China's first digital cinema server using the international standard is expected to debut in June, which could lower movie ticket prices and increase the export of Chinese films globally.

"Our digital cinema servers will enable Chinese audience to not only enjoy the high-resolution digital movies from the world's leading studios, but also help Chinese films to be digitalized under the international standard, and be finally shown in overseas theatres," said Zhang Baoquan, chairman of the board of Time Antaeus, China's leading digital cinema equipment provider.

Zhang said yesterday in Beijing that the server, jointly developed by his firm and the Institute of Computer Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is based on the standard from the Digital Cinema Initiatives, which was kicked off last July.

Thanks to lower labor costs in China, the new digital cinema server could reduce the movie ticket price from the current 50 yuan (US$5.68) to 17 yuan (US$2.10).

"Compared with the traditional film copies, it (digital cinema server) can simplify the copying process, guarantee the high quality of image, and reduce the cost in film storage and transferring," Zhang said.

Zhang said a Time Antaeus' digital cinema server costs about 150,000 yuan (US$18,560) a unit, while similar equipment may cost 800,000 yuan (US$99,000) in other countries.

"The equipment might be the first of its kind in the world," he said.

Globally speaking, the United States and Japan are China's major competition in digital movie playing equipment research.

Currently in China, movies are shot with traditional films, and many of them are transferred into digital format for production. Some movies are then chosen to be play with digital servers.

Digital Cinema Initiatives, or DCI, is a consortium of studios and vendors formed to establish a standard architecture for digital cinema systems.

The organization started off in March 2002 as a joint venture of the world's leading movie producers, including Disney, Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal and Warner Brothers Studios.

"We have gained the core technology for the server through our research, and in the rest of the year we will devote ourselves to further improving the system, upgrading the efficiency and cutting the cost," said Zhang

The server includes an anti-piracy solution, which can effectively protect the copyrights of the movies, he stressed.

Time Antaeus has promoted its Montage series digital cinema equipment, but the product is only limited in low-end theatres and small cities, because of the comparatively low resolution.

China started developing digital cinemas in 2002, and so far there are more than 200 digital screens across the country under China's own standard. Such a number is expected to exceed 500 by 2007.

(China Daily January 6, 2006)