Tag Archives: Las Vegas

CinemaCon 2013: Maturity Brings Discussions of Quality in Digital Cinema

Wherever one looks at CinemaCon 2013 there is the smell of Quality Control in the air. Examples:

Jack Cashin, President of USL – famous for their test and measurement systems as well as quality systems for the deaf/hard of hearing/blind/partially sighted audiences and multi-projector movie distribution systems – is awarded the Ken Mason Inter-Society Award. They introduced a QC system last CinemaCon.

Highlands Technologies introduces the QALIF Calibration system [QALIF  Digital projection System Measurement Tool] and arranges for West US distribution with Charles Flynn of Digital Test Tools (+1 818 877-6149) — See attached presentation

Harkness Screens introduces iPad apps – Digital Screen Modeller and in particular the Digital Screen Archiver – will assist in changing people’s view of their valuable data as well as helping projectionists keep track of reality. — See attached press releases

…and last but not least…

RealD is showing the new “Precision White Screen” technology that the spoke about at last years SMPTE October event. If they can make a screen that not only broadens the sweet spot of 3D movies but is more efficient then they can do the industry a great deal of actual good.More on this after the demos. — See attached press releases

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Although some say that new audio systems are just a way to fill the coming income void resulting from a market that is now nearly digital saturated, in fact with larger ceiling’d rooms there is a need to fill the room better. Technology has moved on from the simplicity of the 1990s’ and Atmos and Auro are taking advantage of new potentials of faster chips and algorithms that were impossible last decade.

For a decade the industry was fighting to just handle the influx that the digital transition kept piling on them. Now post-installation can be discussed.

CinemaCon 2013: Maturity Brings Discussions of Quality in Digital Cinema

Wherever one looks at CinemaCon 2013 there is the smell of Quality Control in the air. Examples:

Jack Cashin, President of USL – famous for their test and measurement systems as well as quality systems for the deaf/hard of hearing/blind/partially sighted audiences and multi-projector movie distribution systems – is awarded the Ken Mason Inter-Society Award. They introduced a QC system last CinemaCon.

Highlands Technologies introduces the QALIF Calibration system [QALIF  Digital projection System Measurement Tool] and arranges for West US distribution with Charles Flynn of Digital Test Tools (+1 818 877-6149) — See attached presentation

Harkness Screens introduces iPad apps – Digital Screen Modeller and in particular the Digital Screen Archiver – will assist in changing people’s view of their valuable data as well as helping projectionists keep track of reality. — See attached press releases

…and last but not least…

RealD is showing the new “Precision White Screen” technology that the spoke about at last years SMPTE October event. If they can make a screen that not only broadens the sweet spot of 3D movies but is more efficient then they can do the industry a great deal of actual good.More on this after the demos. — See attached press releases

=-=-=

Although some say that new audio systems are just a way to fill the coming income void resulting from a market that is now nearly digital saturated, in fact with larger ceiling’d rooms there is a need to fill the room better. Technology has moved on from the simplicity of the 1990s’ and Atmos and Auro are taking advantage of new potentials of faster chips and algorithms that were impossible last decade.

For a decade the industry was fighting to just handle the influx that the digital transition kept piling on them. Now post-installation can be discussed.

CinemaCon 2013: Maturity Brings Discussions of Quality in Digital Cinema

Wherever one looks at CinemaCon 2013 there is the smell of Quality Control in the air. Examples:

Jack Cashin, President of USL – famous for their test and measurement systems as well as quality systems for the deaf/hard of hearing/blind/partially sighted audiences and multi-projector movie distribution systems – is awarded the Ken Mason Inter-Society Award. They introduced a QC system last CinemaCon.

Highlands Technologies introduces the QALIF Calibration system [QALIF  Digital projection System Measurement Tool] and arranges for West US distribution with Charles Flynn of Digital Test Tools (+1 818 877-6149) — See attached presentation

Harkness Screens introduces iPad apps – Digital Screen Modeller and in particular the Digital Screen Archiver – will assist in changing people’s view of their valuable data as well as helping projectionists keep track of reality. — See attached press releases

…and last but not least…

RealD is showing the new “Precision White Screen” technology that the spoke about at last years SMPTE October event. If they can make a screen that not only broadens the sweet spot of 3D movies but is more efficient then they can do the industry a great deal of actual good.More on this after the demos. — See attached press releases

=-=-=

Although some say that new audio systems are just a way to fill the coming income void resulting from a market that is now nearly digital saturated, in fact with larger ceiling’d rooms there is a need to fill the room better. Technology has moved on from the simplicity of the 1990s’ and Atmos and Auro are taking advantage of new potentials of faster chips and algorithms that were impossible last decade.

For a decade the industry was fighting to just handle the influx that the digital transition kept piling on them. Now post-installation can be discussed.

Vegas 2013 SMPTE/NAB CinemaCon

Calendar dates of SMPTE during NAB and CinemaCon

It happens again this year before switching back next year…CinemaCon immediately follows NAB in Vegas. This means that those who want to attend the SMTPE weekend, filled with more data than one can predict, but not NAB, and also attend CinemaCon, that there is a week in the middle.

Last year this was filled with a near-perfect EDCF bus tour arranged by Thomas MacCalla. From sound systems to important post houses (and who’ll forget being the first riders on the Universal Studios Transformers ride, or equally exciting, spending time talking with Laser Light Engines’ Bill Beck after the successful SMPTE showing of a laser driven Sony projector, and exchanging ideas with all the other european experts), the yearly bustour was yet again perhaps the highlight of the two weeks.

So what will it be in 2013? Can SMPTE out-do themselves…Can Nick Mitchell of Technicolor take the Marvin Hall Award for Telling Us What We Don’t Want to Hear again? Will there be another mis-named presentation that everyone complains for missing (what is white, really?) Will RealD demonstrat what they merely talk about at this coming SMPTE Hollywood Expo?

Vegas 2013 SMPTE/NAB CinemaCon

Calendar dates of SMPTE during NAB and CinemaCon

It happens again this year before switching back next year…CinemaCon immediately follows NAB in Vegas. This means that those who want to attend the SMTPE weekend, filled with more data than one can predict, but not NAB, and also attend CinemaCon, that there is a week in the middle.

Last year this was filled with a near-perfect EDCF bus tour arranged by Thomas MacCalla. From sound systems to important post houses (and who’ll forget being the first riders on the Universal Studios Transformers ride, or equally exciting, spending time talking with Laser Light Engines’ Bill Beck after the successful SMPTE showing of a laser driven Sony projector, and exchanging ideas with all the other european experts), the yearly bustour was yet again perhaps the highlight of the two weeks.

So what will it be in 2013? Can SMPTE out-do themselves…Can Nick Mitchell of Technicolor take the Marvin Hall Award for Telling Us What We Don’t Want to Hear again? Will there be another mis-named presentation that everyone complains for missing (what is white, really?) Will RealD demonstrat what they merely talk about at this coming SMPTE Hollywood Expo?

NAB / CinemaCon Future Space.Time Conjunctions

The schedule for the NATO convention now known as CinemaCon* and the NAB Convention has taken on interesting time intersection. They both occur in Las Vegas. 

In the past the NATO convention (then known as ShoWest) was 4 or 5 weeks before NAB. With the first CinemaCon this year (2011) there was a 9 day difference between the end of CinemaCon and the beginning of NAB (if you consider the SMPTE/NATO “DCienmaDays” as the beginning of NAB…the weekend before the NAB Exhibits open.

In 2012 this takes an interesting twist. NAB begins on the 14th and closes on the 19th of April, with CinemaCon beginning just a few days later on the 23rd (and closing on Thursday the 26th.

2013 brings NAB on 6-11 April with CinemaCon on 15-18.

2014 switches them; first CinemaCon on 24-27 March and NAB on 5-10 April. (Perhaps these dates were chosen because Passover is on the 15th and Easter that year is on the 20th. There is no conflicts with these floating holidays the other years.)

Now if only the Hollywood Post Alliance festival in Palm Springs were moved from February to the week before CinemaCon us Europeans could schedule one trip and get our tech fix all in one long drip-fed dose. 

 

 

*It has been confirmed that the Con in CinemaCon has nothing to do with “Putting the Con back in Cinema” as has been suspected.