Signifying its first move into the Spanish exhibition market, Arts Alliance Media (AAM), Europe’s leading provider of digital cinema technology, content and deployment, have announced a deal with Yelmo Cines, one of Spain’s largest exhibition chains, and Suministros Kelonik, Spain’s leading equipment installer, to fully outfit Yelmo’s new “Isla Azul” 5-plex site in Madrid with digital cinema projection systems. 5 screens will be installed in time for the complex’s opening in July. Yelmo Cines currently operates 351 screens in 31 sites.
The deal is the first stage in an ongoing relationship between Yelmo and AAM, and the “Isla Azul” installation will allow both parties to gain a better knowledge of the equipment and workflows involved in digitisation. The first 5 screens will be equipped with Christie 2K projectors, Doremi servers and Doremi’s Theatre Management System (TMS).
Currently, there are 34 digital screens in Spain, of which approximately 50% are equipped with 2K DCI-compliant systems.
Gwendal Auffret, SVP Digital Cinema at AAM commented “We are delighted to have reached this agreement with Yelmo to install the first of our digital screens in Spain, and are looking forward to being a part of Yelmo’s ground breaking innovative new site and bringing the increased efficiency of digital cinema to the Spanish market. We hope this will be the first step of a more extended collaboration with Yelmo Cines in the future.”
Fernando Evole, CEO of Yelmo Cines added “The Isla Azul cinema is full of cutting edge technology, so naturally we wanted to test digital cinema as a part of it. This is the very beginning of the digitisation of our screens, and we want to start working in a digital environment to learn about the advantages and the challenges that this new technology will bring to our theatres.”
Arts Alliance Media has installed 326 screens to date, in the UK, Norway and France, and has signed agreements for European digital cinema deployment with five Hollywood studios (Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures International, Paramount Pictures International, Sony Pictures Releasing International and Walt Disney Studios International). The company is in negotiations with other exhibitors and distributors for further digital cinema deployments.
