Digital cinema

Digital cinema

Digital cinema

Digital cinema refers to the production and distribution of cinematographic works from a professional digital format standardized and secured by ISO international standards. Feature films may be distributed on physical media ( hard disk )  or via satellite and telecommunication networks. They are projected using a digital cinema projector calibrated in colorimetry and luminance and coupled to a security professional content server. These digital cinema contents are DCP files ( Digital Cinema Package, see below) stored on hard disks in the server, they replace the film (35 mm ).

 In North America, June 18, 1999, public demonstration of Texas Instruments' DLP Cinema technology in two theaters in Los Angeles and New York for the release of the George Lucas Star Wars movie, episode 1: The Phantom Menace.

February 2, 2000, public demonstration of the DLP Cinema technology of Texas Instruments by Philippe Binant on a screen in Paris for the release of the film Toy Story 2.

 "A major innovation for cinematographic exploitation", according to Claude Forest, digital cinema should not be confused with video projection and high-definition television. Indeed, it does not depend on the use of television or HDTV standards. The development of digital cinema is based on a standard proposed by the 7 major American studios in a common structure called Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI). This standard makes it possible to have equipment that makes use of films whatever their origin, provided that their preparation, or encoding, is carried out respecting this standard. Reproduced by the SMPTEwith the standard SMPTE 428-1, it is the subject of ISO standards published 2008 under the references ISO 26428-1 and following.

Until 2005, an extremely small number of cinemas were equipped with digital projectors. Starting in 2006, with the introduction of mechanisms in the United States to help cinemas make this investment, the commercial take-off of this technology is taking place across the Atlantic, then in other countries, in Europe, and in Asia especially. At the end of 2009, the worldwide success of the film by James Cameron Avatar, acclaimed in its 3D relief version, overcame the last reticence and caused a sharp acceleration of investments by cinemas to equip itself.

The progressive lowering of the cost of digital projectors makes possible and possible the intensive deployment of a park of the last generation.

Following the evolution of digital cinema equipment validated by ISO international standards made mandatory, all-digital projection systems (series1, using the first generation of Texas Instrument DLP Cinema digital head in 2K resolution) installed before 2010 becomes obsolete.

However, many of these devices can be upgraded software to become compatible with the latest standards. A hardware upgrade ("GORE" mechanical kit) is being offered by Texas Instrument to allow Series 1 projectors to achieve the level of safety required by the DCI standard.

Manufacturers of readers and projectors must certify the equipment they market as complying with the requirements of the DCI standard, the main purpose of which is to guarantee good security of the system in order to avoid the counterfeiting of works. This certification is issued by test entities that are rolling out the latest version of the CTP (Compliance Test Plan) issued by the DCI in September 2010. At the end of 2011, only two organizations, one in the United States, other in Japan, are responsible for passing these CTP tests. Since the vast majority of equipment deployed in theaters was released before the release of the latest version of the CTP test, compliance is not guaranteed. However, manufacturers must - after obtaining certification - provide the necessary updates to comply with these requirements.

The issue of compliance of facilities for operators is significant: Paramount studio, one of the founders of the DCI, wants to impose the use of certified systems. For this purpose, he may refuse to issue KDM keys to play the films he distributes to exhibitors who have not demonstrated that their projection system is certified.