New
Studio Coalition To Look Into Standards
NewCo Digital Cinema: Tech
Issues Come Home to Roost
by Michael Karagosian
NATO Digital Cinema Consultant
On April 2,
the seven major Hollywood studios issued a joint press release announcing
the formation of an organization to jointly address the technical
issues of digital cinema. Dubbed NewCo Digital Cinema, this coalition
of studios represents a significant step forward for the standardization
of digital cinema.
In the press-generated excitement that surrounds digital cinema,
rarely are the technical issues brought to center stage. The different
digital cinema systems on the market today may appear as competing
for future market share, but they share the much greater problem
of no consensual support from Hollywood. Today, an exhibitor can
buy a 35mm projector and be assured that content produced by the
seven majors and the many independents will play on their system.
Not so with digital cinema. Some studios today claim that the current
set of prototype systems are below their presentation standards.
| While
the formation of NewCo is a very welcome and necessary
step in the process of standardization, it may be quite
a few years before digital cinema is truly ready for rollout.
|
|
This situation
makes it difficult for any system provider to play in the digital
cinema market. Which in part explains why there hasn’t been
a successful digital cinema venture to date. Have the efforts to
launch digital cinema been premature? Possibly. If we define digital
cinema, or “d-cinema,” as the technology for the digital
presentation of first-release movies, then it’s very likely
that today’s d-cinema technology isn’t mature enough for
prime time.
The issue of
exactly what does constitute sufficient quality for digital cinema
is best left to NewCo and its business partners, which includes
cinematographers and exhibitors. NewCo represents a significant
users group, which can not only evaluate technologies, but balance
the benefits of one technology versus another in terms of a business
model. Contrast this to standards committees, which, due to their
legal structure, can only base technology choices on technical performance.
In practice, user groups and standards committees go hand-in-hand.
User groups need standards committees to provide the legal umbrella
for the standardization of technology, and standards committees
need user groups to provide joint real-world input that they could
never obtain through the mechanisms available to the committee.
It can be safely said that one of the major reasons technology agreements
have not been reached in the SMPTE DC28 Technology Committee is
because broad user input, based on significant user agreement, has
not been received. Without such agreement today, we have a manufacturer-driven
market, where each manufacturer hopes to gain sufficient market
share in an effort to claim they are a de facto standard.
The NewCo press release doesn’t hint at the potential roles
the company can play, but since we aren’t constrained by attorneys,
we can speculate all we want. Consider the complexity of digital
cinema systems. To simply claim that Brand X compression is used
with Brand Y decryption and with Brand Z projector would not take
into account the abundance of problems that have to be solved to
ensure interoperability among different makes of equipment. Thus,
some sort of qualification process is needed for equipment to be
labeled interoperable. NewCo has the potential of forming or at
least supporting that qualification entity.
Similarly, equipment isn’t secure simply because it can successfully
decode a movie. What if it decodes the movie in an insecure manner
that still allows theft? Who will certify that the equipment exhibitors
install will be sufficiently secure? Here again, NewCo has the potential
of forming or at least supporting such a security certification
entity.
More to the heart of theatre owners, consider the brand that will
be advertised to establish your theatre as a high quality digital
cinema venue. Equipment brands have been used in the past, but with
the plethora of equipment brands expected for digital cinema, it
may not be effective to advertise them to a confused consumer. However,
NewCo has the potential to establish a brand for digital cinema
that stands above the brands of manufacturers. A NewCo Digital Cinema
brand could be positioned as having a quality level above other
forms of cinema entertainment, allowing the theatre owner to differentiate
the content to be presented through its advertisements.
NewCo is not without its challenges. Getting any group of seven
to agree to something is no small task, and there are lots of agreements
to be reached. To add to the complexity of the task, many expect
display technologies to advance significantly over the next few
years, which could turn agreement into a moving target. While some
speculate that NewCo can settle the technical issues in short order,
don’t be surprised if this process takes awhile. And of course,
let’s not forget that there are business issues to be sorted
out … somebody’s got to pay. All of which leads to the
conclusion that while the formation of NewCo is a very welcome and
necessary step in the process of standardization, it may be quite
a few years before digital cinema is truly ready for rollout. 
