Global Vision Networks has announced the inauguration of a pilot network for the distribution of live and ‘as live’ content to cinemas across Asia.
The Pilot will deliver cinema quality, live material to screens in more than 10 cities, including Mumbai, Manila, Bangkok, and Tokyo. Agreements are already in place with exhibitors in Chennai, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Currently distributers face real barriers to the delivery of live content to cinemas in Asia. With no common platform for reaching the region, distributors must deal with the difficulty and expense of arranging individual signals for each country. This inefficiency means that commercial success has been a long way off for alternate content in Asia. The Pilot will address this by establishing a single, pan Asian distribution platform — distributers located anywhere in the world will now be able to reach exhibitors all across the region. This one step is expected to spark rapid growth in the satellite enabling of cinemas in Asia as, for the first time, it will be cost effective to deliver live content to cinemas in Asia. While the same system may be used for delivery of feature films, the fragmented nature of the market will preclude this for a number of years.
Not surprisingly, the distributors are strongly behind the pilot and Global Vision Networks expects to see the number of screens using this service increase quickly as content begins to flow. Distributers are using the Pilot to trial a variety of content types, marketing, and price points. There are already three events scheduled for September with a further ten awaiting confirmation for the remainder of the year. Global Vision has been providing satellite solutions in Asia Pacific region since 1992. With such a large land mass and so widely differing peoples, cultures and regulatory environments, satellite operations across the region can be daunting. The company is now using its ability to integrate uplink, space segment, installation and ongoing management to assist the conversion to digital cinema in the region.
