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Welcome to the Event Cinema Forum

Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 3:12 pm
by sperling
Event Cinema, or Alternative Content, or just Other Digital Stuff, is 15 years without a standard, and until the recent success of the Event Cinema Association in England and the EU, without a coordinated or consistent effort that reaches from production to exhibition. There are many non-obvious issues.

The problems of Anything But Cinema, whether a live satellite or cable feed or a prepared distribution, become even more complex in the modern age of emergency tech support. Common professional cinema standards – for example screen and masking dimensions, sound mixing, security solutions and demuxing – all have different non-cinema standards that can trip up the automated and working equipment, procedures, and staff of the multiplex.

For example: The term 5.1 as a mix scheme shares enough in one world to allow the un-savvy to relax. Inexpensive satellite or cable boxes won’t pass professional security and other specs. The wary cinema owner might be proven right that the expense of the higher standard equipment won’t be paid back once the production fails for inexplicable reasons…especially if using off-the-shelf consumer equipment is attempted. A glance that sees the production at the 1920 x 1080 spec of 1080p might consider the 2048 width of the cinema as close enough, but customers see odd bars, edges of the screen and bad contrast.

The failures due to any one or combination of these will remind the patron that they can possibly see or hear a more compelling presentation at home.

This area of the ISDCF Forum is set aside to detail specific problems and solutions for the Event Cinema (live performance whether music, dance or other arts, and sporting events), and Alternative Content (non-DCP distributed movies or documentaries) and Multi-Facility Events (corporate meetings, game competitions).