All posts by Like Tangents In The Rain

Societies

State of European DCinema Conference

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The presentations were recorded, and are now available with their documents. With the plethora of conferences, and the financial and environmental aspects of attending them, having this information available on the Observatory’s site is laudable in itself. Being well organized and filled with excellent data makes it even more compelling.

The presenters and their topics were:

  • Box office trends 2009: 3D a driving force
    — Martin Kanzler, European Audiovisual Observatory 
  • Digital roll-out: Status quo as of year-end 2009
    —Elisabetta Brunella, MEDIA Salles
  • Public funding for digital roll-out: who, what and where
    —Susan Newman-Baudais, European Audiovisual Observatory>
  • Public funding – Legal issues
    —Francisco Cabrera-Blázquez, European Audiovisual Observatory 

[DailyMotion videos can now be watched from the DailyMotion app for the iPhone/iPad/Touch.]

Digital Cinema Tango! The Observatory Panel in Cannes part 1

Digital Cinema Tango! The Observatory Panel in Cannes part 2

Digital Cinema Tango! The Observatory Panel in Cannes part 3

[To easily get the links on your iPhone, use the mail link above to send this article to yourself. We don’t get or keep a copy of your email addresses.]

Watch the videos and download the materials from the European Audiovisual Observatory site:

Digital Cinema Tango Workshop [Link]

Alternative Content

More World Cup 3D Woes—German exhibs question quality

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Variety is following this issue: Read their full report at:

German exhibs nix 3D World Cup
Operators gives thumbs-down to technology
By ED MEZA—Posted: Thurs., May 27, 2010, 4:00am PT

See also: Collapse in 3D World Cup Broadcast -Variety 
THURSDAY, 13 MAY 2010 13:43

This isn’t the first broadcast coming into cinemas. Opera and live concerts have been successful. But, in 2D.

As far as production values, the Sony operation in South Africa is noted for being highly qualified. 

So, where is the problem? 

One can understand low resolution and interlace effects. When compared to 2K digital cinema, everything (including Blu-ray) is going to suffer in comparison. DCinema 3D is often chastised for its current limits.

Andreas Cruesemann, Cineplex’s head of sales and marketing is quoted to say, “We can’t take money for an experiment. That’s why we said no. We are not saying no to soccer or 3D screenings. We will be very happy when it’s working. We were really disappointed last week because we expected more. If the picture was good of course we’d pay for it.”

What the exhibitors don’t have to pay for is a 2D feed, but the other side is that they can’t charge for it. But exhibitors get more funds from the concessions anyway. If they can pull patrons in on nights that might be empty because of a popular match, would they care if it is 2D? There is no record for this, 2D or 3D.

The market is obvious and should be straight by the Olympics in 2012. The 30 games that were to be broadcast in 3D would have been a solid test, but as is seen from the dismissal of Aruna as distributor just a few weeks before the event, and now a major country’s largest exhibitor groups dissing the quality…it makes for an interesting set of questions.

The Variety article goes into the politics, but without technical details. Since the technical details are in flux, we’ll be careful not to demean anyone’s attempts. As one industry insider is known to say “That’s the great thing about standards…there’s so many of them.”

In this case, we are talking about the insertion of an evolving video ‘standard’ into an evolving cinema ‘standard’. According to the Variety article, people saw a test that was expected to show problems. Perhaps it shouldn’t have had an audience from the a non-technical public. 

There are certain challenges that need to be addressed in the transition of a TV signal with equipment that was designed for the highest quality digital cinema signal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Richard LaBerge, executive VP for tech provider Sensio, told Daily Variety the German exhibs most likely saw a May 5 test of the worldwide network that was never meant for their eyes.

“I don’t know who invited the exhibitors,” said LaBerge. “I would assume it was Aruna.”

Aruna is the Swiss company that obtained the 3D out-of-home rights, only to have FIFA pull them. (Daily Variety, May 20). Whether or not that was a result of the unenthusiastic response to the 3D presentation is not clear.

LaBerge said it was “risky” to show that test, as it was expected to reveal problems with the video. “We did not recommend they show that to exhibitors.”

Exhib chains Cinemaxx and Cinestar have not ruled out carrying the games in 3D but say production values have to be much improved before they sign on.

LaBerge said there will be more screenings for exhibs once the video problems are resolved. The entire project is being done at breakneck speed to make the June 11 deadline.

FIFA, which could not be reached for comment, is partnering with Sensio and using the tech provider’s 3D format to deliver live telecasts via satellite.

Exhibs also have the option to present World Cup matches in 2D as free public screenings.

(David S. Cohen contributed to this report.)

Contact the Variety newsroom at [email protected].

Connectivity

Professional Differences – Set Top Boxes

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There are 4 other topics, just as important, but not as buzzword compliant? Why not?

Because the standards in this field are off in the distance.

That can be better said. Today’s standards are many. A cohesive standard is off in the distance, but components of it will be implemented on an adhoc basis. The loser will be the facility who can’t adapt…and likely, one won’t know until the last moment.

For example: What if a right’s holder decides they want to put a professioal grade encryption on the next live event? Will the consumer box that has been used successfully for opera all these months work?  No. Can it be modified to work. No. Will a professional box be able to accept a code at the last second via the ethernet port (a port that the consumer box doesn’t have!)? Yes.

If there are problems with lip sync, can the projectionist adjust the consumer unit? Need you ask?

The report can be downloaded from the EDCF website. Don’t forget to support the European Digital Cinema Forum when you can. The Member’s Only site has many more interesting documents. Membership is not onerous.

Going Live! See the Annex Page

Arqiva Set Top Box Query–Pro or Cut off?

Exhibitor News

All Warner Bros Tentpole Movies Will Be Released in 3D

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Horn also spoke out against the criticism of converting films to 3D in a post production process. He said that “in our opinion, conversion to 3D doesn’t lessen” the 3D experience. And he said that audiences will decide when Clash of the Titans is released in 3D in a couple weeks. We were shown 7-10 minutes of footage from the post-converted Clash, and I have given my preliminary thoughts here.

 

 

Read more: All Warner Bros Tentpole Movies Will Be Released in 3D | /Film
Posted on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 by Peter Sciretta

Alternative Content

Looney Tunes News – Proof That Life Is Good

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Taken from: First Showing.Net
Looney Tunes 3-D Animated Shorts Are Returning to Theaters

Read more: http://www.firstshowing.net/2010/05/20/looney-tunes-3-d-animated-shorts-are-returning-to-theaters/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+firstshowing+%28FirstShowing.net%29#ixzz0oaePVson

After the abysmal attempt at the Looney Tunes revival that was “Loonatics Unleashed” (essentially an action comedy cartoon with anime Looney Tunes characters that completely missed the train), WB is anxious to get back to the core of what made the original Looney Tunes so great and made Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and more, household names. Stuart Snyder, who oversees Cartoon Network as the COO of Turner’s kids media division even said that art from “The Loonatics Unleashed” is hanging in Warner’s animation offices as a reminder of what not to do. Thank the maker! Even Looney Tunes: Back in Action didn’t suck that bad.

And so Looney Tunes will hit theaters again, but despite a return to the classic character design and humor, the animation itself is a bit more polished with pseudo realistic texture as these 3-D shorts will be rendered on computers, fitting in with all of the computer animation today’s kids are used to seeing. Well, at least it’s a happy mix of past and present rather than a complete overhaul. The first 3-D short (Warner has approved three, with three more in development) will feature Wile E. Coyote (seen above) and the Road Runner and will play before Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore when that movie hits theaters on July 30th. Not exactly the best movie to start this new venture, but maybe it will convince a few people to see that flick.

Read more: Looney Tunes 3-D Animated Shorts Are Returning to Theaters

The NYTimes that everyone is drawing from is at:

What’s Up, Doc? New Looneys

 

Courses

Certifying Help | MacUser

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Although our new and vivacious, if underfunded, universities seem able to pump out thousands with natty certificates claiming competence in sports sciences or media studies, practical aspects of computing are almost entirely lacking. Heavyweight software development, …

[Editor: This article is a nice launch point for discussing the education standards for industrial application. The ad hoc methods that the audio, video, exhibition world have evolved with may be past their due date: parse and discuss.]

Read the entire MacUser UK article at:
HELP – Universities are churning out students with computing degrees, but these mean little until…

 

In some senses, computer qualifications aren’t essential to the safety and well-being of society. The competence of the electrician re-wiring your office or home, or the gas installer plumbing in a replacement boiler, has immediate bearing on your safety. …

There are plenty of other computer-related tasks that have more serious implications. How, for example, can we tell whether a selfprofessed security expert is both speaking with authority and …

I’m no fan of the proliferation of qualifications, nor of meaningless recertification schemes that afford the incompetent false authority to continue to practise. However, Europe needs to move with the times and bring in something more useful and recognised than the minimal European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). It’s time to develop some meaningful qualifications to bring credence to those whose occupation requires technical knowledge of Macs and other computer systems.

Howard Oakley

Audio Processing

Apple’s Audio Logic

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Essentially it’s because it doesn’t have to. Aside from the company’s legendary need to control every aspect of the way it appears in public, something that’s difficult at an event staged by someone else, the products, much to the chagrin of the competition, seem to a large extent to sell themselves. Brand recognition for Apple is off the charts since the iPod and iPhone, and although pro audio, like pro video, is an important area for the company to compete, it’s a still a niche market in the wider scheme of things. You don’t build up cash reserves in the tens of billions of dollars by selling high-end music software or even high-end Macs to run it on. That honour goes to the consumer devices.

 

[Editor: There have been a few articles in the last weeks speculating on the when and where of Apple’s declaration of support for the professionals in their marketplace. The meme is catching on that with Apple worth billions now, they not only don’t need the pros, or to be selling the pro equipment that they rely upon…too much of a niche. One who believes that clearly doesn’t understand the philosophy of niche markets, the failure of Sony or the philosophy of Steve…who, by the way, was recently noted for return emailing an editor who wondered if FCP was going to be improved. Steve gave a short comment that he will have to live up to…one expects that there will be a new version of FCS that will leapfrog the market once again.]

For the rest of this MacUser article, go to:
Audio – Apple’s clever decision to tie Logic into the Mac…
10:58AM, Thursday 6th May 2010 

Most people’s experience of computers starts with a PC, cheap and ubiquitous as they are. For anyone who studies music technology, on the other hand, it’s much more likely that your lab will be stocked not with beige boxes but with iMacs or Mac towers. …

When it comes to the software, on the other hand, some gentle prodding is needed, especially since all the major music programs run almost equally well on Mac OS X. Here, things start to get a little less clear cut – …

On acquiring the company in 2002, Apple immediately discontinued the Windows version of Logic, signalling its intentions to establish the Mac as the dominant platform in the audio world. …

For those who didn’t need all the bells and whistles, Apple created Logic Express, which was and is still a remarkably capable piece of software. …

Ultimately, it’s hardware sales that keep Apple growing at such a rate. …

This, of course, is understandable and good business: nobody could ever claim Apple didn’t know a thing or two about selling. …

Hollin Jones

Cameras

Out Of The DarkAges; Digital has finally won over | HD User

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Digital has finally won over film. Yes, for me the most important outcome of this test was not one or the other camera, but that BOTH finally made it possible for me to say this: “FILM (Celluloid, that is), IS DEAD!”

[Read the entire article, with huge pictures, with arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one (not to mention excellent comments) at:

Out Of The Dark Ages

 Test image shot with RED Mysterium-X at ISO 800 (graded for look). The double-appearance of the candles on the far left comes from a filter we tested (and decided against). Let me start with a disclaimer here, because I know there will be a mass of hate mail from 35mm film lovers landing on my doorstep very soon.  Since I don’t have the time to answer any of it, I would rather like to pre-empt it right now. I have no agenda here. I started out using 8mm film as a teenager, I shot 35mm (and 16mm) film for years and years, I don’t work for a company selling digital equipment of any kind, and I don’t get kick-backs from any such company. But I stick to what I just said. Film is dead.

Film has been in the death throes for a few years by now, as a small part of a huge revolution that has seen ‘digits’ taking over all aspects of our lives. It started in general with computers (anyone using a typewriter right now?), then expanded to other usage areas (anyone listening to 45rpm records right now? Actually, how many of you are even still listening to CDs rather than mp3s?). I don’t think I have to remind anyone that we ALL used to shoot on 35mm still cameras up to the mid-nineties, give or take a few years. And how many of you are still making the trek to the drugstore to have the photos from the last kid’s birthday party developed ?

[This really gets more detailed and interesting. We’ll not go any further except to emphasize the data on the writer of the piece:

Marc Weigert is an Emmy-award winning visual effects supervisor and producer. He is the CEO of Uncharted Territory in Los Angeles, founded in 1999 with business partner Volker Engel. Under the ‘Uncharted’ banner he has produced and co-produced several TV movies, mini-series and feature films, most notably Roland Emmerich’s 2012 and Dean Devlin and Bryan Singer’s The Triangle. Marc is currently co-producing and VFX supervising Emmerich’s Anonymous.

Tangential Art and Science

The Oily Truth Spills Out

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Read the complete piece with comments at:
The Oily Truth Spills Out
By Jeffrey Hollender
 

We can also find crucial regulatory lessons in the Gulf’s oil-stained waters. Over the course of the last decade, the federal Minerals Management Service, the agency responsible for offshore drilling oversight, was packed with oil industry insiders who weakened existing safety regulations and refused to require key emergency systems that might have prevented the current havoc. These “regulators” were also lax in pursuing rules violations and levied only miniscule fines, which further encouraged industry misbehavior. Clearly, we need to increase regulatory oversight and pass new laws that prevent the foxes from guarding our henhouses.

Then there is the question I can’t help but ask: If British Petroleum (the company that only a few years ago referred to itself as, “beyond petroleum”) was an authentically responsible corporation, would the Gulf be in the mess it’s in now? Perhaps not. An oil company driven by a mission of genuine responsibility would have voluntarily installed the non-required safety gear. It would not have been drilling to depths beyond those permitted, as has been reported, nor would it have outsourced this drilling to begin with. And when mayhem struck, instead of disputing high leak rate figures, transparency would have insisted that it come immediately clean about the extent of the problem—or at least admit that it had no idea how bad things were—so that appropriate resources could be marshaled without delay.

Yes, these things can take money. An automatic switch that closes off blow-outs, for example, runs about $500,000. But compared to the $30 billion drop in market value BP stock has experienced since the spill, not to mention what it might cost to clean up the entire Gulf of Mexico, that’s a drop in the bucket. As I’ve said before, the ROI on responsibility is always a good investment. And that’s the real lesson of the Deepwater Horizon disaster: Whether it’s new energy policies or adopting corporate responsibility, doing the right thing usually costs a little more up front, but it always saves far more in the long run. Let’s hope that wisdom is ultimately all that’s left behind on Louisiana’s shores.

About Jeffrey Hollender

Jeffrey Hollender is co-author of the recently published book, The Responsibility Revolution and Co-Founder and Executive Chair of Seventh Generation, the leader in green household products. He is also the author of Inspired Protagonist , the leading blog on corporate responsibility and a co-founder of the American Sustainable Business Council and the Sustainability Institute.

Talkback Question: Readers, what’s your opinion on the BP oil spill? What could or should have been done differently? What lessons do you draw from the disaster? Share your thoughts with Talkback.

Exhibitor News

Fonda, Keener join ‘Peace’ pic

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Fonda, Keener join ‘Peace’ pic
Bruce Beresford to direct indie effort
By Borys Kit
May 4, 2010, 08:23 PM ET

Brice Dal Farra, Claude Dal Farra, Lauren Munsch and Jonathan Burkhart are producing the drama.

Gersh-repped Beresford, best known for directing dramas “Tender Mercies” and “Driving Miss Daisy,” helmed “Mao’s Last Dancer,” which the Samuel Goldwyn Co. released last year.

The Gersh-repped Keener most recently starred in “Cyrus,” “Please Give” and “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.” She’s now filming Julian Farino’s ensemble drama “The Oranges” with Hugh Laurie, Leighton Meester and Adam Brody.

For Fonda, the movie sees her in a matriarchal role once again after her most recent screen appearance, 2007’s “Georgia Rule.” She played a grandmother in that three-generational drama.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ia9f1b586d31510642aea99e000ed4879

Security Sites and Blogs

Ex-Army man cracks popular security chip

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Read the entire article at:
Ex-Army man cracks popular security chip
How to open Infineon’s Trusted Platform Module
By Dan Goodin –– 17th February 2010 21:08 GMT

[Editor says: Constant Vigilance Alert – This is only interesting in that someone clever kept at it, breaking over 50 security chips until he found the means to break in…circumventing hardware and software destructive mechanisms.
Lesson: every network has the potential for a moment of excitement. Maybe not now, but at sometime you will need to have a professional view of your projection/server network.]

Alternative Content

Collapse in 3D World Cup Broadcast–Variety

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FIFA’s deal with Aruna and tech provider Sensio was announced only five weeks ago at the NAB Show ( Daily Variety , April 13).

Follow this Variety story at:
FIFA splits with 3D broadcaster
Aruna Media AG kicked out of World Cup
By DAVID S. COHEN | Posted: Thurs., May 20, 2010, 5:57pm PT

FIFA and Sensio are keeping mum on the details of what led to the falling out, and Aruna did not respond to a request for comment.

[DCT: The original press releases say that Sensio was originally chosen by Aruna.]

But while Aruna is out of the picture, plans for the 3D telecasts seem to be going forward. FIFA says it is now handling the rights directly, and Sensio says it is pressing on with its work, just working directly with FIFA instead of with Aruna.

[DCT: Translation; FIFA now has to go to every cinema owner to grant rights. While not unfamiliar with rights, they normally hand this off to one (or a few) big players.

Sensio, meanwhile, is a rights-based technology and equipment company. Are they also going to sign up cinemas to get the license fee, or will they rely upon the box supplier who has a Sensio decoder to collect the fees?]

FIFA will use Sensio’s format to send the out-of-home telecast and will tap into Sensio’s network of Live3D-enabled theaters worldwide.

[DCT: Aruna had originally picked Aqiva as the network for distribution. Aqiva has been building their chops in the dcinema world for a few years now. But they are equipment agnostic, and they are not a rights provider.

There seem to be some loose ends, and only a few weeks to go.]

Contact the Variety newsroom at [email protected].

Connectivity

ISDCF Brings Light To Series II Issue

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Digital Cinema User Alert #1; TI Series 2 Projectors and Open Captions/Subtitles

the industry service group released a pdf statement dated 12 May 2010 which speaks to a problem with a connectivity process named CineCanvas™. This capability has been part of the TI feature set since early 2004, allowing subtitles and captions to be ‘drawn’ on the screen by the chip instead of by a process of being ‘burned in’. Not only is the appearance significantly better, but it allows the studios and distributors to streamline their delivery processes.

At the September 2009 IBC Convention in Amsterdam, an announcement was made by TI that there would be a delay, and that a software revision would come in Q2. Several server companies scrambled to provide server generated subtitles, Doremi being the first to announce.

But at a recent plug-fest it was found that there are ‘issues’ with this method which made distributors go back to ‘burning in’ the subtitles. And thus, this announcement.

In the larger EU countries like Italy and France, where overdubbing is an art-form mandated by the government and by long-practice, this isn’t an issue. The German and Spanish market are also renowned for their dubbing work. Children’s films wouldn’t be included in the problem either, since children aren’t expected to read and so their movies are traditionally dubbed.

This is much the same in the Asian markets. But, integrators – be aware of this issue, and don’t let it happen again. (See the wikipedia ‘dubbing’ article for more detail.)

EU Dubbing Countries

     Dubbing only for children: Otherwise solely subtitles      Mixed areas: Countries using occasionally full-cast dubbing otherwise solely subtitles      Voice-over: Countries using usually one or just a couple of voice actors whereas the original soundtrack persists      General dubbing: Countries using exclusively a full-cast dubbing, both for films and for TV series blue/red for belgium and slovia Countries which occasionally produce their own dubbings but generally use dubbed versions from another country whose language is sufficiently similar that the local audience understands it easily. (Belgium and Slovakia)
Basic Lessons

Example of PC Vulnerability, and Why Important

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One of the magic rules of security is to presume that the bad guys think differently than you do. (That may be what makes them bad guys.) Hopefully, they won’t think that entering the locked portion of a facility is such a good idea, and messing with your system is just to worthy of being caught.

 

But if you are paying attention, there are constantly new updates to Adobe Reader, and most of them are to plug security problems. Same with Firefox. Same with many other common programs. And if your desk computer isn’t updated, and if some blackhat figures a way to put a worm into a pdf file that will only affect a Unix machine…like that server over there…it might not trigger your virus checker. But it could get placed onto the server.

Be a professional. Stay updated. Stay aware of updates. Stay aware of what a virus or trojan horse could do. If you can’t tell your sister’s friend what the difference is between a virus and a trojan horse, learn some more.

Meanwhile, think abou the implications of a story like this, and how someone (who doesn’t think like you) could take advantage of it….to your detriment. 

Matousec has discovered a relatively simple loophole that could leave Windows PCs vulnerable to malicious code, with all commercial anti-virus packages powerless to prevent it.

By Martin James, 10 May 2010 at 11:33

Security analyst firm Matousec claims it has revealed a vulnerability in Windows PCs that could leave mainstream security software all but powerless to prevent an attack.

The flaw exploits the way anti-virus packages use System Service Descriptor Table (SSDT) hooks to access the Windows kernel. Because of the inability of multi-core systems to track threads running on other processing cores, a simple bait-and-switch attack stands no chance of being detected if the timing is right.

Once an anti-virus program is satisfied a given piece of code poses no threat, it will give the code the green light to be executed. However, at this point there is a short window where the innocent code can be replaced by malicious code without the security software being any the wiser.

Read the rest of this lesson at:

Researchers find way to bypass all Windows security software

Articles and News

9th Circuit Court Returns Harkins

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Prediction: It sure seems like some of the new digital-cinema-ready assisted listening and descriptive narration equipment manufacturers are going to get some orders.

The attached document is technically

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

No. 08-16075 D.C. No. 2:07-cv-00703-ROS OPINION

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona Roslyn O. Silver, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted January 13, 2010—San Francisco, California

Filed April 30, 2010

ARIZONA v. HARKINS AMUSEMENT