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 WASHINGTON, D.C. – NATO released on Feb. 27 version 1.0 of its Digital Cinema System Requirements, providing a tool for digital cinema product developers and system providers.

“The information released provides supplemental requirements to those expressed by Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) in its Digital Cinema System Specification of July 2005,” explained a Feb. 27 NATO press release. “The NATO Digital Cinema System Requirements are also targeted at standards bodies such as the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) in its ongoing effort to generate standards for digital cinema, as well as any organizations that may engage in certification efforts.”

The document was created by exhibitor members of NATO's Technology Committee, in conjunction with NATO digital cinema consultant Michael Karagosian. “NATO fully supported the release of DCI's system specification last summer, as well as the ongoing effort at SMPTE,” explained NATO president and CEO John Fithian. “Our members simply felt that the DCI specification left open some questions of importance to exhibitors. Our Requirements are intended and designed to be supplemental to the work of DCI, and to provide assistance to SMPTE and other organizations.”

Areas covered by the document include playlists, scheduling, point-of-sale interface, system management and maintenance, system reports and logs, audio, captioning, security, movement of equipment and shows among auditoria, the speed with which shows should move, and the speed with which “keys” should be delivered.

The NATO requirements, already widely circulated among industry professionals, can be accessed by the public on www.natoonline.org.