YESTERNOW

Rave Cinemas and Deluxe/EchoStar recently inked a deal whereby movies, both 2D and 3D, as well as, alternative content, such as the Met Opera and other concerts, will be transmitted to Rave's 800+ screens via satellite.

Sounds great on its face, but the problem is that this is really old and really expensive data transmission technology, it's yesternow !

I was fortunate to consult on a project for the Boeing Company back in 2001.  Boeing was doing a proof of concept for the Hollywood studios. Their goal was to transmit movies via satellite to cinemas using the, then, new Digital Cinema projection systems.  To validate their concept, it was decided to transmit what was going to be a blockbuster film to six D-Cinema platforms at four separate cineplexes in the San Diego area - the film was Star Wars - Attack of the Clones.  This was the first such transmission of its type in pure digital format.  The whole process worked flawlessly and was a great technological success.  The data was triple encrypted, transmitted via Boeing's satellite, automatically ingested into the D-Cinema server, and projected on a regular matte white screen with a terrific image and digital sound.   Unfortunately, Hollywood chose not to utilize the system, and instead decided to ship encrypted hard drives - as is the current practice.
For its part, Boeing was satisfied that the process was a success and went on to use and sell the technology to the health care industry.

Having had first hand experience with satellite transmission of movies I can say that the process works very well but is expensive and somewhat cumbersome as compared to content streaming via the internet, which is the technology the movie industry is moving toward.

So, good deal for Deluxe/EchoStar - bad deal for Rave Cinemas.  Hmmm, Rave should have called for some advice.

Jim Lavorato
Best and Happy Movie Going !