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Dear readers, writing
this message close to Christmas in Copenhagen it is as if global warming
is put on hold at least for a while. The thermometer reads 9 degrees
below zero. On the other hand it’s a smart way to adapt to the
thought of going to Helsinki, Finland, in February, to take part in
MEDIA Salles’ “DigiTraining Plus: European Cinemas Experiencing
New Technologies” training course on digital cinema – the
7th in a row. Looking forward to seeing you in Helsinki, (Per leggere il testo in italiano cliccare qui)
WOMEN IN DIGITAL CINEMA I run a cinema circuit, Savon Kinot Oy, with my four siblings and our company is a genuine family business – our father started his career in cinemas in 1945. I have been working in cinemas since I was ten and my current position in our company is the Head of Programming. Our company is the second biggest cinema circuit in Finland, though our market share is only 4% (2008) whilst the biggest operator, Finnkino Oy, holds 70% of the market. We are operating in six towns in Eastern Finland and we have seven cinemas there with 12 screens altogether. Only one of our screens is digitalised up to now; it's in our latest cinema in Joensuu, where we had the chance to add a digital projector alongside a traditional 35mm projector in the biggest auditorium of this miniplex. It's crucial to have at least one more screen there digitalised in the near future, because of the programming. In this current situation, we still need a 35mm print when the movie shifts to the smaller auditorium. 3D was the main reason for us to start digitalisation in the first place; the audience will see the technical developments best in 3D form and 3D films are selling more tickets than traditional films. I think 3D has brilliant possibilities to get us more customers and widen the content in cinema programming. In digitalisation we also have a challenge in our older cinemas. They are built – especially the projection rooms – for the use of 35mm projectors. There's simply no room for an additional projector in the old projection rooms, and abandoning the 35mm projectors is not an option yet, especially in smaller towns and cinemas. Not having any VPF system in Finland, we are lucky to have the Finnish Government to give financial support to digitalisation in cinemas. Even with that support the smallest cinemas have to face the fact that the investment that digitalisation requires may never be covered by the profits from their ticket sales. (Per leggere il testo in italiano
cliccare qui) Statistics on cinema digitalisation: the MEDIA Salles co-operation with the European Audiovisual Observatory MEDIA Salles is proud to announce that for the second consecutive year has provided its statistics on cinema digitalisation worldwide, with a special focus on Europe, to the European Audiovisual Observatory that will publish them in the new edition of its Yearbook. Among this data there is the situation of the 2,602 European digital screens by exhibition company. An excerpt of this data is available here below
There were 19 exhibition companies
with at least 7 digital screens as at 31 December 2007, for a total
of 437 digital projectors. A year and a half later, the companies went
up to 64 and they now count 1,749 digital projectors. The number of
companies increased by 236%, the number of digital installations by
300%. The average number of digital projectors per company was 23 and
is now over 27. |
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MEDIA Salles’ contacts and address MEDIA Salles |