Digital Cinema

Our technologies and products deal with the challenges of the entire film process, from shooting scenes on the set to theater distribution. In the process we provide common interfaces along the entire chain. Through close collaboration with our film and TV industry partners, as well as through our influential work with international industry standards associations, we develop future-oriented solutions that allow our industry and media production customers to ensure their viewers enjoy exceptional pictures and sound.

The IMF is a universal format used for internal data exchange during production and postproductio. We also offer the new Software Suite IMF Studio for the creation, playback and encryption in this data format, similar to the easyDCP Software Suite.

IMF is a file-based solution for saving high-quality image and sound data, as well as subtitles, in a common format. Referred to as interoperable master package or IMP, this format is suitable for the manufacturer- and equipment-independent exchange of film material. The aim here is to replace tape-based work flows with a file-based solution while simultaneously reducing time and costs. The IMP can also be utilized as a master or source package for creating various distribution formats. IMF is especially designed for exchanging data between different production companies and for optimizing internal data exchange.

The easyDCP software suite was designed and developed for creating, playing back and encrypting digital cinema packages. This software is meanwhile used by more than 1,000 production and postproduction companies and studios around the world. easyDCP was honored with the 2014 Fraunhofer Award for research excellence.

On behalf of the six major Hollywood studios, experts in the Moving Picture department at Fraunhofer IIS launched the so-called digital cinema initiatives, or DCI. This project  involves the development of the digital cinema technical specifications published in 2007 and which guarantee compatibility between all digital cinema playback systems around the world, provided they meet the standards. In addition, the German Federal Film Board contracted Fraunhofer IIS to adapt the specification for the European market and in particular for the German movie theater landscape.