Cinemas to use digital broadcasting
By Zhu Boru (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-16 06:21

Texas Instruments Inc (TI), a provider of digital cinema technology, says it expects a sharp surge in demand for such products in China next year, as regulators want the country to embrace digital technology.

The technology aims to improve the experience of watching a movie by eliminating such things as scratches and dirt on the film used to shoot movies.

A TI manager, Nancy Fares, said although the US was currently leading developments in this field, China was also looking at change.

That is because the China Film Group (CFG) is extremely visionary, she said.

"It is a very exciting time as 2006 will be the start of the worldwide deployment of digital cinema," Fares said during the CineAsia movie exhibition, which ended yesterday in Beijing.

Asia, and in particular China, will lead market growth from next year, although the US is currently leading the market with digital cinema equipment, which has been installed in about 150 screens, Fares said.

TI is currently the world's only provider of digital cinema technology, which it says is strongly supported by Hollywood directors, producers and major movie companies, such as Disney, Fox and Universal.

More than 600 screens globally have installed this technology.

Fares met CFG officials, the country's film industry regulator, and discussed the need to promote digital cinema in China.

She told China Daily that the firm's technology has already been installed in about 110 screens across the nation's major cities, although market capacity is "at least 2,000 screens" in urban areas.

The CFG may consider setting up joint ventures with foreign investors to help the financially-weak domestic film industry embrace digital technology.

(China Daily 12/16/2005 page10)