Chennai—Jul 27, 2005
Chandramukhi Screened Digitally for 100 days on the Qube Digital Cinema System
Real Image Media Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is pleased to
announce the completion of 100 days of digital screening of Sivaji Productions’
Chandramukhi on the Qube Digital Cinema Player, a high quality, powerful,
reliable and flexible digital cinema solution developed by Real Image.
This is the very first time in the history of Indian cinema that a movie has
been successfully and continuously screened digitally for 100 days in a theatre.
Real Image’s Qube Cinema Player is the only server in the Indian digital cinema
sphere that has been operated for so many digital shows of a movie on a
continuous basis.
Says Senthil Kumar, Director, Real Image, “With this successful digital
screening at four theatres across the state of Tamil Nadu – Abirami in Chennai,
Abirami in Erode, Ananda in Pondichery and Guru in Madurai – Real Image has
established that digital cinema in India is no more an experiment but the
reality for the film industry. This achievement owes its success to the
confidence placed in Real Image by Producers, Directors, Exhibitors and
Cinematographers who have trusted Real Image to deliver only the best in
quality. Quality is something that Real Image has never compromised on and we
will always endeavour to live up to the trust placed in us by the film
community. Without all their support, this envious achievement would not have
been possible and we wish to take this opportunity to thank every one of them
for supporting this pioneering initiative.”
The theoretical benefits of digital cinema to the industry are well documented
and understood by all the stakeholders; but it required a practical
demonstration of the same to the demanding quality standards that the industry
is used to, especially in terms of visual quality matching that of film and
reliability of equipment, areas that Real Image has never compromised on despite
the higher costs and difficulties in procuring content that it had to face to
promote the concept.
The industry will never embrace any technology or process that does not enable
exhibition of content in the creative form conceived by the creators and most
certainly will not compromise on visual quality. Despite pressures to make
available content of lower quality like other players in this industry have
done, Real Image has steadfastly stood its ground, converting a film to the
digital format in high definition only from the negative or inter-positive. This
is the only method of digital conversion that allows complete control over the
colour grading and contrast and enables the digital version to match or improve
upon the quality of the film print as envisaged by the cinematographer and
director. The alternate method, of converting from the film print, is a
substantial compromise that the industry has no incentive to accept or allow.
The company has also commenced the networking of theatres using VSAT
connectivity and will be ready to commence content downloads to the Qube network
theatres by the third week of August. Hughes Network Systems (India) Ltd. along
with Hughes Escorts Communication Limited are partnering Real Image to enable
this networking.
The second phase of expansion of Qube has also commenced, both in Tamil Nadu and
Andhra Pradesh, and plans are on to reach a network size of at least 250
theatres between the two states by the end of FY 2005-06.
Real Image has, with the successful digital screening of Chandramukhi for 100
days on the Qube Digital Cinema System, demonstrated that digital cinema is a
sound choice for the future of the cinema industry in more ways than one:
Says Mr. Sv. Rm. Ramanathan, Managing Director of Abirami Megamall in Chennai:
“The distributor share at Abirami, Chennai, is the highest for a single screen
for the film Chandramukhi. We attribute the extra luck for us to Digital
Projection as Chandramukhi was digitally projected in Abirami on the Qube Cinema
Player, and has now completed 100 days of continuous operation. I would urge all
industry stakeholders including producers and distributors to pro-actively
support this transformation and make all content available to theatres in the
digital format.”
Mr. Senthilnathan, owner of Abirami Theatre in Erode:
“In the beginning, though we were apprehensive of the new technology, we boldly
took the decision to go ahead, given the strength of the company that is backing
this transformation - Real Image. Today, we are extremely pleased that our trust
in Real Image and Qube Cinema has paid off. We would unhesitatingly recommend
the Qube Cinema Player and the digital format in general to all theatres to
adopt for the benefit of the industry as a whole.”
Mr. Raj and Mr. Prabhakar, owners of Guru Theatre in Madurai:
“We are very happy that our theatre Guru, in Madurai, has completed 100 days
screening of the film Chandramukhi in hi-def digital format on Qube Cinema
Player. We are thrilled that even on the 100th day, the digital print, as
promised, looked the same as it did on the first day of screening! We truly
appreciate the reliability of the Qube Cinema player developed by Real Image.
The support provided by their technical team has been excellent. Today, our
operators handle the entire playback with great ease.”
Mr. Radja Radjane, Executive Director of Ananda Theatre in Pondichery:
“The reliability of the Qube Cinema Player, developed by Real Image, and the
ease of operation that the system offers our operators is truly appreciated. The
support provided by the company’s technical team is commendable. The favourable
response from the audience towards the digital screening is proof of the quality
that Qube Cinema offers.”
The Qube Cinema Player from Real Image offers the film fraternity an
internationally acclaimed digital cinema technology that can be the base for
future innovation yet ensures backward compatibility. Qube Cinema provides the
ultimate combination of quality, reliability, ease-of-use, security and
flexibility. Being almost entirely software based allows the Qube system to
leverage developments in the computer industry to bring cinemas a cost-effective
professional product that projectionists everywhere will be instantly familiar
with.
