Clarke Hare, a onetime CUBIE, but now Qcomie gave me this......
Here is that article on CineComm Digital Cinema :
Digital cinema maker believes it has a
blockbuster
Qualcomm, Hughes-JVC system could overhaul
movie distribution
By Mike Drummond
STAFF WRITER
March 9, 1999
Qualcomm and Hughes-JVC have developed a new breed of digital projection
technology that promises to deliver crystal-clear movies -- and at the same time
delete a film-distribution channel in place since the days of Chaplin.
CineComm Digital Cinema projectors, and similar technology built by Texas
Instruments, display motion pictures using computer signals, refracted light and
mirrors -- delivering the kind of clarity all but impossible to achieve with 35mm
film, which often is marred by dust, scratches and other visual impurities over
time.
The new projectors, in prototype stage, play movies off of magnetic tape or digital
disks.
But Los Angeles-based CineComm envisions the day when satellites will beam
movies to digital projectors using piracy-thwarting encryption technology
developed by Qualcomm. Instead of having to wait days or even weeks for
blockbusters, such a distribution scheme could simultaneously feed backwater
movie houses the same films that premiere in New York City and L.A.
The world will get a glimpse of CineComm and the Texas Instrument projectors
tomorrow at the National Theater Association Owners's ShoWest trade show in
Las Vegas.
Until now, the motion picture industry's notion of technological innovation has
been to add digital sound and install so-called stadium seating in theaters.
Digital projectors, however, could change the way the public experiences movies.
Theaters provided with separate soundtracks could switch languages in which the
movies are shown. Mulitplex theaters can add hot-selling movies to other screens
with a click of a mouse. The new systems can handle more audio tracks capable
of flooding audiences with sound from all directions.
Digital signals could also engage devices to emit odors on cue or make seats rattle
and hum.
But the real shake-up would occur off-screen, in the trenches of film distribution
and film processing -- industries that could face massive revenue die-off or
possible extinction.
Today, film print copies of movies cost about $2,000 apiece and major releases
require about 5,000 copies -- it's rumored that the new Star Wars film will be
distributed to a record 6,000 movie houses.
"Right up front, (digital cinema) could save millions and millions of dollars in
distribution and film processing and copying costs," said Gayle Farrell, director of
communication and marketing for Sony Pictures' digital studios division.
However, she said the film industry still must reconcile the technology with
security, copyright, cost of deployment and other issues. Sony Pictures said it's
not about to release a digitized feature film without a reliable system, complete
with on-site technicians who know what to do if something goes wrong.
Given all that, Farrell said she believed the market for digital cinema won't exist
for another five to eight years.
"Sony Pictures Entertainment enthusiastically supports this," Farrell said. "But to
date no one has come up with an end-to-end solution -- or if they are, they're
being very quiet about it."
CineComm, however, believes it has the total package.
Company founder Michael Targoff -- the former president of Loral Space and
Communications -- has said CineComm will deploy complete "turn-key systems
worldwide" within two years and will pay for installing the new projectors.
Russell Wintner, CineComm's chief technology officer, said the digital projectors
can sit alongside a conventional projector, depending on the size of the booth.
CineComm's equipment does not need to be centered on the axis of the screen.
"We can project from a corner if we have to," Wintner said.
CineComm said it will employ a pay-per-view concept for both movies and live
events to reduce up-front capital requirements and risks for studios and theaters.
Hughes-JVC built the projectors. But Wintner said Qualcomm, one of San Diego's
largest employers, has provided the most important piece in the system --
compression and encryption technologies.Whose technology is this?
"They've allowed for us to compress movie files and feed them through existing
(satellite) technology and decompress them without any appreciable loss of
quality," Wintner said.
Moreover, he said Qualcomm's work with encrypted or encoded wireless
communications has helped CineComm address the movie industry's security
anxieties.
Meanwhile, Kodak spokesman Bob Gibbons downplayed the impact digital movie
delivery could have on traditional film-stock companies.
"We don't believe digital technology is better than film," Gibbons said.
At an estimated $100,000 per digital projector -- compared with $30,000 for a
conventional projection booth -- Gibbons questioned who will pay to deploy the
high-tech equipment to reach all of America's 32,000 movie screens.
Kodak is investing $500 million over the next three years to make film more
durable, more scratch resistant and able to handle more colors.
Gibbons wonders what digital compression and encryption will do to light,
shadow and other visual nuances that traditional celluloid captures.
He should find out tomorrow, when digital projectors from CineComm and Texas
Instruments shoot it out with a traditional projector loaded with Kodak film.
"I don't think we should say this will never happen," Gibbons said of digital
cinema. "But who's going to pay for it?"
In the end, the answer probably will be the same person buying popcorn and soda
at theater concession stands -- the customer.
Copyright 1999 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
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