S & B Cinemas, operators of The Ritz Cinema, Burnham on Sea, a dynamic UK exhibitor and XDC, the n°1 digital cinema service company in Europe, have agreed on the terms for a deployment of digital cinema systems under XDC’s VPF funding scheme.
Pat Scott, Managing Director of The Ritz Cinema Burnham on Sea, said: ““We made the decision to go with XDC because they offered the most cost effective and simple VPF financing solution with excellent technical expertise and support through our existing service provider. With the help of XDC both of our screens will now benefit from the advantages of digital cinema: 3D experience and alternative content programmes. We can’t wait to be all digital”.
David Pope, XDC’s Director UK Operations added: “I am thrilled that Pat has chosen to go ahead with XDC. The Ritz Cinema at Burnham on Sea has a real community spirit.. It’s a small family owned business that prides itself in offering a very high quality service. Pat and his team have already embraced digital technology with the support of Bell Theatre Services for screen 1 and we are very happy to be working with them to make The Ritz fully digital”.
Under the terms of the agreement with XDC, S & B Cinemas will have Series 2 DCI-compliant digital projection systems installed. A content delivery network will also be implemented by XDC in order to allow distributors to deliver films directly by satellite and/or broadband connection to the cinemas, as well as to give the opportunity to The Ritz Cinema Burnham on Sea to perform live 2D and 3D transmissions.
All the systems will be connected to the XDC’s NOC (Network Operations Centre) which will perform the hotline support and the preventative remote maintenance. Thanks to the sophisticated XDC’s CineStore Data web-based application, the frontline support (with the possibility to have a full remote monitoring of the digital systems) will be directly managed by XDC’s local integrator Bell Theatre Services, which will also take care of the installations and maintenance supported by XDC’s NOC services.
S & B Cinemas are the second UK Exhibitor to contract with XDC. Other UK exhibitors are planning to start their digital roll out with XDC over the next few months. XDC is targeting to rapidly increase its UK operations in order to manage the deployment and the support of about 400 screens.
About XDC International
XDC is the n°1 digital cinema company in Europe with more than 2700 committed digital screens out of which 1000 have already been deployed. XDC HQ is based in Liege (Belgium) and provides end-to-end digital cinema solutions including equipment supply, financing (VPF, leasing, etc), training, installation and 24/7 maintenance, as well as content processing and delivery. The company is the first entity to have VPF digital cinema deployment agreements with all 6 major US studios Warner, Fox, Universal, Paramount, Sony and Disney for a total of 8,000 digital screens in 22 European countries. Besides its financing program with ING Lease, XDC has set up a global financing of 100 million Euro with a bank consortium led by BNP Paribas Fortis to allow the VPF roll out of 2,000 digital screens for its European deployment program. XDC Digital Content Lab has been processing more than 600 different titles, and offers a full service including mastering, duplication, key management, 24/7 helpdesk, extranet tracking, physical/virtual delivery. Last but not least, XDC is also very active in Alternative Content by offering a full service from booking and promotion up to delivery, reporting and box office collection.
The main shareholders are EVS Broadcast Equipment (www.evs-global.com) (Euronext Brussels: EVS, Bloomberg: EVS BB, Reuters: EVSB.BR), GIMV (www.gimv.com) (Euronext Brussels: GIMB, Bloomberg: GIMB BB, Reuters: GIMV.BR) and SRIW (www.sriw.be).
More info available at www.xdcinema.com.
XDC Marketing & Communication Department – Tel.: +32 4 364 12 00 – Email: marcom [at] xdcinema.com
About The Ritz Cinema Burnham on Sea
The Ritz Cinema Burnham on Sea is operated by S & B Cinemas Ltd. The company started in 2004 and is run by husband and wife team Pat and Beryl Scott. Currently a two screen cinema the company have built up over the years to be tremendously popular with the local community.
Source: XDC