30 Years of CineExpo/CineEurope

CINEEUROPE – 30 YEARS ON

With CineEurope 2021 now behind but not too far away, it seems like a good moment to reflect on the 30 years of the convention and what it has brought to the European (and elsewhere) cinema exhibition industry.

I am not sure where the notification came from but in 1992 while we were installing the new audio studios (film scoring, etc. and mix stages) for Mosfilm in Moscow, I received information about a new convention, Cinema Expo International, that was going to be held in Brussels. As well as being active in pro audio, I was also a contributor for the highly-revered magazine, “Studio Sound”, and the new event looked like a likely candidate for a show report in the mag.

I had always been a film fan and my interest in film sound had been given a boost by the workshops and seminars at the AES Conventions which had led to a collaboration with THX.

The subject for “Studio Sound” would naturally be audio-for-cinema and as we are in pre-Internet days and time was at a premium, I took a night train to Brussels with the intention of registering at opening time. However, upon arrival, the charming ladies at reception told me that press registration was not on the agenda – shock, horror!?I explained my case and the supervisor very kindly called the organisation to see if anything could be done.

The ‘organisation’ turned out to be Jimmy Sunshine and he made me a special offer for a Day Pass. This was naturally accepted with thanks and so began my association with CEI – or CineExpo as it quickly became known as.

As many attendees will know, the convention was the result of discussions between Bert Joost of Kineopolis and the Sunshine Group (particularly Bob Sunshine), with the aim of creating an event for the European cinema exhibition industry along the lines of ShoWest and ShowEast.

So how did the first CEI come across? Maybe a bit too US-influenced in style but hey, it was early days, guys! The trade show was well-attended and I ran into various friends and colleagues from the audio business and found some new products that were cinema-dedicated. Among the screenings that I was able to attend was “Dick Tracy”, one of the first films in Dolby Digital, and this was an interesting experience.

Just before a headlong dash to get the night train back to Switzerland, Harrison Ford was the star of the awards ceremony and delivered his memorable speech – “thank you”. Definitely a man of few words!

Other commitments meant that I had to give a miss to the 1993 and 1994 conventions. However, the announcement from the Sunshine Group that CEI was moving to Amsterdam for 1995 was incentive enough to visit the show again and I have not missed one since!

The RAI convention centre was an ideal choice as a variety of venues were under one roof and the RAI Auditorium lent itself fairly well to being transformed into a cinema for screenings and presentations (as I later found out with IBC).

At this point it can be said that CEI really took off as an event and that the focus was much more European-oriented in terms of organisation.

The new millennium marked the arrival of D-Cinema and in many ways, the 2007 edition of the show marked some high points. By this time the event had become CineExpo (most visitors had been calling it that for some time!) and co-managing director, Jimmy Sunshine, had moved on to wine-growing, with brother Bob becoming the sole MD.

However, in an earlier interview with Jimmy, he evoked that the cinema manager of the near future would be the director of an entertainment and media centre, rather than just looking after showing films. A prediction right on the button as this is very much the case today!

The 2007 show floor saw a wide variety of products being presented to meet the move towards D-Cinema, these being both hardware and software-based. An encouraging trend here was that the accent was more on quality and less on economy.

2008 saw an expanded seminar programme devoted to D-Cinema, with EDCF chairman, Dave Monk, being his usual provocative self! A whole range of subjects was discussed, from the technicalities to the business plans and about how much support could be obtained from governments or local authorities. The publication of the DCI specifications was considered to have moved things along considerably and whereas digital-only venues were still in the starting blocks, dual projection (both film and digital) was considered necessary for a successful transition. Digital Cinema was finally coming of age…

Fast forward to 2010 and the 19th. Cine Expo saw the event joining forces with UNIC, who used the show for their annual conference. Hot topics for the seminars were 3D and the possibilities it offered (James Cameron’s “Avatar” certainly moved the bar up several notches in terms of technical achievement) plus an extensive look at Alternative Content – soon to be renamed Event Cinema.

Even though still a niche market in many ways at the present time, Event Cinema has expanded considerably and the challenge was always to make it a live experience in the cinema rather than a glorified TV show. This meant spending considerable time and energy on the production side.

2011 saw the 20th. Anniversary of the show, which now became CineEurope and the official convention of UNIC. An expanded seminar programme, together with demands from the studios for more showreel time, meant that timing became a critical issue and some juggling had to take place. It has to be said that the earlier conventions were like dominos falling – one thing after the other and no overlap – and this was considered a very positive point by delegates.

3D was again major topic and this was reinforced by keynote presentations from James Cameron and Ridley Scott to full houses in the auditorium. A general plea was not to do it ‘on the cheap’ with less-than-perfect conversion to 3D from 2D.

Another subject of increasing concern was piracy and the arrival of streaming services meant that content needed to be made secure. The Digital Age had certainly arrived but, as always with new technology, there were negative aspects.

On the technical side of things, higher frame rates came under scrutiny, as well as 2K and 4K pictures, and this was out of the box of the DCI specs. Again, a plea for standardisation was made.

What is now being called ‘Immersive Audio’ also made some inroads, with Auro-3D and Immsound being among the first players (Dolby had already introduced it’s 7.1 system previously).

As my particular interest is in audio, we can note that audio systems for cinema had advanced considerably, often taking a leaf from concert systems in terms of conception. Considering that the birth of large-scale concert sound was based on cinema speakers, this was an amusing turnaround!

For 2012, CineEurope moved house to the CCIB convention centre in Barcelona – Caramba!

The three main subjects for the seminar programme were projection systems with higher frame rates, the integration of IT into the cinema experience and Immersive Sound.

For projection, it was stressed by the panel, chaired by Nicolas Hamon of Kineopolis Group, that the developments should be ongoing, i.e. upgradeable; that cinemas would not be beta testers; that the results would be positive.

For Immersive Sound, it was noted that a format war would not be in anyone’s interest and that the spatial impression be transmitted by metadata to enable rendering in any installation.

In this respect, Matt Cuson from Dolby made a pertinent closing remark by saying that “an ongoing constraint is that we tend to ‘admire the problem’ rather than doing anything about it!”

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The 2013 CineEurope saw an emphasis on Immersive Audio and Alternative Content – this now having been rebranded as Event Cinema in order to give the impression that the content is just that, an ‘event’. We could also note an increased presence of audio manufacturers at the trade show.

The trend continued for 2014 and audio figured strongly in the seminars and presentations – both for films and Event Cinema. A Dolby Atmos system was also installed in the CCIB Auditorium, thus giving a taste to cinema owners of the ramifications of going from ‘standard’ 5.1 and 7.1 systems to an immersive audio installation.

Another innovation for the show was the introduction of 30-minute technical presentations in a theatre on the trade show floor, thus allowing trade show visitors-only access to technical trends.

2018 appeared to mark an increased participation by exhibitors farther afield from Europe. This confirmed the importance of CineEurope as THE event for the cinema exhibition industry this side of the Pond.

Many loudspeaker manufacturers were now offering line array configurations of their systems and audio processing was becoming more and more sophisticated.

Samsung debuted a LED screen concept – basically a solid wall – and JBL presented the Onyx sound system to go with it, as back-of-screen loudspeakers would be no longer an option.

Fast forward again to 2021 (the 2020 convention being an online event due to the Covid 19 situation) and CineEurope was able to celebrate it’s 30th. Anniversary. As might be expected, attendance was down compared to 2019 but the atmosphere was high, with all delegates just being happy to meet friends and colleagues face-to-face again and not via a computer screen. A big “well done” to Bob and Andrew Sunshine and the Filmexpos team.

This overview of 30 years is obviously highly condensed but I hope it shows how CEI > CE has evolved and firmly earned its place as the major European cinema industry event of the year. It has covered the transition of analogue film sound to digital, the evolution of D-Cinema, the expanding universe of cinemas being media centres for a variety of activities plus the technical expansion in the worlds of sound and projection. It is definitely the place to be!

See you in Barcelona next year, 20-23 June.

Terry Nelson, who would also like to thank the CEI and CE team for their kind collaboration since the beginning and recognising the importance of the technical press. OK, others followed suit but “Studio Sound” was definitely the first and this was much appreciated!