SightSound Technologies, Microsoft Corp. and Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Co. are collaborating on a digital cinema trial in Pittsburgh, where audiences can see a movie commercially delivered over the Internet and projected onto a movie screen using Microsoft's Windows Media Video.
Quantum Project, a Web feature film produced by Metafilmics and starring Stephen Dorff, Fay Masterson and John Cleese, will have its theatrical premiere at Pittsburgh's Star City Cinemas using SightSound Technologies Digital Cinema System. That system is an extension of the one the Mt. Lebanon, Pa.-based company originally developed to distribute movies to PC screens over the Web. Microsoft's Windows Media Video 8 is supposed to render high-quality pictures and provides digital rights management of the content.
The partners view the Pittsburgh trial as a first step in the adoption of digital cinema delivered via the Web. - Richard Tedesco
