Today, Barco achieved another industry first by shipping its new DLP Cinema 4K projector to Cinemark Holdings, Inc., marking the first commercial installation of DLP Cinema Enhanced 4K in the world.

Digital cinema pioneer Barco began shipments of its newly released DLP Cinema 4K projectors to Cinemark’s theatres today, starting with Cinemark’s West Plano, Texas theatre. This shipment of native 4K DLP projectors is another milestone demonstrating Barco’s technology leadership. In the same way that Cinemark has achieved differentiation in the market with its XD concept, Barco will continue to help deliver a premium experience for moviegoers with its 4K projectors.

“Across the globe, the Cinemark brand represents a premium digital cinema experience. As a premiere movie exhibitor, it is critical for us to continually offer the best technology available at all times and with Barco’s unparalleled brightness, image quality and reliability, we know that we can deliver the ultimate theatre experience to our patrons time and time again,” commented Alan Stock, CEO of Cinemark. “Just as importantly, Barco has met every single commitment they’ve made to Cinemark, including 100% on-time installations even with a very aggressive deployment schedule.”

Barco has rapidly lifted production to fulfill demand around the world, providing several models of its DLP 4K projectors for the various theatre footprints maintained by Cinemark. The DP4K-32B will be installed in Cinemark’s largest theatres, including XD premium auditoriums, while the DP4K-23B will be deployed in the majority of Cinemark’s standard auditoriums. Barco’s projectors feature the highest image quality and Guinness world record brightness, with a modular design that enables easy installation and maintenance, an intuitive user interface and smart auto lamp alignment, all at the lowest total cost of ownership, thanks to low lamp and electrical operating costs, reusable filters, and minimal maintenance requirements.

“Cinemark continues to be a fantastic partner to Barco and we are very happy to keep them at the forefront of movie exhibition. Our continued technology leadership, featuring numerous industry firsts, ensures that our projectors perform at the highest caliber to provide a rich, immersive, and differentiated experience for their moviegoers,” commented Todd Hoddick, VP of Barco’s Entertainment Division in North America.

Cinemark is a leading domestic and international motion picture exhibitor, operating 430 theatres with 4,945 screens in 39 U.S. states, Brazil, Mexico and 11 other Latin American countries as of December 31, 2010. Barco, a global technology company, designs and develops visualization products for a variety of selected professional markets. Barco has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Barco is active in more than 90 countries with about 3,500 employees worldwide. Barco posted sales of 897 million euro in 2010.

See the original press release here: http://www.studiodaily.com/main/news/prc/Barco-and-Cinemark-Are-First-to-Initiate-Commercial-4K-DLP-Deployments_12957.html

At AOU 2011 Amusement Expo, Bandai Namco Games exhibited Maximum Heat, a 3D arcade racing game.

In Maximum Heat, players use a 3D visor to play the game in 3D. The graphics can be swithed between 2D, 3D and 3D Max, with 3D Max creating the most immersive experience.

A feature of this game is that it’s easy to play, with simple game mechanics allowing players to drift just by letting go of the wheel, and up to four people can test their racing skills against each other. Maximum Heat also has lots of features that make it appealing to play with friends, for example, photos of the players appear on the screen, making it easy to see who’s driving which car.