Mumbai: Dolby Laboratories announced a licensing program for digital cinema server manufacturers at CinemaExpo 2008. This will allow their digital cinema servers to support Dolby 3D Digital Cinema playback. XDC became the first manufacturer to receive approval to license Dolby 3D Digital Cinema technology for its CineStore Solo G3 server line.

As part of its commitment to digital cinema interoperability, the Dolby 3D licensing program will enable exhibitors who have servers manufactured by licensees of this program to integrate Dolby 3D into their existing server platforms.

"As excitement grows for digital 3D, we wanted to make it easy for exhibitors around the world to adopt Dolby 3D and offer their patrons an enhanced cinema going experience," said Dolby Laboratories vice president marketing John Carey. "We are committed to providing interoperability in our digital cinema products to give exhibitors a choice in suppliers."

The Dolby 3D playback compatibility, licensing program delivers solutions designed to ease interoperability among digital cinema manufacturers. Since Dolby 3D uses dual-channel, real-time colour correction technologies within the playback server, studios are not required to perform any 3D vendor-specific pre-processing. To ensure optimal Dolby 3D quality, Dolby strictly defines the technical requirements and evaluates the playback systems.

"Our current exhibitor clients already equipped with the XDC CineStore Solo G3, and all the other exhibitors deploying digital screens and selecting our server because of its assets, will now be able to install Dolby 3D Digital Cinema technology," said general product manager Thierry Van der Kaa.