Executive Summary

December 2011 by Michael Karagosian

State of the Industry – our bi-annual report covering everything (well, almost everything) digital cinema. If you thought 2010 was a good year, the numbers for 2011 are nothing less than phenomenal.

Projection. Talk of high frame rates (HFR) and lasers dominated the year. We provide the details.

Servers and Media Blocks. HFR shines a light on the in-projector media block (IMB). More surprises lie ahead, and not all may be happy ones.

Sound. 2011 witnessed the birth of a new renaissance for cinema sound, with new names such as Auro-3D and IMM. Long live the distributors, who will surely labor heavily.

DCI Compliance. The servers of two major manufacturers squeaked through the CTP approval process in the last 2 weeks of the year.

Security Key Management. The bane of digital cinema. Thanks to Fox, there’s now light at the end of the tunnel.

Barco and Christie reveal the world market shares of projectors.

XDC and DFL Ireland finally agree.