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Author Topic: Cinemark Installing Auro
Daniel Schulz
Master Film Handler

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From: Los Angeles, CA USA
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 - posted 08-01-2013 08:03 PM      Profile for Daniel Schulz   Author's Homepage   Email Daniel Schulz   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Looks like Auro is getting some traction:

Cinemark Inc. and Barco join forces to revolutionize today’s audio cinematic experience by bringing immersive sound format to moviegoers worldwide
Cinema giant’s installation of Auro 11.1 at 150+ theatre circuit demonstrates exhibitors’ growing preference of an “open sound format” approach

Rancho Cordova, Calif., USA, 31 July 2013 – Barco, a global digital cinema technology leader, has been selected by Cinemark to deploy its immersive cinema sound solution, Auro 11.1, in more than 150 premium Extreme Digital (XD) screens worldwide. Cinemark’s decision makes Auro 11.1 the worldwide market leader in immersive cinema audio systems for the movie exhibition industry. Cinemark will begin the worldwide deployment this year in all of its “tier one” markets, starting with North America.

Cinemark’s immersive cinema a true differentiator

Through its dedication to providing patrons with a superior movie going experience in its XD auditoriums, Cinemark sees immersive cinema audio as the logical next step. After extensive technical evaluation, cost analysis and “blind” audience testing of the leading immersive sound technologies conducted at its Cinemark XD auditorium in Plano, Texas, Cinemark’s test audiences overwhelmingly chose Auro 11.1 as their preferred immresive sound system. Cinemark’s management wasted no time in securing a commitment with Barco to deploy Auro 11.1 in all of its current and planned XD auditoriums.

“After independently testing both commercially available immersive cinema sound solutions, it became abundantly clear that Auro 11.1 provides the best complement to the Cinemark XD experience. We firmly believe that the fullness and richness of Auro’s height layer, coupled with the discreetness of the future and open standard object-based capabilities supported by Auro, will make for the best movie going experience possible,” said Damian Wardle, Vice President of Worldwide Theatres Technology & Presentation at Cinemark. “It’s backward and forward compatibility with existing cinema audio systems, in addition to the ease and economy regarding both implementation and operation, are also critical elements.”

Ensuring freedom of choice through open standards

Cinemark has historically been a strong supporter of innovation, while at the same time, cautioning against overly proprietary or incompatible digital formats that could hinder the ability of all stakeholders to easily and affordably adopt new technologies. Cinemark’s commitment to Barco and the Auro sound format will help drive adoption of the “open format” approach to playing back immersive cinema sound, protecting exhibitor’s freedom of platform choice and ensuring their ability to play any movie regardless of the authoring system used to create it.

Barco and Cinemark are working together to address concerns expressed by the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) and the Union Internationale des Cinémas (UNIC) in their recent statement announcing cinema exhibitor requirements for immersive sound technologies. By enabling playback of immersive soundtracks produced using toolsets based on open standards on its screens, Cinemark hopes to serve as a model for this approach to foster greater competition and ultimately facilitate quicker implementation in the marketplace.

Studios benefit from platform flexibility, too

An immersive sound experience built from the tools created to support Auro 11.1 offers content creators total freedom with regards to immersive sound development. “The Auro creative toolset provides the authoring capabilities for studios to create both channel- and object-based sound masters for movies, so they’re not locked into one sound platform or playback system,” comments Brian Claypool, Senior Director Strategic Business Development Entertainment for Barco. “Furthermore, the open standards nature of how we create and play back our immersive soundtracks enables a single inventory distribution, allowing the studios to easily create one single distribution master that can be played on any legacy or immersive audio system.”

Link: http://www.barco.com/en/News/Press-releases/Cinemark-Inc-and-Barco-join-forces-to-revolutionize-todays-audio-cinematic-experience-by-bringing-im.aspx

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Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"

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Referred to in that story...

FilmJournal.com

quote:
NATO and UNIC release exhibitor requirements for immersive audio
Feb 15, 2013

The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) and the Union Internationale des Cinémas (UNIC) have released cinema exhibitor requirements for immersive sound technologies.

Neither organization currently endorses this emerging technology, whether called “3D” audio, object-based audio or immersive audio—nor any proprietary sound format. However, both organizations believe it is essential that, whatever audio rendering solution an individual cinema may choose, it must be capable of playing whatever movie is released with immersive sound. The Exhibitor Requirements explore two possible paths to that goal.

AMC Theatres’ executive VP of operations and NATO Technology Committee chairman John McDonald said, “It is in nobody’s interest—not exhibitors, studios or vendors—to repeat our experience of the multiple, proprietary and incompatible digital sound formats of the 1990s. While it is critical that we continue to innovate, it is also critical that we work together to implement new technologies in a rational manner that serves all stakeholders. These Exhibitor Requirements represent a first step in that process.”

Kim Pedersen, UNIC VP and chair of the organization's recently established technology committee, commented, “High-quality sound is essential to ensuring an attractive and competitive cinema-going experience. We must, however, ensure that new innovations in sound can be harnessed by all exhibitors. We therefore welcome the fact that our colleagues at NATO have initiated this important dialogue regarding the latest developments around immersive sound.”

Another take, this one from

The Hollywood Reporter

quote:
CinemaCon: Issue Brewing Over Proposed Immersive Sound Standards
Barco and DTS announce support for open format MDA; Dolby argues that the option won’t ensure consistent playback.
9:49 AM PDT 4/18/2013 by Carolyn Giardina

LAS VEGAS -- The promise of immersive sound to further extend the theatrical experience into one that can't be duplicated in the home is a big topic this week at CinemaCon, but there's also a contentious issue developing around how to create and distribute mixes for the multiple new sound systems making their way to theaters.

To understand the situation, start with a look back to February, when NATO and the Union Internationale des Cinemas (UNIC) released cinema exhibitor requirements for immersive sound technologies to ensure that any audio rendering system that an individual cinema may choose is capable of playing back immersive sound when a studio releases it.

This requirement impacts all sound system developers, particularly the two companies making the biggest push in the space: Barco, developer of the Auro 11.1 system, and Dolby, creator of the Atmos system.

On Wednesday morning, in advance of an afternoon sound panel at CinemaCon, Barco and audio technology developer DTS announced that they would together support a proposed open format for immersive object-based cinema sound, which they believe will meet the NATO/UNIC requirement.

The companies said in the announcement that “the efforts represent a collective desire to protect exhibitors’ freedom of platform choice, ensuring their ability to play any movie regardless of which 3D audio system they procure.”

To do this, they are recommending DTS’ MDA (Multi Dimensional Audio), an open object based archiving/mezzanine format. “We hear from every studio that multiple mixes are not sustainable financially. We’d like to find a common workflow and common deliverable,” said DTS senior director John Kellogg, speaking on the sound panel.

But Dolby disagrees with this approach. “It will lead to a bad experience in the [theater],” Matt Cuson, senior director of cinema at Dolby, asserted in a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter. “You need to have control of how to capture and reproduce the artists' work. The NATO spec is suggesting that you break them apart. Then you lose control of the quality and consistency of the experience.
"The industry needs standards. Some portions need to be open. … Some parts are best kept closed," he argued.

Cuson related that Dolby supports openness in packaging, security, streaming protocols and picture and sound synchronization, but “how the original intent is captured and rendered needs to be tightly coupled.” He added that Dolby wants its developed Atmos system to control that part of its pipeline, saying, “We believe it’s in the best interest of the industry and consumer experience. ... That is the only way to ensure consistent playback. ... It does the industry a disservice to specify a file format without specifying a speaker configuration or a render method."

But Brian Claypool, senior director of strategic business development at Barco, told THR that while there always have been variables in theater configurations, Barco believes its “recommended workflow allows for consistent results.”

Added Claypool: “We’d like to find a standards-based approach that everyone can participate in.”

With immersive sound still new -- and installation costs that could range anywhere from $50,000 to more than $200,000, depending on system, size of theater and other variables -- the stakes are high, as any requirements could potentially impact a theater owner's decisions as to when or what to adopt.

DTS doesn't offer an immersive theatrical sound system, but insiders tell THR that they believe an advantage for DTS would be to have content available in its MDA format, which could potentially give the company a boost in the home audio market.

An entity that will have a lot of influence in this area is global standards setting body Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), whose technology committee on digital sound systems -- which invites all stakeholders to the table -- is working to lay the groundwork for a new audio standard aimed at creating a consistent sound experience in theaters, and a parallel project involves incorporating immersive audio content into the new standard.

Speaking Wednesday at CinemaCon, SMPTE committee chair Brian Vessa -- who is executive director of digital audio mastering at Sony Pictures Entertainment -- urged studios and exhibitors to get together and push for a common standard, saying that this is needed for wide adoption of immersive sound.

Vessa reported that SMPTE’s early study likely will conclude in June or July, then it would take about a year to develop the common file format and probably another year to implement it into production workflow and theaters.

He told THR that he views MDA as a good starting point but that more work is needed to fulfill all industry requirements.

Various stakeholders discussed the issue on panels or privately with THR this week at CinemaCon.

During Wednesday’s sound panel, Mark Collins, director of projection technology at Marcus Theatres, said: “We are sometimes getting 12 different Digital Cinema Packages (the digital equivalent to a film print), including versions for 3D and different light levels. We’d like a common standard for sound.”

While he viewed immersive audio as the “next step” in large-format theaters, he asserted that “[exhibitors] are looking at a considerable cost” for such installation, and he therefore believes standards are key because “we have to know we are making a long-term investment.”

Director Sam Raimi weighed in on the subject during Wednesday’s filmmakers panel.
Nothing that he used both Dolby Atmos and Barco Auro for Oz The Great and Powerful, Raimi said: “Both systems are great. I hope [exhibitors] put them in theaters. They create sonic dimension, and I don’t think home systems will have this for a quite a while.”

But he warned that studios haven’t started to account for the extra time that will be needed should they choose to use multiple immersive formats. “You need to do different mixes,” he said. “It is very complicated to maintain the quality over different formats. I hope a standard will come out soon and get rid of two track and maybe 5.1.”

A similar view was shared by three-time Oscar winner Richard King -- supervising sound editor of DreamWorks Animation’s Turbo, which will get both a Auro 11.1 and Atmos mix. He visited CinemaCon on Wednesday to introduce the Turbo trailer in Auro for a Barco presentation at Cinemark’s Century 16 South Point Theatre.

“For certain films, [immersive sound] will be great,” he said, adding that it can offer an experience in a theater that consumers can’t get at home.

But he admitted to THR that he hopes eventually there will be just one mix when a studio chooses to release in multiple immersive sound formats. “It has created havoc in schedules; we have weeks for extra mixing,” he said. “I think filmmakers would be more comfortable if there is just one version of their film out there.”

Barco’s Auro has been used for eight releases since it debuted in 2012 with Red Tails, and 17 more are in the pipeline, including the upcoming Turbo and Elysium (both also are being released in Atmos). The company reported that 67 theaters worldwide are now equipped for Auro.

In 2012, DreamWorks Animation committed to releasing all of its upcoming titles in Auro. It also installed Auro in its Campanile Theater on its Glendale campus as well as equipped one of its mixing rooms on the campus with the sound system.

Atmos -- which was installed temporarily at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace for CinemaCon presentations -- launched in June 2012 with Disney/Pixar’s Brave and to date has roughly 40 released and upcoming titles and about 100 installations in theaters worldwide. Postproduction installations include the Zanuck Theatre on the Fox lot and Disney Stage A.

Upcoming Atmos titles include Transformers 4, Godzilla and Star Trek Into Darkness.


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Bobby Henderson
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All this talk of "immersive sound" is all fine and good. But these efforts are the equivalent of placing the cart ahead of the horse if the damned movie theaters can't bother to do surround sound right in the first place.

Where is NATO on the subject of basic sound system maintenance? What about proper theater design as it relates to room acoustics? What about having proper, capable staff levels to keep movie theater sound systems properly tuned!?

It sounds to me like these movie theater chain executives are slightly fired up (maybe) to get brands like Auro 11.1 and Dolby Atmos onto the marquee maybe after they get all their other crap done on the check list. So far the marketing efforts for these sound formats has been terrible.

By the way, I kind of thought 5.1 and 7.1 channel surround sound was supposed to be immersive.

I guess I don't know enough about Barco's Auro 11.1 process. But I've been under the impression it's little more than Surround-EX style fakery to make a 5.1 channel or 7.1 channel LPCM audio mix pretend it is an 11.1 channel mix. Is that correct? Or does the DCP contain some other kind of proprietary audio stream compatible only with a Barco Auro 11.1 processor?

This talk of "open standards" regarding theater sound kind of reinforces my impression of Auro 11.1 being a system that merely enhances an existing 5.1/7.1 LPCM mix. Home theater electronics companies have been building that sort of thing for more than a decade. Yamaha has built surround receivers for the home that could fake a 5. mix into 11.1. With "open standards" it sounds kind of like the same fakery would be applied to the commercial cinema as well.

On a fundamental level I like Dolby Atmos' approach. The object based format does much to address the limitations of 5.1 & 7.1 channel based audio layouts and goes well beyond the 10.2 channel based concepts I've been wanting movie theaters to adopt for more than a decade. Unfortunately, Atmos is an expensive process for a theater to install. It does require its own proprietary audio format to bundle on a DCP or send separately.

If movie theaters are going to push for an "open" format, I guess the Linear PCM format would be nearest to that. But it is a channel based process. To make LPCM more "immersive" more channels of audio would be required, which gets us back to that whole 10.2 idea that few seem to want to pursue, but could easily be implemented since it is supported in the D-cinema specifications. Instead, I guess we're just going to get 5.1 mixes and have booth hardware fake them into being something more as well as making audiences pay more for it.

Meanwhile, the issue of making far more commercial movie theaters sound great (or correct) will continue to be ignored.
[Roll Eyes]

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Aaron Garman
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Solution: just mix everything in mono. Like Woody Allen. And who doesn't like a good Woody Allen movie??

[Razz]

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Daniel Schulz
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 - posted 08-02-2013 11:00 AM      Profile for Daniel Schulz   Author's Homepage   Email Daniel Schulz   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The Auro codec allows you to encode a full-range 11.1 discrete mix into the 5.1 channels on the DCP, so it's not just upmix fakery (although the processor does include an upmix algorithm for playing back 5.1 or 7.1 content). The mixers create a discrete 11.1 soundtrack, which is passed through the Auro encoder and laid down as a 5.1 printmaster, which then gets distributed out on the standard DCP as 5.1. If the cinema has an Auro system installed, it decodes out the full 11.1 mix; everyone else hears the 5.1.

It's using data compression of a kind, they're taking advantage of the fact that 24 bit printmasters have more headroom than you need; they're using some of the "extra" bits to hide the additional channel data.

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Marco Giustini
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Back in the years there were Dolby, DTS and SDDS. It was a long fight with winners and losers.
But the master was the same - ok, 5ch SDDS was different, but not so much.

Now Atmos and 11.1 are quite different systems. Will studios keep mastering features using two different systems? I don't think so.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that something happens to cinema sound, but I reckon either of them will at some point completely disappear. If I was an exhibitor, I would be very cautious at the moment.

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Bobby Henderson
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I don't understand why Auro even needs to use any sort of proprietary encoding piggybacked onto standard LPCM 5.1 audio. It sounds kind of like a compromise -as if the primary tracks are being dumped from 24-bit or 20-bit down to 16-bit or even possibly less to make room for the hidden Auro channels. The DCI standard supports up to 16 discrete channels, with enough channel assignments available for at least ten full range audio channels.

I understand that some of the channel assignments in the specification are not unanimously approved. At the very least 5 stage channels, 4 surround channels and 1 sub-bass channel are supported by the specification. At least a couple of the channels will be reserved for special purposes, like descriptive audio tracks for blind audience members. In the end at least a couple or more channels can have their assignments hammered out and finalized so we could have an actual "open" 10.2 or 11.1 audio format where all 12 channels have all the bits available.

I also recognize that many theater sound systems don't have the capability to reproduce all the detail in a 24-bit 48kHz audio stream, much less something better like 24-bit 96kHz. But that is an admission that many theater sound systems are not designed and maintained as well as they should be. If I'm going to be expected to pay an extra surcharge on top of the normal ticket price I think that extra money will entitle me to expect audio and projection standards that are excellent, not just pretty good and loud.

That's really the biggest disconnect in all of this. The theater executives are thinking about all the extra money they're going to make advertising this stuff as it relates to their premium priced auditoriums, but they're not concentrating on the basics of doing the job right with sound. They're not doing it well enough in their standard priced houses. And they're taking that not done right approach into the higher priced houses and merely cranking up the volume level a notch or two. That ain't worth a surcharge.

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Mike Blakesley
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 - posted 08-02-2013 10:07 PM      Profile for Mike Blakesley   Author's Homepage   Email Mike Blakesley   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Where is NATO on the subject of basic sound system maintenance? What about proper theater design as it relates to room acoustics? What about having proper, capable staff levels to keep movie theater sound systems properly tuned!?
If you know anything at all about NATO, you know that they are in favor of all the points you mentioned. But getting chain suits to turn loose of the cash to make it happen is something else again.

I personally think they should quit hyping up their "one or two best" auditoriums and spread the love out equally. Why should everyone else feel like they're getting a substandard experience?

Once again they are feeding the "OMG WE HAVE TO SEE IT OPENING WEEKEND" mentality. Only now it's worse because if you DON'T see it opening weekend, you run the risk of your movie being moved into a different (AKA "crappy") auditorium.

Things like this make me very glad to be a single screener. Everybody who comes here gets the same good experience. We are not an "XD" "Extreme" or "Big Whatever" or any of that crap but every show we present is the best we can do.

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Marco Giustini
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Bobby,

I guess it's to avoid dual inventory, which has never been a good thing for distribution. Think of Ghostbusting, eventually they moved it to the servers.
I know that an Auro track could just be another VF, but I guess it's more easy to present a single inventory DCP to the distribution, just saying "no need to change the way it's distributed".

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Marc D Fishman
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Marco...

That was one of the early claims the Barco used to differentiate themselves from Dolby.. However, Dolby can now deliver ATMOS on a DCP with a "legacy" track.

One of the downsides to the Auro solution is that the downmix for Auro is automatic, and cannot be changed...

In ATMOS, if you hear something during the down mix, you can simply change what is feeding into the RMU until you are happy with it since the ATMOS and 5.1/7.1 are wholly discrete soundtracks.

With Auro, since the 5.1/11.1 are the same track, you are locked into what the down mix decoder gives you...

To be clear, I have no experience in mixing in the format, nor have I heard anyone claim there is a big issue.

If they indeed go single inventory for every film with an Auro track, a huge percentage of people will be listening to a downmix, and not the original 5.1 as done on the stage..

Again, it may be a non issue...

However, you can't expect the process to be wholly transparent when you are sharing bits and audio spectrum.

Something I'm really keen to delve further into.

I am always happy that we are working to push the art of sound forward.

I was far from happy after my only experience with Auro.. I saw 45 minutes of Rise Of the Guardians, and was left fairly unimpressed.

Just recently Dolby introduced the tool set to be able to spread objects into more speakers (object size/spread) which I wholly expect to allow us to create more immersive sound fields using objects, which has been a little tougher to do up til now.

AFAIK at this time there are only 3 stages in CA to mix in the format (TDS, Skywalker and Dreamworks)... Fox may have also just added the capability (I do know they just increased their ATMOS installations from 1 to 3..)

In sharp contrast, there are now 17 rooms in California alone with the ability to mix ATMOS (in addition to many more outside of the state..)

Barco has done a terrible job reaching out to the sound community to introduce the product... It only takes phone calls and emails to generate interest, but very few of my colleagues are even aware of the system.

Im most definitely don't want to see a war starting, and I for one, don't think the proprietary nature of Dolby's tool set is a huge issue... everyone wants to be able to take object metadata forward, but at this point, if you use the Pro Tools Atmos tool for object panning, you can easily copy the metadata out.. in addition, we don't have anywhere else to use/need the information for, so IMO it's a little a cart before the horse..

I'm really happy that Cinemark has made the commitment... I really need to get some time on the system and see what I missed at the one screening I attended.

It might be what is needed to get more studios to take a look and decide to release films in the format..

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William Kucharski
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 - posted 08-06-2013 05:27 PM      Profile for William Kucharski   Email William Kucharski   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I gave up believing cinemas cared anything about quality when chains started dropping their THX certifications.

Now we're back in a world where the newly remodeled theaters closest to me have exit lighting illuminating the bottom corners of the screen and new theaters where you can just about follow the soundtrack of the film playing next door.

Of course this format battle doesn't help, as it's just round #2173 of DTS vs. Dolby.

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Mike Blakesley
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What is it with the movie theaters in Colorado anyway? Are there NO good ones there?

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Sam Graham
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quote: Mike Blakesley
What is it with the movie theaters in Colorado anyway? Are there NO good ones there?
Not really, no.

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William Kucharski
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To be fair, the RPX theater at the Regal Continental in Denver is still a (mostly) decent theater - certainly the only one still capable of bass pressure felt in the chest from the subs, likely due to the substantial amount of concrete used in its original construction.

The Century 16 Bel-Mar used to be OK but since they dropped THX the quality there has dropped precipitously.

Alas, in newer theaters like the recent remodel of the AMC Flatiron Crossing 14, the primary concern was the powered reclining leather seats, not the quality of the presentation on-screen; note also that most of the time I am the one who has to close the outer theater doors at any given theater to avoid hearing the people leaving the theater next door in the middle of the film, despite having had several conversations with theatre management. [Frown]

What I wouldn't give for an Arclight here…

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Aaron Garman
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It's a pity that the vast majority of movie-goers are mindless sheep that are going to pay extra money for these "premium experiences". The studios and the exhibitors know this, and are going to milk it for all it's worth. Not necessarily bad business, but a little dishonest if you ask me.

One of the biggest selling points of digital cinema has been perfect presentation, every time, even on the 30th week of exhibition. Sadly, a film that's been running that long will most likely be in the 90 seat shoe box at the end of the hall that is missing a surround array, hasn't be aligned since the Bush administration, and smells like a teenager's gym socks. I can't tell you how many times I would have gladly paid for a ticket and concessions to go see movies theatrically, only to stop myself because I knew just how shitty of an auditorium I was going to be in. What's the point when my home cinema looks and sounds more cinematic? I even complained to Cinemark about it once. Their answer? Wait for digital (it was a 35mm theatre). That was 6 months ago.

This is another reason I'd love to see some sort of semblance of quality assurance/guarantee (like THX) that would tell me that, hey, this place has its act together. It's become a crapshoot on whether or not the experience will be great. Kudos to Celebration Cinemas' flagship cinema in Grand Rapids. I drove a couple hours to see something in their THX house and it lived up to expectations. The whole experience was a delight.

AJG

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