Barco Enters the LED Cinema Screen Market
Barco today entered the LED cinema screen market in a big way by purchasing a stake in Unilumin, a Chinese company that manufactures LED components on a major scale.
Barco today entered the LED cinema screen market in a big way by purchasing a stake in Unilumin, a Chinese company that manufactures LED components on a major scale.
Randall Dark is one of the pioneers of making movies and television programs in large format digital video. I’ve known him for more than thirty years and known his wife, Kristen Cox for more than twenty. When Randall recently confided in me that he has Alzheimer’s disease, he encouraged me to think more about Kristen’s needs now than of his own. I reached out to her to offer my support and told her I wanted to write a profile of Randall to remind the industry of how important his contributions have been for the broader world of what we now call digital cinema. She agreed and here is part of that profile, told in their own words.
Randall Dark is a pioneer of making movies in large format digital video. Still developing projects today, he was arguably the industry’s most passionate advocate in the effort to convert the television industry to high definition. Since working on the world’s first HDTV production in the ‘80s – the CBC mini-series Chasing Rainbows – he has made countless feature films and documentaries that explore both the wonders of the world around us and the complexities and humanity within all of us. Recently Randall learned that he has Alzheimer’s disease. With his wife Kristen’s support, he is fighting the disease with all the creativity and humor and simple grace that those of us who are blessed to call him friend know so well.
Event Cinema Association executive director Grainne Peat will be celebrating her first year in that role when the association convenes in Amsterdam next month for its annual convention. It has been a busy year for the association and for Peat who has implemented many changes. I recently spoke with her to talk about all that has happened in the past eleven months. Peat says one of her key challenges going forward is to better define what event cinema actually is. But first, we discussed the association’s new website.
A new study from the European Audiovisual Observatory has found that the average release window in Germany, France, United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands is 19.4 weeks from the time of a film’s release and it’s availability to purchase via video on demand.
Sree Kalidas M-Plex has become the first cinema complex in the southern Indian state of Kerala to install cinema projectors featuring Christie RealLaser illumination and ViveAudio. Located in the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram, the newly completed multiplex has seven auditoriums. Christie’s Indian partner TSR handled the installation.
Abramorama and Atlantic Records have expanded the theatrical release of Melanie Martinez’s debut full-length film K-12 to 32 countries, with more than 450 theatrical screenings in seven languages. Multiple cinemas around the world have added second and third encore screenings to cater to the demand.
CJ 4DPlex, together with B&B Theatres, have launched the world’s first ScreenX Amphitheater in Overland Park, Kansas inside B&B Overland Park 16. The newly arranged auditorium, which marks the second largest ScreenX theater in the world will open with Warner Bros. Pictures’ It Chapter Two on Friday, September 6th.
The July 19 opening of CJ 4DPlex 4DX with ScreenX at the Grand Cinema Sunshine in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, of Sony Pictures' Spider-Man: Far From Home, extended its run by four weeks due to sold out screenings during prime-time slots and recording attendance rates as high as 99 percent during peak showing times. In China, 4DX with ScreenX attendance numbers also soared, with occupancy rates doubling that of standard 2D formats for Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Christie is proudly supporting the Toronto International Film Festival as the Official Digital Projection Partner for the 19th consecutive year. The event runs September 5-15 and, for the first time, all major festival sites, including The Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Elgin Theatre, Roy Thomson Hall, Ryerson Theatre, and the Winter Garden Theatre, will be equipped with Christie 4K projection.