The Hindu : Digital wave hits cinema theatres

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 27, 2003

National

National

Digital wave hits cinema theatres

By Anand Parthasarathy

BANGALORE JULY 26. Finally, the world's largest film business is poised to go digital all the way. Having embraced technologies like non-linear digital editing and computer-generated graphics in the production stages, the Indian cinema industry has now embraced state-of-the-art digital tools to distribute and exhibit its products.

The digital "hawa' is being wafted by two sets of players — one based in Chennai, the other in Mumbai. In Chennai, Real Image Media Technologies, hitherto known as distributors of the AVID digital editor and the DTS theatre sound system, last week unveiled its "cost effective" solution for an all-digital theatre projection system. This consists of its "Qube" solution — an indigenously developed digital player that can handle a wide range of projection formats. It has partnered with a well known Chennai-based name in film processing, Prasad Labs, to convert film prints into digital versions on Digital Video Disk (DVD) (also known as Digital Versatile Disk). "Qube" will play the DVDs and also provide some encryption features. The output from the player is fed to a digital projector. While a number of imported brands such as Barco, Christie and Panasonic are available in the price range of Rs. 12-15 lakhs, Real Image is working on an indigenously assembled solution at around half this price.

Almost simultaneously in Maharashtra and upcountry, the Mumbai-based Adlabs is vigorously promoting its own digital exhibition offering. Being a processing lab, it is offering an attractive rate for converting film to DVD — around Rs. 2,000 — and has tied up with a Singapore company, GDC Tech (of the Global Digital Creations group), to provide the film server (a player-cum-encryptor). For the digital projector, Adlabs has tied up with a Norwegian company, Projection Design, whose range is comparable to Barco and others in price.

Interestingly, both Real Image and Adlabs have homed in on the same projection technology — all projectors sourced by them use the Digital

Light Processor (DLP) Cinema chip, developed and supplied by Texas Instruments (TI), the U.S.-based chip manufacturer. Last week, David Monk, Managing Director of TI Europe and a digital projection expert, took time off during his visit to India to provide a privileged briefing to The Hindu on the technology that has now made possible a slow but steady global shift to digital cinematic exhibition. He explained that the DLP processor chip patented by TI is in fact a dense collection of up to 1.3 million microscopically small mirrors realised in silicon: one for every pixel or coloured dot on the screen. It is these mirrors which convert the image stored on the DVD in digital form into millions of intense coloured dots which are assembled on the screen.

"The best digitally projected image today is better than what a convention film projection can achieve," Dr. Monk says. It can provide a moving picture at exactly 24 frames a second with no jitter or flicker. Resolutions up to 1,280 by 1,024 are currently available through DLP projectors.

For this reason, the mainstream Hollywood studios have all approved DLP-based projectors for use in exhibiting their new products.

However, Dr. Monk explained that since DLP projectors come in various versions — using one to three chips — it has been possible for the Indian players such as Real Image and Adlabs to offer different solutions for different quality requirements. For the new multiplexes showing the latest Hollywood blockbusters, the top of the line projectors are available — but at a price. But the current wave sweeping the exhibitor business — almost a theatre a week is being digitised in Maharashtra since April this year — is enabled by the availability of cheaper DLP projectors where the viewing experience may be a shade inferior to the best currently obtainable via film.

However, the cost of making a DVD print is negligible in comparison to a film print which is around Rs. 70,000

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