The Data Compression News Blog

Press Release: Arts Alliance Media, Europe’s leading digital cinema company, has screened Disney’s ‘Chicken Little’ in JPEG2000 compression format, using MXF packaging and security keys in a format recommended by the Hollywood studios as the standard for digital cinema. The screening, held at City Screen York, was played from a QuVIS Cinema Player, and marks a milestone in the adoption of digital cinema in Europe, as the first commercial screening to be compatible with recommendations of the DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative).

The DCI, a consortium of seven Hollywood studios formed to define universal standards for digital cinema, made its recommendations in July 2005, which included specification of JPEG2000 as the uniform compression format, MXF as the packaging technology and specified encryption and key delivery methods.

AAM’s subsidiary company, Arts Alliance Digital Cinema, last year won the $20m contract to install and run the 240 screens of the UK Film Council’s Digital Screen Network (DSN). The QuVIS servers used in the DSN are being upgraded to be DCI compatible this spring. This will be the first in a series of upgrades that will take place as the DCI standards are formalised.

Fiona Deans, Arts Alliance Media’s Director of Digital Cinema, said, “Arts Alliance Media is proud to be the first European digital cinema company to be DCI compatible and pleased to be supporting pioneers of digital cinema such as Disney and QuVIS.”

Chicken Little is also being screened digitally in 3D from QuVIS players on two of AAM’s UK installations including Odeon Printworks.

Chicken Little was released nationwide in the UK by Buena Vista in February.