Kodak Digital Cinema is pleased to announce that the “Commission Superieure Technique” (CST), the French organization charged with evaluating new systems for television and the cinema, has purchased a Kodak Theatre Management System (TMS) as well as a Kodak Content Player JMN3000 for use in Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris. The system will be installed by Kodak.
This is the second Kodak Content player the CST has purchased. The system will be used in the theater to prove its reliability, flexibility, and compliance with the standards and expectations of the French entertainment industry.
“Commission Superieure Technique” is the professional organization in France charged with supervising the quality of production, broadcast, and display of sound and images for television, cinema, or any other medium. Established in 1944 to take part in the reconstruction of French cinema and to encourage its evolution from black-and-white to colour, today the organization is involved with the transition to digital cinema.
“The CST is exactly the kind of organization we love to do business with, working to achieve the highest standards of cinema quality” said Pascal Heuillard, Cinema and Television operations manager for Kodak Pathe. “They have a regimen that involves testing our products in the real world environment. We are proud they’ve chosen to evaluate our system and confident it will meet their needs.”
“Kodak is a historical partner of the CST,” said Pierre-William Glenn, president of CST. “They were among the first to introduce a working Theatre Management System, which will be an important component of a cinema’s ability to fully and efficiently use the potential that digital technology provides. Our evaluation of the Kodak system will enable us to better understand – and prove – that potential.”
Espace Pierre Cardin, the two-screen multiplex where the Kodak system will be installed, already has a number of other brands of projectors and content players, also being evaluated. In the near future, the CST expects the Kodak TMS to be inter-connectable with all components.
The Kodak Theatre Management System is designed to load and direct all motion pictures with keys, trailers and other pre-show content to the proper screens, providing a seamless, accurate, and automated presentation, and may be connected to the ticketing system.
“Kodak has extensive worldwide experience doing central management of cinema content with our pre-show installations, and we’re applying that to our digital feature systems,” said Mr. Heuillard. “This new capability has the potential to make a huge difference in our customer’s operational flexibility and workflow efficiencies in the future.”
In addition to the central Theatre Management System, a Kodak Content Player JMN3000 will be installed on each screen. The player handles a full range of feature content, in 2D or 3D, with MPEG2 or JPEG compression. A range of content -- from local language movies to major studio releases, and from documentaries to work by independent filmmakers -- can be played on screen.
“This is an exciting and challenging time for our organization,” said Mr. Glenn. “It’s a time when cinema owners are looking to us for guidance and help as they consider their own plans for the future. We are pleased to have companies such as Kodak working with us, helping us to more fully understand the new technologies, and enabling us to provide the assistance and the options the French cinema industry needs to deliver superior entertainment for the future.”
Kodak systems have been installed on nearly 2000 screens in more than 260 sites, in 14 countries, with 38 exhibition chains. 170 of those screens show full feature content on Kodak systems, with about one-third also showing 3D movies. Kodak Digital Cinema products and services are available worldwide.
