, 04:43 AM

It doesn't surprise me that Ireland would try such a foolish thing... They did ride the Tech-Boom and are quite savvy.

I wonder how long until some kid cracks the Codec and starts walking out with full movies on his harddrive?? Then we will see a whole new side of those studio slags.

Studios know how much they lost with music--Now movies. They won't go down so easily.

As for Miker's comment...

To bad they are using Windows. Now, I know that the show will never start on time and if it freezes on the screen--How will I know if that is part of the film or just the OS breaking down??

Kodak has been trying to figure out a bunch of stuff regarding D-Projection for a long time. I wonder what they have in store??

Good Luck

**Alex** · March 21st, 2005, 06:17 AM

Once again, the title of this topic post is nonsensical and completely wrong, and of course, it's falseness is designed to kill film and overvalue digital.

Showing a film digitally doesn't mean it was shot digitally, but in typical digital bullshit fashion, the authore of this topic post implies by the title that all of Ireland will no longer use film or show films shot on film.

thanks for the misinformation. [img]graemlins/thumbs_down.gif[/img]

**peter_g** · March 21st, 2005, 07:32 AM

Alex, I think that in pursuing a personal vendetta against me because of the stance I took during the "save the kittens" incident, you have forgotten some very basic facts.

1. I am perhaps the biggest advocate of film who posts regularly on this board, with the obvious exception of Nigel.

2. Insidious digital propagandist that I am, I made one major mistake: If the topic of this post implies that all Irish cinema will be distributed as well as shot digitally, the post itself certainly does not. Common sense dictates that all films won't be originating on HD, as the sizeable majority of films shown here are Hollywood blockbusters, as is the case in most or all European countries. Besides, the whole video Vs film debate goes on here as it does anywhere else. Anyone who was stupid enough to have that misconception would have quickly been set straight when they read the first sentence of my post (You did read the first sentence, didn?t you?).

3.

Originally posted by Alex:
Once again, the title of this topic post is nonsensical and completely wrong, and of course, it's falseness is designed to kill film and overvalue digital.

Yes, and to throw shrewd observers off my artful ploy, I said this:

Originally posted by Peter_G:
I will miss 35mm prints

And this:

Originally posted by Peter_G:
we all know it is bullshit to say that it will bring "much higher picture quality". I guess it?s in their interest to hype it up as much as possible.

**miker** · March 21st, 2005, 08:03 AM

Well, pointless film vs digital rants aside, it seems the Avica tech is based off JPEG2000 which is at least a non-proprietry standard and their current system is based on MPEG2 at 80Mbps

From Avica's own FAQ:
http://www.avicatech.com/jpeg2000.html

Q. Which projectors are used today for digital cinema?

A. The studio-approved Texas Instruments DLP Cinema technology embodied in 2k projectors is made by TI's three OEMs - Barco, Christie and DPI/NEC. You will only ever find Avica FilmStore Players attached to Hollywood studio approved digital cinema projectors, today made by one of these companies - using TI's DLP CinemaTM technology at their core

Q. What about 4k resolution?

A. To screen 4k pictures you will need 4k data and a 4k pipeline. Converting to 4k includes new postproduction equipment and new projectors -- none of which are yet ready for entering daily service.

We expect to support 4k pictures in the FilmStore as soon as the rest of the infrastructure is in place to produce, deliver, and exhibit the content. Today's FilmStore Player has the bandwidth necessary to support 4k pictures, so existing FilmStore Players can be easily upgraded to support 4k when the rest of the pieces are in place.

I'm really not sure about this next statement, but they are the experts ...

2k resolution is a Hollywood and DCI approved specification and is sufficient for all but the most extreme exhibition environments. One could compare 4k projection to 70mm film projection: useful for formats such as IMAX, but not necessary for the vast majority of applications. Only about 220 IMAX installations exist worldwide, compared to hundreds of thousands of 35mm installations.

If IMAX uses digital projection today (I'm not sure if it does) then all I can say is .... I never knew the difference when I was watching stuff at the IMAX in London. But IMAX has always been pin-sharp in my experience and it's always blown me away.

**jb_617** · March 21st, 2005, 08:45 AM

Clearly from this thread, Miker and others know a hell of a lot about this technology. I have a question though as I'm not sure that I get this entirely. Nigel mentioned Codec's earlier and Miker was talking about some kind of encoding software (JPEG?). Are the videos that are digitaly projected compressed then? And if so, why? I thought that it would be a custom built piece of monster hardware that would project digital films, not a computer. Why compress the image, don't you run the risk of that crappy banding effect and digital artifacts?

---------------------

Just want the information guys, I'm not entering the debate.

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