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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,电影技术设计师的梦想成真,那么你只需扫描智能手机上的电影票,就可坐进豪华舒适的电影院座椅中,迎接你的是一部感觉无比真实的电影,声音从四面八方漫入耳中──如果你需要的话，还可看到投射在特殊眼镜上的隐藏字幕。
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.
这便是上个月在美国拉斯维加斯举办的CinemaCon展会上提出的电影的发展可能。展会上,技术公司向影院运营商推销了能提升清晰度的更快的投影速度、新沉浸式环绕立体声音响系统、3D激光投影机和非纸化电影票等。
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.
影院运营商在倾听的同时也非常谨慎。据美国电影协会(Motion Picture Association of America)的数据显示，虽然今年的票房开局强势，但美国和加拿大去年的票房收入与2002年相比下降了19%,跌至13亿美元。这使得影院运营商有可能愿意尝试新技术,以期能将更多花钱谨慎的观众──特别是年轻观众──从他们家里的等离子电视机、DVD、游戏机和越来越多的互联网电影串流服务上吸引回来。
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激光投影机：使用激光而非灯泡来将画面投射到屏幕上，光线更加明亮、更有真实感。这一投影机最早也要到2013年年末才能投放电影市场，但CinemaCon展会的一些参展者抢先领略了它的风采。图中是放映的影片《轮回》(Samsara)的一幅截图。比如，杜比实验室(Dolby Laboratories Inc.)有望在全世界10至15家电影院放映《勇敢传说》(Brave)时试用其全景声音频系统。《勇敢传说》由华特-迪士尼公司(Walt Disney Co.)的皮克斯动画工作室(Pixar Animation Studios)制作，预计将于今年6月进行首映。
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.
杜比全景声音频系统通过置于影院四面八方，包括天花板上的特定音响集中传递声音。目前的音频系统则通常是通过置于 上的数组音响来传递声音的。
'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.'
杜比实验室负责影院业务的高级市场总监库松(Matt Cuson)说，“想象你正在看一部悬疑片，有人被困在一个地窖里，而绑匪正在地窖上方走动。从 上传来的嘎吱嘎吱的声音对你感受这个电影情境没有任何帮助。”
Three more films using the technology are expected to be announced by Christmas, Mr. Cuson adds.
库松补充道，另外还有三部运用了杜比全景声音频系统的电影有望于圣诞节上映。
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展会上，IMAX公司展示了一个数码投影系统的早期样品。该系统由巴可公司(Barco Inc.)研发，使用激光而非灯泡来将画面投射到屏幕上，光线更加明亮、更有真实感。据电影技术公司称，这一投影机最早也要到2013年年末才能投放电影市场，但CinemaCon展会的一些参展者抢先一睹了它的风采。
'With the laser projection, the movies look phenomenal,' says Tim League, co-founder and chief executive of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.
连锁影院Alamo Drafthouse Cinema的联合创始人、首席执行长利格(Tim League)说，“采用了激光投影技术的电影看起来会非常有震撼效果。”
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.
另一项新技术：今年晚些时候，索尼公司(Sony Corp.)升级后的4K数码投影机将以更快的、每秒48帧的速度来放映影片，使电影画面比目前每秒24帧的投影机所放映出的更为清晰和生动。目前的投影机从20世纪20年代晚期就开始使用了。
'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)是杰克逊(Peter Jackson)执导的《指环王》(Lord of the Rings)三部曲的两部前传的第一部，将在今年12月上映，它将成为第一部使用每秒48帧的投影机放映的电影长片。
'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全景声音频系统：杜比全景声音频系统通过置于影院四面八方，包括天花板上的特定音响集中传递声音。杜比实验室有望在全世界10至15家电影院放映《勇敢传说》(Brave)时试用其全景声音频系统。总部位于俄亥俄州克里夫兰的Cooperative Theatres Inc.是一家拥有约300块屏幕的连锁影院公司。该公司董事长克内佩(John Knepp)在CinemaCon展会上观看了10分钟用每秒48帧的投影机放映的《霍比特人》未经剪辑的原片后说，“它太漂亮了，旧的和它比起来简直有着天壤之别。”
Some theaters are skeptical, however.
但仍有些影院持怀疑态度。
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.'
北加利福尼亚州拥有约100块屏幕的影院连锁公司SR Entertainment Group的首席执行长托基尼(Dan Tocchini)说，用新投影机放映的电影会有一种超现实的感觉，“我感觉老年人会比较难以接受，但年轻人会相对容易，因为它看起来跟电子游戏差不多。”
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.
虽然过去几年间许多采用3D技术的电影吸引了数量可观的观众，特别是青少年和年轻人，但没人能保证，视觉技术方面的最新进步在电影业一定会取得成功，而且这种进步常常价格不菲。
'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.'
加拿大最大的影院连锁公司Cineplex Inc.的董事长兼首席执行长雅各布(Ellis Jacob)说，“我们必须不断更上一层楼，为电影观众提供全方位的影院经历，这样他们才会一次又一次地想回来。但我们也必须确定这些决定从经济角度来说具有可行性，确定我们能为观众提供价格合理的电影票。”
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.
近来其它方面的创新──如美食餐厅影院和模拟动作震动椅──并没有大规模地流行起来。电影业观察者称，观众也拒绝为劣质的3D转换影片支付额外费用，并且无法容忍那些在影院窃窃私语和发手机短信、把影院当成自己家客厅的青少年。
'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.
影院连锁公司Carmike Cinemas Inc.的营销总监梅顿(Terrell Mayton)说，“投资技术并无多大意义，这些技术虽然激动人心但并不会吸引更多的人去电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.
虽然老板们并不想在影院的军备竞赛上落于人后，但许多老板称，另一场行业范围内的升级──数字影院──才刚刚尘埃落定。
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.)
过去10年间，各大电影制作公司敦促影院老板用数字投影机取代传统的胶片放映机。在这个转换过程中，电影制作公司对影院进行了部分补贴，这样也省了他们制作无数卷35毫米胶片并将其逐一送到电影院的麻烦。（大部分的数字电影通过硬盘驱动器传输，不过CinemaCon展会上有一个影院和电影制作公司联盟称，他们计划尝试通过卫星传输数字电影。）
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.
据全球市场研究机构IHS Screen Digest估计，自今年3月31日起，美国和加拿大约四万家电影院中，有69%都转换成了数字投影机和投影屏，并且这一数字将在今年年末达到将近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.的克内佩在谈到使用更快速度的投影机时说，“电影院才刚刚完成数字化的巨大转变，现在好莱坞又要让我们进行另一个升级，并且我们还没法从中获得更多利润。”
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.
一些制造商正尝试使影院老板的技术更新换代之路平缓一些。索尼数码影院(Sony Digital Cinema)将向目前使用4K数码投影机的影院标价出售一款远程软件升级，确保这些投影机能放映像《霍比特人》这样用每秒48帧技术拍摄的电影。
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.
新墨西哥州拥有94块屏幕的连锁影院公司Allen Theatres Inc.的董事长艾伦(Larry Allen)说，这种帧频更快的电影并不要求硬件方面的升级，他对此表示乐观。但升级到其它技术，如尚未定价的激光投影机，可能会带来更大的挑战。他补充道，他会先从一两块屏幕开始，等收回投资后再进行扩展。
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.'
艾伦说，他现在仍有一个堆满了放映35毫米胶片电影的投影机的仓库，“那些投影机堆在那里，落满尘埃”。即使现在已完成了向数码投影机的转换，“我们仍不确定这次转换是否能成功，因此一直将旧设备留在那里。”
