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This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
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Author
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Topic: News item: UK pioneers digital film network
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David Buckley
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 525
From: Oxford, N. Canterbury, New Zealand
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted 02-26-2005 03:19 AM
Theres some good spin (and to be honest, ![[bs]](graemlins/bs.gif) ), and its only 2K, but it got the BBC excited...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4297865.stm
The world's first digital cinema network will be established in the UK over the next 18 months.
The UK Film Council has awarded a £11.5m contract to Arts Alliance Digital Cinema (AADC), who will set up the network of up to 250 screens.
AADC will oversee the selection of cinemas across the UK which will use the digital equipment.
High definition projectors and computer servers will be installed to show mainly British and specialist films.
Most cinemas currently have mechanical projectors but the new network will see up to 250 screens in up to 150 cinemas fitted with digital projectors capable of displaying high definition images.
The new network will double the world's total of digital screens.
Cinemas will be given the film on a portable hard drive and they will then copy the content to a computer server.
Visually lossless
Each film is about 100 gigabytes and has been compressed from an original one terabyte-size file.
Fiona Deans, associate director of AADC, said the compression was visually lossless so no picture degradation will occur.
The film will all be encrypted to prevent piracy and each cinema will have an individual key which will unlock the movie.
"People will see the picture quality is a bit clearer with no scratches.
"The picture will look exactly the same as when the print was first made - there is no degradation in quality over time."
Key benefit
The key benefit of the digital network will be an increase in the distribution and screening of British films, documentaries and foreign language films.
"Access to specialised film is currently restricted across the UK," said Pete Buckingham, head of Distribution and Exhibition at the UK Film Council.
"Although a genuine variety of films is available in central London and a few other metropolitan areas, the choice for many outside these areas remains limited, and the Digital Screen Network will improve access for audiences across the UK,"
Digital prints costs less than a traditional 35mm print - giving distributors more flexibility in how they screen films, said Ms Deans.
"It can cost up to £1,500 to make a copy of a print for specialist films. "In the digital world you can make prints for considerably less than that.
"Distributors can then send out prints to more cinemas and prints can stay in cinemas for much longer."
The UK digital network will be the first to employ 2k projectors - which are capable of showing films at resolutions of 2048 * 1080 pixels.
A separate comeptitive process to determine which cinemas will receive the digital screening technology will conclude in May.
The sheer cost of traditional prints means that some cinemas need to show them twice a day in order to recoup costs.
"Some films need word of month and time to build momentum - they don't need to be shown twice a day," explained Ms Deans.
"A cinema will often book a 35mm print in for two weeks - even if the film is a roaring success they cannot hold on to the print because it will have to go to antother cinema.
"With digital prints, every cinema will have its own copy."
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 02-27-2005 05:25 AM
Moore's Law has moved us on a little bit since the last time we had this discussion, but I'm still not 100% convinced that the sums add up as yet. Even though it's nearly three years old the underlying arguments in the Huske Report (link posted by David above) still basically hold.
quote: Scott Norwood
3. Are they just funding the initial installation, or will there be additional funding for ongoing support, maintenance, and upgrades? [...] Perhaps it would be a lot cheaper for the British exhibtion industry to hire people who know how to operate the "mechanical" projectors and who don't scratch film, than it is to install new equipement.
Agreed. And I do wonder if they have really factored in the cost of scanning (from film originals) or transcoding (from 24pHD originals) for release. I recently paid £4k to have 632 feet of 16mm Dufaycolor scanned at 2k resoultion (and another £1.5k for a 35mm interneg and digibeta made from the scan). Consider the cost of getting a 35mm feature scanned (someone who works for a small distributor recently quoted the figure of $10k for a 5,500 foot silent - more than three times what his normal print inventory would cost). An arthouse distributor like the BFI or Artificial Eye simply won't be able to afford that. And as for us archivists, we're buggered. We might as well put all our 16mm and 35mm viewing copies in the skip right now - once this scheme takes hold theatrical audiences will be lucky if they get to see the stuff we've preserved in digibeta.
Even if you accept the principle whereby digital HD projection could be an effective way of increasing audiences for or the quality of non-mainstream product, I still think that FCUK (as it's known to its friends!) has jumped way too early. If, for example, the Sony 4K system achieves a significant market saturation for mainstream stuff within the next 2-3 years then arthouse exhibitors will be stuck with an inferior product and a very restricted inventory of titles that can be shown on it. My big fear is that when this all shakes out, most screenings in reality will be from a lo-res 525 or 625-line source - probably DVDs. Attendances at these theatres will fall, because the mainstream theatres will have vastly superior projection which even technically illiterate customers will recognise as such, and UKFC will have blown a huge chunk of taxpayers' cash.
BTW, interesting that the stock photo in the BBC's story was last used to illustrate one about the opening night of the last Star Wars film... ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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