Earlier this week Éclair and Samsung held a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open Éclair’s Paris-Vanves Onyx Cinema LED facility, the first of its kind in Europe. Éclair can now provide professional services specifically tailored for the Onyx Cinema LED – contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, color grading with true zero nit black, and ÉclairColor DCP mastering – to European filmmakers, producers and distributors.
CinemaNext is relocating its UK offices to a new, high-tech facility in the west London town of Uxbridge. The result is an optimized and fully secure hub to support CinemaNext’s fast-growing activities in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Despite the fact that the industry adopted an internationally ratified SMPTE DCP standard nearly a decade ago, there remains widespread confusion and disagreement about what constitutes a universally accepted digital cinema package. If that sentence makes no sense to you, you’re not alone. For months the European Digital Cinema Forum with sponsorship from the International Union of Cinemas has been developing a web portal to address this problem. Their mission statement is, “To act as an informational resource for the industry on the SMPTE DCP and its operational use, and to provide a point of reference of on-boarding for those individuals/organizations willing to aid in the transitional process on a territory by territory basis.”
Pixelogic has opened new advanced and innovative post-production content review and audio mixing theatres within its facility in Burbank, California. The main theatre is equipped with a Dolby Vision projection system, and supports Dolby Atmos immersive audio.
Arts Alliance Media first opened its doors in London June 17, 2003. In those very early days of digital cinema, the new company and its ten employees carved out a space in technology and what was then called alternative content. The company divested itself of the alternative content business a few years ago to focus on what has long been its core strength: cinema technology. AAM launched its first theatre management system in 2007 and, in 2008, completed the first virtual print fee rollout in Europe with French chain CGR. Today AAM has more than 140 employees spread over three offices in London, Amsterdam, and Guangzhou, China. I recently spoke via email with AAM’s chief executive officer Patrick Foley, and chief technology officer Richard Phillips about those early days of the company and, more importantly, to get their thoughts about the future of digital cinema technology.
Éclair has announced plans to convert the Italian cinema circuit Ciné Gionate di Cinema with EclairBox systems through its Italian branch, OpenSky Cinema. The announcement was made in Riccione at the Ciné Giornate di Cinema 2018, the official convention of cinema exhibitors (ANEC and ANEM).
To help colorists, cinematographers and the wider production and post industry understand the opportunities and challenges that high dynamic range and new delivery formats bring, FilmLight is taking intensive and specialist master classes on a world tour. Dates are already set for London (May 15), Mumbai (May 16), Hollywood (June 4) and Seoul (June 7), with more to be added.
Ymagis Group has introduced hybrid tone mapping technology, which enables the optimized storage of two or more versions – standard dynamic range and high dynamic range – of the same feature film in a single SMPTE-compliant digital cinema package.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS has released the easyDCP Publisher, designed to provide a reliable and easy-to-use functionality for creating digital cinema packages.
Éclair today announced a theatrical delivery agreement with Zurich-based Diagonal to offer service solutions to film studios, distributors and cinema exhibitors. The three-year contract is effective immediately and covers Diagonal’s home base in Switzerland and Éclair's key markets, including France, Benelux, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and UK.
