Exhibitor News

[Reply: NATO] Sony and the Un-free glasses

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New Articles with NATO’s and Sony’s responses

UPDATE: Sony Responds To NATO’s Claim That Studio’s 3D Glasses Plan Is Myopic – Deadline.com

Movie Theaters Upset, Won’t Approve Sony’s New 3D Glasses Policy | FirstShowing.net

Two articles and the priceless comments from the anti-3D-fanz:

Sony to Stop Paying for 3D Glasses in May 2012 (Exclusive) – The Hollywood Reporter

Trouble in the 3D World? Sony to Stop Paying for Free RealD 3D Glasses | FirstShowing.net

Lot of steam in those articles. A lot of money in play.

But let’s get this straight: The exhibitors have a problem with some people not enjoying some 3D. Which system uses the cheapest glasses and the worst screen possible? Which system is trying to keep those glasses free instead of figuring a truly enviromental solution? Only RealD. The active system, XpanD and the other non-polarizing system, Dolby, use a much better pair of lenses. 

There is a lot learn in this story.

The Future Holds...

Lasers…somebody knows…Barco? RED???

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The basic exception was Laser Light Engines (LLE), who have a deal with IMAX to put lasers into the big room cinemas. If ever there were a nice niche to start this adventure with, this is it. Specialized, contained to dozens and hundreds instead of 10’s of thousands, able to absorb any exceptional pricing, able to evolve. Delivery was scheduled to begin in Spring 2012.

Then the film maker turned digital imaging specialist Kodak shows a system that they clearly are not productizing. But they are playing in the game. They helped set up the organization which is working (throughout the world?) to take projection booth laser systems out of the field of laser entertainment systems, which require a special technology variance for every set-up. Kodak was able to get one by themselves, but the Laser Illuminated Projection Association – LIPA – includes Sony and IMAX, plus LLE and Kodak in this effort. In the US, the over-riding entity is the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, which is in charge of ensuring laser equipment safety.

This spring, LLE showed up in Hollywood at that chapter’s SMPTE meeting with Sony and Barco giving powerpoint presentations. Sony had made a couple of public remarks previously, but one had to be culling their online tech papers to notice. And until this point Barco had been quiet…except that the week before they did a demo at the RED Studios Hollywood lot. Nice splash.

Then nothing. No remarks from anyone at CineExpo or CineEurope. The idea has gelled that digital laser projection is 2 years away, or more.

Then this week. The RED user group message board lit up after two pre-viewer comments placed at the head of a thread by RED owner Jim Jannard: Mark L. Pederson of OffHollywood and Stephen Pizzo, Co-Founder of Element Technica and now partner of 3ality Technica, make remarks about having watched a demo of RED’s laser projector. “Vibrant”, “clean”, “never seen projection so …”, etc. Then a few non-answers to poorly phrased guesses (for example, that 4K is a benchmark, and passive 3D did leak out, but both could mean several things) and that was that…25 pages of wasted time thereafter. [Can anyone please vouch for the merits of Misters Pederson and Pizzo as to their ability to discern whether the technology they viewed is comparibly better than what has been seen otherwise?)

Barco, on the hand (and yet similarly) have made an announcement that 9 and 10 January will be their big days. – D3D Cinema to Present Giant Screen 4K 3D Laser Projection Demo at 2nd Annual Moody Digital Cinema Symposium – Well, actually, no. Barco only said, “We’re fully committed to providing the highest quality solutions for giant screen theaters” and some similar non-relevent info about how wonderful their partner is. Basically though, their name is on a press release announcing that they will butterfly laser driven digital cinema light against 15 perf 70mm and 4 other “revolutions”:

  • The FIRST demonstration of Barco’s revolutionary laser light engine on a giant screen
  • The FIRST demonstration of true DLP 4K resolution 3D on a giant screen
  • The FIRST 4K 3D comparison of ‘ultra-reality’ 48 frame/sec & 60 frame/sec content
  • The FIRST giant 3D 500 mbps comparison, nearly double the current cinema bit rate standard

Not withstanding the lack of filtering for marketing bits, and regardless of how some of the terms have been ill-defined in the past (4K 3D, for example), this is still a pretty good line-up.

Prediction: 2012 will be the year that several studios tell their exhibition partners a final date for film distribution (in 2013) and 2012 will have more than one commercial laser system in the field.

Prediction 3 – there may not be more than one DCI compliant system in the field though. RED might find that, if they thought bringing a small camera to market was a difficult trick, supporting projectors is a whole different matter…even if it is only to post-houses and their owners.

Regardless, this is mostly good news. That the RED is using passive doesn’t exactly mean silver screen passive. Perhaps Dolby passive, which would certainly be good news. If it is silver screen passive, that is bad news. Since silver screens don’t comply with SMPTE standards, they may end up on the scrap heap of history. But that is a different story for another article.

Alternative Content

Movies, The Other Alternative Content

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Myself, I’m waiting for Harry Potter 7 Part 1 in 3D.

Each of the films had their own success at the box officer for the past three years, but now AMC Theatres is bringing back the blockbuster hits Inception, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek and the sequel Fast Five to IMAX screens for just one week. The screenings are part of IMAX Big Movie Week which will take place between Friday, September 30th and Thursday, October 6th. The good news is, rather than paying full ticket price for these films heading back to IMAX theaters, you only have to pay $7.00 for a ticket this time. Doesn’t sound like a bad deal for anyone who might have missed seeing these flicks on the really big screen.

Head on over to AMC Theatres’ official website for the event to find their closest IMAX theater and buy tickets for one of these special re-releases. While I wasn’t a big fan of Fast Five, even within the context of the over-the-stop action franchise itself, I will say that seeing Inception and Star Trek on an IMAX screen is certainly worth it. While neither of the films had sequences shot in IMAX, they still look spectacular and the sound system in these theaters is just incredible. So if there’s nothing hitting the box office this weekend that interests you (though you should see 50/50), then this might be the event for you.

 

 

Tangential Art and Science

BSPR – Ultimate Acronym or Cloud Guarantee?

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We bring it up because we like the idea of someone certifying their safety, and taking responsibility for it. There must be some ‘out’, since hithertoo unknown flaws seem to take precidence over following all the compliance rules. But it is nice that the EU might put this in place, which will make it harder for cloud providers, yet by leveling the playing field toward quality it will make the whole system shine.

From the artilce:

When the EU drafts a new data protection law in November, it will introduce rules designed to ensure cloud providers are offering a safe service, IT Pro has learned.

The Binding Safe Processor Rules (BSPR) will ask cloud service providers working in the EU to agree to becoming legally liable should any data offences occur at their data centres, lawyers said yesterday.

It will effectively act as an accreditation scheme for cloud providers, meaning it will need vendors to sign up to the initiative.

However, the driving force behind the new rules, partner at Field Fisher Waterhouse Eduardo Ustaran, said service providers were certain to sign up as it would give them a much-needed selling point and, if they didn’t, they would be seen as unsafe to use.

To get that accreditation, vendors would have to prove their security models were adequate as well, Ustaran said.

“Cloud service providers would be given an accreditation from their data protection authority,” Ustaran told IT Pro.

Verizon Business is one organisation that has been pushing for the EU to enshrine the BSPR concept in data protection law, which is now set to happen.

Stewart Room, partner in FFW’s Privacy and Information Law Group, described it as the “bridge” for cloud adoption, given the fears around being legally liable if data offences occur in the cloud.

However, it will do little to allay fears around the US Patriot Act, which is fast emerging as a real threat to cloud adoption. The law effectively means the US can search through any US-run cloud provider’s data centres to find information on illegal activities.

For companies planning on using vendors with data centres in the US, this poses a significant obstacle to cloud adoption.

The European Parliament has already raised concerns about the impact of the Patriot Act and its effective overriding of EU data protection laws.

Legal changes incoming

In November, the EU will publish the draft new data protection law, which will form the basis of national legislations for the next 15-20 years. This will replace the current Data Protection Directive and the Data Protection Act in the UK.

Outside of the new Binding Safe Processor Rules, mandatory breach disclosure will be embedded in the draft law.

“We are certain that mandatory breach disclosure laws will be contained with the new EU data protection law. The European Commission has made this clear already,” Room said.

This means companies will be required to report any breaches, making more work for Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). It makes it much more likely private companies will be reprimanded by the watchdog, if it decides to show its teeth.

Room believes the ICO will order companies to provide records of any breaches on a monthly basis.

For further coverage of cloud computing visit our sister siteCloud Pro.

In the News

AES Suffers and Survives

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Biclique Cryptanalysis of the Full AES

…

State of the art for attacks on AES. AES with its wide-trail strategy was designed to withstand differential and linear cryptanalyses [15], so pure versions of these techniques have limited applications in attacks. With respect to AES, probably the most powerful single- key recovery methods designed so far are impossible differential cryptanalysis [5, 33] and Square attacks [14,20]. The impossible differential cryptanalysis yielded the first attack on 7-round AES-128 with non-marginal data complexity. The Square attack and its variations such as integral attack and multiset attack resulted in the cryptanalysis of round-reduced AES variants with lowest computational complexity to date, while the first attack on 8-round AES-192 with non-marginal data complexity has appeared only recently [20].

The situation is different in weaker attack models, where the related-key cryptanalysis was applied to the full versions of AES-192 and AES-256 [9], and the rebound attack demon- strated a non-random property in 8-round AES-128 [25,30]. However, there is little evidence so far that carrying over these techniques to the most practical single-secret-key model is feasible.

…

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/cryptanalysis/aesbc.pdf

 

An FAQ on a previous (2009) attack: CryptoLUX > FAQ on the attacks

Video Processing

New Pro Polaroid 3D Glasses [Updated]

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These are the questions asked, and now answered during an email coorespondance:

Given that darkness is the main issue with 3d and typically glasses contribute to that darkness by some varying degree… How good can polaroid get with circular polarization – We have a transmittance of 42-44% which is as high as one can get without loosing polarizer efficiency. We are looking at AR coating to further improve this value.

What is the light transmission spec for the specs? – 42-44%. More importantly is the transmittance of the polarized light, which in our case can reach as high as 84 to 88%.

What is the polarization efficiency? – It needs to be 99.9% in order to maximise the 3D effect.

Are the lenses matched left and right- tests have shown that this is a common problem with those glasses – From a transmittance point of view, yes.

[It is obvious that there a lot to learn if we’re going to ask the proper questions. Back to the original article.] 

Are the lenses matched left and right – tests have shown that this is a common problem with some glasses.

Is there an AR coating on the inside? Does this reduce transmission more than it helps internal face glare?

Part of the problem that “Pros” face is that they have to look up at 3D screens while they have to look down at computer keys and editing levers and knobs in 2D. They need a dual lens solution, maybe even the ability to have their doctor etch their prescription into the bottom of the lens. Has Polaroid accommodated for this?

Is this line being sold direct through Polaroid?

We wrote an article last year whenn Polaroid announced a line of 3D glasses for consumers. Wonder how that went. RealD and Polaroid — Possible Promise PR.

Here is the new press release:

Polaroid Eyewear Launches Professional Range of 3D Glasses

Zurich, Switzerland, 9 September 2011 – Polaroid Eyewear today announced the launch of the first two styles in its Professional 3D Eyewear Collection.

The Polaroid Professional 3D Collection, which uses passive circular polarization, has been specifically created for 3D professionals and producers of 3D content. These first two styles both have interchangeable lenses, meaning that after work, professionals can simply change the lenses and use them as stylish sunglasses.

The frames are produced using premium quality materials and precision, making them both lightweight and robust. The lenses are produced using ThermofusionTM technology, which is exclusive to Polaroid Eyewear and ensures distortion-free vision.

Polaroid Eyewear already has a wide range of consumer 3D glasses on the market place, which offer high quality and comfortable viewing, and can be used with passive 3D systems, such as RealD and masterImage, as well as a number of passive 3DTVs.

Both the professional and consumer ranges have curved lenses, which wrap around the sides of your face and therefore block out any excess light, providing high contrast vision right across the lens.

“Polaroid Eyewear’s entire range of 3D glasses combines stylish design and expert technology to deliver great quality passive circular-polarized 3D glasses.”, commented Eva Dudek, Marketing Project Manager, Polaroid Eyewear. “With the Professional Range we have taken that one step further to give professionals extra comfort for long viewing periods, as well as a picture-perfect 3D viewing experience.”

The collection is due to be expanded shortly and will offer a choice of exclusive high quality styles.

About Polaroid Eyewear

Polaroid Eyewear is a world leader in optics and lens technology and a global eyewear manufacturer and distributor. Polaroid invented the first man-made polarizer for commercial use in 1929 and has been a pioneer and expert in polarizing lens technology ever since. Polaroid Eyewear remains a market leader in manufacturing high quality polarizing lenses and distributing fashionable polarized sunglasses around the world. Demand for polarizing eyewear is rising steadily as more and more consumers come to realize the benefits of glare-free vision.

Polaroid Eyewear is part of the global StyleMark group and has offices in the UK, Switzerland, the US, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, China and Russia as well as a comprehensive network of distribution partners around the globe.

Cameras

Great Epic Essay

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“There is one thing for those I would advise anyone out there to do and that is to get a truck load of hard drive storage. Don’t shoot HDRx if you don’t have to, but for those technical boys out there this additional channel is perfect for 3D tracking and amazing at bringing out the blown out backgrounds! It has been a long 7 weeks, but we did a documentary, at least 3 TVC’s, a more “corporate” film and a trailer for a movie by one of the big Post houses in Cape Town, the short film shown above and a passion project named Alice. Lastly, I have had the privilege of using a variety of lenses that most reputable equipment houses have to offer and I have my favorites… This topic I will not discuss now…”

Read the whole thing at: Humbled by an EPIC – guest post by Jacques Mulder | Digital Cinema Demystified

Integrator News

Why film will end by late 2013

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Panel Participants: 
John Fithian – President & CEO, National Association of Theatre Owners
Joe Hart – Senior Vice President, Deluxe Digital Cinema 
Larry O’Reilly – Executive Vice President Theatre Development, IMAX
Joel Pearlman – Managing Director, Roadshow Films & Chairman, Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia
Allan Stiles – Managing Director, Grand Cinemas & Board Member, National Association of Cinema Operators-Australasia
Wayne Duband – former CEO, Warner Bros. International & current Independent Representative for Major Product

The site for all the posts is: CineTechGeek

Index of Posts

Constant Alertness

Autopsy of RSA Attack

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From the Security Site at ITPRO

The RSA hack was months ago now, but the file and email which helped compromised the security giant has just been found.

By Tom Brewster, 26 Aug 2011 at 15:36

F-Secure believes it has discovered the file and the email which helped crack EMC’s security arm RSA, in what became one of the most famous hacks in history earlier this year.

 

Timo Hirvonen, an F-Secure analyst, doggedly pursued the XLS file used to hack RSA even after others had given up the chase. Hirvonen created a tool to analyse samples for a Flash object, which was used to exploit the target’s system.

“The new tool located several relevant samples. However, one of them was not an Excel file. It was an Outlook message file (MSG),” an F-Secure blog read.

“When Timo opened it up, he knew he was onto something. The message file turned out to be the original email that was sent to RSA on 3 March, complete with the attachment 2011 Recruitment plan.xls. After five months, we finally had the file. And not only that, we had the original email.”

The email which was sent to a single EMC employee, with two others CC’d in, was made to look like it came from Beyond.com, a career network.

The subject line read “2011 Recruitment plan” and the body copy contained just one line: “I forward this file to you for review. Please open and view it.”

Once the file was opened the Flash object was executed by Excel, using a vulnerability to write code on the victim’s machine and then drop a Poison Ivy backdoor to the system. Excel is then closed automatically and the infection is done.

What we think…

It’s clear the email which duped EMC was pretty simple. Certainly it would be unadvisable to trust an email which contains just a single line.

This only emphasises the need for further education amongst workforces about spear phishing. It seems even workers at security firms aren’t getting the message, which would be laughable if the connotations of the RSA hack weren’t so serious.

Tom Brewster, Senior Staff Writer

“After this, Poison Ivy connects back to it’s server at good.mincesur.com. The domain mincesur.com has been used in similar espionage attacks over an extended period of time,” F-Secure said.

“Once the connection is made, the attacker has full remote access to the infected workstation. Even worse, it has full access to network drives that the user can access. Apparently the attackers were able to leverage this vector further until they gained access to the critical SecurID data they were looking for.”

As F-Secure noted, the attack itself did not appear to be hugely sophisticated, although as the vulnerability was a zero-day there was no way RSA could have protected itself by patching.

“Was this an advanced attack? The email wasn’t advanced. The backdoor they dropped wasn’t advanced. But the exploit was advanced,” F-Secure added.

“And the ultimate target of the attacker was advanced. If somebody hacks a security vendor just to gain access to their customers systems, we’d say the attack is advanced, even if some of the interim steps weren’t very complicated.”

The hackers who went after RSA wanted the company’s SecureID information so they could hit US Government contractors, including Lockheed Martin.

Following the Lockheed attacks, RSA offered token replacement for customers “with concentrated user bases typically focused on protecting intellectual property and corporate networks.”

Societies

EDCF DCinema Yearly Review for IBC

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The EDCF annual review of progress in D-Cinema will be on the last day of IBC, Tuesday September 13th at 10:00 in Room E102 of the RAI Conference Centre.

There will be 13 speakers covering a wide range of topics including:-

Dave Monk                  – the tipping point for D-Cinema

Peter Wilson                 – recommendations for screening Alternative Content

Siegfried Foessel          – the Prime 3D project

Reiner Doetzkies          – an update from TI

John Hurst                    – DCI testing & 21DC activity

David Hancock            – current status of worldwide deployment

CJ Flynn                       – ISDCF activity

Kommer Kleijn             – screening quality concerns amongst cinematographers

Tim Sinnaeve                – 4k from Barco

Benoit Michel               – XDC & delivery of Alternative Content

Francois Helt                – Screen Measurement

Nigel Dennis                 – latest developments from Qube

Laurence Claydon        – current issues in post-production

Entry to this session is free but you will need to be registered to enter the RAI

Also please note that the EDCF/SMPTE Post-Production Workshop at 16:00 on Sunday 11th is also a free entry session.

European Digital Cinema Forum is a great organization to support.

Cameras

3ality Technica Combo

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Technica, a geek’s wonderlab that was first to market with dual RED 3D systems, will be at IBC next month, as will 3ality.

The new website isn’t online as of now, but the link will be: 3alitytechnica.com

The press release follows:

(Burbank, California–August 24, 2011) 3ality Digital, considered to be the leading innovator of the most sophisticated S3D production technology in the industry, announced today it has acquired Element Technica, a company long-known for its manufacturing expertise, accessories, and mechanical engineering of motorized S3D camera rigs.

3ality Digital has been named in the 2011 Inc. 500 list and is considered one of the fastest growing companies in the nation.

3ality Digital is now 3ality Technica, and with its acquisition of Element Technica, 3ality Technica now provides all of the control, accuracy, breadth, automation, modularity, accessories, and design of both existing product lines. 

Element Technica’s product line has become synonymous with ease of use, great design, affordability, and durability. 3ality Digital’s product line has become synonymous with precision components, speed of use, incredible accuracy, and advanced image processing. In acquiring Element Technica, – the Company gains an in house manufacturing and design capability, and the opportunity to further expand its already sizable R&D infrastructure. Physically, the companies will combine in an expansion to the 3ality Digital headquarters in Burbank, CA. 

““As our primary competitor, we have always had great respect for Element Technica and their achievements. The complete compatibility and lack of redundancy between the companies has made this an ideal acquisition, strengthening the Company’s position to provide the most advanced and dependable S3D solutions to the market. Perhaps the greatest benefit of this acquisition will be to the motion picture and broadcast producers who will now have an unprecedented amount of tools and technology tailored to meet their specific needs” said Steve Schklair, CEO of 3ality Technica. 

The combined engineering skills of the two companies will help push 3D production to levels of integration and refinement previously unmatched. Many of Hollywood’s major theatrical releases which have been shot utilizing these two companies systems and technology include “Jack the Giant Killer,” “The Amazing Spider-Man, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Prometheus,” “Underworld 4,” “Oz,” and “The Great Gatsby.” Also, companies like BSkyB, the world’s leading 3D broadcaster, and the HBS feeds from the FIFA World Cup have based their productions of live events on the backbone of 3ality Technica technology. 

“With this acquisition, 3ality Technica will be a decade ahead of the rest of the industry. Not only will automation become more common, it will be the standard as the industry begins to enjoy the simplicity and speed it affords,” said Hector Ortega, Senior Vice President of 3ality Technica.

“Integration will fast-forward as the merging systems require fewer and fewer ancillary components. Compatibility with other industry systems will cease to be an issue as 3ality Technica alone already leads the way in seamless connectivity from post production, to VFX, and live broadcast,” said Stephen Pizzo, Senior Vice President of 3ality Technica.

The combined expertise that forms 3ality Technica ranges from Hollywood feature films and television, to live-broadcast sports events and concert performances, to NASA. It also positions the company to offer the world the most comprehensive advanced 3D educational program (3DIQ™) to filmmakers, broadcasters, and craftspeople. 

Element Technica is also well known for their line of both 2D and 3D accessories, and it is planned that this product line will continue under the existing Element Technica banner. 

“You cannot believe the level of excitement we all share, but it’s not just us that are so elated. Some of our key customers and partners that were recently made aware of this deal have shared in this excitement as they all understand the benefit this will have to their work. We have already integrated some of the best aspects of both companies’ product offerings, so the market will see an immediate improvement in tool sets, component integration, and customer service,” said Schklair.

About 3ality Technica™
3ality Technica is headquartered in Burbank, California, and is the leading provider of advanced stereoscopic 3D (S3D) production products that
enable the highest quality live-action S3D. 3ality Technica systems have been deployed for “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Jack the Giant Killer, “Oz,” “Prometheus,” “The Great Gatsby,” and “Underworld 4.” 3ality Technica has enabled most of the world’s first S3D cinematic and broadcast achievements, including U2 3D (the movie), and the first live S3D broadcasts from the NFL, BCS Championship, BSkyB, the Super Bowl, the World Cup and NBC television.

In broadcast, 3ality Technica is the technology and production systems behind the BSkyB launch of their 3D channels, and has been used on a wide range of events including the Isle of Wight Festival, the Ryder Cup, and Champions League Football. To learn more about the advanced products and services available from 3ality Technica, visit http://3alitytechnica.com

…Like Tangents In Rain