From the monthly archives:

March 2011

Executive Summary

March 2011

  • The independent market in Australia faces a messy situation as VPF deals are contested in court by commercial operators.
  • DCDC is back, and we’re left to wonder why.
  • Cameron upstages Showscan with 60fps 3-D.
  • “Hops” jumped into closed caption interoperability issues.
  • NIST/FIPS update points to how studio behavior for security will differ from government behavior.
  • Sony and Dolby bring good news to CinemaCon.
  • Digital Funding Partners announces deal with XDC.
  • Bud Mayo launches new digital cinema chain.
Print This Article Print This Article

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Independently Upset Down Under

March 2011

As the saying goes, “good ideas are a dime a dozen.”  The theme has played out in countless circles, most recently amplified by the story surrounding the founding of Facebook, where Zuckerberg successfully executed an idea that supposedly originated with the Winklevoss twins.  The moral of the story:  execution is everything.
Over the past year, a [...]

Read the full article →

DCDC Is Back. But Why?

March 2011

Perhaps one of the odder developments during CinemaCon this month was the announcement by Digital Cinema Distribution Coalition (DCDC) that it is once again in business.  DCDC is a joint venture of Warner and DCIP.  (One is left to wonder if this industry can ever get beyond names beginning with DC?)  While the announcement was [...]

Read the full article →

Cameron, Showscan, and 3-D

March 2011

Like an old Beatle’s tune re-recorded by a new artist, it can be hard to convince a younger generation that a seemingly new brilliant idea is really an old one in disguise. Jim Cameron’s magic trick at CinemaCon was to show 48 and 60 frame-per-second content to convention attendees, following in the footsteps of the [...]

Read the full article →

“Hop” and Closed Captions

March 2011

ISDCF has been active in testing the SMPTE DCP distribution format, both the packaging of compositions and its playback in systems.  With interoperability established with picture and sound, a major focus of testing has been subtitles and captions, both open and closed.  No testing of Interop DCP has taken place, as the format already benefits [...]

Read the full article →

NIST/FIPS News

March 2011

NIST imposes a few challenges to digital cinema as its security requirements migrate to more stringent standards. One of these challenges is with the multiuse of the media block certificate for both digital signatures and decryption of security keys contained in KDMs.  But this problem has been solved, at least conceptually.  (See last month’s report [...]

Read the full article →

Sony, Dolby, and 4K

March 2011

Perhaps the most surprising news of March is that two 4K servers and projectors manufactured by Sony Electronics passed DCI Compliance testing and are now listed as compliant on the DCI website.  The surprising part is not that Sony equipment complied at all, but that the equipment comprises the first complete digital cinema system to [...]

Read the full article →

Other News

March 2011

Digital Funding Partnership (DFP), the UK entity formed to provide VPF financing of digital projectors for independent exhibitors in UK and Ireland, announced that it has contracted with XDC to provide funding and systems.  DFP is led by former UK Film Council exec Steve Perrin.  DFP differs substantially from the US-based CBG in that it [...]

Read the full article →