Palace Amusement and the 3D Movies - Lady Gaga's 3D Mui Mui and Dolche & Gabbana

Put not your trust in money, but put money in trust.

O.W. Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

Palace Amusement is making a very big gamble in upgrading all of its cinemas to 3-D as stated in the article “Can 3-D save the cinemas”, published Wednesday, May 18, 2011 by JULIAN RICHARDSON Assistant business co-ordinator, The Jamaica Observer.

Their budget allocation for the upgrade of the four (4) Cinemas namely Carib Cinema at Cross Roads in Kingston, Palace Cineplex at Sovereign Centre in St Andrew, Palace Multiplex in Montego Bay and the Odeon Cineplex in Mandeville is a cool US$2 million (JA$172 million).

That’s right sports fan!!

All four (4) of em’ are being upgraded to 3-D, despite Palace Amusement facing losses of JA$7.8 million between January 2010AD to March 31 2011AD. Palace Amusement believes that Jamaicans will be “wowed” by the 3-D Effect and that the new 3-D Technology will act as a deterrent to Movie piracy.

This is a view I had expressed in my blog article entitled “3-D anti-piracy technology to thwart Digital Video Piracy” as 3-D is very difficult to copy. Even if you manage to get both left and right channels on the DVD or Blu-Ray, it is good to note that both channels of film have to be synchronized with the Dolby Digital AC-3 Audio Surround Sound Channels.

Then there is the whole issue of why people purchase pirated Movies in the first place, despite knowing that it’s tantamount to stealing.

The Reasons are straightforward enough:

1. Cheaper to download, stream or buy the illegally copied DVD or Blu-Ray for JA$100 form a street-side pirate than pay the JA$600 for a Double Tuesday at a Cinema.
2. Most people cannot wait until the Movie officially comes out on DVD or Blu-Ray to rent the movies.
3. Movie aficionados often use downloading to preview the Movie before actually going out to the movies, often with their significant other.

The purchasing of DVD and Blu-Ray will never die, despite the explosive increase in Netflix streaming, with NetFlix now being the single largest source of Video and Audio Streaming on the Internet.

So says the article “Netflix now the largest source of Internet traffic in US”, published Tuesday May 17 2011, DigiTimes and stated in the article “Report: Netflix swallowing peak Net traffic fast”,  published Tuesday May 17 2011, CNET News.

People still have little confidence in Cloud-Based Services. Ditto Jamaica Businesses, despite Telecom Provider Digicel Tier III Data Center and their offering of Cloud Backup Services as described in my blog article entitled “Digicel Cloud Backup Service and future Cloud-Based Services - V.S Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas”.

Even with the legal protection of CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) Certificates as stated in my blog article entitled “Digicel's Cloud Backup Service and Tier III Certification - Data Integrity via CRC is the Devil's Advocate”.

The typical Jamaican and no doubt Americans still prefer to have a backup copy of the Movie or Music in the form of a DVD, CD or Blu-Ray.

This as this frees you from a dependence on Broadband Internet Services of Cloud-Based Services that are yet to achieve the five 9’ i.e. 99.999% uptime as explained in my blog article entitled “Netflix & the Death of Blu-Ray - Rise of the Machines meets Chicken Run”.

Also, a Movie rendered in 3-D, if it is not all that good, is still a poor Movie, only in 3-D. Simon Crosskill of Smile Jamaica on Television Jamaica gripe about this very same thing to Simone “Tigerbone” Clarke-Cooper, also of Smile Jamaica on Television Jamaica on Tuesday May 17^th 2011AD is evidence enough.

In summary, 3-D is a short term fix based on a hype that has a short lived “wow” factor that may fizzle soon if the Movies that are in 3-D are not good. At best, I may help the Movie Industry to hobble along for another five (5) years!

Unless of course Kim Kardashian of Keeping up with the Kardashians (TV Series 2007 - ) fame decides to endorse 3-D HDTV’s and the 3-D Glasses are made by Dolce and Gabbana and Miu Miu and are stylish enough to wear as regular glasses!

A better suggestion for Palace Amusement would be to increase the viewing audience to those people beyond their Theatres.  This would be via partnerships with other suitable Movie theatre venues such as the Supreme Ventures Ltd owned Villagio Casino in Bargain Village, May Pen, Clarendon.

This is a Technology push into Movie streaming, as with the growth in Broadband Internet Access, this is inevitable.

Partnerships with Broadcasters such as Television Jamaica and CVM TV after they achieve DSO (Digital Switch Over) to deliver Pay-Per-View programming as specified in my blog article entitled “Road to Damascus experience needed to make Broadcasters see DSO Benefits” is also a part of the mix.

Pay-Per-View via Receiver Boxes with Selective Output Controlled on request by the Palace Amusement to the Broadcasters would allow them to turn every HDTV Receiver into a Movie Theatre as described in my blog article entitled “Piracy Solution via MNP, DSO and legislation”.

An animation competition hosted at the Movie Theatres called J’Anime as described in my blog article entitled “J'Anime Competition - an avenue to fame for animators”, would, ironically, is just the big ticket item to justify the hefty prices being charged by Palace Amusement.

Alternative Energy would also help to save a bundle of money, considering that the majority of their power usage at the various Movie Theatres is Air Conditioning and Electricity.

Not dissimilar to the dilemma facing Telecom Provider LIME in trying to make the landline side of their business profitable, for which Alternative Energy presents itself as a solution as noted in my blog article entitled “LIME's fortunes after Digicel-CLARO - Master and Commander Garfield Sinclair”.