ホーム > プレスリリース > Zaxel Systems Launches E-cinema Server Digital Cinema System

Zaxel Systems Launches E-cinema Server Digital Cinema System

Los Altos Hills, CA (March 09, 2001) - Movie distribution and projection technology has remained relatively unchanged for the last century. Zaxel Systems, Inc. is replacing outdated movie distribution and projection systems with cutting-edge E-Cinema Server technology, featured by NEC at ShoWest, March 6th to 9th, in Las Vegas. Zaxel's E-Cinema Server is an integral part of NEC's digital theater system, which creates a completely film-less and extremely high quality theater solution for the 21st century.

Gone is the fragile, bulky and short-lived 35mm film reel. It is replaced with Zaxel MovieDisk and E-Cinema Server solutions that provide the highest quality and lowest cost digital cinema products available on the market.

Cassette tapes gave way to CD's. DVD's are replacing VHS videotapes. Digital media has become the norm for webcasting and other online applications. Digital television will soon be the standard in homes across the country.

"There is one last bastion of analog technology -- the movie theater," stated Nori Suzuki, CEO of Zaxel Systems. "While home viewers watch DVD's on their living room HDTV screens, movie theaters are still showing the equivalent of VHS tapes on analog sets." Worldwide, hundreds of commercial dubbing services create thousands of film reel copies each week for distribution to theaters. This is essentially the same film and distribution system that was used almost 100 years ago.

E-Cinema Server is a software solution that lets filmmakers maintain high-definition quality from the first scene on location to movie theater screens worldwide. George Lucas had a month-long showing of a digital version of "Star Wars, Episode I: the Phantom Menace" and plans to shoot the next Star Wars installment digitally, not on film. Many more filmmakers, advertisers and special effects houses are moving to digital; even low-budget amateur filmmakers are making the jump to flawless digital filmmaking. Suzuki added "Zaxel gives movie theaters the technology they need to deliver undiluted high-definition digital quality to viewers."

Though movie theater customers will enjoy the high-quality images provided by NEC's digital cinema solution, movie distributors and theaters will benefit the most. The Zaxel E-Cinema Server eliminates 35mm film reels, high duplication and distribution costs and bulky, high-maintenance projectors. E-Cinema Server eliminates the high cost of film and film production.

Motion pictures on MovieDisk are projected using E-Cinema Server software on standard PC hardware, connected to a projector. The hardware bundle is much less expensive than existing film reel projectors. Because there are almost no moving parts in the system, maintenance and upkeep requirements are very low.

Zaxel MovieDisk movies are copy-protected and can be played a limited amount of times at specified theaters. Film studios have a new level of control over their valuable video assets and have the ability to track and increase ROI from those assets.

MovieDisk creation, authorized duplication and distribution is much less expensive than traditional 35mm film reel technology. Because Zaxel E-Cinema Server transfers high definition data in real-time, there is no post-encoding and no compression wait time. Each MovieDisk is small, easy to handle, and costs much less to ship to movie theaters than a film reel.

About NEC
NEC, C&C Company, is the largest integrated computer and communication technologies and products company in Japan.

About ShoWest
ShoWest is the world's single largest gathering of motion picture professionals, with over 3,400 registered attendees and over 650 booths for a total estimated attendance of over 12,000. The annual event is sponsored by the National Association of Theater Owners. ShoWest 2001 was held at Bally's Las Vegas, March 6-9, 2001.

About Zaxel Systems, Inc.
Zaxel Systems, Inc. has been creating Video Servers and Applications and interactive 3D Video Solutions since March, 1998. Video Servers and Applications from Zaxel cut hardware costs and increase productivity for e-cinema, semiconductor inspection and medical imaging applications. 3D video products from Zaxel target the training, sports and entertainment markets, allowing content creators to deliver a new level of interaction and new depth of information to viewers. Surrounder from Zaxel targets the product imaging market, providing product visualization solutions to manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and others seeking to improve product merchandising. Zaxel Systems, Inc. has offices in Los Altos Hills, CA, and Pittsburgh, PA.

Learn more about Zaxel Systems at www.zaxel.com