Movies: beamed down by satellite
p2pnet.net news:- “Tired of being turned away at the theater box office when a movie’s sold out?”
The question is asked by Associated Press. But far more common deterrents are ushers with night-vision goggles who are too busy spying on patrons to turf out people with big mouths and loud voices, sticky floors, exorbitant snack and drink prices and the steadily worsening quality of Hollywood productions.
Never mind, though, because Universal Pictures, Warner Bros Entertainment and Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, owned by the Regal, AMC and Cinemark theater chains, are developing a new digital system which could give theater operators, “the flexibility to put a popular movie on an extra screen as quickly as the demand for it arises,” says the story.
“At the same time, theater operators could boot out a surprise stinker and even book in for a day or two an art-house film with a small but devoted audience.”
The system would use satellite and broadband systems to deliver digital films directly to theaters, “rather than have them copied onto hard drives and delivered by hand, as for the most part they are now,” AP has Warner Bros’ Darcy Antonellis saying.
And, “Beaming an encrypted version of a digital film directly to the theater should also cut down on film piracy and bootlegging, Antonellis said, by eliminating the number of opportunities for people to get their hands on the movie as it is transit.”
Last month, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), “put an end to the activities of a Montréal man who will be charged with illegally offering satellite signal distribution services to at least 300 clients without the knowledge of an American distributor not authorized in Canada,” say the Mounties
“On February 20, RCMP officers searched the 42-year-old alleged offender’s satellite antenna installation business located at 8672, Drolet Street in Montréal. They seized equipment and devices used to illegally intercept and decrypt satellite signals ………”
Also See:
Associated Press – Movie firms working on digital film system, March 5, 2007
RCMP – RCMP Dismantles Satellite Signals Theft Ring, February 27, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the end (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
March 5th, 2007 at 9:35 am
oh wait i dont go to the movies ;0
March 5th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Theaters have had the ability to run a film in multiple auditioriums for decades. The film is carried from the bottom of one projector to the top of another and the projectors linked electrically. this was available in the 50’s for use with 3-D. Today, the signal fed to one video projector could easily be sent to a second or third projector by plugging in a patch cable. Hardly a breakthru technology. What possible reason the film distributor would have to provide a satelite feed for an additional auditorium escapes me or any other projectionist. If they are determined to lock up their signal cant they just ship an extra hard drive. This should be done for backup reasons anyway.
Considering how seldom a film sells out anymore you would think the distributors would be working on increasing ticket sales. There are far more screens in this country than are needed to satisfy the movie-going public. Consolidation would help the movie companies more than satelite feeds.
March 5th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
but not foreign satellite TV!
Paul Arcand of 98.5 FM interviews Cap. Luc Bessette from RCMP
http://www.985fm.ca/mp3player.php?mp3=56551.mp3
It is time to take this country back!
March 7th, 2007 at 11:00 am
“And, ‘Beaming an encrypted version of a digital film directly to the theater should also cut down on film piracy and bootlegging, Antonellis said, by eliminating the number of opportunities for people to get their hands on the movie as it is transit.’”
This must be the reason. Cinema owners and Hollywood have gone from not trusting their own customers to not trusting their own employees.
And since when have movies been projected from hard drives? All of the theaters that I’ve been in seem to still use film reels, as is obvious by the spots and dirt that appear in the picture at various moments.