Digital cinema trial for Ster Kinekor Sandton

"We're excited about ushering in digital cinema for South Africa audiences who will now be able to see movies of a quality that has not been possible up till now," says Fiaz Mahomed, CEO of Ster-Kinekor Theatres.

"It will really be a case of always better on our big screen."

Capable of projecting a range of up to 35 trillion colours, digital cinema has been gaining momentum across the globe, with Hollywood agreeing on a common technical standard and the benefits of the format becoming all too clear.

The primary benefits of digital cinema are:

• Clearer high definition picture quality
  
• Longer life span for the digital print as there is no degradation of quality over time
  
• Assistance in curbing piracy, which Hollywood estimates to have cost the industry over U$6bn
  
• Cut distribution costs, as the studios will no longer have to duplicate expensive 35mm prints
  
• In the long term, it will give cinema owners more flexibility, allowing them to screen anything they can input digitally, be it music concerts or webcasts for example

With digital cinema, the film is delivered on a hard drive, with the content then copied onto the server. Each film is encrypted to avoid piracy and the cinema is given a unique key that enables it to unlock the encryption and show the movie.

At the end of last year, there were less than 1000 digital screens worldwide and it is estimated that more than 17 000 will be installed over the next few years, most of which are expected to be in the US.

"In the long run this will be good news for South African film makers as well, as it allows potentially for broader and easier distribution of films," adds Mahomed.

Ster-Kinekor will trial the digital projector for three months to assess the way forward regarding future roll-out plans.