In the last week I had the opportunity to visit an event that was held by the < a href=http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/index.shtml target=_blank>BBC Reasearch & Development team. During the event I got to see a number of new technologies which I believe are going to have a significant impact on the cinema industry in relevantely a short time.
3D Television:
Panasonic were have produced a 3D television whichh does any amazing job of producing a 3D image without the need to use any glasses. The technology uses a lense which works in a similar way to the 3D toy images which have been around for years, where when you see the image one way and then move the image you get to see another. I think that this development is one of the biggest issues that the cinema industry may face in the not too distant future. 3D digital cinema is being heralded as the new saviour of the industry as it is something which can’t be replicted at home (yet), but the demonstration I saw shows that it is only probably five years or so away until there will be a way of watching 3D on televisions at home. Nor will it be long before domestic 3D projector systems will be available at a reasonable amount of money.
Surround Audio:
Unfortunately I didn’t get to go to this demonstration, but what I do know is that it was using 8.1 surround sound, providing an over the head sound. I think for those of you who know about surround sound, can imagine what that would sound like.
Surround Video:
Just like there is surround sound, this was designed to be surround vision. This was a it of bluesky thinking, but it was very impressive to see. The team had taken to HD cameras out, which were strapped to each other. While one camera had an ordinary lense the other had a fisheye 180 lense. When you played it back the ordinary image was being displayed on an HD plasma screen, while the second image was being projected onto a lense which caused the image to go around the edges of the room. I guess it kind of was like watching IMAX in your living room, which was the idea.
Finally I saw a demo of a ‘4K’ image. I say image as it was two 2K Christie projectors side by side producing a single image over the two in such a way that the image produced is the same resolution as produced y a 4K projector. This is all very controversial, not least because a standard around 4K hasn’t yet been agreed. It has to be said that what I saw wasn’t that impressive, but that doesn’t really mean a whole lot because of the situation it was seen in and the images being produced, they had been shot with HD cameras. All this technology is being produced mainly with the consumer in mind, but what it tells me is that cinemas, really have to raise their game higher again if they are to stand a chance of surviving long term. The delay between cinema technology and consumer technology is reducing and therefore it requires that something extra. I think that this means that the buildings that cinemas are in will need to change, the quality of the experience will have to improve and cost will have to improve – very tough in the current market.
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