Cinema of the future is here, now

The possibilities are mind boggling. Not only can massive equipment be dumped for good, savings in costs are going to be huge for cinemas ac...

The possibilities are mind boggling. Not only can massive equipment be dumped for good, savings in costs are going to be huge for cinemas across the world. Move over cumbersome boxes of film reels, Digital Cinema is here.

Massive film projectors, fed by boxes of reels, lit by carbon-arc will soon be history. For the first time, an Indian company has made an international product for the movie industry. Chennai-based Real Image recently launched its ‘‘QUBE Digital Player’’ that uses computer hardware and intelligent software to project cinema. The film producer makes a digital copy of the film through a tele-cine and distributes it to cinema halls either through a satellite-dish antenna or merely through a portable hard disk. The film is encrypted and requires an encryption key from the producer for the cinema halls to project the movie.

‘‘It costs Rs. 70,000 for a single celluloid print roll. And, producers of Hindi films take nearly 750 prints of a film for distribution across the country. But in the case of a digital print, it costs a mere Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000. So, now producers can screen films in more theatres at far lower costs in the first few weeks, which is when they make their largest collections,’’ pointed out Senthil Kumaran, Director of Real Image, who along with Jayendra Panchapakesan, another director of the company, authored QUBE.

In the past, Real Image brought into the country’s film industry the latest technical developments. First, it was the Time Code (1986) which allowed the locking of high quality tape recorders with films, improving the quality of film sound dramatically. Then it brought in Digital audio in 1988, Digital editing (Avid) in 1993 and eventually DTS in 1995.

‘‘For India it was quite a leap with DTS. From ordinary mono sound it jumped directly to 5.1 digital sound in theatres,’’ said Senthil.

But it is Qube that’s promising to improve quality and work out amazing cost economics. According to industry experts, the Tamil film industry alone imported Rs.220 crore of film. But, with Qube, which is totally indigenous and completely software-based, a film producer needs just one negative and one master positive copy for conversion into digital format, helping him save tons of money.

	How they change cinema forever

	• Chennai-based Real Image makes an international product ‘‘QUBE Digital Player’’ — the first of its kind — for the movie industry that uses software to project cinema • The film producer makes a digital copy of the film in Rs 3,000-4,000 through a tele-cine. Distributes it to cinema halls either through satellite or a portable hard disk. • Real Image has helped to set up 40 theatres with Qube in Tamil Nadu. By next year, it will be 100 theatres • In Portugal, the firm set up the 20-Cinema network, the world’s first movie on demand network. The theatre manager can sit in his living room and log on to a website and choose the movie he wants to play in his theatre

Qube, developed by a team of software engineers in Real Image, could screen old B & W films as well as digital cinema in any future format. Presently, it uses Windows Media 9, explains Senthil. So, old projectors, whose carbon arc needed to be changed and film reels had to be rewound, are out. With the Qube, the air-conditioned projector room will have just a small keypad resembling the remote control of a DVD player.

Real Image has helped to set up 40 theatres with Qube equipment in Tamil Nadu. By next year, it will be 100 theatres. Andhra Pradesh is next in the queue. Some companies dealing in film equipment have bought the Qube package from Real Image to be set up in theatres in Maharashtra and Gujarat. The company has begun negotiations in the US to equip theatres there with the Qube cinema server. The server will cost about USD 2,000.

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In Portugal, the Real Image team set up the 20-Cinema network, the world’s first movie on demand network. The theatre manager can sit in his living room, log on to a website and choose the movie he wants to play in his theatre. With the help of a satellite dish antenna ‘‘the movie gets downloaded into the theatre equipment directly, invisibly, magically,’’ say Senthil.

In India, the digital projection system would cost a theatre owner Rs. 15 lakh, including the Qube cinema server costs (Rs. 4 lakh) as well as a digital projector and a satellite system. But for the film industry, burdened as it is by staggering production costs and video piracy, this is hardly a pinch.

The encrypted digital film totally prevents video piracy. And, a camcorder print taken off the screen can be traced back to specific theatres using the watermark on each digital print. The time of recording also gets registered.

‘‘With these advantages, it is only a matter of a decade when more than 50 per cent of theatres across the world would connect to digital cinema. And, we will be providing them with the entire end-to-end solution,’’ explains Senthil.