Mumbai: Qube Cinema has inked a partnership with the Digital Cinema Network (DCN) in Australia to convert the six-screen boutique Sun Theatre Yarraville in Melbourne’s Inner West to a fully networked and automated DCI 2K digital projection system. This showcase site marks the start of DCN’s larger plan to rollout DCI compliant digital cinemas across Australia.
The DCN solution combines Qube Cinema’s Qube XP-D DCI compliant digital cinema servers, Christie 2K DLP Cinema projectors and the DCN Theatre Management System with integration to their Venue ticketing system. Installation began during August and the system will be commissioned over the next few weeks.
The Sun Theatre currently utilizes five E-Cinema systems from DigitAll across the six screens, combined with 35mm film projection to suit the mix of mainstream, art, limited and alternate product shown at this location. The flexibility of using their E-Cinema system led the cinema operator to investigate the possibility of converting to a completely digital, DCI compliant system.
"Programming a six-plex with such a wide variety of films – often over 15 titles at a time – is a tough balancing act. However, once we started using an E-Cinema digital system, we discovered so many operational advantages that we wanted a 100% digital location. While the picture quality was sufficiently good with E-Cinema, we knew it needed to go to 2K to bring a premium experience and to access films from all distributors so that meant DCI," said Sun Theatre’s Michael Smith.
"We’ve been supplying E-Cinema systems as DigitAll for a decade now and like others, we have been keeping our eye on DCI activity. With over 4000 screens installed in the US, it finally seemed like we were getting closer to complete digital conversions in Australia too. We often had clients asking about progress with DCI, but it was Sun Theatres that were really keen and we decided together in late 2007 to find a way to make it happen," said DCN general manager Martin Gardiner.
"It is a pleasure to be working with The Sun Theatre and we are proud to have been selected by DCN for the first large scale DCI rollout plan in this part of the world. We will be deploying some of our unique digital cinema solutions like QubePlex at this showcase site and are aiming for the highest level of automation possible," said Qube Cinema chief marketing officer Raja Enok.
