By Peter J. Brown
The movie industry is waking up to the fact that satellite-based distribution today represents a viable alternative to the old way of distributing films. When it comes to security, reliability, flexibility and cost effectiveness, satellite can do it all.
The industry's de facto d-cinema standard was published by Los Angeles-based Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) in 2005 and enjoys the support of major studios, the National Organization of Theater Owners and the American Society of Cinematographers. While slow to start, adoption of the standard and d-cinema in general is picking up speed. The forces driving d-cinema are the same ones -- improvements in quality and costs -- which spawned the digital revolution in other areas, says Scott Calder, CEO of Utah-based Mainstream Data. "The truth is that with or without satellite, cinema would be going digital for quality and cost reasons," he says. "To the extent that satellite vendors understand that fact and then focus on providing infrastructure that enables a better theater experience at costs that are much lower than analog film, there is a bright future for satellite in digital cinema."
Since 2004, North Carolina-based Microspace has worked with Paramount's Dreamworks SKG to deliver films like Shrek 2, Collateral and Shark Tale to theaters in North America. Microspace integrated forward error correction software from Kencast to help its satellite-based d-cinema solution to deliver a base 99.95 percent availability. "Wide distribution of a single movie file to many theaters will be done by satellite, and with a reliable enough multicast system, modest return-link capacity will be used to certify delivery," says William Steele, president of Connecticut-based Kencast Inc.
Initially, the files delivered were in the range of 50 to 100 gigabytes. Now the files are likely to be closer to 200 to 300 gigabytes, and technology must improve to help deliver the larger files, Steele adds. "The ability to transcode quickly, even in real time, to smaller formats means the movies can be distributed directly to hotels, cable, direct-to-home services and even mobile handsets with the need to continue ongoing extensions of the network infrastructure as these markets emerge."
Ontario-based International Datacasting Corp. (IDC) also has been active in d-cinema applications for several years, providing the infrastructure for Boeing's D-cinema project and providing file distribution for Technicolor, says IDC's President and CEO Ron Clifton. "There is no doubt that digital cinema is the wave of the future and we have got the delivery part solved with proven technology -- cost-effective, secure, and reliable."
Clifton emphasizes proven technology, which means open standards, packet-level forward error correction and backlink correction. "Our systems readily handle large files such as the 150-gigabyte files used for digitized films, and they operate at rates up to 70 megabits per second and higher for both file delivery and the projection of live events," he says. "With our new line of DVB-S2 products, we now can achieve higher content delivery rates up to and beyond 90 megabits per second. This high performance is critical in order to make d-cinema economically viable," says Clifton.
In March, Digital Cinema Network Service announced it had selected BT as its global system integrator to develop, install and operate its d-cinema solution. Willem Weijer, BT's vice president of business development, says the most significant change in terms of satellite-based, multi-venue content distribution since DCI got underway involves the understanding of the application of VSAT technologies and the increase in throughput abilities by the VSAT equipment vendors. "Many VSAT equipment manufacturers are now working diligently to increase the maximum throughput capacity of their systems in response to d-cinema," he says.
D-cinema content is encrypted from the time it is encoded until play out. While reliability and security are both accounted for in the process, the network-based solution increases flexibility and speed of delivery, says Weijer. "You will likely continue to see upgrades to VSAT technology in the area of higher data throughput capabilities. You will also likely see upgrades to the software and middleware applications that are currently used for scheduling content delivery and security."
Although satellite distribution of d-cinema content remains largely unchanged, the way the content is encoded and encrypted is changing, says Curt Tilly, manager of D-cinema distribution at Microspace. "With JPEG encoding we are seeing d-cinema (files) that are two to four times the size of the first MPEG-encoded (files) we delivered," he says. "Because the packages are now encrypted to a standard specification, we receive and deliver all content in an encrypted form."
Other big d-cinema system changes underway involve support for multiple screens, and Tilly sees satellite distribution playing a major part in these new systems. "While satellite distribution certainly saves money for independent theater owners, the big cost in the transition really remains the projector, server and back-room systems that support digital presentation," he says. "Satellite will provide the opportunity for additional revenue for these smaller exhibitors with alternative content choices, and this might be enough of an incentive to move to digital. Satellite carries the added benefit of keeping the workflow entirely digital. Using satellite means that studios and exhibitors do not have to inventory, duplicate, track, ship, ingest and return hard drives."
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