The Odeon Surrey Quays provided the venue for the third day of the
“DigiTraining Plus 2008” course, organized by MEDIA Salles
in London. A 9-screen multiplex, since February 2007 this cinema has
been equipped with an equal number of digital projectors as part of
the trials promoted by Odeon, the major English exhibition chain, to
evaluate the technical and operational aspects of adopting the new technology.
For these trials, which have also involved another 9-screen site at
Hatfield, Odeon has chosen different suppliers: Cinemeccanica and Nec
for the projectors, Doremi and Kodak for the servers.
From what was said by Richard East, Director General
of the Odeon Surrey Quays, who brought the course participants up-to-date
on the various stages of the trials, starting out from the problems
of installing the 9 additional projectors in a complex that had not
been designed to hold double the number of machines in the booths and
with the necessity of not suspending everyday operations, it emerges
that the result has been positive as regards the reliability of digital
projection.
So much so that in the phases following the start of the trials, the
emphasis shifted instead to programming and communication with the public:
Odeon, for example, has coined a term for its digital complexes –
Digiplex – and uses innovative means of publicizing digital, which
include the T-shirts worn by the staff.
The importance of programming and thus of content: this was an aspect
on which the other talks on the third day of the course also focused,
such as the one by Matt Cowan of RealD, who stressed
how stereoscopic projection allows the spectator to become immersed
in a highly involving and spectacular experience, not even vaguely possible
inside the four walls of your own home, which is something that gives
added value to the theatrical offer. And, as far as exhibitors are concerned,
allows for more generous box-office.
Alternative content was at the centre of the presentations by Giovanni
Cozzi (Emerging Pictures), Christine Costello (More2screen)
and Fabrice Testa (DDCinema), companies that offer
their services as intermediaries between the holders of the performance
rights for music, sports and cultural events and the movie theatres.
The fact that the digital shift also has important implications for
copyright is becoming increasingly evident: particular attention was
devoted to this aspect on the course, thanks to the talk by Charlotte
McMillan from the London legal office of SJBerwin. This was
followed by the third part of the overview of business models, devoted
to the solutions proposed by XDC, which completed the sequence that
began with Arts Alliance Media and continued with Technicolor. If it
is true that the Virtual Print Fee formula was one of the factors that
launched the first phase of development in digital projection in the
United States, culminating in the installation of over 4,000 systems,
everyone agrees that, in a territory with different and varying characteristics
like Europe, diverse solutions are needed.
(click here
to see the course programme)
MEDIA Salles
Piazza Luigi di Savoia, 24 – 20124 Milano - Italy
Tel.: +39.02.6739781 – Fax: +39.02.6690410
E-mail: infocinema@mediasalles.it
Sito web: www.mediasalles.it
MEDIA Salles, a project
operating within the framework of the European Union's MEDIA Programme,
with the support of the Italian Government, fosters theatrical
distribution of European audiovisual products, both by high profile campaigns
involving Europe's cinema exhibitors and by initiatives to raise the visibility
of European productions with industry players and potential audiences,
creating specialized information channels on a global scale. Thus the
current initiatives from MEDIA Salles dovetail in a program with a triple
focus – training, promotion and information – and maximum
combined effect.
|