London—Feb 1, 2012
Pearl & Dean Collaborates with Dolby in Digital Cinema Advertising
New service provides enhanced features for exhibitors
Pearl & Dean Cinemas Limited today announced that it has appointed Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB) as its new digital cinema advertising service provider for the UK and Ireland. The collaboration sees Dolby as the exclusive supplier of Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs) for Pearl & Dean’s on-screen advertising content in the UK.
“Like Pearl & Dean, Dolby has a wealth of experience in the cinema industry and an impressive heritage of innovation, and our new collaboration is being welcomed by our customers,” said Ian McNaught, Head of Marketing and Creative at Pearl & Dean. “We are particularly excited by the fact that the collaboration has brought a number of enhancements to our digital advertising service, which are already directly benefitting exhibitors and of course, our advertising clients.”
Pearl & Dean is one of UK cinema’s most iconic brands, with a history of providing on-screen advertising to theatres stretching back to the early 1950s. Today, the company represents cinemas ranging from multiplex chains, offering landmark locations throughout the UK, as well as the independent exhibition sector in the UK, with a wide portfolio of quality cinema circuits. This wide variety of theatres have a hugely varied schedule of programming, from the latest blockbusters through classic and art-house movies to alternative content such as live opera or concerts.
“High quality on-screen advertising plays a vital role for cinemas and we are delighted that Pearl & Dean has chosen Dolby to bring a new dimension to their digital advertising service,” said Richard Welsh, Director of Digital Cinema Services, EMEA, Dolby Laboratories.
Previously, cinema advertising packages were delivered on DVD, but the new Dolby collaboration will see content delivered as industry standard DCPs on robust professional hard drives, dramatically simplifying the ingest process. The hard drives carry allthe Pearl & Dean advertisements for the week ahead, eliminating the need for the ingestion of original archive ‘ad packs’ and allowing for much better storage management.
“We have also created a bespoke online portal for Pearl & Dean customers,” explained Richard Welsh, “which facilitates the direct delivery of any late advertisements online, and allows exhibitors to check their latest playlists themselves 24 hours a day, as well as communicate directly with Pearl & Dean and Dolby about any issues they may have.”
The service commences this month, with the first roll out of DCP advertising packs to Pearl & Dean’s 595 digital cinema screens.
