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

 
 
 
  International Edition No. 69 - year 6 - 28 June 2011

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From the eighth edition of the course
“DigiTraining Plus: European Cinemas Experiencing New Technologies”

Helsinki and Tallinn
29 June - 3 July 2011

- daily update -

Tomorrow, 29 June, sees the start of the eighth “DigiTraining Plus: European Cinemas Experiencing New Technologies”, the training course offered by MEDIA Salles to European cinema professionals who wish to obtain reliable information and an international exchange of views on issues crucial to the transition to the new projection technologies.
First held in 2004, when there were about thirty digital screens in Europe, the initiative is supported by the European Union’s MEDIA Programme and by the Italian Government. The 2011 edition can count on the support of the Finnish Film Foundation and the Finnish Chamber of Films, as well as the collaboration of the Estonian Film Foundation.
An important innovation is being offered to the forty participants, belonging to eleven different nationalities: the course will be held in Helsinki but will also include a visit to Tallinn. They will thus make first-hand acquaintance with two particularly significant situations: in Finland the theatres’ conversion to digital is supported by public institutions as part of a programme that aims at innovation in all sectors in the country, including the cultural industry; Estonia is one of the small-medium markets in search of an economic model that will also allow the new technology to be introduced in cinemas whose function is prevalently social and cultural rather than strictly commercial.
This year the course moderator will once again be Tony Williams, a veteran of the British cinema industry, whilst amongst the speakers will be European professionals such as Ron Sterk and Steve Perrin who will be presenting joint initiatives launched by exhibitors in the Netherlands and in Great Britain, but also experts from the other side of the ocean, such as John Fithian, President of NATO, the US exhibitors’ association. A comparison between the situation in America and that in Europe will be made in the talks by Michael Karagosian. The visits to different types of digital cinemas – an urban multiplex such as the Coca Plaza in Tallinn and the versatile Kino Tapiola in Espoo, also the venue of a dynamic festival – will be another component of this course, which for some years now has been considered be a valid landmark for those who wish to understand the opportunities and challenges of the digital transition and gain proactive experience of what has been defined the most important change in the cinema since the advent of sound.