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Barco reports impressive rise in digital cinema orders

The digital cinema order intake in Q2 2010 was almost eight times that of the same period last year, reports David Davies.

The digital cinema order intake in Q2 2010 was almost eight times that of the same period last year, reports David Davies. Overall, the first half of 2010 is said to have brought a “significant increase in sales, orders and production capacity” for its digital cinema business, with the DP2K digital cinema projector series contributing to the impressive results.

Extracts of Barco’s latest quarterly results furnished to IE revealed a digital cinema order intake of €113.7 million for Q2 – nearly eight times that of the same period last year.

Launched at ShoWest this March, the DP2K series of DLP Cinema digital projectors is billed as the first ever to pass a DCI compliance testing milestone and the first to offer integrated CineCanvas subtitling. Furthermore, Barco has revealed that it has obtained full DCI compliance for its complete line of DP2K C series.

“The DP2K series has been extremely well received,” said Wim Buyens, vice president of Barco’s digital cinema business. “The market is really taking up the proven Barco design concepts, such as our truly modular design and commonality of spares, which have been taken to the next level in the DP2K series. The many key customers selecting Barco for their digital cinema rollouts are a great realisation of this continued technology leadership.”

Cinema companies already working with the new DP2K Digital Cinema projectors include Cinemark, Malco, Kinepolis, EuropalaceUGC, Vue Entertainment, Empire Cinemas UK, Cineplex, Yelmo, ZON Lusomundo Cinemas, Space, Nordisk Cinemas, Dadi Media Group, CGV China and many more.

Looking to the future, Barco market director digital cinema Tim Sinnaeve told IE: “We are confident this growth will continue. Where 3D until very recently has been the main driver for the digital cinema rollout and the main contributor to the current peak in demand, we now see that major exhibitors are unveiling full-circuit digital conversion plans, which is creating momentum for the global digital cinema conversion.

“In addition, our new line of DP2K projectors has been extremely well received in the market as evidenced by our numerous wins around the globe. We are continuously investing in further product innovations to maintain our technology leadership and in key services such as training to also help ensure that the smaller and independent cinema chains can benefit from the opportunities digital cinema offers, which is a concern particularly in Europe. As digital cinema is a core business for Barco, we had already made the necessary investments in our production capacity, such as the expansion of our production to China for our Asian customers, to keep track with the pace of the digital cinema rollout.”