From the eighth edition of the course “DigiTraining Plus: European Cinemas Experiencing New Technologies”
Helsinki and Tallinn, 29 June – 3 July 2011
 

Facts and figures: this is the menu on the morning of 30 June for the participants at DigiTraining Plus, now in progress in Helsinki.
 “In 2004, when MEDIA Salles began offering these training courses, there were 30 digital screens in the whole of Europe. At the beginning of 2011 they had increased to 10,346.
The new projection technology has reached 29% of European theatres to date, driven mainly by the rush on 3D which has characterised the past two years.
Stereoscopic projection is, in fact, available on 81% of digital screens, with peaks of 99.5% in countries like Russia, i,e, mainly where digitalization began relatively late in the day.
Instead, over the past few months most of the growth has been recorded where the big exhibition chains have opted for 100% digitalization.
On the basis of these figures, according to MEDIA Salles forecasts, the threshold of 50% of Europe’s screens going digital should be reached between the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012.
The challenge remains open for the rest of Europe’s cinemas: which economic models are capable of consenting a digital transition for all screens?”
This is how Elisabetta Brunella, Secretary General of MEDIA Salles commented on the results emerging from the latest surveys carried out by MEDIA Salles, which will form the basis of the report on digitalization in Europe to be produced in collaboration with the European Audiovisual Observatory over the coming months.
Answers to the question of the development of digitalization will be coming from different quarters during the course: from integrators like AAM, programmed today, and XDC/FTT who will be contributing tomorrow, as well as from public institutions such as the European Commission and exhibitors’ associations, such as the British DFP and the Dutch NVB.
The day proceeds with John Graham and David Monk, representing EDCF, a course partner, and Mélodie Hoppenot, from Smartjog, who will be explaining how cinemas can free themselves of the physical support for supplying films: no longer heavy film reels, but not even the more convenient hard disk, either.
In the afternoon, the programme includes a talk by Elise Brandt, promoter of a blog on the daily routine of digital technology followed passionately by all Finnish cinema technicians, and the presentation by Giovanni Dolci, who will speak about the financial modes for digital migration through the “European version” of Virtual Print Fee.
And, regarding “migration”, in the evening the course will be moving to the opposite bank of the Baltic Sea: see you later in Tallinn!