On July 17th, the "instant digital theater" was put to the test with the premiere of the independent film series at Denver's Bug Theatre ( www.bugtheatre.com ), a turn-of-the-century movie house now used mostly for stage plays and live performance.

Turning it back into a movie theater for one night a month presented some challenges--because its calendar was full, it was necessary that the projection system could be set up and torn down quickly, and it was also essential to support a variety of source formats including betaSP.

Trygve.Com sitemap what's new FAQs diary images exercise singles humor recipes media weblist internet companies community video/mp3 comment contact

I ended up getting a JVC-G11 DILA projector, a Focus Quadscan scaler, a Sony UVW-1400A betaSP deck, an assortment of audio gear, crossovers, a JBL B380 subwoofer, and a 700-MHz Athlon system with Diamond Viper 770 for computer-generated source material (the video card wouldn't have been my card of choice, but it was what I had on hand and was adequate for the task).

Overall, it went extremely well--the entire setup and calibration, including running the power and sound cabling through the theater took just over an hour and there were no mishaps or disasters. The sound was good and the video quality and brightness was excellent, especially considering that the "screen" was a seventeen-foot moveable canvas backdrop normally used behind the sets used for plays.

It's only a matter of time before electronic projection technology becomes commonplace in public theaters; the price/performance level of the latest generation of DILA projection units may well be reaching the threshold where it becomes practical.

The advantages to the movie theater operator are obvious: compared to conventional film projectors, adjustment, calibration, operation, and general maintenance are much easier. For a recent showing of the locally-filmed and produced dramatic film, "Picture of Priority" [ http://www.prioritypictures.com ] the complete setup, testing, and adjustment of the projection and sound system took a mere thirty minutes, despite the different placement of the screen which had been moved to make room for the live performances scheduled on that stage for the nights before and after.

Once it's set up, it simply runs. No reel changes or switching of projectors, no film to misfeed, and the entire system (or multiple systems) can be controlled by computer. Promo slides, animations, advertisements, etc., to be shown before the feature were all edited on computer and assembled into a presentation that runs automatically without operator intervention or monitoring. Video sources and program material may also be switched automatically, and a single central computer system could control all the projection systems within a multiplex theater.

A standard DV-format data stream is about 3.5 megabytes per second; uncompressed D1 is about 14 megabytes per second. Even at that higher data rate, not taking into account how much that could be reduced through high-quality encoding and compression, an hour of broadcast-level digital video would consume about fifty gigabytes of space.

While that might sound like a tremendous amount of data, fifty gigabytes of hard drive space runs less than two hundred dollars at current street prices. Compared to the cost of a single 35mm print, hard drives are very cheap--and they're reusable, don't get dirty or scratched, and last several years of continuous usage.

Which means that a fairly inexpensive array of hard drives could easily contain all the films being shown in a multiplex theater at a given time along with any advertising, short films, trailers, or whatever else the theater wants to show, and and the whole theater complex could be served and controlled from there

The significance of digital video technology for the independent filmmaker is greater still. To begin with, this type of digital projection system can provide filmmakers with a theatrical showing for projects which may not even exist in completed form on a film print.

If a project is shot on film, the footage is normally digitized and the editing is done on computer whether the edited version is intended to be rendered directly to video or used as a guide for cutting the negative from which prints will be made. Cutting the film negative and creating prints from the negative is very expensive and time-consuming. Digitizing the film as it's shot and then editing and rendering straight to video is not only far faster and cheaper, it also allows more flexibility in all aspects of editing, image manipulation, and special effects.

Affordable, high-performance, professional-level 3ccd MiniDV video cameras such as the Cannon XL-1, Sony DCR-VX2000, and JVC GY-DV500U bring serious straight-to-digital broadcast-quality filmmaking within the reach of the low-budget and independent filmmaker. Affordable HDTV recording equipment looming on the horizon may eventually rival film itself in image quality and detail while eliminating the time and expense of film stock, processing, and video transfer altogether.