An Early History of Digital Cinema Technology

2002: Introducing Security

By early 2002, digital cinema installations were numbered in the 40's. They utilized several types of servers, including the QuBit, Avica, and EVS servers already mentioned, as well as the Technicolor Digital Cinema server designed by Qualcomm. These systems represented three different compression schemes, and four file formats.

On May 16th, 2002, another digital cinema milestone was crossed with the digital release of Star Wars: Episode II. Although they didn't financially contribute to the digital presentation of their movie, Lucasfilm heavily promoted that it should be seen as such, and the heyday increased the digital installation count to over 100. The movie was released in all four digital formats -- which proved to be a challenge all of its own.

Episode II broke ground by being the first digital movie released employing content encryption. Not all systems were capable of supporting content security, but those employed by Boeing/Avica/EVS and Technicolor/Qualcomm certainly were. The introduction of fully secure presentation systems was a major step forward.

Many thought this phase would signal a rollout of digital cinema. But numerous issues remained, the least of which were the many incompatibilities in data packaging, encryption, key manangement, and compression. Exhibitors now had enough experience to know that they had operational issues, too. To add to the problems, not all cinematographers, studios, and exhibitors thought the quality level was good enough to replace film. And the overriding issue remained: there wasn't a sound business model. Studios stood to save significantly each year by not paying for film distribution, and exhibitors stood to pay significantly for the new digital equipment. While 3rd parties attempted to intermediate as system and service providers, none were successful. The core business partners, studios and exhbitors, had yet to speak.

To present a collective voice for the studios, Digital Cinema Initiatives LLC was created in early 2002. At first known as Newco Digital Cinema, DCI was a collaboration of the seven (now six) major motion picture studios. Read more on DCI (aka Newco) in our articles section).

Episode II created a bubble of expectation for digital cinema, and DCI was formed just as the bubble was about to burst. Stakeholders, both studios and exhibitors, needed to drive the development of this technology. Studios were concerned about potential reliance on proprietary technologies and associated licensing fees, while exhibitors were concerned about system functionality as well as cost. In July of 2005, DCI released its long awaited Digital Cinema Technical Specification. In February of 2006, NATO followed with the release its Digital Cinema System Requirements. Following the release of the DCI specification, digital cinema once again came to the fore as equipment designed to meet the specification entered the market.