Balancing Technology in Digital Cinema Systems

An efficient digital cinema system design balances the use of off-the-shelf technology with specialized hardware and software designed to meet the specific needs of this application. For instance, the use of standard computer, storage, networking and communication equipment results in cost-effective design that benefits from other widespread uses of these technologies. However, certain functions required for a high quality, reliable, secure digital cinema system must be custom developed specifically for this application. The electronic projection equipment, image compression system and security sub-system are three such areas where existing technology developed for other applications will not be adequate to meet the demanding needs and current practices of cinema operations. — This paper addresses the proper combination of off-the-shelf high-volume equipment and technology specifically developed for an acceptable digital cinema system solution. A detailed discussion is given on the requirements of the necessary custom functions and why existing alternatives are not appropriate for the digital cinema application, particularly in the area of image compression methods. Finally, a proposed solution for the custom developed technology is presented and an approach is discussed in which this technology gracefully fits in a system architecture taking maximal advantage, where appropriate, of high-volume available technology. Specifically, a discussion is presented on an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) that has been developed to perform security and decompression processing of digital cinema image and audio programs as part of a flexible, cost-effective digital cinema system-level solution.

Published

2000-10

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M00149

ISBN

978-1-61482-933-1