March 25 to 27, 2025
The EDCF LA Tour 2025 was a bit different from previous years, starting a day earlier than planned—on Wednesday, March 25—and concluding on Friday, March 27. The tour was slightly longer than in the past, which allowed us to accommodate all scheduled meetings and plan a more relaxed bus tour.
The main focus was once again on staying up to date with the latest industry trends. A key theme this year was, once again, the development of the premium experience and its impact on box office results. Twenty participants from ten countries across Europe took the opportunity to go behind the scenes of Hollywood studios, iconic cinemas, and emerging technology companies.
Cinematic experience: Content is still king, but technology challenges are increasing
The Tour started with a visit to Paramount Studios, one of the birth places of Digital Cinema, discussing the question “What is important for 2025?”. “Content is King” will remain the most important success factor, but technology challenges are increasing. The technical infrastructure in cinemas will need updates of hard- and software and new technologies are coming. Direct view screens e.g. LED walls are on the horizon and create new challenges for the cinematic experience. Content versioning and how to preserve the artistic intent on all different presentation situations is one of the challenges. There is a need for better and easier calibration for news vision and sound systems like HDR for all PLFs. But PLF is not only about screen and sound, it is also about seating, extra services and distinctiveness to Home Cinema.
The Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre is more than 100 years old. It is an impressive reopening of the historical and traditional Hollywood theatre. Since 2023, after 2 ½ years of remodelling and redesign, the Egyptian has been used for premieres of Netflix productions. The original size of 1700 seats was reduced to 500 seats. Extra rooms for actors, directors and other VIPs attending exclusive screenings complete its new role. Although equipped with the latest laser projection and sound technology, the Egyptian, in keeping with its history, can play 35mm films and is even prepared to show historical nitrate films, while taking care of all necessary safety measures.
The SAG-AFTRA Foundation is a non-profit organisation that provides comprehensive professional development and educational resources as well as emergency financial and health assistance programmes.
SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) see themselves first and foremost as a safety net for their 160,000 members. Since 2024, the organisation has a screening room equipped with the latest direct view 4k / HDR screen technology from LG and a Meyer Sound audio system. The foundation supports artists to develop their artistic careers by providing education in different areas as well as scholarship programmes. The Foundation is committed to education and community and endeavours to create an innovative environment in which artists can develop their skills while remaining grounded and knowing that they will receive support in times of urgent need.
Increasing the box office business for cinemas
Even after more than 100 years, Sony Pictures still relies on producing and releasing films for and in cinemas. There are no streaming services available yet. The technical development of home entertainment systems and their possibilities pose the greatest challenge as a competitor.
Although it becomes more difficult to create and develop content for theatrical presentations, the focus stays on increasing the box office business. The global trend towards more regional programmes underlines the increasing challenges. However, new technologies for immersive experiences in both image and sound systems offer new possibilities and support the ‘One Sony’ corporate strategy focussing on film, video, audio and Play Station.
During the visit to the Academy Museum and Pickford Centre for Motion Picture Study, the group was not only able to see some rare historical exhibits such as a fully operational original cinema organ, but also learnt about the main work involved in the restoration, conversion to digital and operation of the largest film archive. Most of the films of the famous Hollywood productions of the past and present are stored here in a safe environment and large halls to preserve them for the future. Not only the final film releases are archived and converted to digital, but also accompanying unused raw material. A film excerpt from a costume rehearsal with Greta Garbo from 1933 was shown as an example.
The visit to the Dolby Cinema at 6321 Hollywood Boulevard was one of the technical highlights of the tour.
As a prototype cinema, it houses the latest technology for the Dolby cinema system. Not only does it include Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos technology, but it also focuses on room design with, for example, no visible speakers and luxurious seating for the best possible immersive experience. Impressive screenings of Dolby showreels underpinned this truly immersive audio experience with demonstrations using dual laser projector HDR and wide colour gamut examples.
Comparing SDR and HDR: Room for artistic intentions and emotional staging
The 120 seats Deluxe Glen Glen Theatre is designed as a director reference room, equipped with state of the art post production systems for e.g. sound mixing facilities and SDR to HDR conversions.
It is also home for the latest Barco presentation of HDR Barco light steering projection systems. Detailed explanations of the current technology were discussed.
Many screening examples supported the lively discussion and showed image comparisons between SDR and HDR, not only to demonstrate the technology, but also to show the future possibilities for artistic intentions and emotional staging
The visit to the deluxe Lab in Burbank provided a glimpse into the future of AI in the cinema industry in in-depth discussions with deluxe representatives. AI is potentially the most disruptive development for the industry since decades. open AI’s ‘sora’ can already create realistic videos from text. AI-based applications for dubbing, subtitling, VFX and sound effects are in use worldwide. AI-based systems offer enormously improved possibilities for the education and training of filmmakers. Projection and LED direct image systems were also discussed. The installed Cinity 4k LED wall is 7m wide and supports 300nit-120fps as well as Dolby Atmos.
The picture quality was demonstrated using examples from films such as Dune2, Sonic3 and car racing scenes. Current ISCDF tests for setting up immersive audio systems were also demonstrated.
Despite the fact that laser light sources and LED walls are the future of theatre, xenon lamps are still used in the mass market.
A visit to the factory of LTI Lighting Technologies International, one of the largest production facilities for xenon lamps, provided an insight into production that none of the tour participants had ever seen before.
Since 1999 LTI has focused on production for cinema projectors. Particularly impressive was the tour of the production facilities, which continue to be characterised exclusively by manual labour. From the production of the glass bulbs to the fitting of electrical contacts and filling with xenon gas, experienced specialists are involved in every stage of production. A true art of craftsmanship! And, LTI is the only xenon lamp manufacturer trying to achieve a 100% recycling target. All used xenon lamps are collected worldwide, returned to the factory, dismantled, separated into its components and returned for reuse in the production of new xenon lamps. Even competitor products are not rejected, an example of an almost 100% circular economy approach.
Thank you to all attendees and hosts of the EDCF LA Tour 2025!
The EDCF LA Tour 2025 ended up with a group photo outside the LTI building. All attendees expressed their thanks to all hosts and many are looking forward to another EDCF tour next year.
Text and images (if not mentioned otherwise): Juergen Burghardt
Logos: Courtesy by the respective owners
