Rear Window Captioning Makes Digital Cinema Debut
Editor: Chances are that you're familiar with the Rear Window
captioning system that provides movie access for people with hearing loss.
Well, that system had been available only for analog movies until just
recently. Here's the WGBH press release about the first installation of
Rear Window system for digital movies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2008
Omaha Grandmother Takes Accessible Movies into the Future, with
"Bedtime Stories"
Movie fans heading to the theaters this holiday season can expect
thrills, chills, laughter, some tears...and captions in digital cinema!
Rear Window Captioning, a system that enables patrons who are deaf or hard
of hearing to read captioning discretely displayed at their seat, has been
available in select theaters since 1997. While closed captioning has been
"almost done" for digitally equipped theaters, a gift from a grandmother
named Phyllis Glazer in Omaha ultimately helped push the technology over
the goal line.
With the installation of the Rear Window equipment at the Rave Motion
Pictures Westroads 14 in Omaha, and through close collaboration by Walt
Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Technicolor, Doremi Labs and WGBH, Rear
Window Captioning for digital cinema debuted on Christmas Day with Walt
Disney Pictures' "Bedtime Stories."
To date, more than 300 movie auditoriums screening 35mm films in the
U.S. and Canada are equipped with Rear Window and its companion system for
moviegoers who are blind or have low vision, DVS Theatrical (collectively
known as Motion Picture Access/MoPix(r); see http://www.mopix.org for
information, locations and accessible film titles). Mrs. Glazer, who was
familiar with the Rear Window system, approached Rave, and asked that they
consider installing a system at their new all-digital multiplex in Omaha
for her grandson and others to enjoy. She then went a step further and,
with her husband, donated the funding for the installation.
MoPix was developed by Boston public broadcaster and media access
pioneer WGBH in the early '90s for the 35mm film marketplace. Captioning
and description data for 35mm films is sent to equipped theaters on
special CDs which, when loaded into a server, sync the access features
with the film.
With digital cinema (or dcinema), movies are comprised not of film
reels, but digital "packages" of images, sound and data that are
compressed, encrypted and transported to theaters via satellite, the
Internet, or external hard drives that are downloaded into computer
servers. Theater chains and movie studios have been collaborating to
convert screens from 35mm film projection to dcinema projection over the
last few years. The transition of most screens to dcinema is expected over
the next few years.
While a complete roll-out of access-compatible dcinema systems will
take place over time, the first major installation of Rear Window is
complete and the last major barrier for Rear Window has been overcome.
Work continues on DVS Theatrical migration to dcinema, awaiting work
underway within the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE)
on a standard for playout of ancillary audio tracks in dcinema packages.
WGBH will continue to work with exhibitors, studios and manufacturers so
that dcinema-equipped theaters will be able to welcome all movie patrons
in the near future.
Links to companies mentioned:
Walt Disney Pictures < http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/ >
Doremi <doremilabs.com/>
Technicolor <technicolor.com>
Rave Cinemas <www.ravemotionpictures.com/>
WGBH <access.wgbh.org>
About WGBH
WGBH Boston is America's preeminent public broadcaster, producing such
celebrated national PBS series as Masterpiece, Antiques Roadshow,
Frontline, Nova, American Experience, Arthur, Curious George and more than
a dozen other award-winning primetime, lifestyle and children's series.
WGBH is the leading producer of online content for pbs.org-one of the
most-visited dot-org sites on the Internet-a major producer for public
radio and a pioneer in developing educational multimedia and new
technologies that make media accessible for people with disabilities. For
its efforts, WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors, including
Oscars, Emmys, Peabodys and duPont-Columbia Journalism Awards. Visit WGBH
on the Web at www.wgbh.org.
