New Technology TV

At the latest ShoWest in Las Vegas, Nevada, there is a whirlwind of enduring discussions concerning the world of cinema and the technologies and machines used to bring films to the masses. There is an ongoing transition to digital equipment, but at a much slower pace than some industry observers prophesized. About a decade ago, they thought the transformation to digital would happen within five years. It turns out that even over ten years later, there is still some resistance within the movie theater industry to alter their way of doing business. There are over 35,000 movie theaters in the United States, and very few of them are rushing to make the leap to digital.

On the other side, there are companies such as QuVis, Texas Instruments and Avica that have much to gain in this area if theater owners make the switch. They have been lobbying hard over the last few years for the digital projection of movies, and even for the digital transmission of new releases, but change in this industry is slow. The theater owners and movie executives have a number of concerns, including fears about the various forms of piracy. In 1999, when Star Wars Episode I was released digitally, there was an uproar about the creation and distribution of illegal copies of the movie. Only now are studios coming to grips with ideas and measures to limit piracy. There are new standards and protocols in action.

The numerous advantages of going digital are decreased shipping costs of the cans of 35-millimeter films, the ability to show other events such as concerts and special events. The digital equipment in theaters now has around 2000 pixels going horizontally across the screen and Sony is developing a system that would double that to four thousand pixels to significantly enhance the picture resolution. Back in the 1970’s, I remember seeing a digital dishwasher in someone’s vacation ski cabin. My buddies and I got a big kick out of seeing a new piece of technology and we guffawed loudly in our recognition that there was a change on the horizon. Of course, the dishwasher was digital only in the sense it had red LED (Light Emitting Diode) readouts, and I think some of us thought it was sissy and too bourgeoisie to have such a modern appliance. While we knew that winds of change were blowing in the technological arena, I don’t think any of us had a sense of how digitizing would change the world. Now the list of digital appliances in our lives seems to grow daily. From iPods, computers, new digital televisions, the transmission of digital Satellite television signals, digital clocks and watches and digital music we are surrounded. An MIT professor even concludes the Universe is, at root, a series of ones and zeros. It seems it may a take little longer until your local theater gets the memo.