Los Angeles—Jul 24, 2006
Kodak to expand GLOBAL Digital Cinema 3-d installations
Digital Cinema Solution Is Comprehensive, Flexible, Future-Ready
Kodak Digital Cinema is helping to deliver the screams being heard from Columbia Pictures’ animated “Monster House” now playing in 3-D. Over the past several weeks, Kodak installation teams have been at work in nine states and Canada, and soon they’ll be in Australia and Singapore, providing fully networked digital cinema 3-D systems on 27 multiplex screens of eight different exhibition chains.
“Monster House” opened in the U.S. and Canada over the weekend; it opens in other parts of the world later this year. Most Kodak installations will be in advance of the release.
This is the next stage in a market-tested model Kodak initiated six months ago to roll out digital 3‑D cinema, beginning with multiple screens throughout Australia.
The company is handling all installation, service and support and providing packaging, preparation, and delivery of all feature content for the Kodak systems. This system includes Barco’s highly reliable cinema projectors and the industry-leading REAL D Cinema system, all driven by Kodak’s fully networked Digital Cinema Operating System (DCOS).
“We designed our system from the exhibitor’s point of view,” says Bob Mayson, general manager and vice president, Kodak Digital Motion Imaging. “This is a great 3-D solution, but it goes far beyond that to handle a full cinema presentation, from digital pre-show through studio feature. It’s complete, flexible, and ready for exhibitors’ needs on a worldwide basis.”
In fact, the Kodak-prepared and -delivered hard drives containing “Monster House” in 3-D also have several trailers in 2-D. “They play seamlessly,” Mayson says. “Our system can handle any mix of 2-D and 3-D, in either MPEG or JPEG, with a pre-show or not. What we sell is a system, but what we provide is peace of mind.”
In the 18 months since Kodak’s involvement in digital feature distribution, the company has handled the digital preparation and delivery of 24 movies from 7 different studios. Earlier this summer, Kodak handled packaging and distribution of Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible: III” to more than 170 screens.
“Kodak’s goal is to provide exhibitors with the most flexible, complete, and effective digital solution – on a global basis,” says Mayson. “Having the capability to show 3-D will get them in the game, but what we’re providing is a ‘workhorse’ they can depend on for all that and more. The more experience they gain in digital cinema – and the more they want to explore all the benefits this technology offers – the more they’ll appreciate the Kodak networked solution.”