London—Dec 19, 2006
Kodak Part of Digital Cinema Rollout in UK
Largest cinema circuit will use Kodak system in busy nine-screens London site
Kodak announced today that its proven Kodak Digital Cinema content player and new Theatre Management System (TMS) will be the heart of the digital cinema solution being installed at the UK’s largest cinema chain. The power of Kodak Digital Cinema will bring movies to audiences on all nine screens at the popular Odeon Theatre in Hatfield, beginning in early February.
We are fortunate,” said Brian Kercher, Kodak Digital Cinema General Manager for Europe, “to have our full solution selected by Odeon Cinemas, the largest cinema operator in the UK. Our TMS, especially, will enable them to find new ways to automate content handling, improve their workflow, and develop new operational efficiencies. Our goal is to help them more fully realize the promise of digital cinema.”
Gerald Buckle, Digital Development Manager, Odeon Cinemas, said, “We
recognise that the digital conversion will involve a long-term effort and we are
therefore happy to use Kodak digital cinema technology. This is a first step –
to prove the reliability and support of the Kodak system under the demanding
conditions of a busy, working theatre.”
The Kodak Digital Cinema system handles 2D or 3D movies and automatically
recognizes the compression format used – JPEG or MPEG – and employs that for
playback. It’s designed to be used as a standalone unit for a single screen – or
in fully network configurations on many screens, to take full advantage of the
capability, flexibility, efficiency, and power of the Kodak Theatre Management
System controlling the network.
We’ve built the experience and the technology of Kodak into the system – and
made it very easy for projectionists to use, with all the capability their
demanding job requires,” said Kercher. “It works seamlessly with all DCI-compliant
feature projectors; in the Hatfield installation, connected to NEC 2500 digital
projectors. Audiences will be treated to a great motion picture experience.”
“Despite all the discussion around digital cinema, we are still in the early
stages of actual testing and deployment,” said Max Bell, Managing Director, Bell
Theatres. “We are still all learning, but there is no substitute to learning
under actual market conditions, with paying customers – and their expectations
for a flawless performance – sitting in the seats. The time to do that is now
and we’re pleased to be working with Kodak on the process.”
“We intend this to be very much a collaboration,” said Kodak’s Kercher. “Our
system complies with the industry standards of today, but as this business
evolves, we expect to continue to improve our solution to meet our customers’
evolving needs. This is a new beginning for Kodak, Odeon Cinemas, and Bell
Theatre Systems to work together as this business develops”.