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Arqiva delivers Metropolitan Opera live
to European cinemas
May 8, 2008
Source: Arqiva
Arqiva has
completed its second season of live High Definition (HD) transmissions
of 'The Met: Live in HD' into European cinemas. Building on
last season's success (reaching an additional global audience
of about 325,000) Arqiva's transmission of the 2007-8 season
enabled sell-out audiences to experience eight star-studded
performances in cinemas across Europe. Donizetti's 'La Fille
du Regiment' was the final screening of the season on 26 April.
The total attendance for this season of live transmissions
was expected to top 900,000 people worldwide.
Arqiva receives the live HD signal from the Atlantic Bird
1 satellite and then re-transmits to the Intelsat 10-02 and
Atlantic Bird 3 satellites for live distribution into cinemas
in the UK, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France and other
European countries. A Metropolitan Opera representative monitors
the transmission from within the MCR of Arqiva's Winchester
Teleport providing hands-on real-time communication between
the Met and Arqiva's specialist team.
Arqiva's solution also includes on-screen local language subtitling
for participating European countries, negating the need for
multiple transmissions from the US. The HD screenings incorporate
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound for maximum impact and include
live interviews and special features. Arqiva provides cost-effective
recording and storage of all the HD content for future re-purposing.
Performances transmitted by Arqiva included Gounod's 'Roméo
et Juliette' (15 December), Humperdink's 'Hansel and Gretel'
(1 January), Verdi's 'Macbeth' (12 January), Puccini's 'Manon
Lescaut' (16 February), Britten's 'Peter Grimes' (15 March),
Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde' (22 March), Puccini's 'La Bohème'
(5 April) and Donizetti's 'La Fille Du Regiment' (26 April).
Barrie Woolston, commercial director at Arqiva's Satellite
Media Solutions division, said: "Digital Cinema is an
exciting new medium which presents very important opportunities
to live event organisers and exhibitors. As well as enabling
organisers to expand their audience reach all around the world,
the growing popularity of experiencing alternative content
on the big screen can significantly drive revenues across
an exhibitor's network. Arqiva has considerable experience
in the live HD broadcast of alternative content to digitally
enabled cinemas and we are proud to have been entrusted with
this high profile and prestigious project for the Met."
Matthew Ivey, director of Occasional Video & Data at Arqiva,
added: "The ability to reliably deliver live opera performances
in High Definition with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound is
crucial in ensuring that the audience experience is as close
to real life as possible. Meeting the highly exacting standards
of this world-class institution has been an interesting challenge
for Arqiva and we look forward to building on our strong relationship
with the Metropolitan Opera next season."
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