New movie exhibitor ShowPlex Cinemas, Inc. launches its business with Barco's DLP Cinema® projectors to bring the brightest and highest quality digital cinema experience to patrons in the Midwest/Southern United States.
Digital cinema pioneer Barco announced today that it is outfitting 81 screens in ShowPlex's theaters with the company's 2K DLP projectors. ShowPlex acquired 10 theater locations in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska from former owner Dickinson Theaters in May 2010. This move establishes ShowPlex as an all-digital circuit.
Barco and Cinedigm are providing full financing and VPF for ShowPlex's deployment as part of Cinedigm's turnkey Phase 2 deployment program, while GDC Technology will supply cutting-edge digital cinema servers. “The opportunity to get the industry's best and brightest projectors with extremely attractive financing enables us to move forward with the conversion of our entire circuit. This allows us to rapidly establish the new ShowPlex brand as a high quality movie exhibitor,” commented Al Lane, CEO of ShowPlex.
Barco's family of 2K projectors offers ShowPlex the most affordable and reliable solutions for all auditoriums, while delivering bright, stunning images on every screen. Based on Texas Instruments' proven 0.98” DLP Cinema chip, these projectors offer patrons a first-class movie experience, featuring unrivalled brightness, rich contrast and vibrant colors. Barco's family of projectors delivers the lowest overall total cost of ownership in the industry, due to its best-in-class efficiency, modular architecture (minimizing downtown and reducing spare parts stock requirements), easy serviceability and extended product lifetime.
“As a brand new exhibitor looking to make an immediate impact, ShowPlex has chosen to launch its business with the best combination of digital cinema quality and total cost of ownership in the industry. Al and the ShowPlex team bring deep cinema experience to this new venture and we are proud to partner with them as they create their new, all-digital circuit,” commented Patrick Lee, VP Digital Cinema for Barco North America.
Under this contract, Barco will provide digital projection systems, as well as facilitate the equipment installation and integration, and ensure a reliable support service is readily available. Cinedigm (NASDAQ: CIDM), the global leader in digital cinema conversion programs, is responsible for structuring and implementing the underlying VPF agreement that enables ShowPlex's conversion to digital cinema, as well as providing the entire administration responsibility of the VPF program for ShowPlex. This tripartite effort effectively combines the complementary strengths of the three parties involved, thus providing an effective platform on which ShowPlex's digital conversion can be successfully carried out.
