令人目眩神迷的影院新技術

Someday, if the dreams of movie-technology designers come true, you'll flash your smartphone ticket, settle into your plush cinema seat and be greeted with a hyper-real picture, sounds from every direction and -- if you need them -- closed captions projected on special glasses.

如果有一天,電影技術設計師的夢想成真,那麼你只需掃描智能手機上的電影票,就可坐進豪華舒適的電影院座椅中,迎接你的是一部感覺無比真實的電影,聲音從四面八方漫入耳中──如果你需要的話，還可看到投射在特殊眼鏡上的隱藏字幕。

Such were the possibilities raised last month at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas, where technology companies pitched theater operators on the merits of faster projection rates to improve clarity; new, immersive, surround-sound audio systems; laser 3-D projectors; paperless ticketing; and more.

這便是上個月在美國拉斯維加斯舉辦的CinemaCon展會上提出的電影的發展可能。展會上,技術公司向影院運營商推銷了能提升清晰度的更快的投影速度、新沉浸式環繞立體聲音響系統、3D激光投影機和非紙化電影票等。

Theater owners were listening, but wary. Box offices have started off strong this year, but the number of tickets sold in the U.S. and Canada slumped 19% to 1.3 billion last year from 2002, Motion Picture Association of America data show. This has left cinema operators open to experimenting with new technologies that might lure back more cash-conscious viewers -- especially younger ones -- from their home plasma-TV screens, DVD and videogame players and, increasingly, Internet streaming services.

影院運營商在傾聽的同時也非常謹慎。據美國電影協會(Motion Picture Association of America)的數據顯示，雖然今年的票房開局強勢，但美國和加拿大去年的票房收入與2002年相比下降了19%,跌至13億美元。這使得影院運營商有可能願意嘗試新技術,以期能將更多花錢謹慎的觀衆──特別是年輕觀衆──從他們家裏的等離子電視機、DVD、遊戲機和越來越多的互聯網電影串流服務上吸引回來。

Dolby Laboratories Inc., for example, is expected to test its Atmos audio system in screenings in 10 to 15 world-wide theaters of 'Brave,' a film from Walt Disney Co.'s Pixar Animation Studios scheduled to premier in June.

Oscilloscope Laboratories3D激光投影機：使用激光而非燈泡來將畫面投射到屏幕上，光線更加明亮、更有真實感。這一投影機最早也要到2013年年末才能投放電影市場，但CinemaCon展會的一些參展者搶先領略了它的風采。圖中是放映的影片《輪迴》(Samsara)的一幅截圖。比如，杜比實驗室(Dolby Laboratories Inc.)有望在全世界10至15家電影院放映《勇敢傳說》(Brave)時試用其全景聲音頻系統。《勇敢傳說》由華特-迪士尼公司(Walt Disney Co.)的皮克斯動畫工作室(Pixar Animation Studios)製作，預計將於今年6月進行首映。

Atmos allows sound to be focused through specific speakers placed around a theater, even on the ceiling. Current systems usually just deliver sound from groups of speakers placed on walls.

杜比全景聲音頻系統通過置於影院四面八方，包括天花板上的特定音響集中傳遞聲音。目前的音頻系統則通常是通過置於 上的數組音響來傳遞聲音的。

'Imagine you're watching a suspenseful film and someone is trapped in a basement and there's a kidnapper walking across the ceiling,' says Matt Cuson, Dolby Laboratories senior marketing director, cinema. 'It doesn't do you any good to have a creak coming from a whole wall.'

杜比實驗室負責影院業務的高級市場總監庫鬆(Matt Cuson)說，“想象你正在看一部懸疑片，有人被困在一個地窖裏，而綁匪正在地窖上方走動。從 上傳來的嘎吱嘎吱的聲音對你感受這個電影情境沒有任何幫助。”

Three more films using the technology are expected to be announced by Christmas, Mr. Cuson adds.

庫鬆補充道，另外還有三部運用了杜比全景聲音頻系統的電影有望於聖誕節上映。

IMAX Corp. is showcasing an early prototype of a digital-projection system, developed with Barco Inc., that uses lasers instead of bulbs to project images onto screens, casting a brighter, more reliable light. The projectors won't be ready for the market until Late 2013, at the earliest, the film and technology companies say, but some CinemaCon attendees got a sneak peek.

CinemaCon展會上，IMAX公司展示了一個數碼投影系統的早期樣品。該系統由巴可公司(Barco Inc.)研發，使用激光而非燈泡來將畫面投射到屏幕上，光線更加明亮、更有真實感。據電影技術公司稱，這一投影機最早也要到2013年年末才能投放電影市場，但CinemaCon展會的一些參展者搶先一睹了它的風采。

'With the laser projection, the movies look phenomenal,' says Tim League, co-founder and chief executive of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.

連鎖影院Alamo Drafthouse Cinema的聯合創始人、首席執行長利格(Tim League)說，“採用了激光投影技術的電影看起來會非常有震撼效果。”

Another new technology: Later this year, upgraded 4K digital projectors from Sony Corp. will start showing films at the higher, 48 frames-per-second rate, making images appear crisper and more lifelike than the current 24 fps -- in use since the late 1920s.

另一項新技術：今年晚些時候，索尼公司(Sony Corp.)升級後的4K數碼投影機將以更快的、每秒48幀的速度來放映影片，使電影畫面比目前每秒24幀的投影機所放映出的更爲清晰和生動。目前的投影機從20世紀20年代晚期就開始使用了。

'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,' the first of two prequels to Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, will be the first feature film shown at 48 fps when it opens in December. (Regal Entertainment Group cinemas is upgrading its projectors to use the faster frame rate; other theater companies are considering it.)

《霍比特人：意外旅程》(The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey)是傑克遜(Peter Jackson)執導的《指環王》(Lord of the Rings)三部曲的兩部前傳的第一部，將在今年12月上映，它將成爲第一部使用每秒48幀的投影機放映的電影長片。

'It's beautiful -- like night and day,' says John Knepp, president of Cleveland-based Cooperative Theatres Inc., a chain with around 300 screens, who saw 10 minutes of raw 'Hobbit' footage that was shown at the higher frame rate at CinemaCon.

Disney/Pixar全景聲音頻系統：杜比全景聲音頻系統通過置於影院四面八方，包括天花板上的特定音響集中傳遞聲音。杜比實驗室有望在全世界10至15家電影院放映《勇敢傳說》(Brave)時試用其全景聲音頻系統。總部位於俄亥俄州克里夫蘭的Cooperative Theatres Inc.是一家擁有約300塊屏幕的連鎖影院公司。該公司董事長克內佩(John Knepp)在CinemaCon展會上觀看了10分鐘用每秒48幀的投影機放映的《霍比特人》未經剪輯的原片後說，“它太漂亮了，舊的和它比起來簡直有着天壤之別。”

Some theaters are skeptical, however.

但仍有些影院持懷疑態度。

With the hyper-realistic feel, 'the sense I have is that the older people will have a harder time with it, says Dan Tocchini, CEO of SR Entertainment Group, a chain with about 100 screens in Northern California. However, 'the younger people will embrace it because it looks like a videogame.'

北加利福尼亞州擁有約100塊屏幕的影院連鎖公司SR Entertainment Group的首席執行長託基尼(Dan Tocchini)說，用新投影機放映的電影會有一種超現實的感覺，“我感覺老年人會比較難以接受，但年輕人會相對容易，因爲它看起來跟電子遊戲差不多。”

While a broad uptake in 3-D technology over the past few years has tempted a sizable chunk of movie goers, especially adolescents and young adults, there isn't any guarantee the newest -- frequently pricey -- advances in viewing technology will pay off for cinemas.

雖然過去幾年間許多采用3D技術的電影吸引了數量可觀的觀衆，特別是青少年和年輕人，但沒人能保證，視覺技術方面的最新進步在電影業一定會取得成功，而且這種進步常常價格不菲。

'We have to continue raising the bar for our customers and providing them with an all-encompassing theatrical experience so they'll want to return over and over again,' says Ellis Jacob, the president and chief executive of Cineplex Inc., Canada's largest theater chain. 'But we also have to make sure our decisions are viable from a financial perspective, and we provide a fair ticket price to consumers.'

加拿大最大的影院連鎖公司Cineplex Inc.的董事長兼首席執行長雅各布(Ellis Jacob)說，“我們必須不斷更上一層樓，爲電影觀衆提供全方位的影院經歷，這樣他們纔會一次又一次地想回來。但我們也必須確定這些決定從經濟角度來說具有可行性，確定我們能爲觀衆提供價格合理的電影票。”

Other innovations rolled out recently -- like gourmet in-theater dining; or vibrating, motion-simulator seats -- have yet to catch on broadly. Film-industry observers say audiences have also resisted paying surcharges for badly converted 3-D titles and are proving intolerant of chatty and text-messaging teenagers who seem to treat movie theaters like their own living rooms.

近來其它方面的創新──如美食餐廳影院和模擬動作震動椅──並沒有大規模地流行起來。電影業觀察者稱，觀衆也拒絕爲劣質的3D轉換影片支付額外費用，並且無法容忍那些在影院竊竊私語和發手機短信、把影院當成自己家客廳的青少年。

'To invest in technology that's 'gee-whiz' but doesn't drive more people to the theater or increase revenue . . . doesn't make sense,' says Terrell Mayton, director of marketing for Carmike Cinemas Inc.

影院連鎖公司Carmike Cinemas Inc.的營銷總監梅頓(Terrell Mayton)說，“投資技術並無多大意義，這些技術雖然激動人心但並不會吸引更多的人去電影院或增加票房收入。”

And while owners don't want to be left behind in the theatrical arms race, many say the dust has only just settled on another industrywide upgrade: digital cinema.

雖然老闆們並不想在影院的軍備競賽上落於人後，但許多老闆稱，另一場行業範圍內的升級──數字影院──纔剛剛塵埃落定。

Over the last 10 years, major film studios urged theater owners to replace print-film projectors with digital ones. Studios partially subsidized the transition, which allowed them to do away with the task of producing and physically delivering reels of 35-millimeter film to the theaters. (Most digital movies are delivered on hard drives, though one consortium of theaters and studios said at CinemaCon that they plan to experiment with satellite delivery.)

過去10年間，各大電影製作公司敦促影院老闆用數字投影機取代傳統的膠片放映機。在這個轉換過程中，電影製作公司對影院進行了部分補貼，這樣也省了他們製作無數卷35毫米膠片並將其逐一送到電影院的麻煩。（大部分的數字電影通過硬盤驅動器傳輸，不過CinemaCon展會上有一個影院和電影製作公司聯盟稱，他們計劃嘗試通過衛星傳輸數字電影。）

As of March 31, 69% of the roughly 40,000 theaters in the U.S. and Canada had converted to digital projectors and screens, according to an estimate from IHS Screen Digest. By year's end, that number will be closer to 85%, the research firmestimates.

據全球市場研究機構IHS Screen Digest估計，自今年3月31日起，美國和加拿大約四萬家電影院中，有69%都轉換成了數字投影機和投影屏，並且這一數字將在今年年末達到將近85%。

'The exhibitors just did this big conversion to digital, and now Hollywood is asking us to make another upgrade -- and we're not going to make more money off of it,' says Mr. Knepp of Cooperative Theatres, about the switch to a higher projection speed.

Cooperative Theatres Inc.的克內佩在談到使用更快速度的投影機時說，“電影院纔剛剛完成數字化的巨大轉變，現在好萊塢又要讓我們進行另一個升級，並且我們還沒法從中獲得更多利潤。”

Some manufacturers are trying to smooth the transition for theater owners. Sony Digital Cinema will offer for sale to current users of its 4K digital cinema projectors a remote software update to make sure its projectors will be able to play movies like 'The Hobbit' at the higher, 48 fps frame rate.

一些製造商正嘗試使影院老闆的技術更新換代之路平緩一些。索尼數碼影院(Sony Digital Cinema)將向目前使用4K數碼投影機的影院標價出售一款遠程軟件升級，確保這些投影機能放映像《霍比特人》這樣用每秒48幀技術拍攝的電影。

Larry Allen, president of the 94-screen Allen Theatres Inc. chain in New Mexico, says he is optimistic the higher frame rate won't require a hardware update. But upgrading to other technologies, like laser projectors -- which haven't been priced yet -- might pose greater challenges, he says, adding he'd start with one or two screens, but wait to recoup his investment before expanding.

新墨西哥州擁有94塊屏幕的連鎖影院公司Allen Theatres Inc.的董事長艾倫(Larry Allen)說，這種幀頻更快的電影並不要求硬件方面的升級，他對此表示樂觀。但升級到其它技術，如尚未定價的激光投影機，可能會帶來更大的挑戰。他補充道，他會先從一兩塊屏幕開始，等收回投資後再進行擴展。

Mr. Allen says he still has a warehouse full of 35-millimeter film projectors 'sitting there, collecting dust' even after the conversion to digital: 'We weren't sure whether the conversion to digital would work out, so we held on to all of our stuff.'

艾倫說，他現在仍有一個堆滿了放映35毫米膠片電影的投影機的倉庫，“那些投影機堆在那裏，落滿塵埃”。即使現在已完成了向數碼投影機的轉換，“我們仍不確定這次轉換是否能成功，因此一直將舊設備留在那裏。”