Milan, 2 April 2004
PRESS RELEASE

"Avant-garde digital technology and experimentation with alternative content": these are the two pillars of the Kinepolis Group's strategy, in the words of the Marketing Director Jan Huyghe, who today welcomed European exhibitors attending the course "DigiTraining Plus: New Technologies for European Cinemas", run by MEDIA Salles with the support of the MEDIA Programme and the Italian Government and the patronage of the Ministry for the Flemish Communities of Belgium, to the company's Kortrijk complex.
This was a day devoted to "hands-on experience" of the innovative equipment produced by highly specialised European companies, and including the Cinestore Solo server by EVS and the DP100 digital projector, the leading (2K) model by Barco, installed in the projection room of the Kinepolis itself. This is equipment that keeps abreast of the new technologies, maintaining quality standards and, in terms of e-cinema, offers new, audience-proof ideas. The latest of these is the advent of live information in cinemas: one evening a week, before the start of the film, spectators in the Flemish Kinepolis have the chance to watch the "VTM News" programme, from the comfort of their cinema seats.
Another novelty from Kinepolis is the ticketing system, demonstrated to the trainees by the Director of the Kortrijk complex, Diether Thielemans: 14 computers and printers installed alongside only 4 traditional cash desks, which produce "instant tickets" in A4 format, thanks to a touch-screen system. "Big tickets", on the back of which appear details of coming films and some advertising. This means that everyone is happy, from the spectators, who avoid queues, to the exhibitor, who witnesses a reduction in management costs and an increase in advertising revenue.
In the afternoon the intensive programme of work - drawn up by MEDIA Salles with the collaboration of ADN-Cinema (the European Association for the development of digital cinemas, with its head offices in France) and ProjectScope (a Project researching and studying the trends of the cinema and multi-media market, with its Head Offices in Germany) - continued at the Barco Head Offices, which are hosting the course. After a visit to the projector production line, Silvio Borri of Elsacom outlined how content is transmitted to cinemas equipped for digital screening.

For further information:
MEDIA Salles
Via Soperga, 2
I-20127 Milan
Tel.: +39.02.66984405 - Fax: +39.02.6691574
E-mail: infocinema@mediasalles.it