Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Semi-Equips - Buy when BLOOD is running in the streets! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (10780)	11/13/2002 2:01:11 PM
From: paul_philp	Respond to of 10921

Cary, At some point artists are going to start to question the ability of the the record labels to promote their music to their audience. A new type of agent will be created to promote artists online. The new innovative music will get to its audience. The current record industry thrives on the REALLY BIG artist; being Canadian I am living through a period of Shaniamania right now. How many REALLY BIG artists are there today? 50? 100? The music industry business model is being disrupted from many angles. This is a it should be. They should fight, they have assets to protect and no way to replace the lost income of embracing digital music full on. It is not carved in stone that 5 distributors and 2 radio aggregators should control the music industry. All is flux and this too shall pass. Paul

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (10780)	11/13/2002 4:22:04 PM
From: Ian@SI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10921

Actually, some of the artists are including bonus items with the purchase of the CD that may only be used once. e.g. - Discounts on live concert tickets; U2 included a DVD in their recent compilation CD. I suspect that those who only want a song or 2 from a CD may resort to a "freebie" approach. Artists that want to maintain high CD sales will come up with some innovative approaches to adding value for those that purchase the CD explicitly.

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (10780)	11/14/2002 1:31:45 AM
From: Sam Citron	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10921

Indie film exhibition going digital due to cost savings Using a Hard Drive to Show Films in Theaters By AMY HARMON NY Times November 14, 2002 As the major Hollywood studios bicker with theater owners over who should pay for the digital equipment that allows films to remain free of dirt and scratches no matter how many times they are viewed, a luxury carmaker and the world's largest software company have stepped into the breach, casting themselves as the unlikely champions of independent digital cinema. BMW and Microsoft are spending several million dollars to exhibit eight independent films in digital format over the next year at theaters in 25 cities. The first is "Standing in the Shadows of Motown," a documentary about the Funk Brothers, studio musicians whose role in creating the Motown sound made famous by vocalists like Marvin Gaye and the Supremes is little known. It will be projected from computer hard drives starting tomorrow at the Angelika in New York, the Regent Showcase in Los Angeles and several other theaters across the country. The next films in the series will be announced at the Sundance Film Festival in January. At its premiere at the Apollo Theater in Harlem last week, the 35-millimeter version of "Standing" stood ready to roll on the customary reels in case of a technical glitch. A Microsoft executive tried to explain to the audience how the company had compressed the film to fit on a single DVD disk, but it was perhaps a testimony to the technology that nobody seemed to care — either before the screening or after. "This is something experimental in nature to a great extent," said Amir Malin, the chief executive of Artisan Entertainment, which is distributing the film. "But we wanted to try it because we think this is going to be the future of exhibition." While film is fragile and easily scratched, the light pulses sent by digital projectors never degrade. Digital cinema supprters said it would allow for potentially huge savings in distributing movies. But largely because of the expense — a digital projector alone can cost over $100,000 — the technology has been slow to catch on. BMW's Digital Cinema Series will likely be the widest use of digital projection to screen films since "Star Wars — Episode II: Attack of the Clones," which 20th Century Fox and George Lucas evangelized as best viewed digitally. But so few theaters have the equipment that only 60 of the 5,000 screens the movie opened on last May showed it that way. Microsoft, a new competitor in digital cinema, said the system that it is installing for the series costs less than half of what theaters have typically paid. The films themselves are likely to be lower budget, too, if only because Hollywood remains skeptical of the technology's ability to display movies with the richness and resolution of film. "We do outreach to all the studios," said Erin Cullen, project manager for Microsoft's digital media division. "But we find that the independents are more open to embracing this as early adopters." Microsoft and BMW said the other films selected will depend in part on the interest of independent distributors and theater owners. The digital encoding and the equipment are free as long as they agree to play a seven-minute promotional film for BMW before each screening. BMW's interest in the series began with the popularity of the five digital promotional films by well-known directors that it commissioned for its Web site last year. About 30 million people downloaded the shorts, whose directors included Ang Lee and Guy Ritchie. The three new promotions — which will still be shown first on the Internet at www.bmwfilms.com — include shorts by Tony Scott and Joe Carnahan. "The Hostage" by John Woo, will play before "Standing in the Shadows." For Microsoft, the series is an effort to raise the profile of its Windows Media technology in Hollywood. Even more than theatrical distribution, the company wants the entertainment industry to adopt its software to distribute films on DVD's and over the Internet. That in turn would help drive consumers to buy its key product, the Windows operating system, to play back digital entertainment on PC's and other digital devices. Paul Justman, the film's director, said he worked closely with Microsoft's technicians for the last year to get the look and feel he wanted in the digital version of the film. He would still like to deepen the color in the opening shot and make the club scenes grittier. But he said he was pleased with the version that he saw at the Apollo. "There are a lot of great things about it, like the fact that there are no scratches," Mr. Justman said. "Like in any medium, I think the artists have to start taking over. Right now the whole excitement is how clean can we make it look. So you have to talk to the geniuses at Microsoft and say: `Yeah, it looks great. Now we have to go for emotional impact; we have to work toward that.' And they did." Microsoft's digital cinema approach, which uses a standard PC and the software it developed for consumers instead of a custom-designed machine, may never fly in Hollywood's mainstream. The seven major studios recently formed a company, Digital Cinema Initiatives, to define the kind of system that they would find acceptable. "There are some entities putting in place low-grade systems that may be sufficient for advertising or other kinds of entertainment," said Julian Levin, executive vice president of digital exhibition for 20th Century Fox, who declined to comment directly on Microsoft's system. "But from my perspective it clearly does not replace the theatrical exhibition experience you need to have with the kind of digital projection system that is being worked on by players in that business." But independent filmmakers say the prospect of relatively inexpensive digital projection systems being installed in theaters opens up the possibility of new venues for their work. Hollywood is interested in digital cinema because it would eliminate the $2,000 that it costs to make and ship a print of a film to a theater. But simply making the master print can cost $50,000. "In this area, budget matters," said Michelle Byrd, executive director of Independent Feature Project, an organization that supports independent filmmakers. "If an independent director doesn't have the money to strike a print and there is video equipment available in a substantial number of theaters, that could have a direct long-term impact for independents." nytimes.com

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (10780)	3/12/2003 6:30:36 PM
From: SemiBull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10921

China is a bust for IC equipment makers, says report By Semiconductor Business News Mar 11, 2003 (7:32 PM) URL: siliconstrategies.com NEW TRIPOLI, Penn. - While IC consumption in China is expected to be staggering, the nation is a major bust for semiconductor equipment manufacturers thus far, according to a report from The Information Network here. The market for front-end IC equipment hit $2 billion in 2002--or roughly flat from 2001, according to the New Tripoli-based research firm. Sources believe that fab-tool makers are losing money in China, as vendors are bombing the prices of their gear to get the business. Fab-tool makers are cutting the prices of their gear by up to 40% in China, according to sources. “The equipment market in China is not what its cracked out to be”, said Robert Castellano, president of The Information Network, in a statement. “We disagree with the recent statements by SEMI that China is a 'bright spot' in the equipment market,” Castellano said. “They collect data for the U.S. market, but their exposure to foreign markets is limited. The fact of the matter is that there was no growth in 2002.” The researcher was referring to recent statements made by the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) trade group at Semicon China, which said China was a “bright spot” for fab-tool makers (see March 11 story ). There are several problems for fab-tool makers in China. “IC production is limited to 0.18-micron on 200-mm wafers. Much of the production equipment used in fab expansion will be tools transferred from older lines Japanese and eventually Taiwanese IC manufacturers,” he said. “IC manufacturers in these regions will buy state-of-the-art, 0.10-micron tools for 300-mm production for their existing facilities and transfer outdated tools to China. In addition, the used equipment market will be huge. Second- and third-tier new equipment vendors will also benefit, as top-tier players have focused on the latest technology,” he added. There is positive news for foreign chip makers. In 2002, China produced 8.2 billion chips, which accounted for just 19% of domestic demand, according to the report. Unit production will triple to nearly 19 billion units in 2005, but domestic production will grow to meet only 22% of domestic demand. Most high-end products used in computers and mobile phones had to be imported. Domestic semiconductor companies also had to import designs from overseas companies.