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Digital cinema - XDC
XDC Solutions for the digital cinema
Created in 2004, XDC is a 47.2% affiliate of EVS. XDC is a service provider of digital cinema solutions in Europe. The company proposes different solutions:
- deploying services of digital cinema installations for exhibitors in Europe. This activity is mainly based on the VPF model (Virtual Print Fee), through which the American studios (Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Universal, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox and the Walt Disney Studios) have agreed to subsidize approximately 75% of the installation, by XDC, of maximum 8,000 digital screens in Europe, hence allowing substantial savings for exhibitors on the equipment cost. Contracts have already been signed in 2008 with Cineplexx in Austria (193 screens) and Zon Lusomondo in Portugal (180 screens);
- services to distributors: XDC prepares the content for physical distribution based on encrypted files, with the possibility of watermarking to detect piracy. In addition to quality control and archiving, the XDC lab creates the sub-titles and the different versions of a film, thus allowing to be shown in a long version and a short version using the same file;
- services to exhibitors: XDC rents or sells its servers, applications, services (including maintenance) and projectors acquired from third-party suppliers. The offer is adapted according to the size of the screen in order to optimize the relationship between the investment and the quality of the image; and
- services to providers of alternative content: besides the films proposed by the studios, there exist numerous types of alternative contents, allowing exhibitors to diversify their commercial proposition, such as projections of sporting events or concerts, live or not (sometimes in 3D).
The technology
XDC’s masterpiece is the CineStore range: a suite of high-grade digital cinema servers with applications tailored to the needs of the different players in the film distribution chain. The CineStore Solo is a broadcast server linked to a digital projector in the cinema auditorium. The CineStore Plaza is a central management system for multiplex. It allows to import all types of contents through a central library that can contains 50 to 80 films. The CineStore Data is a powerful database supporting XDC’s Network Operations Center, and including extranet services for exhibitors and distributors. 
The potential and the risk
Worldwide, around 120,000 cinemas will become digital during the next 10 years, of which 30% are in Europe and 35% are in the United States. More than 7,000 screens have already been digitized, mainly in the United States. The multicultural and fragmented nature of the European cinema market is different from the oligopolistic structure of the American market. As a service company, and therefore a local company, XDC focuses on the Western European market with a young and innovative team of 50 people. The principal risk lies in the genuine desire of the current major players in this market to move resolutely forward along the profitable path of digital technology. Digital cinema has been slowly taking off for several years, and XDC is patiently continuing its development as leader in the European market. For more information please visit the XDC website.
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