Qube Cinema’s Qube XP-D digital cinema server has been chosen by Scrabble Entertainment for its digital cinema roll out in India. Scrabble Entertainment is an India based digital cinema group. Over the next 12 months, Scrabble will upgrade 350 key screens in metropolitan cities across the country and release content in the DCI JPEG2000 format. Indian feature films in multiple languages as well as Hollywood Studio films will be released on this network.
This will be the first large scale DCI complaint digital cinema roll out in the country. Scrabble’s long term plan is to convert all multiplex screens in India to digital cinema.
Scrabble Entertainment has chosen Qube Cinema’s systems for multiple aspects of their roll out. The multi-format stereoscopic enabled Qube XP-D digital cinema server will be used to play Studio and mainstream Indian feature films in the DCI JPEG2000 format and independent features and pre-show material in the JPEG2000, MPEG-2 and VC1 formats. Indian feature film content in multiple languages mastered on QubeMaster will be distributed as encrypted Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs) to various screens on the Scrabble Network for exhibition. Pre-show scheduling and management and as-run log retrieval and consolidation will be managed centrally using the Qube Central system.
Scrabble Entertainment’s has signed up with many of India’s top multiplex chains including PVR Cinemas, Fame Cinemas, INOX and Cinemax Theatres and will largely follow the VPF business model for their rollout.
Speaking on the project, Raja Enok, Chief Marketing Officer of Qube Cinema said, “We are proud to be part of the first DCI compliant digital cinema roll out in India. We worked closely with Scrabble Entertainment to tailor a solution for them that will address all aspects of their digital cinema workflow.
“We foresee that this year will be the beginning of a key phase for digital cinema in this region, and we look forward to playing a strategic role in this and several other roll-outs that are in progress.”
Ranjit Thakur, CEO, Scrabble Entertainment said, “This has been a vision come true for me. Having worked in cinema for quite some time now, I have witnessed the progress from carbon arc projectors with mono audio through platter-based Xenon lamp systems with digital surround sound. We want to offer Indian screens the best quality in cinema, both visual and aural. Screens equipped by Scrabble will have the best systems available, playing out high q2K picture that will be free of all defects with high quality uncompressed audio straight from the studio masters. We also plan to add other enhancements soon.
“We considered several solutions before we chose to go with Qube as the server and content management solution. We found their systems to be most flexible and appropriate for our workflow. The systems are also designed to be very easy to use, yet robust.”
Qube Cinema's end-to-end solutions for digital cinema provide the ultimate combination of quality, reliability, ease-of-use, security and flexibility.
Designed from the ground up to operate in mission-critical applications, the architecture of the Qube product family has been conceived with the future in mind and provides an integrated workflow - from mastering to distribution, playback to reporting and archival. Being almost entirely software based allows the Qube system to leverage developments in the computer industry and bring to market, format independent, powerful and flexible products.
