Digital Cinema Providers Group
Manufacturers
Form
D-Cinema Association
LAS VEGAS – Top digital cinema equipment
manufacturers at ShoWest announced March 3 that they are
joining together
to form a new trade association dubbed the Digital Cinema
Providers Group (DCPG).
Members include Barco, Texas Instruments,
QuVis, EVS Digital Cinema, NEC Viewtechnology/Digital Projection
International,
Christie Digital Systems, Avica and Dolby Laboratories.
The group aims to supply a collective response
to the digital standards and specifications that will be
endorsed by Digital
Cinema Initiatives, a joint venture of seven major film
studios (In Focus, January
2003).
In addition, DCPG plans to establish a public
online educational and informational resource site dealing
with d-cinema advances
and technology. The group also announced plans to become
involved in future panels and discussions at trade shows.
“We hope to form a commom voice, which has been missing,” DCPG
executive director Curt Behlmer told The
Hollywood Reporter. “We
are not looking to replace or compete with current trade
associations.” 
Beamed To Regal Cinemas Live
CineMedia Hosts
Digital Rock Concert
DENVER – Regal Entertainment Group (REG) played host
March 4 to a rock concert beamed live into nine of its
cinemas.
Seven screens in four sites sold out, while
others were at near-capacity, according to REG officials.
The event, the first of its kind to utilize
the Regal CineMedia (RCM) Digital Content Network, was
built around a performance
by the Christian rock band Third Day and the 4-time Grammy-nominated
group’s record-breaking “Come Together Tour.”
Delivered digitally via RCM’s Digital
Content Network (DCN), the concert was multicast to sites
in full CinemaSound
and projected onto big screens using high-resolution digital
projectors.
All tickets for the event sold for $5 and
were available for purchase through the Fandango.com and
Moviefone.com Websites, as well as through box offices.
“Seeing Third Day perform on our 40-foot
screens in the comfort of our theatres is a terrific opportunity
for the
band’s dedicated fans, which can only be matched
by having tickets to a live Third Day concert event,” noted
Ray Nutt, Regal’s executive vice president of new
business development.
The band made a guest appearance at the
REG site in their hometown of Atlanta, Ga., followed by
an in-store event
at the nearby LifeWay Christian Store where more than 1,400
fans came to purchase the band’s new release, “Offerings
II.”
“What a blast to see fans rockin’ at the movies,” noted
Essential Records vice president Brian Mitchell.
RCM plans to expand DCN, currently available in 15 markets,
to 4,500 screens at 375 REG sites.
D-Cinema On Hold
Madstone Plans
Conventional Plexes
NEW YORK – Fledgling exhibitor/distributor/producer
Madstone, long a proponent of digital cinema, appears to
be rethinking its digital-cinema efforts.
“It now seems that there will be a
lack of digital content in the near term, so for the time
being we are projector
agnostic,” Madstone CEO Chip Seelig said in a Variety story
published March 4.
Two years ago Madstone’s plans called
for retrofitting plexes nationwide with digital projectors,
and then supplying
them with digital movies.
The company, which still plans to produce
about one digitally-shot movie annually, currently operates
conventional cinemas
in San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Cleveland, Albuquerque,
N.M., Ann Arbor, Mich., and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
Madstone has already announced plans to
open six new multis this year, including sites in Atlanta
and Salt
Lake City.
The firm also plans to build by 2004 a new multi in
Baltimore.
