Digital Cinema Open System Alliance Announces Launch of Interoperability Effort

Dolby Laboratories, MikroM, USL and XDC together announced an alliance to promote greater interoperability within the digital cinema market. The companies joining in this collaborative effort, referred to as the Digital Cinema Open System Alliance (DCOSA), are working to establish open interface standards for core system components.

Initial goals of the DCOSA are to develop common interface specifications between digital cinema servers and integrated media block (IMB) products and to promote these specifications for use across the cinema market. By introducing these open standards, the DCOSA hopes to drive down the cost of development, to increase flexibility, and to provide a platform for innovation.

"The cinema industry is interested in moving away from having a tightly coupled server and media block available only from a single vendor and moving toward an IMB built using open interface specifications," said Robin Selden, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Dolby Laboratories. "An open platform will increase competition within the industry and encourage cutting-edge development."

"With the rapid pace of advancement in hardware technology, the DCOSA hopes to decrease time to market by enabling flexibility in the choice of core system components. These systems have not been designed for interoperability in the past because of the lack of interface specifications," said Holger Krahn, Chief Executive Officer, MikroM. "Effectively, this initiative will provide exhibitors with more options in the selection of system components."

"As the digital cinema industry continues to evolve, there is an increasing need for well-defined interfaces," said Larry Hildenbrand, Director, Engineering, USL, Inc. "The DCOSA will help to deliver open standards allowing for greater flexibility in system design and enabling exhibitors to create custom installations."

"As more and more playback technology moves into the projector, it is critical that the industry adopt common interface standards," said Jérôme Delvaux, Vice President, Technology, XDC. "We are excited to be a part of the DCOSA, since establishing interoperability will be instrumental in the ultimate success of this market."

The DCOSA plans to make its server and IMB interface specifications available as an open standard for use by the digital cinema industry. The specifications are expected to be completed and available in the first half of 2011. Information regarding specific product availability can be obtained directly from the member companies.

Technical Overview Document
This document provides an overview of the server / IMB interface, including a system block diagram and typical use cases.

Source: DCOSA