'Other Digital Stuff: Expanding the In-Theatre Experience' Launched by Entertainment Technology Center at USC; Conference Examines New Forms of In-Theatre Content Beyond Film.

LOS ANGELES -- The first-ever conference dedicated to in-theatre content beyond motion pictures was announced today by the Entertainment Technology Center at University of Southern California (USC-ETC). "Other Digital Stuff: Expanding the In-theatre Experience" will examine new forms of content enabled by digital cinema technologies, including pre-show ads and entertainment, real-time sports and music, and 3D trailers and lobby displays. It will feature demonstrations of the latest innovations; discussions about technology and bottom-line issues; and a digital cinema overview. It will also look at how to devise alternative content that appeals to audiences. "Other Digital Stuff" is free for qualified industry members and will take place March 10, 2006 from 9:00 AM -- 3:00 PM in Hollywood at ETC-USC's Digital Cinema Lab theater.

"Other Digital Stuff" is designed for creators and distributors of content for new in-theatre platforms; exhibitors seeking to build revenues and negotiate new technologies and business issues; and marketers and advertisers who want to maximize the big screen's storytelling power and its ability to target specific audiences.

John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), will keynote along with Kurt Hall, president and CEO, National CineMedia and Bob Lambert, senior vice president, Worldwide Technology Strategy, The Walt Disney Company. Texas Instruments is sponsoring the day and providing technical and program support, along with NATO.

Said Charles S. Swartz, executive director/CEO of ETC-USC, "Digital cinema enables exciting new opportunities for in-theatre content, but making it work is a complex process. Our goal for 'Other Digital Stuff' is to help major stakeholders expand on the alternative content already in theatres and embark in new directions."

"Other Digital Stuff: Expanding the In-theatre Experience" is the first in a series of events, presented by the ETC-USC, tackling issues facing the exhibition industry.

About the Entertainment Technology Center at USC 

Founded in 1993, the Entertainment Technology Center at University of Southern California (ETC-USC) is a neutral, non-partisan research organization in the School of Cinema-Television that studies entertainment technology developments that are critical to the creative community; production companies; content owners, distributors and exhibitors; and technology companies. ETC-USC's sponsors include the USC School of Cinema-Television; Hollywood's major studios: Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, MGM, Universal Pictures, Viacom/Paramount Studios, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros.; LucasFilm; Cisco Systems; Deluxe Laboratories; Laser Pacific Media Corporation, a Kodak company; Panasonic; and Thomson. For more information, visit www.etcenter.org.