The first digital release of a new premiere movie to be shown in our circuit of seven digital cinemas occurred on last Friday 30 August in 3 theatres, currently 7 and very soon 8. The projections were a success much thanks to the excellent technical performance of BARCO (projectors) and EVS Digital Cinema (servers). All eight D-cinemas to be will have installations from these companies.
"The Swedish Digital Houses are now all open for members of EDCF to use as reference and practical studies in order to enlarge distribution of culture in the European Community.", said Peter Wester.
Folkets Hus & Parker has selected EVS CineStore Solo Digital Cinema Server and EVS Alfa Digital Cinema Mastering System exclusively for its initial deployment of Digital Cinema throughout Sweden. The Post-Production House Filmteknik has taken delivery of the Alfa Encoding System to produce distribution masters of digital content produced in Sweden, and SIE has deployed EVS Solo in 7 theatres in Sweden, all of them operational today.
For EVS, being the technical server provider for this innovating network is another great achievement after two years of efforts to create the new CineStore products range. This is also a reward for the EVS tremendous commitment to competence, service and quality.
Working closely with the integrator, SIE, Barco Digital Cinema and the post-house FilmTeknik, EVS has provided its expertise for a testing and fine tuning period up to the successful screenings started on Friday the 30th of August to ensure a state of the art quality digital movie projection.
"The digital solution is a reality today and most obstacles from the past have been resolved. The cooperation between FHP, SIE, Barco and EVS aims at a harmonious coexistence with the 35 mm projections that still have a good-looking future. Besides a fruitful know-how exchange between the parties, this teamwork will allow us to maximize the digital assets during a test bed period which should bring us into a smooth transition towards the digital technology", says Peter Wester from FHP. The FHP D-Cinema project is the result of a stimulating challenge for all partners involved and we can only wish that this first step will lead us to a great digital cinema network in Sweden."
While France's "Crimson Rivers" (2000) and Italy's "Pinocchio" (2002) are the only two European DLP Cinema films, Sweden has released twice that number of films in just a few months in its digital network using high-end standard DLP projectors. The films are: "Grabben i graven bredvid", "Bäst i Sverige", "Karlsson på taket" and "Suxxess".
"First screening was in three locations on 30 August, and now there are a total of seven, connected by fat fibre-optic network. The audience has TREBLED since the films no longer arrive on old and worn prints six to eight weeks after they open in Stockholm. Next up they will premiere a US film digitally and screen an extreme snow sport film", added Peter Wester.
"We've been investigating the world market for about three years and listening to current cinema industry players and to the future users' requirements. EVS has a very long standing expertise in server manufacturing. Today, the results of our efforts bring EVS on the forefront of the cutting edge technology. and EVS is positionedready to become one of the key players", says Bernard Collard, International Sales and Marketing Manager.
"I'm quite confident in the capacity for EVS to achieve major business developments into the world wide digital cinema market. Combining EVS D-Cinema highly relevant experience with the EVS Group long -standing expertise and sales forces will generate a powerful team ready to face the very exciting challenge of bringing the cinema industry into the next generation technology ! The recognition of the MPEG2 compression technology, which EVS has kept promoting since the beginning as the appropriate solution to start the first large deploymentsby Georges Lucas and its subsidiary THX, opens the way to a cost effective and very open solution. A huge potential lies ahead of us", concludes Laurent Minguet, CEO EVS Group.
