Milan, 7 April 2005

PRESS RELEASE

“Up to now a ‘pilot’ experience: when will the leap to big business come?” This is the question posed by Antoine Virenque, Secretary General of the Fiad (Fédération internationale des associations de distributeurs de films), who brought the distributors’ voice on digital cinema to the MEDIA Salles’ course, insisting on the “need for both parties – distributors and exhibitors – to be able to count on a system that is as universal as possible. Distributors and exhibitors are looking for a business model which we cannot find at the moment”.
Many topics were dealt with on the second day of the course “DigiTraining Plus: New Technologies for European Cinemas”, which is now taking place in Kuurne, Belgium. In the opening session the MEDIA Programme’s approach to digital cinema was outlined by Aviva Silver, whilst an analysis of the markets for D- and E-Cinema was presented by Glenn Wastyn, Business Development Manager for Barco Digital Cinema. Amongst the day’s topics, the digital screening strategies adopted by two European cinema chains: the Danish Nordisk Film Biograf and Utopia, which operates in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg, as well as an overview of digital projects and experiences in Germany.
David Monk offered his point of view regarding Hollywood’s perspectives on digital films and their new frontier, 3D, whilst in connection with alternative content, Ángel Fernández Pineda, IT Manager of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, presented the project “Opera Digitale” based on the broadcasting of operas not only in Spain (the project also regards France, Portugal, Mexico, Chile, Germany, Sweden, Canada, USA, Morocco, Brazil, Argentina and Italy). The role of national and international circuits in spreading digital content was the main focus of the talks by Steve Perrin (UK Film Council) and Kees Ryninks (Nederlands Fonds voor de Film), responsible, respectively, for the initiatives Digital Screen Network, which aims to make specialised cinema, such as the foreign language movies, more accessible throughout the whole of the UK, and CinemaNet Europe, an international network for the circulation of documentaries.
Digital advertising, which Patrick von Sychowski, Business Development Manager of Unique Digital, defined “the greatest success up to now in the race towards the digitalisation of cinemas” is a different subject. With the numbers of screens equipped for digital advertising totalling 10,000 worldwide, advertising does, in fact, seem to be a real driving force.

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