Continuing its push to make Windows Media 9 Series the de facto standard in
digital media, both on and beyond the PC, Microsoft
Thursday unveiled an alliance with independent film exhibitor Landmark
Theatres, under which Landmark will equip each of its 53 theaters across
the United States with digital cinema playback systems based on Microsoft’s
technology.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said the deal marks the largest
digital cinema theater circuit installation to date in the U.S. It also
brings the efficiencies of digital distribution to independent film whereas
most digital installations to date have focused on the largest screens and
multiplexes, which are geared toward Hollywood blockbusters.
“Landmark’s mandate has always been to build an alternative infrastructure
dedicated to the enhancement and proliferation of independent film,” said
Bert Manzari, executive vice president of Landmark Theatres. “We exhibit
over 250 films a year, and all too many of these films succeed or fail due
to market economics rather than artistic accomplishment.”
Currently, theatrical films cost the same to release whether released by a
major studio or an independent with far less capital behind it. Microsoft
said that the digital alternative is a “major breakthrough in these
economies,” by allowing the films to be mastered and distributed digitally,
driving down costs and thereby helping enable greater diversity and access
to the marketplace for independent filmmakers and distributors alike.
Landmark President and CEO Paul Richardson took a role as a featured
presenter at a symposium on digital cinema at this year’s Sundance Film
Festival, and said the technology has generated a great deal of interest
across the board.
“What has impressed me most is the enormous breadth of interest in digital
cinema that has been generated since the festival,” he said. “I’ve been
contacted by key distributors, investment bankers and members of the
creative community, all of whom want to know when we can deliver a complete
solution to digital distribution. I believe that we will look back at this
moment as one when we were able to fundamentally change the business model
in a way that will allow far more of these films to compete successfully.”
Jim Steele, president of Digital Cinema Solutions (DCS) — which will
deploy Microsoft’s technology on its ‘Cinema System’ architecture for
Landmark — added, “The independent film space has largely been ignored by
digital cinema. The small, current base of digital cinema installations
targets the largest screens and multiplexes focused on mainstream Hollywood
blockbusters. The program announced today by Landmark and Microsoft will
change all that because it creates a nationwide network of independent
digital cinemas, effectively solving the ‘chicken and the egg’ problem for
the independent film community by allowing them to move forward for the
first time with wide-scale digital distribution.
DCS will equip 177 of Landmark’s screens with the Windows Media 9 Series
technology and its ‘Cinema System,’ which has been used to power the BMW
Films Digital Cinema Series in 25 theaters since November 2002.
DCS’s system utilizes a networked PC architecture which plugs into existing
theater infrastructure. Windows Media 9 Series then allows distributors to
send films to theaters over private networks, on CD-ROM or on DVD-ROM, all
protected with Microsoft’s Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM)
technology.
Microsoft said the films, encoded in Windows Media 9 Series, will provide
high-resolution, theater-quality experiences, with up to 7.1 channel
surround sound.
The companies expect to complete the network rollout by the end of the
year.
