Audio Video News

The Home Entertainment 2005 Show is coming to New York City April 28 to May 1, at the New York Hilton hotel. A ticket to the Show not only gives attendees entrée to previews of the latest in home audio, home theater, and convergence products—it also includes free educational seminars on a variety of subjects, moderated by top industry editors.

Earlier this month, a new distribution system for the delivery of digital-cinema content across continents was tested between the US and Singapore. The system, called Cross-Continent Digital Content Transmission, or CCTx, is the result of collaboration between the Singapore government, an industry association called Singapore infocomm Technology Federation Digital Media Chapter (SiTF DMC), and the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at the University of Southern California. Other partners involved in the pilot program included Thomson Technicolor (consulting); GlobeCast, StarHub, and 1-Net (international and local circuit and data storage); and Christie, Dell, Texas Instruments, and XDC (technology).

While religious and political animosity continues to brew between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, there is one thing they can agree on: digital cinema. A subsidiary of technology and services provider <A href="http://www.avicatech.com">Avica</A>, Digital Cinema Limited (DCL), has announced that they are starting to implement a nationwide digital-cinema network that will ultimately lead to a conversion of all 515 screens in both regions of the Emerald Isle to the digital format. After two years of planning, DCL began installing the first 25 projectors earlier this month and hopes to have all Irish screens operational within a year at a cost of over $53 million.

This week at ShoWest 2005 in Las Vegas&mdash;the premier gathering for commercial-cinema owners and operators&mdash;HD entrepreneur Mark Cuban and partner Todd Wagner announced at they are taking a big step toward the digital future with the purchase of six Sony SRX-R110 digital-cinema projectors for their Landmark Theatres, the nation's largest "art-house" theater chain, currently with 209 screens in 22 markets. The SRX-R110 provides 4K (4096x2160) resolution and 10,000 ANSI lumens of light output using SXRD (Silicon Crystal [X-tal] Reflective Display) technology, Sony's version of LCoS. The projectors will be installed in six Landmark Theatres&mdash;two each in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco&mdash;with the eventual goal of converting all Landmark locations to 4K SXRD projection.