ZON Lusomundo And XDC Start Portuguse Digital Cinema Roll Out

The ZON Lusomundo's large-scale digital cinema deployment will officially start August 20th.
Twenty-eight cinema complexes for a total of 213 screens will be converted to digital before end 2010.
Out of 28 cinemas, 23 will be co-financed by the VPF mechanism. This represents a total of 178 screens: 111 screens will be installed in 2009 and 67 to be installed in 2010. Twenty-two "non-VPF" screens will also be installed in 2009 leading to a total of 133 digital screens already converted this year. The VPF backed roll out is financed by ING Corporate Clients Belgium, in collaboration with iNG Lease Belgium.
Luis Roboredo Mota, Managing Director of ZON Lusomundo stated: "This is the industrial revolution on the exhibition industry. It will be a new era in the cinema exhibition in Portugal. ZON Lusomundo will provide a better customer experience with operational benefits to the company. New contents will be showed to the Portuguese cinemagoers, like sport, music and gaming. We will increase the number of screens to 3D Digital and new locations. We are really confident that together with XDC we will create a new landmark that will introduce ZON Lusomundo in a new stage ready for the future."
Under the terms of the agreement with XDC, ZON Lusomundo will exclusively install DCI-compliant digital projection systems: Barco 2K (and further 4K) DLP Cinema projectors and XDC's CineStore Solo G3 D-Cinema servers. ZON Lusomundo will also implement a fully integrated and networked solution in each complex, thanks to XDC's advanced Theatre Management System and Central Library, the XDC's CineStore Plaza. A satellite content delivery network will also be implemented by XDC in order to allow distributors to deliver films directly by satellite to the cinemas, as well as to give the opportunity to ZON Lusomundo 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 the ZON Lusomundo's technical staff. Last but not least, Videovisao Electronica, will carry out the installations and will perform the on-site maintenance.
Fabrice Testa, VP Sales & Business Development with XDC concluded: "It's really a pleasure working with the ZON Lusomundo team. They understand the challenges of the digital cinema revolution. Indeed, on the one hand, they are committed to bringing the most advanced experience to moviegoers. On the second hand, they have already experienced that digital cinema allows them to maximise their revenues and to reduce their operational costs. Hence, this project is part of a long term vision, and we are proud to be associated to this strategic move."
(KMcA/BMcc)