-By Kevin Lally

Call it The Avatar effect. At ShoWest 2010 in Las Vegas, the mood at the seminars, the social functions and especially the tradeshow was markedly upbeat, thanks to record grosses posted by James Cameron’s landmark 3D tale of the Na’vi and the knockout performance of its 3D successor in theatres, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.

“Avatar was a great success not just for the movie industry, but for 3D in general,” observes Nancy Fares, business manager for Texas Instruments DLP Cinema Products. “It really brought 3D to the masses. And it brought attention to digital cinema all over the world. There is not one region, not one exhibitor that we meet with who doesn’t say, ‘I want to go now! How can I go faster?’ As pioneers of 3D, we feel really good about that.”

That response is reflected in DLP Cinema’s sales. “In 2009 many businesses shrunk, and we saw growth!” Fares exclaims. “We bucked the trend. And this was driven by 3D.” Fares estimates that two-thirds of the company’s shipments in 2009 were outside the U.S. And of its current 19,000 screens worldwide, nearly 11,000 are 3D-enabled, she reports.

As ShoWest corporate sponsor for ten consecutive years, DLP Cinema has been making the case for digital and the new developments in 3D for a long time. And the company was happy to report at the show that its projector technology is the first to pass the procedural test for Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) standards administered by third-party test facility CineCert. The testing encompassed all DLP Cinema subcomponents for both DLP Cinema 2K and its forthcoming Enhanced 4K platforms.

“That’s a huge deal,” says Fares, one that paves the way for DLP Cinema’s OEM licensees—Barco, Christie Digital and NEC—to complete final testing of their new DLP Cinema next-generation electronics platform models and ship them in the coming months.

Fares expects the new Enhanced 4K to have its first demos this year. “It’s a 4K no one has seen before. The 4K for DLP will be able to light up the largest screens in 3D, up to 100-foot screens for 2D and maybe 80-foot screens for 3D. The brightest image will be combined with 8.8 megapixels on the screen.”

DLP Cinema is also fresh off celebrating the receipt of a Motion Picture Academy Scientific and Engineering Award for the color accuracy of their projectors. The honor went to four individuals: D. Scott Dewald, Greg Pettitt, Brad Walker and Bill Werner.

DLP Cinema’s three OEMs were all featuring new product lines in Las Vegas, with an eye toward the potential growth of 4K technology. Barco presented its new line of Series-2 digital-cinema projectors, which also passed the CineCert test for digital compliance shortly after DLP Cinema made its announcement.

For small and mid-size cinemas, Barco offers the compact DP2K “C” projectors, based on the 0.98” DLP Cinema chip. For larger venues, the company provides a family of DP2K B-series projectors, based on the 1.2” DLP Cinema chip, including Barco's flagship, ultra-bright DP2K-32B. “We have the best fit for every screen,” Barco corporate public relations manager Inge Govaerts contends.

Barco also unveiled the Diagnostics Companion, a new optional software module that lets customers identify, diagnose and solve error conditions in Series 1 and 2 projectors without technical-support assistance. The company was also touting its “Deliver Digital” program in conjunction with Cinedigm, which provides flexible financing, a full d-cinema platform, and installation and warranty services. “We know it is difficult for people to make the investment,” Govaerts notes. “They don’t have to make the investment on their own. We’re there, we’re partners.”

Just before ShoWest, Barco announced a major deal with Digital Cinema Implementation Partners to install more than 3,000 Series-2 projectors at one of the nation’s biggest exhibitors, Cinemark Holdings. And during the show, new Barco contracts were finalized with Malco Theatres for all of its 320 screens, R/C Theatres and China’s Zhejiang Time Cinema circuit.

“If there were no content for digital projection like the 3D movies, I don’t think we would be already so far,” Govaerts declares.

Christie was also feeling the Avatar effect. “People knew Avatar was going to be big,” cinema senior product manager Brian Claypool notes. “I don’t know if they expected it to be as big as it was. What we’re seeing now is exhibitors thinking: Wow, we’re going to need 30% or more of our screens in 3D. And they’re seeing the recoupment on their investment fairly quickly, so the argument is there to spend the capital on 3D equipment.”

Claypool says Christie is “ramping up to meet the demand. And the credit markets are starting to loosen up so people can do their VPF-based deployments.” The Christie exec refuses to recommend one 3D system over another. “What’s the best 3D system? That’s completely up to you. We like all the 3D systems. We don’t want to tell an exhibitor what’s best for their business, we want them to tell us what’s best for their business.”

At the show, Christie was showcasing its new 4K-upgradeable Solaria series of projectors: the CP2210 low-power projectors for screens up to 45 feet wide in 2D and 35 feet in 3D; the 2220 for up to 55 feet in 2D and 45 feet in 3D; and the ultra-bright 2230 for the largest screens.

Regarding the future of 4K, Claypool says, “In the production pipeline, just about 90% of everything is made in 2K. 4K is significantly more expensive to do. There are other parameters to image quality than just resolution: There’s contrast, refresh rate, color accuracy, stability. But we did see that still-camera argument: ‘Hey, I’ve got a ten megapixel camera; that must be better than a seven-megapixel camera.’ So we just wanted to be ready for it, and eventually I think we will see some more content coming from Hollywood in 4K.”

“Now everyone is a true believer,” says Jim Reisteter, general manager of NEC’s Digital Cinema Division, of the post-Avatar environment for digital 3D. NEC was also featuring a new array of projectors at ShoWest, including its top-of-the-line 3200S model for screens up to 105 feet wide, fully upgradable to 4K. (The “workhorse” 2000C is recommended for screens up to 65 feet and is also expected to be 4K-upgradable in the future.)

Reisteter feels one of NEC’s strengths is its offering of a total package. “NEC is uniquely positioned with a full family of products—not only the cinema projectors, but a family of large-format displays that can cover concession signage, and a preshow projector. It’s a broad offering to fulfill an exhibitor’s business needs. And we also have financing programs.”

In the 3D race, Dolby has been overshadowed in North America by the high market penetration of RealD, but worldwide the company has shipped over 3,200 3D units in just over two years, and it has roughly 400 exhibitor partners in 67 countries. And at ShoWest, Dolby made an aggressive move to woo new customers by reducing the list price of its reusable 3D glasses from $27.50 to $17.

Joshua Gershman, Dolby’s global public relations manager, observes, “People always compare our $17 as being expensive compared to the $1 cost of the disposable glasses that is actually supplemented by the studios. But when that supplement goes away, that cost goes onto the exhibitor and a dollar a pair gets to be an exorbitant amount of money. When you break down the cost benefit of a reusable model, it you break it down to 200, 300 or 500 washes, that $17 significantly gets reduced to cents on the dollar.”

Adds Page Haun, senior director of cinema marketing, “I’ve always been pleased by the reusable model for a lot of reasons. The total cost of energy is very good, but also it’s not building up thousands of millions of pounds of waste. It reinforces something that’s important to Dolby.”

On the tradeshow floor, Dolby was also exhibiting a new server with bigger storage (three terabytes). David DesRoches, director of digital-cinema product management, says the DSS200-3 server is especially useful for “small or single-screen theatres that move a lot of content in a given week.” The server also features new Chinese and Russian language interfaces, and automatic rebuild of the storage arrays in the event of hard-drive failure.

But Dolby’s biggest news was on the audio side: the introduction of Dolby Surround 7.1, which will debut with the 3D release of Pixar’s Toy Story 3 in June. The sound pioneer has established two back surround channels where currently there is only one, enabling an even more pronounced 360-degree effect for sound effects that pan around the theatre. Dolby demonstrated the new system at the Brenden Theatre at Las Vegas' Palms Casino, and there to lend his enthuasiastic endorsement was Pixar post-production supervisor Paul Cichocki.

Stuart Bowling, Dolby's technical marketing manager, said that theatres already equipped for Dolby 5.1 will face minimal work to adapt their auditoriums for the new format—mainly a "minor wiring change" and the purchase of an additional amplifier.

Haun says the response from studios, content creators and exhibition has been “phenomenal,” and she predicts, “By the time Toy Story 3 comes to market, you’ll see other people getting on board.”

Sony again showcased its 4K digital technology at the ShoWest tradeshow, but the company also hosted an off-site event: the debut of “The Sony 3D Experience,” a research center and screening facility within the expanded CBS Television City research facility at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.

The facility is divided into two primary zones: 3D theatrical entertainment; which will preview and promote the latest 3D motion picture releases; and 3D home entertainment, which will highlight and demonstrate the newest trends for 3D in the home, including 3D-compatible HDTVs, PlayStation3 systems and upcoming Blu-ray 3D players and titles.

Another 3D player making its mark at ShoWest was MasterImage 3D, which had the honor of showcasing its MI-2100 3D theatre system for the world premiere of the latest Disney and Pixar 3D short, Day and Night, which preceded the Tuesday morning 2D showing of Toy Story 3. More than 1,200 MI-2100 3D systems are installed worldwide, at chains including Harkins Theatres, Krikorian and Premiere Cinemas in North America and such European chains as Empire, Palace and Omniplex. MasterImage also featured its auto-stereoscopic (glasses-free) mobile 3D display technology during the show.

Non-digital 3D also created buzz at ShoWest. Technicolor exhibited its 3D solution for 35mm film projectors to a packed house at the Bally’s Jubilee Theatre, and competing film-based 3D system Oculus was also making the rounds. As new 3D releases fight to stay on a limited number of 3D-equipped digital screens, these two companies have stepped in to offer a lower-cost alternative for exhibitors who aren’t ready or able to make the daunting investment in new digital projection equipment. Veteran inventor and Oculus principal Lenny Lipton says his system can be up and running in theatres in just a few weeks’ time and is “as good as digital” on a well-maintained 35mm projector. For more details on these processes, see Bill Mead’s article, “ The Return of 35mm 3D."

Other technology standouts at ShoWest 2010 included Harkness Screens’ new Digital Screen Selector, a new feature on the Harkness website which offers theatre operators much-needed guidance when choosing screens for digital 2D and 3D presentations (see next month’s FJI for more details), and Meyer Sound’s impressive demo of its high-end audio system for cinemas. The first ten minutes of The Hurt Locker never sounded better.