-By Terri Westhafer Director, Business Development Barco Digital Cinema

The industry debate over the value of resolution in digital-cinema formats reached a turning point this past June, when Texas Instruments’ DLP Cinema division and its three projector manufacturing partners, Barco, Christie and NEC, announced that they were developing new 4K technologies. The news came within a few months of top theatre circuits Regal and AMC signing a deal to install thousands of Sony 4K systems, which offer a resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels, compared to 2K’s resolution of 2048 x 1080 pixels. For our annual special section on digital cinema, Film Journal International went directly to the manufacturers to get their vantage points on 4K vs. 2K.

What if viewers could enjoy the first all-digital 4K resolution on a 90-foot cinema screen? What if exhibitors could have DLP Cinema® reliability and low cost of ownership—with the highest pixel diversity and color accuracy? This remarkable scenario will illuminate theatre screens next year.

Optimizing the Big Screen
Barco’s 2K digital-cinema products offer customers a wide range of choices, with the ability to customize systems for individual auditoriums. Using the 2K solution, the economic paradigms and cost reductions have helped Barco achieve broad market accolades and acceptance, but the focus is now shifting to a new challenge—optimizing the big screen experience. In a recent side-by-side test, Barco’s 2K projector delivered superior image quality and higher resolution than the competitor’s 4K system, yet our customers have asked us for a 4K, premium-quality solution for very large screens—specifically, 90+ feet for 2D presentations, and up to 75 feet for 3D.

In response, Barco Digital Cinema, in partnership with Texas Instruments (TI), will proudly introduce “Enhanced DLP Cinema 4K” in 2010. This is the next step toward strengthening and expanding our product portfolio—with image quality and light levels exceeding anything seen to date.

First to Market
To inaugurate the 4K deployment, Barco will have next-generation “4K Ready” projectors available in Q1 2010. By performing a software upgrade and exchanging the light engine, these projectors may be easily updated to Enhanced DLP Cinema 4K. Given Barco’s proprietary modular design, the engine swap will be simple to perform, taking less than five minutes. Although Barco is dependent upon TI timelines, delivery of new Enhanced DLP Cinema 4K projectors should commence in late 2010, with Barco being the first to market with production 4K DLP systems.

The Right Solution
Exhibitors should never have to mask down their largest screens, nor should they be required to pay 4K prices for 30-foot screens—where 2K projection remains ideal for their customers. With these principles in mind, Barco creates the right solution for the right-sized screen. Our research suggests that exhibitors will place Enhanced DLP Cinema 4K systems on their showcase screens, while 2K projection systems will continue as the industry workhorse—excelling at total cost of ownership, with flawless DLP Cinema image quality.
Barco’s Enhanced DLP Cinema 4K products will be designed to bring first-class, luminous visual experiences to the largest screens, where the approximate 20% price increase is appropriate—remaining a true value proposition.

Projecting 2010
Building upon the ingenious modular design of our existing offerings is a three-tier introduction: the incorporation of many exciting features into our next-generation DLP Cinema 2K equipment, an innovative line of “4K Ready” projectors in Q1 2010, and a new family of Enhanced DLP Cinema 4K projectors in Q4 2010.

Currently, exhibitors worldwide are eagerly transitioning to digital projection technology, and DLP Cinema is enjoying considerable growth—with nearly 1,000 screens being converted each month. In the coming year, we expect those numbers to rise even higher, because theatres are tailoring their business models to include digital at all their locations, rather than selected cinema complexes.

This trend is driven by 3D, as well as the patrons’ expressed desire for sharp, clean, pristine presentations. We welcome the advent of Enhanced DLP Cinema 4K to provide an all-encompassing solution for our customers’ auditoriums, regardless of configuration or screen size. We will continue to project the future—it is our commitment to you.