The Hindu Business Line : Digital experience

Some shouted. Nothing worked, and after half-an-hour or so, the staff at this small town cinema helplessly admitted: the projector conked out. "Please accept the refund or get passes for the next screening tomorrow," they said since it was impossible to carry out the repairs and resume the show. We walked out. Murder mystery still remains unsolved.

Such a thing may not happen in an urban multiplex, but when it comes to small towns and villages across India, such adventures are part of the movie-going extravaganza that folks undertake in their quest for weekend entertainment. Even in cities, going to the movies is often a task unto itself these days - traffic snarls, parking problems, and yes, where is the time? And after all this, you find the experience of watching a movie in a cinema is not really worth the trouble.

Why? One reason could be that when the rest of the world has gone digital, our cinemas haven't. You enjoy digital music, take digital pictures, watch home video in DVD, but still go to a theatre that shows analogue films. The difference in quality gets more pronounced, especially if you are watching the film after a few weeks since its release. Because the quality of the film slowly erodes with every screening and affects the overall experience of film viewing.

ENTER DIGITAL CINEMA

The fact is digital cinema entered the scene long ago.Mainstream films such as `Star War Episode 1' had hit big screens way back in June 1999. But digitalisation of cinema took longer than expected due to many reasons.

So even as the use of digital technologies for production of films became widespread, the way in which the movie is distributed and exhibited remained in the traditional analogue way. So you have boxes containing film reels travelling from theatre to theatre.

Two technologies have come to the fore for digital cinema: Digital Light Processing (DLP) developed by Texas Instruments and Direct Image Light Amplifier (D-ILA) by JVC. (Currently two versions of DLP technology exist: D-Cinema and its scaled down version of e-Cinema). What they seek to do is replace celluloid images by pixels that can be contained in a data file.

So instead of transporting the bulky film box around, you may send the movie in a hard drive, or beam it via satellite or transfer through a broadband connection to a theatre of your choice.

ADVANTAGES

The obvious advantage of digital cinema is the better image quality. In spite of the number of screenings, the quality remains the same. In the beginning, there was scepticism that digital files would never be able to match the depth and quality of resolution that celluloid offers. However, proponents of digital cinema claim that today technology makes it possible to calibrate colours to the choice of the moviemaker.

But more than the image quality, digital cinema looks attractive to the movie industry because of the savings in distribution costs. Typically, it costs anywhere between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1,00,000 for a print but to store the movie in a hard drive, it would just cost Rs 4,000, says M. Harish, General Manager, Business Development at Texas Instruments India. And if you can send the movie via satellite or broadband, the costs can be lowered further.

Another advantage of digital cinema is that a movie can be released simultaneously to as many theatres as one wants since per print costs are nominal.

Now, smaller cities and towns have to wait for a new film, some times for months, after it is released in the metros. "By this time, pirated copies of the film would be out in the market. So the distributors lose out in smaller towns," Harish says.

As for the problem of piracy, Harish says digital cinema's strong encryption technologies would make it impossible to take an illegal copy of the movie. "The format will also allow self-destruction after a certain number of shows," he says. Another advantage is that the theatres equipped with digital cinema projectors and equipment can look at showing other content than just films. Like screening a live cricket match or a concert, thereby generating additional revenues.

FLIPSIDE

If the film industry's one side - producers and distributors - would save money in digital cinema, exhibitors, who form the other part, will have to shell out some sizeable investments to embrace the new technologies.

And this is perhaps the biggest hurdle in proliferation of digital cinema. "It would cost Rs 7-10 lakh to convert a theatre (to digital e-cinema)," Harish says. In order to have a full-fledged D-cinema facility, the costs would be far higher at about Rs 75 lakh or above. Even though digital cinema offers the flexibility to show other content, it will take some strong convincing to prompt theatre owners to go for the new technologies. One solution would be sharing the investment by all concerned in the film industry, rather than just the theatres.

The industry is also not sure at this point of time whether more standards in digital cinema will emerge. For one thing, we all know how quickly the digital world changes to newer technologies.

PRESENT STATUS

Being home to the world's largest film industry that churns out over 1,000 films a year, India is expected to play a major role in the evolution of digital cinema.

There are some 21,000 theatres across the country. "Presently around 300 theatres are equipped with e-Cinema," Harish says. (Chennai's Sathyam Cinemas has D-cinema facility). It is forecast that over 2,500 theatres in India will go digital by next year.

"The film industry here is quite well aware of the technological changes.

You will be surprised at their knowledge of what is happening around," says Harish. Apart from the film industry, large corporates such as Essel Group and Reliance are also planning major investments in digital cinema.

For instance, Adlabs, now owned by Reliance, is planning to convert 50 theatres to digital cinemas.

Valuable Media, which is a part of Apollo International, has reportedly equipped over 200 theatres with digital technologies, and plans to take this number to 2,000 by the end of 2007. And if the film industry in the country too responds to such developments and comes out with quality movies, going to the cinema will be something to look forward to, every weekend.

vipin@thehindu.co.in

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