XDC went to Switzerland to equip the only IMAX Theatre of the country at the the Swiss Museum of Transport (Verkehrshaus der Schweiz) in Lucerne.

Emmanuel Finck - XDC’s Test and Pre-Build Engineer – and Protonic (local integrator) installed 2 Christie Projectors CP2000 XB with 3D Dolby systems both managed by only one server to show screenings like Dinosaurs 3D or Fly me to the Moon 3D or other giant screen film titles available in digital 3D format

A unique 3D installation in Europe to allow IMAX viewers to see a 40-minute tour of new worlds, enlarging the minute and showing the large at full size taking the 3D film experience to a new level.

Christian Scheidegger - IMAX Theatre Manager of the Swiss Museum of Transport - has written :

“The IMAX Theatre is equipping itself for the future. For the first time, 3D digital films will be shown on Switzerland’s largest permanent cinema screen. The typical feeling IMAX gives audiences – of being in the thick of the fray – will be even further intensified by the third dimension. Not only will the fascinating, two-dimensional image on film be new: thanks to the illusion of spatial depth, every spectator will really become part of the action.

The IMAX Theatre in Lucerne is the world’s first large-screen cinema to introduce this latest generation of projection technology, and will be showing two new 3D family films in the 2008/2009 winter season. Now, viewers can hike through primeval Patagonia side by side with dinosaurs or fly to the moon on board the Apollo 11 capsule.

The IMAX Theatre is breaking completely new ground by installing the 3D projector. IMAX is the world’s first ever large-screen cinema to work with the interference filter technology developed by Dolby Laboratories, which is superior to both conventional 3D systems with disposable cardboard with coloured lenses and to systems with polarisation filters or electronic shutter glasses, and produces more realistic colours and a sharper image than existing, film-based systems. Due to the extremely high separation of the individual, stereoscopic images, the experience of spatial depth experience is unimpaired by any double contours. The image is projected onto the 475m2 screen by two high-performance projectors – a worldwide innovation.”

Download the Swiss Museum of Transport press release

This event is available for all of November in MPEG, JPEG2000. Shot in HD and Mixed to 5.1

The Smashing Pumpkins Documentary Trailer :

Watch the other offcial documentary trailer on http://ifallgoeswrong.com/trailer

For more information, please contact D&E :

Doug Kluthe
Tel. 323-464-2403 ext 228 (US, Pacific Time)
DougKluthe@DandEentertainment.com

Euronews program “Futuris: From Scene to Screen” presents the IPRacine European project held over the last three years.

XDC was one of the partners of this fruitful project for the cinema industry. The Futuris program presents some of the products and new technologies developed within this European project, among others the CineStore SoloG3 playback server from XDC

Digital Cinema was still an emerging market when IP-RACINE project started in 2004, less than 150 cinema screens in the world were digital (about 0.1% of the total) and about 100-150 films in total had ever been ‘finished’ through the Digital Intermediate process with a mere handful of live-action features had been originated digitally. At the end of 2007 when the project ends, there was strong evidence that Digital Cinema offers a real market for products and services.

In this change, IP-RACINE aimed to secure the future of the European Cinema industry from film to digital, improving the competitiveness of European Digital Cinema (DC) by developing workflow techniques for integrating the digital process ‘from scene to screen’, and advancing the state of the art of digital cameras, virtual cinema studio production, cinema objects description, processing and postproduction, digital playout and display of sound and image for better user experience.

Each year, the city of Locarno where cinema has been celebrated celebrated for the past fifty-three years, transforms its square in a huge open-air theatre. The Piazza Grande has become one of the biggest open-air cinemas and the most attractive of the World with 7000 seats, a giant screen of 26 by 14 meters long and the best technical equipment.

XDC as official digital cinema technical partner provided all of the necessary projection equipment (5 high end digital systems) and technical support for 33 Motion Pictures and 100 Digital Screenings which have been performed on the famous Piazza Grande and in the Teatro Kursaal, the Auditorium Fevi, La Sala and the Rialto.

While being an international event,the Locarno International Film Festival keeps its friendly atmosphere offering a unique meeting point for more than 180 accredited professionals of the cinema industry.

The Dardenne brothers choose XDC to make their digital copies for their new movie “Lorna’s Silence”. XDC made 11 copies for Belgium and Luxembourg before its official release date on August 27th. The directors also won the Award for Best Screenplay for this movie at the Cannes Film Festival last may.

The event will start at 2130 CET (9.30PM in Rome, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin)with intro and support group.

The Concert will start at 2200 and will last until 2330 CET.

DDCinema is glad to announce its new 2008-2009 season.

All the events, both recorded and live, will be distributed in high definition through satellite. In view of the new season DDCinema and XDC will offer an interesting list of Operas subtitled in all languages.

SEPTEMBER 2008

Sept 16, 2008 - L’italiana in Algeri - ROF Rossini Opera Festival, Italy
Composer : G. Rossini - Director / Conductor :Dario Fo/Donato Renzetti - Cast : M. Pizzolato, Maxim Mironov, M. Vinco
Language : ITA with subtitles

OCTOBER 2008

Oct 15 2008 - La Sonnambula- Cagliari, Sardinia, Teatro Lirico - LIVE
Composer : V. Bellini - Director / Conductor : Hugo De Ana/Maurizio Benini - Cast : Eva Mei, Simone Alaimo, A. Siragusa
Language : ITA with subtitles

NOVEMBER  2008

Nov 11, 2008 - Tosca- Arena di Verona
Composer : G. Puccini - Director / Conductor : Hugo De Ana / Daniel Oren - Cast : F. Cedolins, R. Raimondi, M. Alvarez
Language : ITA with subtitles

DECEMBER 2008

Dec 3, 2008 - Aida -Palermo, Sicily, Teatro Massimo- LIVE
Composer :G. Verdi - Director / Conductor : Franco Zeffirelli / Maurizio Benini - Cast : Amarilli Nizza, Marco Berti, Paata Burchuladze
Language : ITA with subtitles

JANUARY 2009

Jan 13, 2009 - - Le Roi d’Ys- Liége, Opéra Royal de Wallonie
Composer :Edouard Lalo - Director / Conductor : Jean Louis Pichon / Patrick Davin - Cast : Guylaine Girard, Eric Martin-Bonnet
Language : FRA with subtitles

FEBRUARY 2009

Feb 2, 2009 - Jackie O.- Bologna, Teatro Comunale
Composer :Michael Daugherty - Director / Conductor : Damiano Michieletto / Christopher Franklin
Language : ENG with subtitles

MARCH 2009

Mar 17 2009 - La Traviata- Liége, Opéra Royal de Wallonie - LIVE
Composer :G. Verdi - Director / Conductor : S. Mazzonis di Palafera / Paolo Arrivabeni - Cast : Cinzia Forte, V.Simeoni, Saimir Pirgu
Language : ITA with subtitles

APRIL 2009

Apr 21, 2009 - The Legend of the invisible city of Kitez- Cagliari, Sardinia, Teatro Lirico and Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow
Composer :N. Rimski-Korsakov- Director / Conductor : Eimuntas Nekrosius / Alexander Vedernikov - Cast : (Russian cast)
Language : RUS with subtitles

MAY 2009

May 15-23 2009 (*) - Madama Butterfly- Venezia, Gran Teatro La Fenice - LIVE
Composer :G. Puccini- Director / Conductor : Eliahu Imbal, Keita Asari - Cast : Micaela Carosi, G. Pisapia, G. Viviani
Language : ITA with subtitles
(*) to be confirmed

JUNE 2009

Jun 16, 2009 - Im Weissen Rössl- Mörbisch Seefestspiele (Austria)
Composer :Ralph Benatzky - Director / Conductor : Karl Absenger / Rudolf Bibl - Cast : Rainhard Fendrich, Zabine Kapfinger, H. Serafim
Language : GER with subtitles

JULY 2009

July 16, 2009 - Le Nozze di Figaro- Madrid, Teatro Real - LIVE
Composer :W.A. Mozart - Director / Conductor :Emilio Sagi, Jesús López Cobos - Cast : L. Tezier, Barbara Frittoli, Isabel Rey
Language : ITA with subtitles

All the operas are delivered by satellite at the premiere dates mentioned in the following schedule. But it is also possible to get a playback digital copy for projections after the premiere date.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cinema Expo 2008 was an amazing trade show for XDC with many enthusiastic discussions. The XDC booth was visited by an impressive number of people stressed by 4 press releases. The meetings agenda was really full.

New technology updates were shown by our expert team like the Dolby® 3D Digital Cinema server integration, the TMS Plaza demo as well as a dynamic pre-show with a single player. The event was also an opportunity to meet many exhibitors and answered to their questions about the XDC VPF initiative.

Jerome Delvaux, VP Technology at Belgium-based XDC, explains how fully-integrated and networked Digital Cinema solutions can assist exhibitors.

Digital brings new opportunities for the central management of a cinema multiplex with the Theatre Management System (TMS). The question is: would you, as an exhibitor, prefer to have timely updates and overviews on all of your operating digital screens? If so, then there’s no longer any need to go to every single projection booth before starting the show to check if the 35mm projector is ready to run or else whether the audio system is playing properly and at the correct volume. With integrated and networked digital systems, all areas of the cinema are now interconnected, internally as well as externally.

 Theatre Management System

While most exhibitors are now familiar with digital projection systems, it seems they’re less well-informedwhen it comes to the opportunities offered by the TMS which provides more flexibility, effective monitoring control and new business possibilities such as live events, digital adverts and data-processing. With it, exhibitors can manage all of their multiplex screens directly, centrally, and therefore remotely, from the convenience of their desks. TMS also brings many new integrated and networked features that don’t even exist with the analogue technology. All day-to-day operations, weekly movie uploads and screening schedules are integrated into the system and so it is possible to set up a complete show for the entire multiplex (including preshow programmes, ads, trailers and movies). Externally, the cinema is connected to the booking system, advertising agency, distributors and content providers, as the following schematic illustrates.

Media-Catcher

The XDC Cinestore® Plaza (the engine room inside each multiplex in which resides the server) is perhaps an excellent illustration for the range of solutions offered by the TMS for a typical multiplex. It’s a hardware and software suite that enables the full management of a network of screens from a single point, while boasting a library capacity of up to 14Tb. It also includes a media-catcher for all kinds of media used in delivering content. Whether exhibitors use USB 1.0/2.0, Firewire, SATA, external Ethernet disks or internal harddisk cartridges, all that is needed is to plug in to the mediacatcher, the latter allowing the exhibitor to transfer content via a broadband connection or else via satellite according to the operator’s requirements. Ingesting from the TMS, either to individual screens or to the central library, can be readily performed. It is also very straightforward to set up and transfer shows to specific screens, thus scheduling an entire multiplex while no longer needing to be concerned whether or not the assets are stored on the Screen Management System local disks. All these features are available because the exhibitor is now managing a network of screens instead of several single screens.

In the very near future, the TMS will prove to be the centrepiece of the multiplex amid our ever-emerging and interconnecting digital world. Additional features will also include the management of plasma or LCD screens within the cinema lobby, as well as the digital posters dotted throughout the multiplex itself. The TMS will also be able to manage newer, emerging technologies such as mobile advertising and/or seat-sensor technology.

Great news! The “3 Monkeys” movie won the Award for the Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival.

The DCP has been prepared by XDC. We wish a lot of success to Nuri Bilge Ceylan the director of the film who met our DCL team at the beginning of the month.