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Wrapping Up Our Thoughts On CinemaCon 2016

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Participating in this impromptu conversation are (in alphabetical order):

Charles ‘CJ’ Flynn – Executive Director, DigitalTestTools
James Gardiner – Technical Director, DigitAll and Founder CineTechGeek
J. Sperling Reich – Executive Editor, Celluloid Junkie
Patrick von Sychwoski – Editor, Celluloid Junkie
Mark Waldman – Cinema Technology Specialist

J. Sperling Reich: I know we each have our areas of focus while at a show like CinemaCon and NAB. I, for instance, attend the studio presentations to know what titles will be hitting theatres over the next ten months, whereas I realize not everybody who attends the show does that. Even so, what were your takeaways from this year’s conventions.

CJ Flynn: My three takeaways from this year’s CinemaCon/SMPTE/NAB fortnight was Barco’s apparent runaway commoditization of the laser driven projector, the vibe that Event Cinema finally has eroded the barriers that have kept it at bay and finally, that subtle things can trump exquisite nuance. By that I mean, for example, the SMPTE HDR demos will be remembered for the odd circumstance that that ceiling lights – there to subtly wash the walk paths in the dark – were tied together with the adjoining theaters so that they couldn’t be turned off. They didn’t blind you, but you knew they were always in your peripheral field there and they were always there disrupting the contrast. Just like during the next day’s panel, when questions were asked to better define HDR and the moderator always twisted them to what turned into a Dolby commercial instead of saying the obvious – “We don’t know whether 6000:1 (Barco) or 8000:1 (Sony) or 1,000,000:1 (Dolby) meets the requirements, except we know that we can’t get around the seeming constants of glaring disruptions of exit lights or odd port windows or clever floor washes”.

J. Sperling Reich: So that’s a perfect example of what I was referring to. I know you CJ spent a lot of time looking at the technology being presented at this year’s shows. Patrick I know you on the other hand, like me spent a lot of time during CinemaCon in the Coliseum watching the studios sales pitches. What did you think?

Patrick von Sychowski: It was interesting to hear every celebrity go up on stage and say that there is nothing like the big screen experience, “in YOUR theatres.” None of them mentioned the Screening Room, but it was the elephant in the conference room for the whole show. So a proposed technology for the home – which at the moment does not have the FULL support of ANY studio or exhibitor (AMC apparenty has a LOI, but that’s all) – sucked the oxygen out of pretty much all other technical discussions. Does it mean that we have reached a technical plateau in cinema and that higher dynamic range et al is not as exciting as the promise of yet another home platform, this one contingent on collapsing the day-and-date window? My personal wish is that there had been more time devoted to discussing big data, audience analytics and insights. This too me is the true next frontier of Digital Cinema 2.0 – the Cloud.

But further to your point about the house lights, CJ, I wish that someone had stood up and said, “The cinema is the best possible movie experience, but don’t neglect to clean your toilets. Or replace your dim projector bulbs. Or shield the screen from the EXIT and house lights”. The existing digital cinema installations could be made so much better in most cinemas if only cinema owners exhibited it to its best potential. We don’t actually need HDR to have a better cinema experience if exhibitors did the best with what is already there. The best thing about a Dolby Cinema, is that they have taken care to optimise everything, not just the dynamic range, but the seating, the ambient light, the sound in the auditorium it’s in.

J. Sperling Reich: It’s kind of like the difference between going to someone’s home and they have a great stereo system and they haven’t calibrated the speakers or audio levels in the slightest. You look at all the expensive equipment and think, “Boy that music could really sound better, if they just tweaked the treble a bit”.

James Gardiner: I must admit, after reading all this and looking at it from a pragmatic point of view – I get the feeling the studios are looking into the fact that with HDR consumer electronics displays looking so good, and a large portion of the population not able to get to the cinema, etc. They may be playing with the idea that bypassing cinema in some regions with day and date release on these new technologies may be worthwhile. The emissive displays just look sooooo good, even compared to Dolby Cinema. The 108nit peek luminance looks great and is as good as I have ever seen cinema but…. Yes, the lack of leadership on HDR for cinema is getting extreme. I get the feeling they wanted to ignore it and just stagger forward. But I don’t feel they can in this environment.

J. Sperling Reich: I don’t know if I agree whether the studios are in such as release to completely collapse the theatrical release window. It earns nearly $40 billion in revenue per year, not all of which would be made up by releasing films directly into the home.

CJ Flynn: I suppose it is partly a presumption that there is a ‘they’ out there and that they really have time to explore and develop options, when it is probable that they are just reacting to options as they cross into potential viability. There are so many companies which are really just small, overwhelmed business units fighting for some share of the corporate pie to simultaneously develop something good/better/great and also react to their competitors as they throw products over the convention or business model transom.

But I marveled at how J.J. Abrams stood up in front of all those exhibitors and kept talking about investigating new technology and being willing to accept change…in his full Showman of the Year glory (…and I say that with the deepest respect for his many talents) walking as close to the line and almost crossing it by saying that we have to keep looking at new things and advancing and…just when I think that he is going to use the words “Screen Room”, he wraps everyone in the room into a giant moment with the words…you have the full quote, don’t you Patrick?

Patrick von Sychowski: Yes; he said, “Much has been said of other technologies that threaten the theater experience — and of course I am no expert, and I’m open to all points of view and good ideas to keep theaters thriving — but we need to do everything we can in this age of piracy, digital technology and disruption to be thoughtful partners in the evolution of this medium. We have to adapt. It’s going to be required of all of us. We need to meet that challenge with excitement, and create solutions — not fear.”

J. Sperling Reich: I think J.J. Abrams may have been the only member of the industry to talk at all positively about Screening Room at CinemaCon this year, at least publicly. Everyone else seemed to speak out against the whole idea in one form or another. Many exhibitors seemed to be down on 3D too, and yet the companies in the space seem to be continuing to innovate, or at least try to, from what I can see.

CJ Flynn: Yes, I agree. In fact I am going to try to spend some time with Pete Ludé at RealD and Richard Mitchell at Harkness to figure out what I am missing about high gain and aluminum-ized screens. It is obvious that the new RealD technology is beyond impressive, but I can’t get around the fact that a white line going from left to right will be one color …seemingly white…at one section and will be several shades towards black at another. It is supposed to be no less than 10 or 15% of 90% off center white at the extremes, no more. People in the future will think of our pictures the same way we do of sepia with vignetting portraits from the past. To me, that violates standards that are meant to protect us all. As an exhibitor, everyone has an even playing field…either we tell our customer, “This auditorium shows a picture that is within the standard”, or we say, “This picture is several shades off but we’re trying to fool your visual system anyway with 3D”, we may as well try to fool you into thinking that the green over there is the same as what the director thought it would be presented at…even though it ain’t…and even though this is a 2D film.”

Barco went to a great deal of trouble to get some incredibly beautiful ARRI demo material for their Flagship 6P system, and looking in the center from my middle position you got great views of the forest greens and deep contrast, but a third of the picture to the left and a third to the right were darker green and had less contrast because of the vignetting of the high gain silver screen. This is the same for Christie and for any 6P system – are we being fooled by these 60,000 lumens numbers? Are they really not grand enough to light up these palaces without a high gain screen? What I really don’t get is that if the AMC chain isn’t going to show 3D in the Dolby Cinema rooms, why not have a clean low gain matte screen. The same goes for the two 6P rooms at LA Live; give my eyes a white screen. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a DolbyVision and Atmos and Barco fanboy, but we’re supposed to be serving the art and slaves to the standards.

I can possibly be convinced that for 3D there is a reason for being underpowered and use 10-bit color, but why is a 2D image allowed to be so destroyed? I don’t mean to be picking on Barco or Dolby, or Harkness or RealD, or any of the others since this is the way of the world, except in France. It’s just that the new DCI pronouncements are a Recommended Practice, and go a giant step toward guidance, but there is a logical step missing.

James Gardiner: I agree, you would expect the use of these 6P laser projectors would mean they could move away from high gain screens and the problems that they bring. Maybe it is a misunderstanding and the “not thinking” with installers going with what they typically need for such large screens. I have seen amazing pictures with laser, but then again they have been in model installations that didn’t represent the real world.

Pragmatically CJ, I understand you have all these issues in terms of what is being done with silver screens and how it falls outside of what is SMPTE spec in many situations. But a picture on screen and lack of care to these standards are not unexpected due to the limitations of 3D. I’m far more in favour in moving away from silver 3D in general, apart from what is possible with colour differential or what people like to call Dolby 3D.

J. Sperling Reich: I didn’t get a chance to go this year, but did any of you get a chance to see the Barco Escape demo?

Mark Waldman: Just as with 3D, the Escape format can truly be amazing, if content is created by the right director that knows how to use this new tool. I assume that many people will expect that action movies would work best on this format, but I believe that alternative content can also work, especially after seeing previews of a Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett concert in the main square in Brussels.

J. Sperling Reich: Well given the overall direction this conversation has headed, I’m going to assume you were all, unlike myself, at the high frame rate, high dynamic range demo Ang Lee gave at NAB. I think it was 4K, 3D at 120 frames per second and caused quite a stir. Now I wish I had been there to witness it because I don’t know if it is even possible to project the demo again. At least not in the near future. No cinema is capable of playing the content that way.

 

Filmmaker Ang Lee at the 2016 NAB Show’s Future of Cinema Conference in Las Vegas. (Photo: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage/Getty Images)
Filmmaker Ang Lee at the 2016 NAB Show’s Future of Cinema Conference in Las Vegas. (Photo: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage/Getty Images)

 

CJ Flynn: Ang Lee was funny. He broke the 4th wall by telling us that often he’ll just go silent to let others presume he is stoically thinking so that they’ll figure out a solution to some problem or take on more than they’ve offered in the case of a manufacturer who has to commit to some back-breaking need. I don’t know if it is true what he said, that they want to take on the back breaking work and wouldn’t do it if they didn’t want to. It reminds me of the trope about James Cameron, who supposedly said that he didn’t do his job as a director if he didn’t put at least one post house out of business during the making of a movie. Having been a manufacturer in that position, it is a trap to have such an honor. It is great when you pull off the impossible, but letting go of employees…not so much.

Patrick von Sychowski: Let’s not forget that VFX artists were furious with Ang Lee for forgetting to thank them in his “Life of Pi” Best Director acceptance speech – prompting one to post a picture of Ang Lee with his Oscar Photoshopped out [see below]. Not long after the VFX house that worked on “Life of Pi”, Rhythm & Hues, did go out of business, so Ang Lee is obviously a visionary and busness match for Cameron!

 

Ang Lee Oscar – with and without VFX (photo: source unknown)
Ang Lee Oscar – with and without VFX (photo: source unknown)

 

But looking at the quality of what we saw in the “Billy Lynn…” demo, there was no question that what we saw was the birth of something new and wondrous. I call it end-to-end reality on the big screen. I’m not saying that Ang Lee will get it 100% right, because who managed to get sound or colour completely right on the first film it was used? But he has opened a new chapter.

What impressed me equally was the humility with which he approached this new cinematic language. Trumbull’s “UFOtog” impressed, but it takes a visionary artist like Ang Lee to find a compelling story to tell with it. And you’re correct Sperling, the only shame is that there are right now zero cinemas in the world that can display the film the way we saw it. How many more will there be by the time the film premieres?

James Gardiner: My biggest take away from the Ang Lee demo is that Ang is a far better showman than all that have preceded him in terms of turning up the technology and image quality. Ang is right – we are fighting a perception of what people are comfortable with, and when it is simply an image on the screen with little emotional impact, the critique is always negative. All they see is “difference” and not better. Change is BAD in general when no perceived benefit is seen. Ang was clever enough and talented enough to make the demo not only about the better technology but about how to use the better technology as a tool in the creation of the art form used.

The real test would have been to see it again in the 2K 3D 60 frames per second that most DCI projectors are possibly capable of and see if it had the same impact. That would be very telling in terms of what is creating the buzz. The super high quality itself, or the combination of the two; art form used correctly with new, cutting edge technology.

Mark Waldman: When the clip of “Billy Lynn” appeared on the screen, all I could say was “WOW!”. It really is amazing but just like 3D and Barco Escape, I agree with what everyone has said – the right director will be needed in order to properly exploit this format.

J. Sperling Reich: Well since we seem to be sticking with technology, rather than talking about which of the trailers for upcoming films we liked, one thing I noticed at CinemaCon this year was a new wave of software for theatre owners. It’s as if the industry got the technical aspects of digital cinema down and now they are going to see how technology can improve their marketing and operations.

CJ Flynn: I must admit to being baffled by all the nuance in the software available for the exhibitor between booking all the way through to the TMS. There must have been 20 companies at CinemaCon showing their wares. I’m going to have to build a matrix and a system flowchart and a few Venn diagrams to get it all straight.

I’m also glad someone had a presentation concerning the hard of hearing and visually impaired, you know deaf and blind community problems. The solutions available are a few years old now and need a revisit to see if they meet the task. I saw the Sennheiser system in their booth and would like to see how customers meet the challenge of mounting the iPhone solution it uses. Somehow Sennheiser seems to think they don’t need to answer that question, just leave it up to the user. How will seat neighbors deal with the extra light in the room? The Dolby/Doremi and USL systems try to inhibit light pollution but I still receive stories of how the necks on the drink-cup holders they use eventually get weak. And that’s are lady a marginal solution given that the user has to focus on the screen, then focus on the words then focus on the screen and keep flipping back and forth. Note to self: check out a cinema with the Sony glasses and see if they are still as cool as they seemed when they were released. It was interesting to hear that Hawaii has mandated several open caption viewings for all movies. Patrick, does Celluloid Junkie have budget to send me to Hawaii to see how that is going?

Patrick von Sychowski: I’m assuming you’d want to fly rather than row to Hawaii? But seriously, it is encouraging that individual states and cinema chains are taking a lead on the issues of access. Too often we forget the technical advances that digital cinema enables for most viewers are incremental quality improvements, so to certain groups of people, they make all the difference between ever being able to enjoy a film in the cinema or being disenfranchised from it. But there is definitely unfinished work to be done here in Digital Cinema 1.0 before we jump to 2.0 HDR, 120 fps and so on. With populations in developing economies aging rapidly (heck, even in China this will soon be an issue), maybe the greatest technological advance will be the ability to bump up subtitles to 1.5x their normal size. I’m not saying we don’t need further advances in many areas of cinema, but let’s not leave important tasks half-finished in the technologies that have just come on line.

J. Sperling Reich: So like large type books for senior citizens, you’re suggesting large type subtitles. Actually, though I said this to be funny originally, it might make sense.

 

AuroMax Earplugs from CinemaCon 2016
AuroMax Earplugs from CinemaCon 2016

 

CJ Flynn: Before we completely wrap up our thinking on this year’s CinemaCon, I don’t want to forget to nominate the AuroMax earplugs as the Swag of the Show, just for its cleverness. It also puts forth more proof that this is the era of subtleness, the time after the heavy lifting. AuroMax is the concept of an object oriented Auro system, which was presented several years ago as a coming tool at the SMPTE/NAB Future of Cinema Weekend. Then, 18 months ago, Barco got the assets of Iosonno to incorporate into what they are now calling AuroMax. They are “showing” this technology but saying it is not available until the standards are set at SMPTE later this year.

Come to think of it, the second generation of digital cinema technology is taking a lot longer than the originators anticipated. RealD, for instance, presented the well worked out technologies of their new screen technologies in SMPTE papers in 2012, and released the embossed versions a couple years later, which is what MiT and Harkness have available. But the new technology that they showed at CinemaCon this year took until now to productize. Laser technology is similar, taking nearly a decade before finally blossoming this year … and even that is only from Barco. They’ve finally got what they call the Flagship in dozens of facilities and are finally able to give a price for retrofitting.

Mark Waldman: Well if we’re wrapping up I want to go back to one of your initial points CJ. You said that event cinema, or alternative content may finally be finding some success. I think that the experience of watching theatre, opera, ballet and concerts in the cinema, is really special because they are directed just like a movie. You can really see the details in the scenery, the costumes, primary as well as secondary actors. Because of this, I actually think that it is a better experience to watch alternative content in the cinema than in the actual theater, excluding the fact that venue for a live performance is usually quite beautiful and historic. Unfortunately, and here’s where we may have differing opinions, many cinema goers just don’t know that this programming is available in the cinemas. And many cinemas don’t seem to understand how to market alternative content properly to reach a new type of audience for the “cinema”.

Patrick von Sychowski: Hey, how come I didn’t get an AuroMax earplugs?! Forget the Screening Room and 120fps – swag is what these trade shows are ultimately about, aren’t they?

Acquisition

The death of film need not be the death of the cinema.

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So begins Harry Mathias’ latest book, The Death & Rebirth of Cinema: MASTERING THE ART OF CINEMATOGRAPHY IN THE DIGITAL CINEMA AGE. Here is the link at Amazon.com: Harry Mathias, but once you get to Amazon you can do the google thing and find other less monolithic places to buy from. 

Many universities are using this book, from UCLA and USC, to Baylor and the facility he teaches at, San Jose State University. Graciously transmit and extremely knowledgeable are the first two thoughts that get attributed to Harry. It’s great to see the respect that his forth book is getting.

Side note: Speaking of training, I can’t get enough of FilmmakerIQ.com – everything on the site is well researched and interesting. I’m sure Harry won’t mind your putting his book down for a few minutes between chapters to enjoy a video or two.

Acquisition

The death of film need not be the death of the cinema.

Leave a comment

So begins Harry Mathias’ latest book, The Death & Rebirth of Cinema: MASTERING THE ART OF CINEMATOGRAPHY IN THE DIGITAL CINEMA AGE. Here is the link at Amazon.com: Harry Mathias, but once you get to Amazon you can do the google thing and find other less monolithic places to buy from. 

Many universities are using this book, from UCLA and USC, to Baylor and the facility he teaches at, San Jose State University. Graciously transmit and extremely knowledgeable are the first two thoughts that get attributed to Harry. It’s great to see the respect that his forth book is getting.

Side note: Speaking of training, I can’t get enough of FilmmakerIQ.com – everything on the site is well researched and interesting. I’m sure Harry won’t mind your putting his book down for a few minutes between chapters to enjoy a video or two.

White Papers Post

Technicolor Starting On the Long Glossary Road

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Back in the late 80’s the digital transition grabbing the attention of engineers was in the broadcast business…no, in the post-production equipment business…no, it was in the potential of both…actually, memory was still expensive and processing power was still locked by unreleased new versions of the Motorola 68000 and other chips which drove everyone’s imagination with expectations of clever glued matrixes of parallel’d A/V ideas…most all failed as the latest versions didn’t arrive until too late – well, not too late for those companies who bought the dreamer companies for pennies on the dollar.

Notwithstanding that tangent, it was interesting times with new names and acronyms and uses for ideas – and the clever folks at Quantel issued their first industry glossary. It got better and better with each edition. The latest is the 20th Edition, released in 2015…and available at this link: Quantel Digital Factbook

There are plenty of other Glossaries at the DCinemaTools Glossary page.

Technicolor has started on the road to a new glossary named the Next Gen Premium Entertainment Experiences, which sounds like something that should be given out by the Event Cinema Association. Instead, it is pages of explanations of better bits. Click on the title.

White Papers Post

Technicolor Starting On the Long Glossary Road

Leave a comment

Back in the late 80’s the digital transition grabbing the attention of engineers was in the broadcast business…no, in the post-production equipment business…no, it was in the potential of both…actually, memory was still expensive and processing power was still locked by unreleased new versions of the Motorola 68000 and other chips which drove everyone’s imagination with expectations of clever glued matrixes of parallel’d A/V ideas…most all failed as the latest versions didn’t arrive until too late – well, not too late for those companies who bought the dreamer companies for pennies on the dollar.

Notwithstanding that tangent, it was interesting times with new names and acronyms and uses for ideas – and the clever folks at Quantel issued their first industry glossary. It got better and better with each edition. The latest is the 20th Edition, released in 2015…and available at this link: Quantel Digital Factbook

There are plenty of other Glossaries at the DCinemaTools Glossary page.

Technicolor has started on the road to a new glossary named the Next Gen Premium Entertainment Experiences, which sounds like something that should be given out by the Event Cinema Association. Instead, it is pages of explanations of better bits. Click on the title.

Consultants

Another Future of Film

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The panel of experts didn’t always merely show the warm and fuzzy side of the matters that Marty Shindler wondrously navigated them through. Under the ‘never-a-dull-moment’ microscope were the very real effects of consolidation, Alternative Content and Event Cinema, the impact and need for tentpole movies examined for every market, technology that ranged from plush chairs to lasers, woven with the continuing aspects of 3D, and how new entries will or won’t be making headway into established business (mostly, won’t).

During the days when the Studios got their hands slapped for too much integration, “Exhibition” entirely meant movie theaters. As a few studios then owned the lion’s share of production facilities and theaters they were also able to control the artists and financing and everything else involved. Since those court cases of the 1940s – 75 years ago, eh? – there has been a lot of care so this would never happen again. With only a few examples to the contrary, studios are quite divested from theaters.

That can’t be said, of course, for the other means of distribution. Last week’s Comcast bid to purchase DreamWorks Animation put the spotlight on their ownership of another animation studio Illumination Entertainment (known for launching the Despicable Me franchise), …and oh, by the way, Universal Studios and the two TV studios on their Universal City lot, Univision and NBC, and the theme park on top of the hill named Universal Studios Hollywood (“The Entertainment Capital of L.A.”). Comcast was prevented from a hostile takeover of Disney in 2004 and a friendly takeover of Time-Warner Cable by the FCC last year because of the amount of distribution they already had and would have. They still control 20% of the US links into homes. (For comparison, in today’s news Charter Communications was allowed by the FCC to take over Time-Warner Cable, giving them a 22% broadband marketshare.) But, to the letter of the law, no theaters.

Of course, this is not peculiar to them. Disney and Sony and Fox and Warner Bros are similarly vested in many of the same ways. Without a representative on stage, it was still their health, driven by their tentpole movies, that the symposium centered upon. On the contrary, theater owners Regal and AMC own Open Road Films, which produced last year’s Academy Award Best Picture and  Best Original Screenplay winner, Spotlight. And AMC’s owner Wanda has purchased the film finance/production group, Legendary Entertainment, which helped finance blockbuster hits such as The Dark Knight, Inception and Straight Outta Compton, among others.

Likewise on the dais, represented and pointed out by AMC’s President of Programming, Bob Lenihan, the theater chains are no slouches with joint partnerships among the other largest chains of new entertainment product (movies, essentially, though not entirely) and advertising and ticketing companies…and distribution. The largest satellite distribution company, DCDC, is owned by AMC Theatres, Cinemark Theatres, Regal Entertainment Group, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. which put movies onto 58% of US screens last year, plus several dozen “special events” including 5 live events.

The arc of Other Digital Stuff getting into cinema theaters has been a slow and haphazard one, filled with the promise of bringing the cinema’s unique social atmosphere to the entire range of high-profile events such as sports and opera, delivering both large productions world-wide and local content to distant diaspora. Several companies bet that they could break even installing equipment and use that installed base as a platform for a distribution empire of alternative content and special events. Several big companies lost big-time on that bet, starting with a spin-off of the giant broadcast manufacturing group EVS, whose large investments (among others) into dcinex was absorbed with little fanfare into Ymagis last year, and the earliest obvious success that has also morphed several times without attaining the traction that potential and bright ideas (and a lot of hard work and investment) promised, Cinedigm, né Access IT.

The dream and promise of low-cost distribution to the cinema (no need to make and fly prints all over the world) and easy programming flexibility at the cinema (Theater Management tools that decrease the team head-count at every point of the chain from the studio to the nonexistent projectionist), became a topic that flew by. “How does a small production get into the big cinema chains, in an era when new ‘studios’ such as Amazon are making their play.” With a large bit of the oxygen leaving the room, the panelist answered, “They don’t.” When another panelist tried to put a positive spin on a different small production’s attempt as having “so-so” results, he re-gained the audience’s sympathy by saying, “We would have killed for ‘so-so’.

That’s when it becomes obvious that each sector that looks like a giant monolith worthy of the Justice Departments scrutiny and other segments enmity, each are still an agglomeration of small entities trying to make their mark. Dolby, represented by the same Doug Darrow who steered the choppy waters of Texas Iinstrument’s digital cinema efforts when the path was obvious but no roads or bridges built, let us know that their successful Atmos system, by far the leader in immersive sound from artist viewpoint to installed base and customer respect, has 1,400 installations.

Given that it is still early days since the system’s release at CinemaCon four years ago, it is still a small number compared to the total number of screens that is approaching one hundred times that many. SMPTE arranged with AMC and Dolby a special set of High Dynamic Range (HDR) presentations after CinemaCon and before NAB that showed off the latest iteration of Dolby Vision at AMC Prime. That still boutique set of technologies known as DolbyVision (Dolby Million-to-One Contrast, High Brightness Laser Technology with comfortable chairs among other highlights) is still only two orders of magnitude smaller after a year of installations worldwide. …hardly a monolith compared to the 800 screen boutique of IMAX.

Dolby sits at the table with a market cap of USD$4.5 billion, IMAX, represented by the recently feted Phil Groves (SVP and EVP of International Distribution) sits at USD$2.25 billion. AMC at USD$2.8 billion, though purchased last year by the Wanda Group, a former property management group with a market cap of USD$30 billion, USD$18 billion of that now generally accepted to be the value of the Wanda Cinema Line…though only a billion of which comes from the 2,000 screens it has throughout China.

Duncan Stewart, Director of Research; Technology, Media and Telecommunications for Deloitte flew in from Toronto. Deloitte is a private firm, with a market cap valued at far over USD$100 billion, and famous for their CEO’s prediction of adding nearly 20,000 net jobs this year. Chris started out the quip-fest, with remarks that showed that a company in its position doesn’t have to cater to anyone – unlike your author who has to make nice with everyone since they all might be a customer or boss someday.

Rounding off the table, Chris Edwards who represents two private companies, The Third Floor (specializing in big-budget movie previz) and The Virtual Reality Company (specializing in the burgeoning VR creation world), who probably measures well financially though would rather talk in the value of helping develop the artists intent, some type of a pixels per idea quotient.

So, when exhibition is discussed, it means Virtual Reality and its twin AR, as well as all the streams of better pixels; high definition, wider gamut, high frame rate and lasers and immersive sound and plenty more.

Our future tech discussions will focus upon the different strategies that are developing, from the expansion of the boutique model that Dolby is implementing with their new product lines, through to Barco’s re-applying their magic to take the majority of the projector market, this time with LasersInside.

Consultants

Another Future of Film

Leave a comment

The panel of experts didn’t always merely show the warm and fuzzy side of the matters that Marty Shindler wondrously navigated them through. Under the ‘never-a-dull-moment’ microscope were the very real effects of consolidation, Alternative Content and Event Cinema, the impact and need for tentpole movies examined for every market, technology that ranged from plush chairs to lasers, woven with the continuing aspects of 3D, and how new entries will or won’t be making headway into established business (mostly, won’t).

During the days when the Studios got their hands slapped for too much integration, “Exhibition” entirely meant movie theaters. As a few studios then owned the lion’s share of production facilities and theaters they were also able to control the artists and financing and everything else involved. Since those court cases of the 1940s – 75 years ago, eh? – there has been a lot of care so this would never happen again. With only a few examples to the contrary, studios are quite divested from theaters.

That can’t be said, of course, for the other means of distribution. Last week’s Comcast bid to purchase DreamWorks Animation put the spotlight on their ownership of another animation studio Illumination Entertainment (known for launching the Despicable Me franchise), …and oh, by the way, Universal Studios and the two TV studios on their Universal City lot, Univision and NBC, and the theme park on top of the hill named Universal Studios Hollywood (“The Entertainment Capital of L.A.”). Comcast was prevented from a hostile takeover of Disney in 2004 and a friendly takeover of Time-Warner Cable by the FCC last year because of the amount of distribution they already had and would have. They still control 20% of the US links into homes. (For comparison, in today’s news Charter Communications was allowed by the FCC to take over Time-Warner Cable, giving them a 22% broadband marketshare.) But, to the letter of the law, no theaters.

Of course, this is not peculiar to them. Disney and Sony and Fox and Warner Bros are similarly vested in many of the same ways. Without a representative on stage, it was still their health, driven by their tentpole movies, that the symposium centered upon. On the contrary, theater owners Regal and AMC own Open Road Films, which produced last year’s Academy Award Best Picture and  Best Original Screenplay winner, Spotlight. And AMC’s owner Wanda has purchased the film finance/production group, Legendary Entertainment, which helped finance blockbuster hits such as The Dark Knight, Inception and Straight Outta Compton, among others.

Likewise on the dais, represented and pointed out by AMC’s President of Programming, Bob Lenihan, the theater chains are no slouches with joint partnerships among the other largest chains of new entertainment product (movies, essentially, though not entirely) and advertising and ticketing companies…and distribution. The largest satellite distribution company, DCDC, is owned by AMC Theatres, Cinemark Theatres, Regal Entertainment Group, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. which put movies onto 58% of US screens last year, plus several dozen “special events” including 5 live events.

The arc of Other Digital Stuff getting into cinema theaters has been a slow and haphazard one, filled with the promise of bringing the cinema’s unique social atmosphere to the entire range of high-profile events such as sports and opera, delivering both large productions world-wide and local content to distant diaspora. Several companies bet that they could break even installing equipment and use that installed base as a platform for a distribution empire of alternative content and special events. Several big companies lost big-time on that bet, starting with a spin-off of the giant broadcast manufacturing group EVS, whose large investments (among others) into dcinex was absorbed with little fanfare into Ymagis last year, and the earliest obvious success that has also morphed several times without attaining the traction that potential and bright ideas (and a lot of hard work and investment) promised, Cinedigm, né Access IT.

The dream and promise of low-cost distribution to the cinema (no need to make and fly prints all over the world) and easy programming flexibility at the cinema (Theater Management tools that decrease the team head-count at every point of the chain from the studio to the nonexistent projectionist), became a topic that flew by. “How does a small production get into the big cinema chains, in an era when new ‘studios’ such as Amazon are making their play.” With a large bit of the oxygen leaving the room, the panelist answered, “They don’t.” When another panelist tried to put a positive spin on a different small production’s attempt as having “so-so” results, he re-gained the audience’s sympathy by saying, “We would have killed for ‘so-so’.

That’s when it becomes obvious that each sector that looks like a giant monolith worthy of the Justice Departments scrutiny and other segments enmity, each are still an agglomeration of small entities trying to make their mark. Dolby, represented by the same Doug Darrow who steered the choppy waters of Texas Iinstrument’s digital cinema efforts when the path was obvious but no roads or bridges built, let us know that their successful Atmos system, by far the leader in immersive sound from artist viewpoint to installed base and customer respect, has 1,400 installations.

Given that it is still early days since the system’s release at CinemaCon four years ago, it is still a small number compared to the total number of screens that is approaching one hundred times that many. SMPTE arranged with AMC and Dolby a special set of High Dynamic Range (HDR) presentations after CinemaCon and before NAB that showed off the latest iteration of Dolby Vision at AMC Prime. That still boutique set of technologies known as DolbyVision (Dolby Million-to-One Contrast, High Brightness Laser Technology with comfortable chairs among other highlights) is still only two orders of magnitude smaller after a year of installations worldwide. …hardly a monolith compared to the 800 screen boutique of IMAX.

Dolby sits at the table with a market cap of USD$4.5 billion, IMAX, represented by the recently feted Phil Groves (SVP and EVP of International Distribution) sits at USD$2.25 billion. AMC at USD$2.8 billion, though purchased last year by the Wanda Group, a former property management group with a market cap of USD$30 billion, USD$18 billion of that now generally accepted to be the value of the Wanda Cinema Line…though only a billion of which comes from the 2,000 screens it has throughout China.

Duncan Stewart, Director of Research; Technology, Media and Telecommunications for Deloitte flew in from Toronto. Deloitte is a private firm, with a market cap valued at far over USD$100 billion, and famous for their CEO’s prediction of adding nearly 20,000 net jobs this year. Chris started out the quip-fest, with remarks that showed that a company in its position doesn’t have to cater to anyone – unlike your author who has to make nice with everyone since they all might be a customer or boss someday.

Rounding off the table, Chris Edwards who represents two private companies, The Third Floor (specializing in big-budget movie previz) and The Virtual Reality Company (specializing in the burgeoning VR creation world), who probably measures well financially though would rather talk in the value of helping develop the artists intent, some type of a pixels per idea quotient.

So, when exhibition is discussed, it means Virtual Reality and its twin AR, as well as all the streams of better pixels; high definition, wider gamut, high frame rate and lasers and immersive sound and plenty more.

Our future tech discussions will focus upon the different strategies that are developing, from the expansion of the boutique model that Dolby is implementing with their new product lines, through to Barco’s re-applying their magic to take the majority of the projector market, this time with LasersInside.

Exhibitor News

The Palette at the Exhibition End of the Artist’s Intent

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Three years after DCI was formed with a million dollars from 6 studios, and combined with the continuing input of the technology groups of the American Society of Cinematographers, NATO, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, …and most relevant for this story, the Entertainment Technology Center of USC which set up a theater in Hollywood for the testing of the ideas that became the DCI specifications in July of 2005.

Ten years later, the hard physical and financial slog of the transition was announced at CinemaCon 2015 as being basically completed. A year later, several major ideas are still in transition, just as obvious now as the move to digital was back then: SMPTE-Compliant DCP distribution and satellite distribution are still in their trial stage, Immersive Sound, introduced as a proprietary format by Dolby is being led down a variation of the ‘open’ path of most D-Cinema technologies, and projectors with laser light engines – two years after the public demonstrations declaring them working, stable and ready for purchase – are numerically fewer than digital projectors were the year that Star Wars Attack of the Clones was released in May of 2002.

It is under this condition that events are unfolding now, slightly different but with a strong echo of the past. Unless you have been a manufacturer you might not be able to appreciate the ability to have a facility to refine your basically working – so to speak, productized – ideas. Last year at this time the Canadian company Imax opened their two screen Los Angeles home in Playa Vista, next door to YouTube…with their own variant of digital projector (a customized Barco system.) And Dolby Labs have recently begun showing equipment and movie events at their new Vine Street technology showcase in Hollywood.

But the real great feeling as a manufacturer is when a client allows the use of their facility to assist with the innovation of ideas and products. This is the importance of the opening this week, just before CinemaCon 2016, of The Barco Innovation Center at AEG Regal LA Live Cinema. The branding is not only at the front door. Barco Red and White Innovation Center messaging overlooks freeway drivers as they pass near the 10 and 110 interchange.

With an impressive array of executives from both the hosting site and each of the show-cased Barco technology divisions, this facility was re-branded and re-launched.

AEG’s Regal LA Live Cinema is part of an extensive multi-venue entertainment complex located in the center of a still forming ‘new’ downtown Los Angeles. To give some perspective, it is 8 miles from downtown Hollywood. It has several adjacent buildings which feature events ranging from red carpet movie premiers, to concerts and sporting events.

Being in this special multi-block AEG owned and operated area, the cinema is also special in that it is the only Regal Cinema directly owned and managed by the parent company AEG. AEG itself has many varied entertainment groups both in and outside of the movie industry, examples being the AXS Event Ticketing Service and AEG Live, which promotes the shows that are normally present at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, among a thousand others, and of course, the 7,334 screens of Regal Entertainment’s theater chains.

And thus it was that four different AEG and Regal executives spoke of the process and promise of having such a technology center in the midst of their customers, all on the basic message of the potential of using technologies as they mature, with personal anecdotes from their own perspectives. For example, Mr. Robert del Moro, Chief Purchasing Officer for Regal spoke to the ability of monitoring the actual value of savings in air conditioning, electricity and other benefits that a complete facility of laser-engine projectors will bring to their decision processes.

Wim Buyens, from his position as CEO Entertainment, Barco, spoke of the company’s mantra of “Creating Moments and Compelling Experiences” for the audiences that they serve, and being appreciative of having a partner which allows the investment of their space and time. In a later conversation he made a tangential point in a similar fashion, stating that it wasn’t up to them as a manufacturer to set standards for the industry but to meet the standards and goals that are set by the studios and their customers and their customers.

The presentations included the Barco Lobby Experience, which coordinates all of the lobby and aisle displays on a timed plan so they can deliver a single message throughout the facility. As with the other two deliverables, this system was first presented as a working concept at CinemaCon 2014. The Experience begins with a recognizable tone to grab people’s attention, then tones and a hip countdown clock are followed by a special videos/audio mix of studio supplied assets. The software sets the volume level so it is above the ambient noise in the different areas.

The intention is to grab and present the lobby audience with an intense exposure to future presentations. Future software add-ons will add social media tools that facilitate ticket purchasing and other add-ons. Further along, they will integrate the software from a newly purchased group which will even allow some monitor displays to deliver age or gender specific material, depending on who is standing in front of that section. [Remind us to do an ROI article in a few months when all these potential items are incorporated.]

In what seemed like a CinemaCon pre-show practice run, a low-key presentation of the Barco Flagship Laser projector was used to demonstrate a full range of 2D and 3D material at the full SMPTE spec of 48 candela/meter2. A special piece of demo material for one of ARRI’s new Alexa cameras was used to show the artful blend of increasing brightness without washing out contrast. Unlike many demonstrations, this material was slow enough to stare into the dark and the light areas, and appreciate what is being attempted. One imagines that this would be a great opportunity to try alternatives to silver screens with the Barco Flagship Projector, perhaps using a quality RealD Precision White Screen to see if eliminating the vignetting brought by the 1.8 gain silver screen would add to the pleasure of the gorgeous material being sent from such a high quality 4K delivery (60,000 lumen~!) system.

With 2 of the Flagship Laser Projectors in the facility now, it was announced that by the end of summer, Barco blue phosphor lasers will replace the rest of the projectors in the facility.

Todd Hoddick, Chief Executive Officer of Barco Escape, showed the latest iteration of the Barco Escape system. Todd is enthusiastic about breaking the preconceived notion that we have to live within the original confines of a glorified sheet on the wall. The thrust of his remarks have to do with the efforts to get Hollywood content, for which he announces 4 movies in the next year, doubling again soon thereafter. There will be a similar coordinated effort with a partner in China. He also plans on nearly 2,000 installs in the coming years (over 1,000 in the US and EU, and 1,000 in China.)

The system itself has continued evolving since the first exposure at CinemaCon 2014. Perhaps the most relevant info is that it is now a fully DCI compliant system. We take this to mean that the 2 side-facing projectors are chosen from Barco’s arsenal of DCI compliant projectors and a clever bit of security software keeping sync. In addition to quoting a price per auditorium of $100,000 ($15,000 higher than quoted at CineEurope…is this a euro to dollar confusion?) plus a $10,000 fixed price per movie (or other entertainment package) which, he said, by putting the onus on Barco to supply material to cinema customers shows their dedication to the idea. Several anecdotes were told of box office success along with several concert and film clips, most seen before, although a clever commercial was shown.

Two Auro Immersive Audio system accompany the two Flagship Laser Projector System, and AuroMax systems are promised before the end of the year.

Thus finishes what can be considered a nice soft launch into the coming rigorous weeks of CinemaCon, the SMPTE Future of Cinema Conference and NAB. The equipment, while all cool and advancing the arts, was not the story. The story was a level higher than that, the relationship and the potential of the palette at the exhibition end of the artist’s intent.

Good luck to them and good luck to us all.

Exhibitor News

The Palette at the Exhibition End of the Artist’s Intent

Leave a comment

Three years after DCI was formed with a million dollars from 6 studios, and combined with the continuing input of the technology groups of the American Society of Cinematographers, NATO, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, …and most relevant for this story, the Entertainment Technology Center of USC which set up a theater in Hollywood for the testing of the ideas that became the DCI specifications in July of 2005.

Ten years later, the hard physical and financial slog of the transition was announced at CinemaCon 2015 as being basically completed. A year later, several major ideas are still in transition, just as obvious now as the move to digital was back then: SMPTE-Compliant DCP distribution and satellite distribution are still in their trial stage, Immersive Sound, introduced as a proprietary format by Dolby is being led down a variation of the ‘open’ path of most D-Cinema technologies, and projectors with laser light engines – two years after the public demonstrations declaring them working, stable and ready for purchase – are numerically fewer than digital projectors were the year that Star Wars Attack of the Clones was released in May of 2002.

It is under this condition that events are unfolding now, slightly different but with a strong echo of the past. Unless you have been a manufacturer you might not be able to appreciate the ability to have a facility to refine your basically working – so to speak, productized – ideas. Last year at this time the Canadian company Imax opened their two screen Los Angeles home in Playa Vista, next door to YouTube…with their own variant of digital projector (a customized Barco system.) And Dolby Labs have recently begun showing equipment and movie events at their new Vine Street technology showcase in Hollywood.

But the real great feeling as a manufacturer is when a client allows the use of their facility to assist with the innovation of ideas and products. This is the importance of the opening this week, just before CinemaCon 2016, of The Barco Innovation Center at AEG Regal LA Live Cinema. The branding is not only at the front door. Barco Red and White Innovation Center messaging overlooks freeway drivers as they pass near the 10 and 110 interchange.

With an impressive array of executives from both the hosting site and each of the show-cased Barco technology divisions, this facility was re-branded and re-launched.

AEG’s Regal LA Live Cinema is part of an extensive multi-venue entertainment complex located in the center of a still forming ‘new’ downtown Los Angeles. To give some perspective, it is 8 miles from downtown Hollywood. It has several adjacent buildings which feature events ranging from red carpet movie premiers, to concerts and sporting events.

Being in this special multi-block AEG owned and operated area, the cinema is also special in that it is the only Regal Cinema directly owned and managed by the parent company AEG. AEG itself has many varied entertainment groups both in and outside of the movie industry, examples being the AXS Event Ticketing Service and AEG Live, which promotes the shows that are normally present at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, among a thousand others, and of course, the 7,334 screens of Regal Entertainment’s theater chains.

And thus it was that four different AEG and Regal executives spoke of the process and promise of having such a technology center in the midst of their customers, all on the basic message of the potential of using technologies as they mature, with personal anecdotes from their own perspectives. For example, Mr. Robert del Moro, Chief Purchasing Officer for Regal spoke to the ability of monitoring the actual value of savings in air conditioning, electricity and other benefits that a complete facility of laser-engine projectors will bring to their decision processes.

Wim Buyens, from his position as CEO Entertainment, Barco, spoke of the company’s mantra of “Creating Moments and Compelling Experiences” for the audiences that they serve, and being appreciative of having a partner which allows the investment of their space and time. In a later conversation he made a tangential point in a similar fashion, stating that it wasn’t up to them as a manufacturer to set standards for the industry but to meet the standards and goals that are set by the studios and their customers and their customers.

The presentations included the Barco Lobby Experience, which coordinates all of the lobby and aisle displays on a timed plan so they can deliver a single message throughout the facility. As with the other two deliverables, this system was first presented as a working concept at CinemaCon 2014. The Experience begins with a recognizable tone to grab people’s attention, then tones and a hip countdown clock are followed by a special videos/audio mix of studio supplied assets. The software sets the volume level so it is above the ambient noise in the different areas.

The intention is to grab and present the lobby audience with an intense exposure to future presentations. Future software add-ons will add social media tools that facilitate ticket purchasing and other add-ons. Further along, they will integrate the software from a newly purchased group which will even allow some monitor displays to deliver age or gender specific material, depending on who is standing in front of that section. [Remind us to do an ROI article in a few months when all these potential items are incorporated.]

In what seemed like a CinemaCon pre-show practice run, a low-key presentation of the Barco Flagship Laser projector was used to demonstrate a full range of 2D and 3D material at the full SMPTE spec of 48 candela/meter2. A special piece of demo material for one of ARRI’s new Alexa cameras was used to show the artful blend of increasing brightness without washing out contrast. Unlike many demonstrations, this material was slow enough to stare into the dark and the light areas, and appreciate what is being attempted. One imagines that this would be a great opportunity to try alternatives to silver screens with the Barco Flagship Projector, perhaps using a quality RealD Precision White Screen to see if eliminating the vignetting brought by the 1.8 gain silver screen would add to the pleasure of the gorgeous material being sent from such a high quality 4K delivery (60,000 lumen~!) system.

With 2 of the Flagship Laser Projectors in the facility now, it was announced that by the end of summer, Barco blue phosphor lasers will replace the rest of the projectors in the facility.

Todd Hoddick, Chief Executive Officer of Barco Escape, showed the latest iteration of the Barco Escape system. Todd is enthusiastic about breaking the preconceived notion that we have to live within the original confines of a glorified sheet on the wall. The thrust of his remarks have to do with the efforts to get Hollywood content, for which he announces 4 movies in the next year, doubling again soon thereafter. There will be a similar coordinated effort with a partner in China. He also plans on nearly 2,000 installs in the coming years (over 1,000 in the US and EU, and 1,000 in China.)

The system itself has continued evolving since the first exposure at CinemaCon 2014. Perhaps the most relevant info is that it is now a fully DCI compliant system. We take this to mean that the 2 side-facing projectors are chosen from Barco’s arsenal of DCI compliant projectors and a clever bit of security software keeping sync. In addition to quoting a price per auditorium of $100,000 ($15,000 higher than quoted at CineEurope…is this a euro to dollar confusion?) plus a $10,000 fixed price per movie (or other entertainment package) which, he said, by putting the onus on Barco to supply material to cinema customers shows their dedication to the idea. Several anecdotes were told of box office success along with several concert and film clips, most seen before, although a clever commercial was shown.

Two Auro Immersive Audio system accompany the two Flagship Laser Projector System, and AuroMax systems are promised before the end of the year.

Thus finishes what can be considered a nice soft launch into the coming rigorous weeks of CinemaCon, the SMPTE Future of Cinema Conference and NAB. The equipment, while all cool and advancing the arts, was not the story. The story was a level higher than that, the relationship and the potential of the palette at the exhibition end of the artist’s intent.

Good luck to them and good luck to us all.