One day in the future we may look back at Walt Disney’s Shaggy Dog as a groundbreaking moment for cinema. Well, at least D-Cinema as it is the first film to be delivered via satellite in the JPEG-2000 format to a theater for release.
With roughly 300 digital cinema-equipped systems in theaters nationwide, half of which rely on the MPEG format and the other on the JPEG-2000, hard drive delivery has reigned supreme.
“Right now, all the theaters have been relying on hard drive delivery but that doesn’t make use of all of the advantages of digital cinema, and certainly not all the potential costs savings,” says Curtis Tilly, manager for digital cinema distribution of Microspace Communications Corp., which handled the satellite delivery of Shaggy Dog, in conjunction with Kodak Digital Cinema, to the Cinemark Tinseltown Theater in Rochester, New York.
At the center of its satellite delivery capability is the Microspace Velocity system, which the company will install at no cost to participating theaters. Separate from the satellite delivery of the film, Microspace sends a key code that will unlock the file so that it will play on, and only on, the specific digital projector assigned to the file.
Additionally, Microspace last week entered into a two-year, non-binding letter of intent with Paramount to deliver all of it’s digital content to theaters, either via satellite of hard drive. Microspace has already provided digital satellite delivery for several Paramount Dreamworks SKG motion pictures, including Chicken Little, Shrek 2,Collateral, and Shark Tale.
With this and a number of D-Cinema announcements from ShoWest (see Studio Daily News), there is the sense that the D-Cinema movement is finally on its way to becoming more than just a novelty in the industry.
“I wouldn’t say the D-Cinema revolution is right around the corner but it does feel like things are starting to finally take hold and move forward,” says Tilly.
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