XDC RETAINS FORMER BOEING DIGITAL CINEMA INTERNATIONAL HEAD

XDC, the European digital cinema integrator and investor has retained John Birchell Hughes. As Business Development Manager, John will coordinate content management for the German language markets and, with his many years marketing management experience, aid XDC's marketing communications. He was previously head of international marketing at Boeing Digital Cinema.

In 2002 digital cinema moved from select screenings to routine production, distribution and exhibition. Before The Boeing Company consolidated in its mainly aerospace and defence related activities and sold the unit's assets to a third party, Boeing Digital Cinema used satellite transmission to support over 23,000 successful screenings of digital movies to locations in the US and Europe. That program made full use of XDC's (1) technologies. To date, around 140 movies have been mastered and distributed for routine digital exhibition. A look at last year's (2004) slate shows the importance attached by movie makers and distributors to digital cinema. Twelve out of the top 20 movies were released digitally (2). However in Europe, many of these titles could only be seen digitally in the Benelux, which has by far the highest number of digital screens in the region.

John moved to Germany in the mid 1970s. He spent nearly 14 years managing world-wide marketing information projects for BASF- Aktiengesellschaft and later headed up the data and telecommunications operations for the European Space Agency in Darmstadt. Before moving to Boeing, he assisted film-makers and lyric theatre producers with production control and marketing concepts. John, a fluent German speaker and creatively associated with stage and film for many years, joined the British Film Institute in 1987. He is an active member of the Hollywood chapter of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and closely involved in new digital content provision. In 2004 he provided strategic digital cinema support for Deutsche Telekom and Film Ton Technik - Hanndieter Rüttgers GmbH. In full compliance with the technical requirements of the releasing distributors, Film Ton Technik together with XDC have launched a series of practical and interesting initiatives to bring digital cinema to many thousands of German cinema goers, who have yet to enjoy the benefits of brilliant, steady and scratch free images the film-makers prefer their audiences to see.

"We have known John for a long time, and are glad we have been able to retain him to assist with the vital content component of our program," said Bernard Collard, General Manager of XDC SA. "We are sure that his long associations with both German creative art and industry, particularly with our partner company Film Ton Technik, augur well for the future of digital cinema in the German speaking region.”

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