Digital theatre article in InformationWeek

Chienworks wrote on 5/20/2005, 1:15 PM

I'm reading the printed copy now, but the article appears to be online too, though in abbreviated form..
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163105760
SONY Pictures figures *very* prominently in the article.

Next time you're trying to get one of your videos transmitted through the internet and worrying about file sizes and bandwidth, think about this: the average 2 hour digital movie is 600GB compressed! Apparently when Universal Pictures released Jurassic Park III they intended to send it to their digital theatres through the 'net but ended up mailing hard drives instread.

Disney, Sony, and Warner brothers are teaming up to raise money to outfit theatres with digital projection systesm. It costs about $120,000 for the equipment and they're trying to fund $80,000 of that for each theatre. *whew* That is quite a commitment.

Oh, and new research on encryption and authentication is underway to thwart digital pirates. Of course.

Comments

B_JM wrote on 5/20/2005, 4:20 PM

Specially when 35mm projection is still only $20-30k and most theaters are about broke most of the time .. and there is a tonne of used projection equipment around and film projectors pretty well last forever ...

farss wrote on 5/20/2005, 5:43 PM

Obviously there are some savings to be had with digital projection but I doubt any of that will end up on the cinemas bottom line. Having seen just how good d-cinema can look I now find it hard to watch a movie at a cinema, obviously they're going to be forced one way or another into this technology, HD video projectors are getting cheaper, the ubber rich can now afford them in their homes and the cost of admission to a cinema is squeezing the lower income earners out of cinemas.
I'm told the ones who'll be hardest hit are the independants, low rent second hand prints will cease to exist, that'll be a long way off I know but it's already on the minds of projectionists.
Bob.