The rise of China's LED movie screen: another company passed DCI certification

2021 for the LED display industry, can be described as a bumper harvest year, Mini/Micro LED to achieve a double breakthrough in technology and application, "100 cities and 100 screens" to bring a huge incremental market, "meta-universe" into a new outlet, XR / VR virtual production technology to lead the large screen into more application areas.

It was also in this year that China realized the localization of LED movie screens. Just recently, following the DCI certification of Zhouming Technology and other enterprises, Shanghai Muge Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as: Shanghai Muge) also announced that it has obtained this honor.

Shanghai Muge GS01 LED cinema screen won the international film and television DCI double certification

Compared with the traditional projection + screen projection method, LED movie screen has great advantages in displaying brightness, contrast, color gamut, ultra-high definition and other technical indicators, which can achieve more three-dimensional, more realistic, more detailed, more immersive image performance. Therefore, the LED movie screen is expected to become a visual revolution in the theater and an engine for the upward upgrading of the theater.

The LED movie screen has also become a popular track for enterprises to compete. Recently, there is another strong competitor in this field: Shanghai Muge.

A few days ago, Shanghai Muge announced that its GS01 LED cinema screen has passed the test of the AMERICAN DCI testing agency, officially obtained the Hollywood DCI certification, and become a theater equipment research and development enterprise that has obtained the dual certification of the projection server and the movie LED screen DCI.

It is reported that Shanghai Muge is a high-tech company specializing in the research and development of film projection equipment. The company is committed to improving the quality of film screening and accelerating the localization of film screens.

In 2017, Shanghai issued the "Several Opinions on Accelerating the Innovative Development of the City's Cultural and Creative Industries", proposing to accelerate the implementation of the layout of the cultural equipment industry chain, and Shanghai Muge also began to focus on the research and development of projection equipment from 2018. In 2021, Shanghai Muge reached a cooperation with Shanghai Wanshi Hongchuang Capital, and finally successfully passed the DCI double certification.

Shanghai Muge said that after obtaining the international film and television DCI double certification, its GS01 LED cinema screen will be fully launched in major theaters in China, accelerating the layout of cinema terminals.

Image source: Paixin's genuine gallery

Four enterprises in China have passed DCI certification

DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC) is a Hollywood Digital Cinema Advocacy Organization, a joint venture between Disney, Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal and Warner Bros. to set strict performance and safety specifications for cinema projection equipment.

This specification provides important guidance to digital cinema equipment manufacturers, integrators and exhibitors, and is currently the internationally accepted digital cinema system certification standard. Limited by this specification, if the projection equipment used in cinemas is not certified by DCI, it cannot play European and American blockbusters that meet international production standards, so DCI certification has become an important condition for projection equipment companies to fully open the cinema market.

However, applying for DCI certification is not an easy task, requiring huge financial and technical strength. As far as LED movie screens are concerned, the market has long been occupied by Samsung Onyx LED movie screens, Sony Crystal Micro LED movie screens, and LG LED Cinema displays, while China did not achieve a breakthrough in the field of LED movie screens until May 2021.

Going from 0 to 1 is not an easy task, but after this difficult step, China seems to have entered the road of rapid development of LED movie screens: in less than a year from May 2021 to now, a total of four Chinese companies have announced that they have passed DCI certification. In addition to Shanghai Muge, the other three companies are Zhouming Technology, Times Huaying and AET Altai.

Among them, As the first enterprise in China to obtain DCI certification, Zhouming Technology now has two products that meet the specifications that can be applied to the cinema market.

On May 15, 2021, the UC-A41 LED movie screen jointly developed by Zhouming Technology and China Film Science Research Institute took the lead in passing the Hollywood DCI certification. In July of the same year, the UC-A41 LED film projection system product was applied to the "Red Screening Base" in the North Olympic Store of China Film International Cinema.

On November 19, 2021, the UC-A21 movie screen of Zhouming Technology also passed the Hollywood DCI certification.

The Times Huaying HeyLED digital movie screen passed the DCI certification on July 1, 2021. Times Huaying pointed out that heyLED digital movie screen is China's first 10-meter LED film system with software and hardware core technology intellectual property rights and has obtained THE DCI certification of Hollywood in the United States.

At present, the movie screen has also been successfully applied. On December 29, 2021, the joint press conference of "China Screen World Tour" HeyLED x UME Cinema was officially held in Beijing, and the first HeyLED digital movie screen was successfully lit at UME Cinema (Beijing Huaxing Store), and for the first time in the theater, an attempt was made to make a naked-eye 3D effect.

AET Altai announced on January 17, 2022 that its movie screens have passed the Hollywood DCI certification. According to the news of AET Altai public account, the LED movie screen is independently developed and produced by AET Altai, and the image processing system is jointly developed and produced by AET Altai and domestic system and player companies, which realizes the national production of LED movie screens.

The rise of China's LED movie screens

For China's cinema market, the localization of LED movie screens can allow theaters to obtain greater differentiation advantages at a lower cost, which will also better promote the popularity and application of domestic LED movie screens.

The state is also highly concerned about the development of the film market. In early November 2021, the National Film Administration issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for The Development of Chinese Films", which mentioned that it is necessary to focus on researching technologies and equipment such as cinema LED screens with independent intellectual property rights, seize the commanding heights of technology, and break the monopoly of foreign technology; it is necessary to fully apply diversified film production technology means such as traditional film production and virtual film production to promote the establishment of a film production technology system.

The release of this plan will further promote the development of advanced technologies such as cinema LED playback systems and virtual shooting in China, and realize the popularization of LED movie screens and the localization of image processing systems, which is of great significance to China's movie screen market.

Companies that have obtained DCI certification will surely seize this first-mover advantage and continue to attack the theater market, but the strength of latecomers should not be underestimated. At present, a number of strong enterprises, including Leyard, Lehman Optoelectronics, Alto Electronics, Absensen, Lianjian Optoelectronics, Sansi, Konka, etc., have also laid out LED movie screens, and the future of the LED movie screen market will be strong, and the rising Chinese companies will also completely break the brand camp of the LED theater market and fully display China's LED strength on the world stage. (Text: LEDinside Lynn)

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