BRITISH Telecom鈥檚 experiment with 鈥渆lectronic cinema鈥� took an embarrassing
turn last week when a key partner in the project denounced the quality of test
pictures screened at a cinema in London.
For two years, BT鈥檚 broadcast services division has been working secretly on
a project to replace 35-millimetre films with video, which would be distributed
via optical fibre
(This Week, 13 December 1997, p 15).
Its partners are Virgin
Cinemas, Channel 4 Television, JVC of Japan and a British digital
image-processing firm, Snell and Willcox.
Last week, BT installed one of JVC鈥檚 video projectors in Virgin鈥檚 Haymarket
cinema and piped digital signals from a computer system at the BT Tower, more
than a kilometre away. Snell and Willcox provided circuitry that artificially
enhances picture clarity.
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An audience of film and TV experts watched footage of horse racing shot by
Channel 4, and excerpts from various films, among them The Madness of King
George and Four Weddings and a Funeral. Many complained that the
pictures looked 鈥渟oft鈥�, prompting an outburst from David Youlton, Snell and
Willcox鈥檚 chief executive: 鈥淚 am ashamed to be associated with this event. We
can do ten times better. You people don鈥檛 understand digital processing. I am
appalled at what I鈥檝e seen.鈥�
Rupert Gavin, who heads BT鈥檚 consumer division, told the audience: 鈥淭his was
intended to initiate dialogue, and it鈥檚 certainly done that.鈥� Despite the
debacle, the companies involved say they will continue with the project. 鈥淚
spoke out to save electronic cinema, not to kill it,鈥� says Youlton.