The ABCs of 3D

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Mon, 03/23/2009 - 20:00 -- Nick Dager

Dutch Independent Cinemas Team with Christie to Prepare for Summer 3D Releases To prepare for the summer release of such 3D movies as Disney-Pixar's Toy Story 3D in an exclusive agreement between Christie Digital Systems the Amsterdam Booking Company a buying group representing Dutch independent cinemas and Arts Alliance Media Christie digital cinema projectors will be deployed in 68 screens within 20 cinemas across The Netherlands. The deal also covers the installation of a professional satellite network for the transmission of live events and encrypted content. 
  “We are very pleased that ABC has chosen to invest so strongly in digital cinema for its future development. We are also delighted that Arts Alliance Media has secured another success in Europe a testimony of their leadership in digital and 3D digital cinema ” says Richard Nye senior market development manager cinema Christie. “We have been working with AAM for five years now and this agreement will further strengthen the excellent relationships we have with them in what is now four European countries.”
 
 ABC acted quickly to equip screens for the Dutch release of Disney’s 3D movie Bolt in February making it the first wide 3D release in the Netherlands.  Seven Christie CP2000-S 2K DLP Cinema projectors had already been installed in Heerenveen Heerlen Schagen Spijkenisse Venray Weert and Zutphen in time for Bolt.  The remaining projectors will be a mixture of CP2000-S and Christie CP2000-ZX models. 
  ABC’s roll-out will permit the screening of other upcoming 2009 3D movies such as Monsters vs. Aliens (Dreamworks/Paramount) Up (Pixar/Disney) Ice Age 3 (Twentieth Century Fox) Planet 51 (Sony Pictures) Toy Story 3D (Pixar/Disney) and Avatar (Twentieth Century Fox).  Digital 3D screens generate higher box office than standard screens. 
 
 Rich Phillips head of technical operations AAM says “We have chosen Christie’s projectors because of their performance and flexibility offered for a variety of screen sizes in existing theatre infrastructure.  Our commitment is to help all cinemas convert to digital regardless of size or location and having Christie on board is incredibly valuable from this point of view.”
 
 AAM and ABC jointly selected the Christie projectors and Doremi servers for the deployment. Arqiva Satellite and Media will provide the satellite equipment.  Under the conditions of the agreement AAM will create a fully integrated digital cinema and satellite network within the ABC group of cinemas.   The agreement requires AAM to procure service and maintain all digital cinema systems deployed including the projectors and servers central storage servers and a theatre management system.   FTT Filmtronics a subsidiary of Christie partner FTT in Germany will carry out the installations as well as provide maintenance and local support.  Thomas Rüttgers general manager of FTT says “We are delighted to be working again with Christie for this exciting project as previous installations such as the major deployment of digital cinema systems in Austria already proved to be a success. We are also very pleased to be working jointly with Arts Alliance on this project.” 
 
 To date AAM has a European footprint of 507 installed and operated digital cinema screens in the UK France Spain and Norway.   Amsterdam Booking Company www.abcbooking.nl Arts Alliance Media www.artsalliancemedia.com Christie www.christiedigital.com