OTT and cinema content will grow in tandem

The post COVID-19 world will be sharply focussed on efficiency for the best ROI. Therefore, AI and analytics are expected to play a more crucial role and will be increasingly used by various stakeholders in the entertainment industry, feels Kanwal Brar, Director of Sales, Cinema, Christie India.

What are digital cinemas doing to counter the threat of the OTT industry? Do you think OTT can ever go past the digital cinema industry? If not, why?

The Cinema experience and OTT are two different mediums—each having its own targeted format and consumer consumption patterns. Hence it might not be fair to compare them with each other. Both OTT and cinema content will grow in tandem and not compete with each other. I do not expect big budget movie productions to be able to make the kind of profits on OTT platform as they do in cinemas. The film industry is still dependent on the box office as its main source of revenue. Some content meant for mainstream audiences has been released on OTT to relieve short-term financial stress on production houses. In the long term, both mediums will continue to co-exist.

When digital cinemas finally open, are there any measures being put in place to enforce social distancing and extra sanitization?

The Multiplex Association of India, working together with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), has come up with an elaborate safety and precautions plan to prepare for the reopening of cinema halls after the COVID-19 lockdown. Some of the measures are mentioned below:

1. There will be body-temperature checks at the entry point. Masks will be mandatory for all, and PPE kits will be made available for purchase. Also, hand sanitisers to be placed at all strategic locations for use.
2. As per global cinema standards, in a standard auditorium, every alternate seat is to be kept empty. Families, couples and groups, however, can be seated together.
3. The Aarogya Setu app will be mandatory for all cinema staff. Further, only medically certified fit staff will be allowed to come to work. Masks and gloves will be mandatory for all cinema staff.
4. Use of sanitizers and disinfectants in the entire theatre premises ensuring hygiene for all.

Are you using things like AI and analytics to get the best performance out of cinema viewing and understanding what the viewers want?

The post COVID-19 world will be sharply focussed on efficiency for the best ROI. Therefore, AI and analytics are expected to play a more crucial role and will be increasingly used by various stakeholders in the entertainment industry (theatres, distributors, producers and so on). They will be used to collect all relevant box-office information on running movies and this information will be tracked in real-time based on individual screens. In this way, exhibitors and producers will always have accurate data available to them at all times.

We also need to ensure that the appropriate content reaches the relevant audience. Movie consumption data comprising occupancy, age group of audience, and timings will allow movie exhibitors to be more efficient in planning their resources.

What innovations have come in the last few years like your pure laser projectors and 4K tech? What further innovations can we expect?

On the industry front, Christie has proven its leadership in laser projection by achieving several industry firsts. As a Leader Level Member of the Laser Illumination Projector Association (LIPA), we are helping to drive the direction of this new illumination platform. Looking to the future, our R&D and engineering teams are working on developing the laser projection technology of tomorrow.

With brightness levels for varying screen sizes from boutique to mainstream and on to premium large format (PLF), Christie’s proprietary RGB pure laser technology—Christie RealLaser™, takes audiences to new worlds of colour and contrast with a choice of 2K or 4K systems, all 3D capable and delivering greater than 95% of the Rec. 2020 colour space. The products are advanced, yet affordable, DCI compliant cinema projection featuring Christie RealLaser technology for various screen sizes.

At the core of Christie RealLaser technology are the Multi-Laser Pack Devices (MPD). These compact, robust, solid-state laser banks comprise of individual emitters populated in a matrix that is specifically tuned for the accurate reproduction of DCI content. With Enhanced Wavelength Diversity (EWD), each MPD features a special configuration of laser diodes making the Christie digital projectors ideal for every type of cinema exhibition, including 3D applications on high-gain silver screens.
What about advances in audio technology?

Today’s cinema audio formats support more richly detailed soundscapes and demand the same from cinema speakers. Christie® Vive Audio™ immerses audiences in sound with the world's first cinema audio system to combine ribbon driver and articulated line array technology into single cabinet speakers. The result is uniform delivery of sound to every seat in the theatre. Christie Vive Audio, with its ribbon driver technology, represents the next evolution in speaker design, providing enhanced clarity, dramatically reduced distortion and ultra-fast transient response.

Do you think smaller screens and smaller halls will be more popular in the post-Covid world and do you have the tech and plans for that?

With varied demographics and income levels, both small screen halls and large format auditoriums will continue to be popular among cinema patrons in India. With only 9,000 screens nationwide, India is a hugely under-screened country and there is much opportunity to grow the number of cinema screens domestically. In comparison, China has 60,000 and the United States has 40,000 screens.

Christie develops innovative cinema systems for all screen sizes—from small screens to large format theatres. For smaller screens, thanks to our engineering excellence, we have developed a range of truly affordable RGB pure laser cinema projectors. We eliminated the need for external chillers, fibre-coupling, lamp replacements and concerns about space when retrofitting an existing booth. To top it off, our cinema projectors, equipped with RealLaser illumination, provide the lowest total cost of ownership in their class while delivering higher image quality and performance over any other illumination technology.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have RGB pure laser cinema projectors that defines the premium movie-going experience for large format theatres. Featuring CineLife+ electronics and RealLaser illumination, our compact DCI-compliant projector models excel in image quality, operational lifetime, and onscreen brightness. Exhibitors can impress audiences with incredibly colourful and detailed, true-to-life 4K images while benefiting from a platform designed to support the content and formats of the future.