[Singularity Hub]

CinemaCon…. an announcement was made about the return of the Digital Cinema Distribution Coalition (DCDC), a group of film studios (Warner Bros and Universal Pictures) and movie theater chains (AMC, Cinemark, and Regal) committed to reviving an old idea whose time may have finally come: satellite-based delivery of movies. …

It’s clear that this latest push is also about digital protection of movies, both in terms of securing movies before their release and laying the foundation for future technology potentially allowing studios to stream directly to individual projectors, bypassing the server storage step and make it very difficult for films to get into the hands of torrent sites. Considering that 62 percent of the film market is outside of the U.S., satellite delivery could not only protect movies from getting into the wrong hands, but it could eliminate the delay in overseas release, and capitalize on the growing rise of digital theaters:

The possibility that a satellite-based system could help expand what movie theaters traditionally offer is intriguing and just might be what keeps them from phasing out entirely in the long term. The DCDC is already behind the streaming of live performances by the New York’s Metropolitan Opera. The program, The Met: Live in HD, has been delivered via satellite to select movie theaters across the US, Europe and Australia since 2006 to much acclaim, but at a lower quality than the latest digital films demand. Megachurches and corporate events have utilized live streams to theaters too. Film festivals, such as Sundance or the Disposable Film Festival, could involve a much larger audience unable to travel to the locale.  …

Read the full story here: http://singularityhub.com/2012/04/27/movie-theaters-ramp-up-for-the-next-big-thing-satellite-delivery-of-digital-films/