Indian server company Qube has been celebrating the Landmark (in both senses of the word) screening of Steven Soderbergh's "Bubble". Though nobody expected it to set box office records, it appears to have been a techincal success. We now also know on how many screens it was showing digitally.
Chennai technology hits the U.S. film circuit Sudhish Kamath
| Qube Cinema digital servers edge out competition |
CHENNAI : When Steven Soderbergh released his latest experiment, `Bubble,' in America's largest independent film circuit Landmark Theatres, simultaneously across theatrical, television and home video platforms, there were at least two people sitting here in Chennai who were pleased about the triumph of indigenously developed technology.
Qube Cinema digital servers, developed at a quiet little office on a quaint little street in Royapettah, were installed by Landmark Theatres in 36 out of their 59 theatres in 23 markets in the United States.
"We were chosen over bigger players like Dolby, Kodak, GDC, Doremi and XDC, for the flexibility we provide cinema halls to play different formats of video," says Jayendra Panchapakesan, director of Real Image Media Technologies.
"We cater to the needs of independent filmmakers by offering servers compatible to Windows Media 9, MPEG 4, h.264 and apart from Digital Video file formats and will also be become compliant with the Hollywood standard of JPEG 2000 by March," says co-director Senthil Kumar.
"Qube's range of digital cinema server solutions along with its use of open standards based systems made it the ideal choice for Landmark's digital platform," Paul Duchouquette, vice-president (Information Technology/Audio-Visual) of Landmark Theatres says.
With the latest rollout, Qube Cinema accounts for 20 per cent of digital projection systems around the world. "We already have about 150 out of 750 screens around the world. We have a terrific advantage of providing flexibility and that too, at half the price," explains Senthil.
Having covered already 50 screens in Tamil Nadu and providing its technology to Zee's E-City Entertainment in Maharashtra and Gujarat for another 50 screens, Qube is in advanced stages of negotiations with leading multiplex chains in the country.
Landmark Theatres cover 200 screens around the U.S. in over 40 cities.
Only first phase
"The 36 theatres we have rolled out is only the first phase of our rollout in the U.S.," says Jayendra. "They have taken 13 theatres with 4K (4000 lines) Sony projectors, eight with 2K (2000 lines) Barco projectors and the rest with 1.4K projectors."
"The 1.4K projectors are ideal for the rural centres because they cost about Rs.15 lakhs per screen. Multiplexes can go in for the 2K projectors that cost Rs.45 lakhs per screen," says Senthil.
Economical
Sathyam Cinemas, incidentally, is looking to install D-cinema systems for all its screens. "We are looking at converting all our existing screens to digital," says Kiran Reddy, Managing Director of Sathyam Cinemas.
"We are going for Qube because it's more economical that the others and is a local solution. In the future, when our other screens in the city are coming up, we might not have film projection at all and would just go with state-of-the-art digital projection systems."
Though conventional film projectors are only marginally cheaper, digital cinema systems prove to be more cost effective because they not only provide six channels of uncompressed sound but also offer lasting quality of rock steady projection given that there is absolutely no wear and tear, even edge-to-edge illumination and virtually no maintenance cost provided there are no mechanical moving parts.
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