South Africa’s Waterfront Studios in partnership with Cinegate and Take 2 Films has developed a lens-to-finish digital cinema production package aimed at the under-R3 million-feature film production market. The three film industry suppliers are committed to supporting sustainable growth of quality South African feature films and recognize that independent filmmakers are critical to this process.
Epic Theatres in DeLand Florida will install 25 GDC SA-2100A series servers into its cinemas. Privately held and founded in 2003 Epic Theatres is operated by third generation exhibitors whose family built its first theatre in 1947. It currently operates 39 screens located at six sites in three southern states in the US. Epic took a cautious and methodical approach in its digital conversion program. It began with the trial run of one single GDC SA-2100A server at its Multiplex in Deland.
United Entertainment Corporation will install GDC’s SA-2100A series servers into its cinemas. UEC is a privately held motion picture theatre circuit and entertainment company based in Minnesota operating over 100 cinema screens. “UEC is pleased to partner with GDC Technology in bringing Digital Cinema to our locations ” says Mike Daniels development manager United Entertainment Corp.
Dolby has launched Dolby Direct Distribution Services a pan-European satellite content delivery network for digital cinemas. The service is provided in association with leading digital network solutions provider Arqiva and uses their international satellite infrastructure to distribute feature movies trailers and advertising content direct to their participating exhibitors and cinemas throughout Europe. Dolby Direct Distribution Services will simplify the cinema distribution process eliminating physical delivery and manual upload of digital content onto individual cinema servers.
International Datacasting Corporation and Sensio Technologies have announced the beginning of their first operational roll out of live 3D in high definition for digital cinema in Europe. The announcement was made following the first 3D live broadcast via satellite of a complete basketball game in Europe to multi locations across Italy on April 19th.
Eastman Kodak Company has unveiled the latest product offering in its Vision3 technology platform: Kodak Vision3 250D color negative film 5207/7207 incorporates all of the advancements and imaging characteristics unique to the Vision3 family of films optimized for an exposure index of 250 in daylight.
IntoPix has opened a U.S. based subsidiary IntoPix America headquartered in Virginia. The move signals the company’s intent to grow its business and support in the North American markets. Jeff Segal former chief technology officer of Cinea has been tapped to run the new entity. The new subsidiary will focus on supporting existing customers and expanding IntoPix’s market presence in current and new market segments.
At the NAB convention in April in Las Vegas a few Hollywood studio executives graced the Digital Cinema Summit with their presence to push hard for stereoscopic 3D. And yet at the ShoWest convention same city earlier the same month there was a different kind of push as executives from Fox announced that they would no longer subsidize the cost of disposable 3D glasses. Confused? Don’t be. The Hollywood studios want what they want and they want it on their own terms. The rationale for all of this is of course money. And the ultimate battle could be over Avatar.
8mm Productions is a production and post-production company with its roots firmly grounded in the heart of Bollywood. Two years ago 8mm ventured into for it the then unknown world of digital 4K cinema. Today they have incorporated Assimilates Scratch digital system as the data pipeline that completes its 4K workflow. David Premier 8mm Productions says “Many of our clients – MTV Channel V Nirvana Films Black Magic Productions Fingerprint Productions to name a few – have all shot with our Red One 4K Cameras and are extremely pleased with the final output from Scratch.
AMC Entertainment has reached an agreement in principle with Sony Electronics to install 4K digital cinema projection systems across its theatre circuit. With 309 theatres and 4 628 screens AMC will be the largest entertainment company equipped with 4K digital technology in North America. The decision accelerates the momentum behind AMC's transition to digital projection technology. At AMC we deliver movies and other great entertainment presented in an immersive big-screen viewing environment says Gerry Lopez chief executive officer and president AMC Entertainment.
