Digital Cinema Initiatives

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Digital Cinema Initiatives ( DCI ) is an umbrella organization for American film studios. The main task is to standardize and implement the DCI standard of the same name for digital cinema . The proposal to found the association came in 1999 from Tom McGrath , at that time COO of Paramount Pictures . After approval by the American antitrust authorities and the Justice Department, to which the plans of the studios were presented, the following companies merged in the DCI in March 2002:

Worldwide, the DCI standard has developed into the market leader for digital cinema and has put an end to the wild growth of national standards in the EU and the USA . Over 95 percent of all new installations in these regions follow the specification. In 2006 and 2007 more than 4,000 cinemas were converted to DCI standards in the USA. For the EU, four of the members are providing the financial means to convert 7,000 cinemas from 2008 onwards.

Phase 2 of the DCI delivery

The members of the DCI funded an additional 10,000 DCI installations in the USA in March 2008. Delivery is planned within the next 36 months.

The DCI specification

The DCI defines technical, qualitative, logistical and legal aspects for digital cinema. From the quality of the projectors used, through data rates and resolution , subtitles , copy protection procedures, sound formats , color spaces to delivery methods and formats.

On June 20, 2005, the DCI published version 1 of the standard. The extended version 1.1. Followed on April 12, 2007, and version 1.2 on March 7, 2008.

Technically, the DCI is based primarily on SMPTE and ISO standards , such as JPEG 2000 and broadcast wave PCM / WAV sound. The specification also regulates in detail the creation of the Digital Cinema Package (DCP) from the raw data, called Digital Cinema Distribution Master (DCDM), including copy protection , full encryption and watermarks .

For the performance location and the projection, the standard defines, among other things, the strength of the ambient light, number of pixels , aspect ratio and format, image brightness, white point , color space and color saturation and the maximum permissible tolerances of these parameters.

Another relevant area in which the DCI operates is the standardization of digital 3D cinema.

Norms

  • Video:
    • 2048 × 1080 2K at 24 or 48 Hz and 4096 × 2160 4K at 24 Hz; 3 × 12 bit color depth in the XYZ color space.
    • ISO 15444 (Motion JPEG 2000) with 250 Mbit / s data rate
  • Audio:
    • Up to 16 channels
    • 24 bit linear PCM, 48 or 96 kHz sampling rate, uncompressed

The total data rate (picture and sound) is 113 to 129 GByte / h (112.5 GByte / h for picture, 0.52 to 16.59 GByte / h for sound).

distribution

The main suppliers in projector manufacturing are Christie, NEC and Barco with DLP projectors and Sony with projectors based on LCoS technology. According to its own statements, Christie holds around 80 percent market share in projectors with 2K resolution. Over 98 percent of all installations are in 2K resolution. Around 20 percent are 3D capable.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ACCESSIT INSTALLS 3,000TH DIGITAL CINEMA SYSTEM . August 27, 2007. Archived from the original on October 26, 2011. Retrieved on September 5, 2019.
  2. ↑ PARAMOUNT PICTURES INTERNATIONAL AND ARTS ALLIANCE MEDIA ENTER INTO AGREEMENT TO DEPLOY DIGITAL CINEMA IN EUROPE . Retrieved December 21, 2010.
  3. ↑ D-Cinema Today, “Phase Two” Deployment Of Up To 10,000 Digital Cinema Projection Systems, Berliner Tagesspiegel
  4. ↑ Specification v1.1
  5. ↑ Specification v1.2
  6. ^ David S. Cohen: DCI announces digital, 3-D specs . Retrieved December 21, 2010.
  7. ↑ heise online - 4K cinema projectors now also with DLP technology , June 18, 2009