This is what emerges from the large section devoted to the new technologies in the MEDIA Salles’ “European Cinema Yearbook”, presented in Rome during Eurovisioni, at an event that also celebrated the Association’s fifteenth anniversary.
By June 2006 the number of screens offering their spectators a digital experience had grown to 1,354: an increase touching on 130% compared to December 2005, when 591 screens had adopted DLP Cinema^TM.
The last six months have seen North America – and in particular the United States – make a leap forward, coming to represent over 56% of the world’s digital cinemas, with 763 units. That this is no longer an experimental phase is demonstrated by the fact that several chains, both large-sized and “up-market”, have chosen the 100% digital option. By offering its audiences a “pure digital experience” in as many as 94 theatres, UltraStar, a circuit with 102 screens in California, intends to consolidate its image as an avant-garde “boutique”. A giant, like Carmike – the third largest US circuit with 2,469 screens – has ordered 2,300 digital projectors and already boasts complexes that are 100% digital. “Watching a film with DLP Cinema^TM technology is the nearest thing to watching real life”, claims Dale Hurst, Marketing Manager of Carmike. And many of his colleagues worldwide must be thinking the same thing: though at a far slower rate than the United States, Oceania, Europe and Asia have also seen an increase of 30% – 50%, according to the country, in installations of digital equipment in the first half of 2006.

Digital screens in Austria as at 30/06/2006:
17 projectors DLP Cinema^TM
click here to see the table

Cinemeccanica, a world leader in the production of analogical projectors, began to supply digital projectors with DLP Cinema^TM technology in 2005.
This new phase in the history of a company that has been operating in Milan, Italy, since 1920 began right there in the capital of Lombardy where, on 15 January 2005, the first CMC-D2 digital projector was installed in the Cinema Manzoni, followed shortly afterwards by the one destined for the Apollo, fresh from a radical transformation which had made it into an avant-garde urban miniplex. From this moment onwards, Cinemeccanica received a series of orders from various European countries.
Among these countries is France, where the first clients include both a chain, like Gaumont (the Marignan, in Paris, has a CMC3-D2 projector and a CMC-D2), and an independent theatre like the Cinéma Le Paris of Forbach. In the second semester of 2006 a digital projector was delivered to a venue as famous as the Rex in Paris.
Italy and France have been joined by other large markets such as Spain, starting with UIP in Madrid, and the United Kingdom (there are two Cinemeccanica digital projectors in the prestigious Odeon Leicester) and by a tiny but dynamic market such as that in Iceland, where 3 projectors have been installed in Reykjavik by the Samfilm Group. Outside Europe the first installation was in Colombia.

Appreciation for the Cinemeccanica digital projectors seems to be confirmed by the fact that, after an initial order, “early adopters” such as the Furlan and Giometti Groups, in Italy, have purchased a considerable series of digital projectors: respectively a total of 8 installed in the cinemas of North-Eastern Italy and 10 in the theatres of the Central Adriatic area.
“Our strength lies in a knowledge of the exhibitors’ demands and in the trust we have built up over 86 years operating all over the world. Companies that shift to the new experience of digital projection want to be able to count on a partner they trust”: this is how Vittore Nicelli, Managing Director of Cinemeccanica, commented on the positive start of the digital adventure from Venice, where Cinemeccanica provided two digital projectors in the Sala Grande and the Sala Perla theatres for the 63^rd International Film Festival, confirming their partnership with leading world cinema events from ShoWest to the Locarno Festival.

To read the full article and the technical specifications of the Cinemeccanica digital projectors, click here.