DCinema could be said to have started before the turn of the century, or possibly when George Lucas pushed so hard to get the first 100 systems installed to light up Attack of the Clones in 2002. My moment of ‘made it’ came during the set-up week prior to the Cannes Film Festival in 2004, when projector-derived subtitles were working on a 2K projector.

So choosing that date as when the R&D project stopped and real products began, we’re closing in on 10 years of evolution. Some tools came very recently, such as implemented standards and products for the deaf/blind/hard of hearing and visually impaired audience members. In North America there has been several chains which are now 100% covered for 100% of movies with closed caption and enhanced and descriptive audio. Obviously 3D got past the needles-in-the-eyes stage of Chicken Little, and it will only get better when laser light engines get integrated with HFR…and by that one presumes it will have to be after all the NIH leaves the projector manufacturers and 48fps leaves the field of HFR.

Here’s a drawing that tries to show the evolution to the degree that a 2D drawing can show such details. Anyone who wants to help map it into HTML for some obvious cool tricks is invited to write [email protected] – likewise, anyone who needs to strip the sponsored bits to make the drawing into a teaching device…please write. It is an evolving drawing as well, so if you’d like to be informed when revisions are made…you’ve got the address.

The full drawing is at: 
DCinema_Auditoria_and_Equipment_Network.pdf