PROJECTX Digital Projection On the 15th January 2000, at the Glasgow Film Theatre, the UK's first-ever digital exhibition of a feature took place. The feature was our movie, One Life Stand, but unlike the fanfare that accompanied Toy Story 2, which screened digitally the following week, there were no full-page ads in the newspapers, just an enthusiastic reaction from the audience who frankly didn't give a toss about the technology; they came to watch the movie. Our screening was made possible thanks to Digital Projection Limited, a UK company formed ten years ago out of Rank Cintel and bought out by the Imax Corporation in 1999. Digital Projection was set up in collaboration with Texas Instruments to develop a range of super high quality digital projectors. The technology developed is radically different from conventional film or analogue video projectors. Known as DLP (Digital Light Processing) the system is based on the Digital Micromirror Device. There are now two categories of DLP projector. Those employing the earlier generations of DMD are widely available in a range of sizes and outputs from a large number of manufacturers to suit standard definition video projection. More importantly the latest development of DMD technology, known as the ‘black chip’, has been licensed to only three companies - Digital Projection, Barco, and Christie. This forms the basis for ‘DLP Cinema’, a more exacting set of hardware and software requirements developed within the film industry. The DMD is a silicon chip supporting over 500,000 individually adjustable reflective surfaces. These can be oriented to reflect more or less light which, when combined with RGB filters, mimic the behaviour of the pixels in digital video. For DLP cinema, the number of reflectors approaches 1 million, with the ‘black chip’ delivering contrast ratios in excess of 1000:1. As a result DLP Cinema projection systems offer resolution and brightness high enough to compete with film projectors, even in the largest venues. Whilst DLP Cinema is the most highly developed and prominent digital projection technology, with projectors very slowly being installed into cinemas on a commercial basis, it is already facing competition. Prototype or just plain hype? As early as 1996, Sony was one of the first companies to show a large-venue digital projection system, the DMD-based VPDS1800U. Since then, however, they have concentrated on more conventional transmissive LCD systems, such as their VPL-FE1000. Sony is now reported to be adopting Silicon Light Machine's ‘Grating Light Valve’, a so-called 'light scanner' using a laser as the light source. JVC is continuing to develop the D-ILA, a unique technology based on reflective liquid crystal. Principia Optics is developing a laser scanning system. All of these innovations, however, remain at the prototype stage and are not in commercial production. With Texas Instruments attempting to control the latest DMD technology by licensing it to only three companies, a number of competitors are challenging TI’s claims that only the black chip is suitable for cinema projection. Both Panasonic, with the PT-D9610U, and NEC, with the SX6000-DC - each based on the previous DMD chip - are claiming that, with their use of advanced proprietary software, projector output can be enhanced to the levels of DLP Cinema. Panasonic, in particular, have a particular incentive for pursuing projector technology. With their development of D5 digital tape, recently used to archive all of Miramax titles under two hours, they have the potential to offer an 'end-to-end' solution for digital camera to cinema screen. With so many competing products and standards, the picture can seem confusing. What's clear is that as the technology races ahead, the issue of digital cinema seems fraught with corporate rivalry, as companies jostle for position in the brave new world of electronic exhibition. The reason is obvious and can be summed
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PROJECTX up in one word – profit - and until the technology manufacturers, studios, distributors, exhibitors and industry standards bodies agree on common strategies and a way to carve up profits, in the short term, digital cinema will remain a novelty, confined in large part to trade show stands and one-off screenings. Movers, shakers and moneymakers So what advantage does digital projection – or 'digital cinema' - offer over existing systems? One obvious potential benefit is the elimination of print costs. The cost savings on print runs could be large, particularly on wide releases; it's been claimed that $5billion annually can be saved by not going to print. Any overwhelming advantage to the studios and distributors is questionable, however, given the much higher proportion that production and promotion costs represent. Whilst it's been mooted by Phil Barlow, executive vice president of Walt Disney Motion Picture Group, that 'those who benefit have to pay', there appears to be a climate of resistance to investment in digital cinema from other cost bearers, not least the exhibitors. With the US exhibition industry under pressure, many chains are unconvinced that digital cinema has advanced sufficiently to gamble on systems which may soon become obsolete. Similarly, smaller strappedfor-cash exhibitors are unable to invest; the cost of conversion is simply too onerous for most independent cinemas. The proposed 'financial donation' from studios to cinema-owners to equip theatres is also problematic, potentially compromising exhibitors by 'owning' the means of projection and by implication, what goes on screen. In a similar way, distributors are suspicious of the involvement of third party middlemen (3PMM) treading on their toes – the two most significant players being Kodak and Technicolor Digital Cinema, who have formed agreements with the manufacturers of digital cinema delivery systems that could potentially be offered to exhibitors on a 'pay per play' basis. As new technologies look set to transform the way movies are distributed, distributors may be justified in their concern because changes in digital cinema delivery systems have huge implications for revenue streams. Kodak and Technicolor Digital's 'end-to-end' models involve a process where films are transferred to a digital master, either as physical media or as data, then encoded/encrypted and compressed for transmission by satellite to either a central or local storage centre, then decrypted and decompressed for projection in cinemas. The overriding concern about this process is ensuring that piracy be prevented. Studios presently claim that very significant losses are incurred through piracy and these can only be expected to increase given the simplicity and reliability of digital copying. Technologies such as ‘digital watermarking’ will have to be well proven before any large scale implementation of digital transmission is deemed safe. Europa, Europa In Europe, amid this morass of conflicting positions, digital cinema has attracted the attention of companies, institutions and even governments looking to define what has come to be known as 'e-cinema' and to assess its impact on the film and broadcast industries. So far France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and the UK have demonstrated systems and methods for digital cinema. In fact, our own company, Elemental, participated in the recent DTI/DCMS-backed 'Celluloid or Silicon' roadshow, which was an attempt to disseminate information to a broad range of interest groups. The roadshow was supported by a group of technology companies including British Telecom, Quantel, Snell & Wilcox and Digital Projection. As a forum for debate, Celluloid or Silicon was a timely initiative. However its message was unclear. Any assertion that new revenue streams could evolve from e-cinema - derived from exhibiting non-film content, such as concert screenings and sports events - is purely speculative, reliant on agreements with broadcasters and content providers. Also, whether a market exists for what is essentially television writ large is doubtful. As one attendee commented, 'Why should I go and see a football match in a cinema when I can go to the pub – and watch it for free – and I can smoke and drink there?' Quite. Social engineering has a long way to go before e-cinema manufacturers can tempt paying audiences to watch big TV. Published in conjunction with Celluloid or Silicon, Screen Digest's report, 'Electronic Cinema: The Big Screen goes Digital', warns of a potential upset between the US and Europe, predicated on the protectionist
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PROJECTX policies of the former and its concern for the security of its product against the threat of increased piracy. The report suggests that e-cinema in Europe (as they prefer to call digital cinema - a cause for even more confusion) will be based more on tapping into fresh revenue streams by exploiting 'local' content, though the specifics of how this aim will be implemented appear sketchy, hinting at a coalition of governments, telecom and hardware companies. Typically, France perceives the US domination of e-cinema as 'technological imperialism' and, in a similar move to the UK and Sweden, has set up government groups to determine the impact of digital cinema on indigenous companies and talent. Potentially more viable is the deployment of e-cinema in screen advertising, of which a major rollout is planned in Germany, where the e-cinema consortium CECIS, headed by Ufa-Kinowerbung, is said to be installing 500 digital projectors dedicated to screen commercials. It has been reported that in the next year, one major German media group will invest in the digital refit of 1600 theatres at a spend of DM100m (£52m). While it's been estimated that full implementation of e-cinema will result in a £250m increase annually in cinema advertising revenue, the viability of this proposed investment rests on the uptake by advertisers, the exhibitors and the tolerance of the paying public, who may endure – but not appreciate - an increase in the level of advertising at the front of a movie. The question remains – who is positioned to take competitive advantage of these new systems? Certainly not UK production and distribution companies, whose output medium will continue to be film, at least in the short and medium-term. Barco has estimated that by 2003, 1000 screens in the US will be digital, while Kodak predicts that by 2005, digital penetration of first-run cinema screens will be 5000 out of an expected 125,000 worldwide. But forecasts are not certainties and, assuming these targets are achieved, the volume of digitally equipped venues will still be low. It could well take a decade or more before e-cinema stabilises to have any meaningful impact on exhibition.
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