Press Release: Two Leading Digital Cinema Companies - Kodak and Barco - Forge Strategic Alliance to Serve the Worldwide Digital Cinema Market


Kodak's Expertise in Color Science and Imaging and Barco's Leadership in Digital Cinema Projection Systems Come Together to Create Integrated Solutions for the Digital Cinema Market

The new alliance has two purposes: It enables each company to sell - and to provide support for - complete integrated digital cinema solutions. The solutions will combine systems and services from each company, optimized for image quality and reliability. The alliance also will allow Kodak and Barco to collaborate on innovative and differentiated solutions for the future.

Bill Doeren, general manager of Kodak Digital Cinema, says that customers will have the assurance of two highly respected brands joining forces to take care of their full digital cinema needs.

"Barco has a long-term commitment to high-quality leadership in digital cinema," Doeren says. "We're already working with them in three multiplexes in key U.S. cities, showing major Hollywood movies on a regular movie schedule. Audiences are thrilled with the system's performance. By combining Kodak's capabilities with theirs, we can jointly provide a complete solution to the marketplace now and in the future."

"Kodak is a respected entertainment industry leader in the areas of color science and imaging technology, and has demonstrated leadership in advanced cinema technology areas," says Nico Vernieuwe, Vice President of Barco Digital Cinema. "Kodak and Barco have a proven ability to simplify complexity by understanding our customers' needs and applying our world-class capabilities to meet them. This new partnership will be a good fit for both companies and for our customers worldwide."

"In North America, we believe the partnership will provide an enhanced digital cinema solution for our studio, postproduction, feature film, and exhibition customers by offering Kodak's service network, systems integration, and support infrastructure along with Barco's digital projection solutions," says Scott Spector, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Barco Digital Cinema, North America.

The digital cinema market for feature presentations is still in its early stages of evolution, although Barco has already installed 2K digital projectors in upwards of nearly 200 screens worldwide, putting it in a leadership position as the market emerges.

"Our customers will decide when the time is right, when it makes sense for them to begin widespread deployment of systems and to support that with a broad distribution of movies in digital form," says Doeren. "But our alliance with Barco says clearly - we're ready to move forward."

The companies will collaborate on sales and marketing, service and support, and systems development. Both companies have unique intellectual property that will provide advantages in digital cinema products and systems of the future.

As part of the agreement, Barco will use Kodak color science and image management to expand the capability and performance of its cinema projectors.

"We are providing a high-quality solution that is right for today, but also the right investment for the future," says Vernieuwe. "Our customers can trust that we will continue to grow with them and help them become more comfortable and confident with digital cinema."

"Our relationship with Barco is really about working together in innovative ways to improve the quality, the creativity, and the uniqueness of the whole cinema experience," says Doeren. "As we do that together, the whole industry - including movie audiences worldwide - will benefit."

The two companies will highlight their alliance in demonstrations and other joint activities at the upcoming Cinema Expo International convention and trade show in Amsterdam, June 27-30.

About Eastman Kodak Company

Kodak is the leader in helping people take, share, print and view images - for memories, for information, for business, and for entertainment. With sales of $13.5 billion in 2004, the company is committed to a digitally oriented growth strategy focused on four businesses: Digital & Film Imaging Systems - providing consumers, professionals and cinematographers with digital and traditional products and services; Health - supplying the medical and dental professions with traditional and digital imaging and information systems, IT solutions and services; Graphic Communications - providing customers with a range of solutions for prepress, traditional and digital printing, and document scanning and multi-vendor IT services; and Display & Components - supplying original equipment manufacturers with imaging sensors as well as intellectual property and materials for the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and LCD display industries. More information about Kodak (NYSE: EK) is available at www.kodak.com.

About Barco

Barco, an international company headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium, provides visualization and display solutions for professional markets. Barco designs and develops solutions for large screen visualization, display solutions for life-critical applications, and systems for visual inspection. Barco is active worldwide and has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Barco is quoted on Euronext Brussels and is a BEL 20 and a Next 150 company (Euronext: BAR; Reuters: BARBt.BR; Bloomberg: BAR BB). Barco Media & Entertainment, a division of Barco, provides specialized visualization solutions targeted at the needs of the Media & Entertainment industries. It counts names such as U2, Ferrari, Louis Vuitton, Madonna and Daimler Chrysler, Clear Channel Spectacolor, as well as installations for Merrill Lynch, Kinepolis, China Film Group, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Reliant Park Stadium (USA) and Miami Heat NBA amongst some of its key references. More information is available at www.barco.com.

Posted: Wed - June 22, 2005 at 01:04 PM          

©