BARCO Strengthens Digital Cinema Group

Renowned Digital Cinema Expert And Motion Picture Industry Professional Harry Mathias Joins BARCO

12-Oct-00

BARCO is announced the appointment of Harry Mathias as BARCOís Director of Digital Cinema, America, effective October 2, 2000. Mathias will report to Sjoerd De Clerk, Managing Director of Digital Cinema for Barco Projection Systems (BPS) and Jim Crane, Vice President and General Manager, Barco Projection Systems (BPS). He will be responsible for guiding the strategic planning, marketing and technical coordination of the Barco Digital Cinema projector rollout in the U.S.A. Along with the Barco Digital Cinema team, he will collaborate with the theatrical production, distribution, and exhibition industries. Mathias will also represent Barco on the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers) Digital Cinema Standards Study and Working Groups. ""Harry will be a great asset to the BARCO organization. He has extensive knowledge of the motion picture industry and experience in the development of digital cinema,"" said Jim Crane, Vice President and General Manager for BARCO Projection Systems. ""We are very pleased to have Harry on our team."" Mathias has over 19 years experience in the television and motion picture industry. He was most recently the worldwide Director of Motion Picture Technology and the Head of West Coast Operations for Schneider Optics Inc. In those roles, he was responsible for long-term strategic planning, product development and marketing. Mathias has held a number of high-profile positions during his career, including Senior Consultant to the CEO of Panavision, a consultant to DreamWorks Animation SKG, President and CEO of Data Engineering, as well as the only American consultant to the European Common Market on the subject of high definition and video production technology. He was also a consultant to the Eastman Kodak Executive Committee. He has served on SMPTE standard-setting groups in the areas of HDTV, film camera and projection technology, and on most of the current DC28 Digital Cinema study sub-groups since their inception.Mathias is the author of the book ""Electronic Cinematography: Achieving Photographic Control Over the Video Image."" He has co-authored a book with Vice President Al Gore on HDTV, entitled ""The Politics, Policies, And Economics Of Tomorrowís Television."" Mathias has been a contributing author on several books pertaining to cinematography, photography, and television image quality. In the past, he has been a motion picture director of photography on 18 feature films, 21 television dramatic shows, and numerous national commercials. He was nominated for an Academy AwardÆ in 1980. ""Digital Cinema is the next evolution in theatrical entertainment. It is the way of the future simply because some of the best technical and research minds in the world are at work on improving its presentation quality. It will lead to a revitalization of the theatrical exhibition industry,"" said Harry Mathias, ""It is very exciting to be working in this field now."" In March of this year, BARCO signed an agreement with Texas Instruments to become a DLP Cinemaô licensee. Under the terms of this agreement, BARCO is one of only three manufactures of digital cinema using the TI technology. BARCO will manufacture and distribute projection systems using DLP Cinema technology on a worldwide basis. BARCOís DLPô-based projectors have recently been seen at such prestigious events as the 72nd Annual Academy Awards Ceremony, the 53rd International Cannes Film Festival, the Discover Magazine Awards for Technological Innovation and the 52nd Annual EmmyÆ Awards Ceremony.For more information about BARCO, visit www.barco.com.

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