The movie 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' was downloaded onto the Cinema Servers and screened to audiences at the UCI cinemas in London (two screens), Manchester, Dublin, Berlin, and Barcelona making it the first movie delivered through the E-Screen project.
It is also the first movie ever delivered via satellite to Cinemas located in Europe, and is the first 'Multilanguage' delivery ever made to the Cinemas. The movie was delivered along with the subtitles of various languages. In each country, only the subtitles relevant to the local language could be accessed. Both the content and the subtitles were protected through encryption keys.
A special screening of 'Blow Up', attended by the director Michelangelo Antonioni, was held at 'La casa del Cinema' in Rome with enthusiastic feedback from the audience. In the coming weeks, 'Casablanca', 'Blow Up' and 'Singin' in the Rain' will also be delivered and projected.
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Guests watching sponsoring partner United Cinema International's E-Screen digital presentations have been amazed at the quality of film image, not just from major film releases in digital format, but also from film content that is over 60 years old and has been digitised for the E-Screen network. |
 D-Cinema Screening Room from Marina Studios |
Digital Cinema has two main advantages over conventional cinema. Firstly, the quality of a digital scan is equal to the original negative. Even the most advanced chemical processes introduce some level of image degradation. Another advantage comes in the way film is distributed. Satellite distribution of files means that the same film can reach every cinema across the whole continent at the same time. This eliminates the risky and expensive physical delivery of heavy rolls of film.
 Barco Cinestar DP100 DLP projector |
"Clearly, there are significant opportunities available to the E-Screen network to bring all types of digital content to cinema screens across Europe," explains Mr Gerald Buckle of UCI. "We are proud to have participated in the E-Screen project and continues to support the opportunities available to the cinema exhibition sector in relation to digital cinema." |
"Anticipating the future of Digital Cinema, E-Screen is also a proof of concept for the application of satellite technologies to the Cinema domain", explains Mr Silvio Borri, responsible for the Digital Cinema & New Media Program at Elsacom Sp.A. and Project Manager for E-Screen. "The robustness and flexibility of satellite delivery are undisputed, but real exploitation of satellite for Digital Cinema will only occur when around 60 digital screens are connected through the same network."
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The content delivered through the Elsacom network is safely and easily 'imported' at the remote sites. Elsacom performs remote checks and even remote upgrades of the theatrical digital equipment. Monitoring the status of a network of theatres spread across various territories can be accomplished easily. This ability will become more and more important as more exhibitors move to digital and more content is available for digital distribution. |
 Elsacom's Digital Cinema uplink, Avezzano Italy |
Satellite also is very suitable for delivering contents other than film. The E-Screen Partners are working on the exploitation of digital screen advertising, and a live event for a rock concert in Italy was set-up by Elsacom and Marinastudios, sponsoring partner of the E-Screen project, back in March 2004, with great success.
"This is a very new market and perhaps too immature when we began in 2001. Content is sometimes scarce, but the amount of Digital Movies on offer is increasing. So the market now is much different and ripe for exploitation," concludes Mr Borri.
To read more about Elsacom's E-Screen project, just click on the links provided at the right of this page.
Images courtesy of Elsacom and Marina Studios.
Casablanca image courtesy of Hollywood Classics.
