Lightyear Digital Theatre (Canada) Ltd. president Robert Dominick announced August 4 that his company had purchased a movie theatre in Beverly Hills, California as part of a plan to roll out a technological update of an old entertainment medium.
He told BIV that he plans to launch a digital broadcast platform within the year that will enable movie theatres to stream digital content much like home viewers access pay-per-view programming via digital cable boxes or personal video recorders.
“If you go to your Cineplex Odeon theatre right now, you can see a movie and that’s it,” Dominick said. “If you go to a digital theatre, we can stream material into that theatre content that you couldn’t see in normal theatres.”
The change could enable theatre owners to reap more revenue by renting their theatres to corporate groups and others who want to view digital content.
Dominick said, “We’ve had a huge amount of interest across North America for this because it doesn’t exist right now.”
He would not reveal his company’s revenue but said it subcontracts work to retrofit theatres.
It donated $500,000 worth of work last year to upgrade a theatre at Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus and make it a high-definition, digital venue that can also show 3-D productions.