mediajunk

Ireland is to become the first country in the world to have completely digital cinema, according to a report in Electric News.

Digital Cinema Limited (DCL), the Irish subsidiary of the digital cinema technology firm Avica Europe, will be installing new technology into 500 screens in 105 sites throughout the country at a cost of EUR40 million, making Ireland the first country in the world to convert all cinemas to a digital format from 35mm film.

The new technology will make it easier for smaller cinemas to get faster access to new movies rather than having to wait for bigger cinemas to finish their run of a specific movie. It is likely too that the cost of movies in digital format will reduce in time, according to [DCL spokesperson] Cummins.

Interesting. Of the perceived benefits, however, I hadn't really noticed any delay in films hitting cinema screens in the provinces -- unlike the 1980s, when Dublin got releases first. I presume that the country as a whole now get a greater number of prints.

I imagine that, in the future, releases will be made on a worldwide basis, synchronised so that movies premiere in cinemas around the world on the same day. To do this, cinemas would not only need to be digital, but would have to be capable of receiving encrypted, high-quality downloads, directly from source distributors, usually the Hollywood Studios.

But, you point out, wouldn't a move to digital ultimately favour independent filmmakers, as the cost of distribution would be dramatically reduced? Perhaps, but as far as I know the major barriers to entries for independent filmmakers these days are still the production costs -- dominated by the cost of CGI graphics and copyright payments (even to show a picture on a wall in a movie today, you may have to pay a fee -- and the major studios want to keep it that way).

Plus ca change...

Google have added an interesting new feature to Google News, allowing users to customise their News Pages.

Until now, I'd always considered this kind of personalisation a red herring, but in this case I'm impressed by what those boffins at the Plex have achieved.

Notably, the customise feature's interface seems (I'm guessing here) to use the same XMLHTTP technology that has proved so popular on Google Maps. This technology allows for real-time refresh of browsers -- hence you can slide the icons across the page.

If other sites follow Google's lead on XMLHTTP, the nature of the web could well change toward slicker, livelier interfaces -- what Flash has promised but rarely delivers.

I suggest Google should make the following enhancements to its customised news feature:

- Make it easier to delete sections. Currently, you have to click into a section to delete it (it took me a while to figure this out). There should be a way of deleting from what I'll call the "sliding cards view".

- Don't force the user to have to look at Top Stories. And/or don't force those stories to appear at the top of the page.

- Allow me to send my Customised News template to a friend. I'd like to be able to share the "page I made" with headlines relating to my interests.

I attended an intersting talk in Sligo yesterday given by Rob Burke of Microsoft. The subject was upcoming developments in MS .Net and Longhorn largely from a developer's perspective.

I'm not a developer, but as a designer I was nonetheless very interested to learn about Microsoft's "Avalon", which is the presentational component of Longhorn. In one way, Avalon could be regarded as a threat to Flash, yet it seems like a different beast.

Avalon has the potential to change the face of the web (as Flash originally threatened, but never did), and not just because it is an MS product. Avalon's use of XAML -- an XML-based markup language -- seemingly makes designing interactive 3D presentation layers a lot easier than, say, programming ActionScript in Flash. (Of course, that's only my very early view -- I haven't tinkered with any code yet.)

Have a look at this video preview of what Avalon can do -- but don't hold your breath: Avalon isn't due for release until 2006 at the earliest.