""Star Wars"" To Be Presented In Discrete 6.1 PCM Digital Audio
As first reported in Issue 32 of ""Widescreen Review"", released on Thursday, June 3, George Lucas and Twentieth Century Fox have arranged for a special four-week run of ""Star Wars: Episode I ñ The Phantom Menace"" in four select theatres using digital projection and uncompressed (non-data reduced) discrete 6.1 and 7.1 PCM digital audio. Not only does the upcoming event mark the first time a fully digital full-length feature will be shown to an audience, but this will be the first time a motion picture has been exhibited in linear PCM digital audio. Previously, all digital soundtracks have been presented in Cinema Digital SoundÆ (CDSÆ), DolbyÆ Digital, DTSÆ Digital Sound or Sony Dynamic Digital SoundÆ (SDDSÆ). In the past digital projection screenings have been limited to specially packaged brief demonstrations and a trade showing of ""Shakespeare In Love"" for industry members at ShoWest and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conventions in Las Vegas and most recently at the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) Hollywood chapter day-long seminar on ""The Future Of Film"" held at the University of Southern California. As reported in Widescreen Review on page 57 under ""ShoWest Technology Demonstrations Show Digital Projection Picture Quality,"" the digital projection venues will present the soundtrack to ""Star Wars: Episode I ñ The Phantom Menace"" in 8-channel discrete linear PCM 44.1kHz/20-bit resolution, including the discrete PCM center back Surround EX channel. (The CineComm digital delivery system is capable of 12 channels of discrete 24-bit/48kHz uncompressed digital audio.) Originally, the soundtrack printmaster was created in 24-bit resolution, but due to the limitations of the loudspeaker systems in the digital projection venues, was reduced to 20-bit resolution. Though the two Los Angeles venue locations were already reported in Issue 32 of Widescreen Review, based on predictions made from discussions with insiders, Lucasfilm and Fox confirmed last Thursday the names of the four theatres that will screen the filmless digital version of the ""Star Wars"" prequel. As published, ""Phantom"" will begin its digital run in Southern California on June 18 at AMCís Burbank 14 Theatres using the Texas Instruments Digital Light Processing (DLP) digital projection system and at Pacific Theatresí Winnetka Stadium 20 in Chatsworth using the CineComm Digital Cinema Hughes-JVC digital projection system. In the New York Metropolitan Area, the CineComm system will screen at the Loewsí Route 4 Paramus Theatre in New Jersey, while the Texas Instruments technology will be on display at the Loewsí Meadows 6 Theatre in New Jersey. A special press screening will be shown on June 17, but specifics have not been announced as of this report date. The specifics of the delivery method are not fully known, but reportedly the digital version of ""Phantom"" will be read from eighteen 18Gb hard disks in a Hyper-SPACE digital video recorder developed by Denver-based Pluto Technologies International and passed through the digital projectors developed by Texas Instruments and Hughes-JVC. This will be the first time that the two rival digital projection systems will go head-to-head using the same digital video recorder images. While some in the motion picture industry regard digital projection with suspicion, the event is certain to provide the exhibition and distribution industries, as well as filmmakers the movie-going public, an up-close look at digital projection technology. For die-hard fans of the ""Star Wars"" epic, the prospect of pristine images will undoubtedly be a draw. And undoubtedly this will be marked in the history of motion pictures as the first step toward the wide release of digital movies, such as that expected when Lucasí next all-digitally produced ""Star Wars"" prequel is released in 2002. ""Phantom"" producer Rick McCalum says the digital run of his film is a ""milestone in cinematic history."" McCalum furthers with ""for the first time a filmmaker can be certain the audience will see and hear the film the way the filmmaker intended it to be seen and heard. Like the introduction of sound and color, these digital screenings represent the beginning of a new era in film preservation."" Russell Winter, CineCommís Chief Technology Officer, says the digital release of ""Phantom"" will one day be written about ""with no less excitement than the opening of ëThe Jazz Singer,í motion pictureís first talking movie."" Winter furthered that ""digital cinema was hear and now, rather than something in the distant future."" Doug Dorrow, Texas Instrumentsí DLP Cinema Marketing and Development Manager, says, ""the ëPhantomí run is the best way to show that this is real and ready.""