The process of updating cinemas to be equipped with digital projection technology will continue to be expanded throughout Asia. Today Dolby Laboratories Inc announced a partnership with the Chinese Production Company, Shanghai Film Group Corporation, and UFO India Limited, a top distribution company, to bring more digital cinema systems to China and India. The Shanghai Film Group will purchase 100 Dolby(R) Digital Cinema Systems that will be installed in its cinemas throughout China. The Chinese will also receive a Dolby 3D Digital Cinema to be installed in the Chengdu Theater in the city of Chengdu. This was also the first theater to project digitally in China.
UFO India Limited agreed to purchase a limited number of Dolby Digital Cinema Servers, with the hope to create a more viable system to screen Hollywood films throughout India. Because of the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI)–an agreement in 2002 between the major Hollywood studios that standardized the digital cinema for distributors and vendors–Hollywood films being shown in Indian theaters are forced to comply with the standards set by the DCI. The purchase of the Dolby systems will enable theaters equipped with the systems to comply with the Hollywood digital standards.
There are currently over 5000 digital cinema systems throughout the world. However, digital cinema has yet to become ubiquitous either domestically or internationally, and the once perceived digital cinema revolution has been slow to develop.