Entertainment Technology Center Named Official Testing Site by Digital Cinema Initiatives

The Entertainment Technology Center at USC’s Digital CinemaLaboratory was named by Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC (DCI) as theofficial site to test digital cinema technologies, it was announcedrecently by Entertainment Technology Center executive director/CEOCharles S. Swartz.

A neutral research center funded by Hollywood studios and high techcompanies and dedicated to evaluating new entertainment technologies,the Entertainment Technology Center will work with DCI, a joint ventureof seven major studios, to establish uniform, open and voluntarystandards for digital movie release that will be scalable into thefuture.

“To aid with the design and testing of digital cinema is amongthe highest purposes of the Digital Cinema Laboratory,” saidSwartz. “We are thrilled that DCI has shown its faith in ourability to help solve the central technical issues facing digitalcinema today and to make digital cinema a reality for all.”

“The Entertainment Technology Center has become theindustry’s de facto digital cinema test bed,” according toDCI chief technology officer Walt Ordway. “There was no need forus to reinvent the wheel, because the Center provides astate-of-the-art facility, expertise and non-partisan stance we need tomove our work forward.”

Swartz and Digital Cinema Laboratory director Paul Miller willcollaborate with Ordway, DCI chief executive officer Chuck Goldwaterand DCI director of technology Howard Lukk to develop and implementprocedures with which to evaluate digital cinema equipment and systems.They will focus on final mastering, distribution and exhibition todevise solutions that provide a perceivably higher quality image toaudiences. Competing digital solutions will be compared to each otheras well as to film solutions. The overall goal is to develop a global,interoperable digital cinema standard that will be the basis forsuppliers to compete to provide equipment at a reasonable cost.

About Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC:

Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), LLC is a limited liability companywhose members include Disney, Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony PicturesEntertainment, Universal and Warner Bros. The venture was formed inMarch 2002 and has its principal place of business in Hollywood, CA.The primary purpose of DCI is to establish and document an openarchitecture for digital cinema components that ensures a uniform andhigh level of technical performance, reliability and qualitycontrol.

About the Entertainment Technology Center and Its Digital CinemaLaboratory:

Founded in 1993, the Entertainment Technology Center at Universityof Southern California is a stand alone, neutral research organizationdevoted to identifying pivotal, emerging entertainment technologies andcreating programs to analyze and test them. One of the EntertainmentTechnology Center’s projects is the Digital Cinema Laboratory, astate-of-the-art screening facility at the historic Pacific HollywoodTheatre that examines digital moving image acquisition, distributionand exhibition. The Entertainment Technology Center’s sponsorsinclude most major Hollywood Studios (Disney, LucasFilm, Sony PicturesEntertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, Viacom/Paramount andWarner Bros.) and leading high tech companies and organizations (LaserPacific Media Corporation, Panasonic, SBC/Pacific Bell and TRW).