Reg. Trib. Milano n. 418 del 02.07.2007
Direttore responsabile: Elisabetta Brunella

 
 
 
  International Edition No. 52 - year 5 - 11 January 2010

***
 

Dear readers,

the seventh edition of MEDIA Salles’ “DigiTraining Plus: European Cinemas Experiencing New Technologies” course will take place next month in Helsinki. This well established course will as usual consist of a combination of lectures, discussions, visits and hands-on experience dealing exclusively with the challenges concerning the transition to digital technology in our cinemas. Business plans, technological matters, security and programming possibilities will be presented by international veteran professionals and participants will have a close look at the ambitious Finnish plans for their national roll out of digital technology.
Thanks to the Finnish Ministry of Education and the Finnish Chamber of Films it has been made possible for MEDIA Salles to highlight the situation in Scandinavia, which should interest and enlighten cinema owners and cinematic institutions all over Europe.
See you in Helsinki from 17 to 21 February.
  
Jens Rykaer
President of MEDIA Salles

 

WOMEN IN DIGITAL CINEMA
Maria Costeira
XpanD Cinemas, Slovenia - USA
As a theatrical entertainment professional, I am aware that digital cinema is one of the greatest technological accomplishments of the 21st century and I'm delighted to be working during these evolutionary times. Early in my career, while in Portugal, I observed that, eventually, cinema exhibition would have to change and adapt to meet new trends and a more technology-driven generation. Since then, everything has changed, from filmmaking techniques, production advancements through CGI platforms and special effects to an ever-demanding audience who expect both inspiration and excitement. Having the desire to deliver the best cinema entertainment possible, I brought my vision to Ljubljana, Slovenia, where I became part of the Kolosej group, which, at that time, was a small exhibition company with only incremental expansion. In 2004, we proceeded to start driving the digital future by establishing and promoting 3D as a mainstream platform and created XpanD™, now a world leader and one of the largest suppliers of 3D systems, which uses the unsurpassed active shutter glasses technology, with more than 2,000 locations globally.
Launching the first ever, all-immersive sensory 3D theatre, known as XpanD X6D, at the Kolosej entertainment complex in 2005, the theatre was enhanced with digital projection, aromatic and motion sensory applications and was presented in the large-screen format. In the years that followed, four more 3D digital screens known as XpanD X3D (without sensory/motion), capable of showing premium Hollywood content were launched in the region and for a small marketplace XpanD has significantly helped to improve the per capita digital screen count. By 2011, we estimate there will be at least four more installations to support the full charge of Hollywood 3D releases, in addition to securing the distribution of 2D digital titles already on the market.
Simultaneously, by deploying and testing our new 3D digital immersive cinema products on the Slovenian local markets, we’ve become a major global player in the field of digital technologies. Through the acquisition of a production facility in the US (Portland, OR) which, produces the active glasses technologies and an array of other 3D applications, we have traversed into the consumer markets, whereby XpanD has fast become one of the biggest names in the world of digital entertainment.
The XpanD brand was uniquely created and supported by a predominantly female team of professionals. From marketing and sales, to programming, content distribution and other various auxiliary services - the women have been at the helm. I can't emphasize enough how the business of cinema, in all its aspects, is more suitably adapted to the female approach and philosophies. I’m extremely proud of our accomplishments at XpanD, and being able to endorse the company through our female professionals is a testimony to any business endeavor - especially the cinema business. We have proven that women’s specific skills and attention to audience demands are what is needed for great success!

Early bird fees available
within Tuesday 12 January 2010

- download the application form -

 

MEDIA Salles announces
the 2010 edition of the training course for
European cinema exhibitors

“DigiTraining Plus: European Cinemas
Experiencing New Technologies”

When: 17 – 21 February 2010
Where: Helsinki, Finland


Main venue: Finnish Film Foundation Auditorium in Katajanokka, Helsinki

Accommodation: Best Western Premier Hotel Katajanokka, at walking distance from the Auditorium

For all the information and updates on the course

www.mediasalles.it/training/training.htm

Visits to cinemas: among others, Bio Grand, Tikkurila

 
Helsinki in February offers you almost 10 hours of light a day!

Wednesday, 17 February Thursday, 18 February Friday, 19 February Saturday, 20 February Sunday, 21 February
 
Sunrise 7.54
 
Sunrise 7.51
 
Sunrise 7.49
 
Sunrise 7.46
 
Sunrise 7.43
 
Sunset 17.16
 
Sunset 17.18
 
Sunset 17.21
 
Sunset 17.24
 
Sunset 17.26
DigiTraining Plus 2010: European Cinemas Experiencing New Technologies
17 – 21 February 2010, Helsinki
Course programme
Wednesday, 17 February Thursday, 18 February Friday, 19 February Saturday, 20 February Sunday, 21 February

 

Breakfast at the Hotel

Breakfast at the Hotel

Breakfast at the Hotel

Breakfast at the Hotel

Individual arrivals to Helsinki

(before check-in time the hotel will keep the participants’ luggage in its luggage room)


8.45 am
Transfer to the Finnish Film Foundation Auditorium (walking distance from the Best Western Premier Hotel Katajanokka)

Open door session, in collaboration with the MEDIA Desk Finland:

9.00 am
Welcome message by Kerstin Degerman, MEDIA Desk Finland

9.10 am
Leena Laaksonen, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Education and Culture

9.40 am
Digital screens: how many and where?
by Elisabetta Brunella, Secretary General of MEDIA Salles

10.00 am
Coffee break

10.20 am
The digital cinema chain: “Year 11 and Still Talking About the Rollout”, presentation by Michael Karagosian, MKPE

11.35 am
Q&A session

12.00 pm
Focus on Russia
- Oleg Berezin, Managing Director of Nevafilm, Russia

12.30 pm
Q&A session


12.45 pm
End of the Open door session

Lunch for the course participants at the Finnish Film Foundation

8.30 am
Transfer by bus (from the hotel)

Significant experiences from Finland

9.10 am
arrival to Bio Grand

Visit to Bio Grand, Tikkurila – Presentation by Kimmo Lohman, Cinema Manager

10.15 am
departure from Bio Grand

Coffee break

11.00 am
Visit to Flamingo Cinema, Vantaa

“D-cinema: what cinema owners don’t know or normally forget to think about”: presentation by Ari Saarinen, Technical supervisor and Manager, Finnkino

12.15 pm
end of visit

Participants are free for lunch at the Flamingo Shopping Center

1.30 pm
departure from Flamingo Cinema

8.30 am
Transfer by bus (from the hotel)

Significant experiences from Finland

9.15 am
Visit to Biorex – Sello, Espoo

10.00 am
Demo 3D live
presented by Walter Munarini, OpenSky

10.45 am
Coffee Break

11.00 am
Presentation of “Digital Alfie” by Frauke Feuer, Peaceful Fish

11.30 am
Q&A session

12.00 pm
Participants are free for lunch at the Sello Shopping Center

 

8.45 am
Course evaluation

11.15 am
Course closure

12.00 pm
End of the course


AFTERNOON

AFTERNOON

AFTERNOON

AFTERNOON

AFTERNOON

Check in at the Best Western Premier Hotel Katajanokka and registration at the course

3.30 pm
Transfer to the Finnish Film Foundation Auditorium (at walking distance from the Best Western Premier Hotel Katajanokka)

Coffe and tea
Participants will be invited to fill in the pre-course questionnaire

Welcome speeches by the organisers and partners

4.00 pm
- Michael Vickers, Treasurer of MEDIA Salles

4.15 pm
- Irina Krohn, Head of the Finnish Film Foundation

4.30 pm
Digital cinemas in Finland: the state of art and the perspectives

- Tero Koistinen, CEO, Finnish Chamber of Films

5.00 pm
Presentation of the course structure, by Anthony Williams, Moderator of the course

5.30 pm
Who’s who at the course:
presentation of participants

6.45 pm
Return to the Hotel

2.00 pm
Business models – part 1: an overview by Michael Karagosian, MKPE

2.45 pm Q&A session

3.10 pm
The Scandinavian situation

Harri Ahokas, Head of Domestic Distribution, Finnish Film Foundation

- Ramon Reissmüller, Digitalt Projekt, Swedish Film Institute (Sweden)

- Rolv Gjestland, Adviser in cinema technology and design, Film & Kino (Norway)

- Jan Petersen, IT manager of Nordisk Film Biografer (Denmark)

4.20 pm
Q&A session

4.40 pm
Other experiences from Europe
- Daniel Hromadko, from BrickBox Digital Media, Czech Republic
- Marieke Jonker, Amstelfilm, The Netherlands
5.30 pm
Q&A session

5.45 pm
3D Digital screening and presentation by
Ami Dror, XpanD

6.30 pm
Q&A session

6.45 pm
End of session

At the Finnish Film Foundation Auditorium

2.30 pm
The digital transition seen from the side of distribution
Digitalisation: a chance for a wider choice offered to cinema spectators (session on contents: films and alternative contents) – part 1
By

Erik Hamre, Emerging Pictures, Denmark
Pilvi Burman, FS Film, Finland

Fabrice Testa, Vice President Sales & Business Development XDC

3.30 pm
Q&A session

3.45 pm
Coffee Break

4.00 pm
The role of integrators
- part 1:

Fabrice Testa, Vice President Sales & Business Development XDC

Screening of a selection of excerpts of European digital movies, with the collaboration of XDC

4.30 pm
Q&A session

4.45 pm
Transfer by bus to the National Audiovisual Archive (KAVA)

5.30 pm
4K screening introduced by Mikko Kuutti, Deputy Director of KAVA and Tore Mortensen, Sony Norge

6.30 pm
Return by bus to town centre - hotel

At the Finnish Film Foundation Auditorium

2.00 pm
Digitalisation: a chance for a wider choice offered to cinema spectators (session on contents: alternative contents) – part 2
Guillaume Thomine-Desmazures, Arts Alliance Media

2.20 pm
Q&A session

2.30 pm
Business models – part 2: an overview of public support for digitalisation in Europe by Jonathan Davis

3.45 pm
Q&A session

4.00 pm
The role of integrators
- part 2:
 
Guillaume Thomine-Desmazures, Arts Alliance Media

4.30 pm
Q&A session

4.40 pm
Cinema in 2020 – sneak peek into the future - Tommi Rissanen, Dicole

Final statements

 

 

8.30 pm
Opening dinner at Scandic Gran Marina Restaurant (at walking distance from the Best Western Premier Hotel Katajanokka)

Participants are free for Helsinki sightseeing and dinner

Participants are free for Helsinki sightseeing and dinner

Closing dinner

 

 

All different, all digital
by Elisabetta Brunella

This column hosts portraits of cinemas in Europe and the rest of the world which are quite different from one another but have in common the fact that they have all adopted digital projection.

Country
Site
Town
Company
Number of digital projectors
Projectors
Resolution
Servers
No. of 3D screens
Supplier of 3D technology
France
MK2 Bibliothèque
Paris
MK2
5
NEC
2K
Doremi
5
XpanD

“Can the cinema change the habits of a lifetime?” To answer this question Marin Karmitz, director, producer and distributor, has – despite himself – become an exhibitor, succeeding in creating the largest circuit of art house cinemas in France, at present drawing more than 5 million spectators a year to its 58 screens. Of these 14 are to be found in Paris, in the MK2 Bibliothèque complex, which represents the most complete expression of the idea that Karmitz has been developing since 1974 when he created his first theatre at the Bastille. In that initial phase the intention was to make use of the cinema – combined, moreover, with literature, painting and music - as a lever for contributing to giving new impetus to the social and cultural life of a neighbourhood that had won itself a far from flattering reputation. Not only was the experiment successful but it generated a new challenge which led to the completion of Quai de Seine, this too situated in a neighbourhood in need of a new lease of life. A new ingredient has been added to Karmitz’s formula: the association of a restaurant service, particularly the “slow food” version, which promotes communality. The life of the 19th arrondissement has improved decidedly and if people are no longer afraid to go out at night this is largely thanks to the cinema, which, in the meantime, has gained a “twin”, the Quai de Loire, on the opposite side of the water. In the case of MK2 Bibliothèque, the challenge was to place the odds on the combination with the new premises of the French national library. Today, while watching the thousands of young and not-so-young people who change direction to or from the four towers shaped like an open book to enter the MK2 complex, the success of the operation seems to be a foregone conclusion but it certainly was not so in 2003, when the Library was a sort of cathedral in a desert consisting of railway lines and rather unwelcoming roads. MK2 Bibliothèque, conceived as a long boat resting on the banks of the Seine, is now a meeting place (the shops – specializing in DVDs, music CDs and posters – cafés and restaurants can be accessed even without a ticket for the cinema) and an example of design making life more pleasant (strange as it might seem for a cinema, the architect Wilmotte gave priority to natural light and transparency and Martin Szekely re-thought an essential element of cinema-going – the armchair seat – inventing the bright red “place for two”). Most of all, it is a landmark for quality cinema and avantgarde technology. Five screens offer digital showings (with NEC projectors and Doremi servers) and in 3D (Xpand) meeting with enormous success: Avatar has been on the programme in three theatres since 16 December and on 9 January had been seen by 63,000 spectators. Cutting-edge technology: the final touch to the MK2 formula and one which confirms the circuit’s pioneering role which – though far from reaching the scale of the market leaders – demonstrates that quality and ability to anticipate the future are elements leading to success.

(Per leggere il testo in italiano cliccare qui)

Digitalisation in Italy: news and statistics
by Marcello Mazzucotelli

Sony nominates Prevost as Specialist Dealer
Prevost, a cinema projector manufacturer and installer since 1907, has become Sony’s Specialist Dealer for the 4K cinema equipment in Italy.

The first 4K projector
The first Sony Cinealta 4K projector was installed in Italy last December: it is to be found in theatre Three of the Nexus multiplex in Corte Franca, in the province of Brescia, in the north of the country. It also operates in 3D, using Real D technology.

Moveglasses 3D: a container that sterilizes 3D viewing glasses
It is the invention of Alfonso D’Amelio, an exhibitor in Lioni, in the province of Avellino, and consists of a container holding 250 3D glasses that automatically sterilizes them thanks to a UVC germ-killing lamp. Moveglasses 3D, which allows the glasses to be easily distributed and stored under lock and key, has been bought by numerous Italian complexes to date. Its inventor now also intends looking to foreign markets.

(Per leggere il testo in italiano e consultare le tabelle cliccare qui)

© copyright MEDIA Salles

 

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