Thursday, March 28, 2024
Subscribe Now

Voice Of The Crew - Since 2002

Los Angeles, California

HomeIndustry SectorFilmIMAX Licenses Exclusive Rights To Kodak’s Laser Projection Technology

IMAX Licenses Exclusive Rights To Kodak’s Laser Projection Technology

-

Eastman Kodak announced that IMAX has licensed exclusive rights to a portfolio of more than 50 patent families in the digital cinema field covering laser projection technology and complementary technologies.

The deal will enable IMAX to deliver high-quality digital content to IMAX film-based screens larger than 80 feet and to dome theatres, which have previously only had access to analog film. This technology also will allow IMAX to distribute content with greater efficiency to the company’s global theater network.

“This Kodak intellectual property is truly cutting edge, and will be used by IMAX’s technology group to enhance the cinematic experience for consumers, enable the application of digital technology in our larger and institutional theatres, and make being in business with IMAX even easier and more profitable,” said IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond.

IMAX expects to introduce the new laser projection technology by the second half of 2013, and that it will provide the company’s largest screen and dome customers with a full array of digital content, which often includes Hollywood’s biggest IMAX DMR titles.

Kodak engineers will work closely with IMAX engineers over the next 18 months to assist with the implementation of the technology into the IMAX product family.

“We are delighted to be licensing our technology to a company as innovative as IMAX,” said Kim Snyder, president, entertainment Imaging, and vice president, Eastman Kodak Company. “Because this technology produces the deepest blacks and the brightest 3D of any system demonstrated to date, it will truly make the movies more exciting for consumers, and that creates a strong value proposition for the studios and exhibitors as well.”

In September 2010 IMAX invested in Laser Light Engines (LLE) – an initiative centered around developing technology to illuminate existing digital screens to IMAX standards. The Kodak technology is expected to extend these efforts and allow the illumination of IMAX 80-to-100-foot screens and domes with a brightness and clarity not currently attainable in these formats. It will also consume less power, last longer and have a wider color gamut when compared with existing technology.

“This license, combined with LLE and IMAX’s own intellectual property, puts us at the forefront of laser-based projection and will provide moviegoers, exhibitors and filmmakers around the world the level of quality for which the IMAX brand is known,” said Gelfond.

- Advertisment -

Popular

Beowulf and 3-D

0
By Henry Turner Beowulf in 3D is a unique experience, raising not just questions about future of cinema, but also posing unique problems that the...