Cannes Film Festival Hosts World's First High Definition eCinema Broadcast.MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--May 19, 1999-- CyberStar, Wavelength Releasing and QuVIS Team Broadcasts 'Protest' and Oscar-Winning 'Bunny' to Cannes Audiences The world's first satellite broadcast distribution of high-definition, all-digital motion picture content was successfully conducted earlier this week at the Cannes Film Festival Cannes Film Festival Film festival held annually in Cannes, France. First held in 1946 for the recognition of artistic achievement, the festival came to provide a rendezvous for those interested in the art and influence of the movies. . CyberStar L.P., a provider of broadband services developed by Loral Space & Communications, has teamed this week with independent film producers/distributors Wavelength Releasing and digital film server manufacturer QuVIS to distribute and show two short films, Academy Award-winning "Bunny," directed by Chris Wedge, and "Protest," directed by S.D. Katz. Audiences viewed both short films at Cannes' eCinema exhibition at the Palais Miramar on May 18 and 19, and will also be able to see it at an additional screening May 20. "Bunny," a seven-minute short film from Blue Sky Studios Blue Sky Studios is an Academy Award winning computer animation studio which specializes in photo-realistic, high-resolution, computer-generated character animation and rendering. received an Oscar for "Best Animated Short Film" in 1999. "Protest," from Pitch, Inc., is a dream-like film on the plight of the elephant. A New Business Model for Film Distribution Satellite distribution offers an extremely economical alternative to the substantial cost that movie studios currently incur to duplicate and ship film prints to theaters. For example, movie studios pay approximately $3,000 for each copy of a 35mm film. If a studio's film opens nationally in 2,500 theaters across the U.S., the studio incurs more than $7.5 million in duplication costs alone, even before shipping costs. Distributing the same film by satellite, on the other hand, requires no duplicate prints at all. A single digital copy of the film made can be made and transmitted to an almost limitless number of cinemas in a single broadcast. And by encrypting the broadcast code, satellite transmission can even provide a level of security far greater than that of physical film, which can be stolen and pirated. "With these screenings, CyberStar, QuVIS and Wavelength has ushered in the next big step in film distribution with the first end-to-end solution (jargon) end-to-end solution - (E2ES) A term that suggests that the supplier of an application program or system will provide all the hardware and/or software components and resouces to meet the customer's requirement and no other supplier need be involved. Compare: turn-key solution. for all-digital, high-definition film," said Ron Maehl, president of CyberStar. "We think this presentation team even has a shot at the grand prize at Cannes for 'excellence in the next generation of film distribution'." For this week's screenings, Wavelength provided the high-definition tapes of "Protest" and "Bunny" to QuVIS, who then recorded the content to its server. QuVIS brought its server to CyberStar's Rockville, Md. uplink facility, where the content was transmitted to the company's teleport in Europe. The data was then recorded and stored on a second QuVIS server, which was taken to the Cannes theater to be interfaced to a DPI (Dots Per Inch) The measurement of the resolution of display and printing systems. A typical CRT screen provides 96 dpi, which provides 9,216 dots per square inch (96x96). Flat panel displays from 110 to 200 dpi have also been developed. projector for playback. "The Last Broadcast," Wavelength's first feature-length, all-digital film, was produced in standard definition. CyberStar's open architecture platform allows the company to easily hand off high-definition content from their transport system to eCinema server manufacturers like QuVIS for storage and playback. All three parties participated in a panel on "The Next Generation of Film Distribution" at Cannes on May 18. About Wavelength Releasing Wavelength Releasing -- a Delaware LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control , is an advanced media company formed to establish the next generation of media delivery services. By exploiting satellite and cable broadband platforms, Wavelength's applications enable the distribution and exhibition of digital film and media content across various high-bandwidth platforms serving theatrical, institutional, and consumer markets. Its goal is to establish a broadband carrier network for film and digital media. Through technology alliances with Loral's CyberStar, Texas Instruments See TI. (company) Texas Instruments - (TI) A US electronics company. A TI engineer, Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit in 1958. Three TI employees left the company in 1982 to start Compaq. and Digital Projection International, Wavelength will package and distribute content to regional broadband systems, homes, and theaters. The applications currently targeted include electronic cinema services, on-demand video and media delivery, and content production and co-production. Wavelength intends to disintermediate the architectures of production and distribution, which exist for the film and media communities. More information may be found at www.tebweb.com/lastbroadcast. About QuVIS QuVIS, Inc. is a Kansas-based company focused on digital imaging technology. The QuVIS product line is initially targeted to address recording and image processing image processing Set of computational techniques for analyzing, enhancing, compressing, and reconstructing images. Its main components are importing, in which an image is captured through scanning or digital photography; analysis and manipulation of the image, accomplished in video & film production, computer animation, projection applications, television broadcast, and medical/industrial applications. The technology can be deployed in many product categories (both hardware and software based) for applications where end users demand optimized image quality and storage or transmission requirements. About CyberStar CyberStar, based in Mountain View, Calif., was created and is managed by Loral Space & Communications Ltd. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :LOR LOR Letter Of Reprimand (military) LoR Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien) LOR Learning Object Repository LOR Linux.Org. ). Alcatel, based in Paris, France is a limited partner in CyberStar. CyberStar is a leading provider of global broadband IP-multicast solutions for business environments. IP-multicast protocols form the foundation for exciting new services such as virtual multicast networks, software distribution, push-based services, Internet broadcasts, distance learning and video services. CyberStar services support high bandwidth IP-multicast solutions for intranets, extranets and virtual private networks via the Loral Skynet Loral Skynet is a full-service global satellite operator headquartered in Bedminster, New Jersey. The company provides a wide range of video and data transmission services. It became a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications when Loral acquired it in 1997 from AT&T. operated Telstar 5 satellite. These services enable businesses to deliver value-added services though their own customized multicast channels. CyberStar is a charter member of the IP Multicast A one-to-many transmission of data over an IP network. It is used for a myriad of purposes including updating routers, announcing and discovering services and streaming media. IP multicast saves network bandwidth, because packets are transmitted as one stream over the backbone and only Initiative. Information about CyberStar can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.cyberstar.com. About Loral Loral Space & Communications (NYSE:LOR) is a high technology company that primarily concentrates on satellite manufacturing and satellite-based services, including broadcast transponder A receiver/transmitter on a communications satellite. It receives a microwave signal from earth (uplink), amplifies it and retransmits it back to earth at a different frequency (downlink). A satellite has several transponders. leasing and value added Value Added The enhancement a company gives its product or service before offering the product to customers. Notes: This can either increase the products price or value. services, domestic and international corporate data networks, global wireless telephony telephony without wires, usually employing electric waves of high frequency emitted from an oscillator or generator, as in wireless telegraphy. A telephone transmitter causes fluctuations in these waves, it being the fluctuations only which affect the receiver. See also: Wireless , broadband data transmission and content services, Internet services, digital audio radio services Digital Audio Radio Service or DARS refers to any type of digital radio service. In the United States it is the official FCC term for digital radio services. The most popular type of DARS in the U.S. and international direct-to-home satellite services. For more information, visit Loral's web site at http://www.loral.com. |
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