What is a Digital Cinema?
Digital cinema encompasses every aspect of the movie making process, from production and post-production to distribution and projection. While digital cameras are nothing new, and post-production houses have been using digital equipment to edit and master movies and animation for some time, the all-digital distribution and projection of movies has only recently arrived to complete the chain. A digitally produced or digitally converted movie can be distributed to theatres via satellite, physical media, or fiber optic networks. The digitized movie is stored by a computer/server which “serves” it to a digital projector for each screening of the movie.
Digital Vs. 35mm Prints Workings of digital projection
A digital projector based on DLP Cinema® technology transfers the digitized image file onto three optical semiconductors known as Digital Micromirror Devices, or DMDs. Each of these chips is dedicated to one primary color-red, green, or blue. A DMD chip contains a rectangular array of over one million microscopic mirrors. Light from the projector’s lamp is reflected off the mirrors and is combined in different proportions of red, green and blue, as controlled by the image file, to create an array of different colored pixels that make up the projected image. Think of the DMD mirrors as the colored cards held up by an audience in a sports arena to create a giant image. Each person holds up a single colored card, yet when combined, these thousands of cards create a picture. If the card colors are changed, the picture changes too. The DMD mirrors tilt either toward or away from the light source thousands of times per second to reflect the movie onto the screen. These images are sequentially projected onto the screen, recreating the movie in front of you with perfect clarity and a range of more than 35 trillion colors.
Workings of 35mm reels
A print of the film is made and then sent to each theatre in reels. The projectionist puts the reels together in a process called splicing creating one big reel of film. The film is wound through the projector and reflected onto the screen one frame at a time. The standard length of a 35mm motion picture reel is 1000 feet.
Advantage of Digital Projection
The picture never degrades in quality as there are fewer artifacts and scratches and there is no color fading. It also offers a 35 trillion color spectrum, more than eight times the amount film can capture.
Digital Movement Worldwide
Celluloid film has been used to shoot, distribute and screen movies for more than 100 years. Now, the movie industry is at the threshold of the biggest change in its history: the transition from film to digital. Digital Cinema heralds a new era for the cinema industry. This transformation is considered to be the most significant technological advancement in the cinema. It offers greater variety of content, lower cost of distribution and exhibition of better quality. Movie-distributors can save on reel duplication costs as well as encrypt digital content to ensure greater security and prevent piracy. Movie-goers can also enjoy the latest block-bluster movies with simultaneous releases or the transmission of ‘live’ concerts from other countries. |
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Standards Development
Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC (DCI) was created in March, 2002, and is a joint venture of Disney, Fox, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal and Warner Bros. Studios. DCI’s primary purpose is to establish and document voluntary specifications for an open architecture for digital cinema that ensures a uniform and high level of technical performance, reliability and quality control.
Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC (DCI) was created in March, 2002, and is a joint venture of Disney, Fox, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal and Warner Bros. Studios. DCI’s primary purpose is to establish and document voluntary specifications for an open architecture for digital cinema that ensures a uniform and high level of technical performance, reliability and quality control.
Digital Movement in Singapore
In a collaboration intended to support Singapore’s ambition to become the digital hub of the ASIA region the government’s IDA (Infocomm Development Authority) and MDA (Media Development Authority) have jointly selected the Barco D-Cine Premiere DP100 2K projector for the introduction of Digital Cinema into the country. Recognizing the significance of the transformation of today’s celluloid film based distribution and the considerable opportunities it offers the Singapore economy, jobs in post production and in the wider media industry generally, the IDA and MDA have supported Eng Wah Cinemas. The Eng Wah network, comprising of 20 Barco D-Cine Premiere DP100 digital projectors plus anamorphic lens for a State-of the Art wide large screen cinemascope display are unique as the only network in the world to include multiplex locations that are totally digitally equipped; every screen being provided with both Digital and 35mm film projectors in 2003. In that year, EW Cinemas was the first in the world to commercially screen a full 2K digital movie; Brother Bear. EW Cinemas is still currently the operator with the highest number of 2K digital screens here.
Eng Wah Cinemas showcased the all new 4K Digital Cinema technology with “SpiderMan 3” on 1 May 2007. Sony’s CineAlta 4K digital projector is currently installed in 2 halls in EW-Suntec. Sony’s CineAlta 4K digital projector, building on its SXRD™ — Silicon X-tal Reflective Display — technology, is capable of reproducing images with full 4K: 4096 x 2160 pixels. This is more than four times the pixels of the best High Definition TV. With Sony’s CineAlta 4K digital projector, the picture stays bright, crisp and clear even during the fastest and the most dynamic action sequences — all the way from the front row to the back of the theater. The end result is the most compelling and the most realistic movie theatre experience ever — and Singapore is one of the first places to enjoy this ground-breaking technology.
Barco – Supplier of EW Cinemas’ Digital Cinema Projectors D-Cine Premiere DP100
Recognized as the industry standard for Digital Cinema, Barco’s D-Cine Premiere DP100 projector is based on Texas Instruments’ DLP Cinema™ technology, which enables it to deliver the benefits of 2048x1080 display resolution, 18.000 Cinema lumens light output, a contrast ratio of 2000:1 as well as DLP Cinema™, CineBlack™, CinePalette™ and CineLink™ image control. The DP100 is easy to maintain, among other things because of its hermetically sealed DMD™ engine and optical assembly, for increased longevity via dust-free operations. The D-Cine Premiere DP100 meets or exceeds SMPTE screen brightness standards on screens up to 20m (65.6ft) wide, and ensures optimum performance and reliability through its integrated light path and digital processing. Being fully compatible with Barco’s D-Cine Communicator, the industries’ most advanced projector control and diagnostics software, the DP100 simply is the perfect tool to answer the demanding needs of the digital cinema industry.
GDC Technology Supplier of EW Cinemas’ Digital Servers
GDC Technology delivered and installed Eng Wah Organization’s four multiplexes with digital cinema servers and central servers: GDC Technology is acknowledged by the digital cinema community as the first company to deliver and install the world’s first digital multiplex with a real-time central server.
For more information, please visit
I www.barco.com I www.dcimovies.com I www.dlp.com I www.ewcinemas.com.sg I www.gdc-tech.com I www.ida.gov.sg I www.mda.gov.sg I www.pro.sony.com.hkenews/20070430/index.html I