Talk About Digital Cinema

Richard Cieplechowicz
Director of Business Development
Santikos Theatres

Richard Cieplechowicz

Digital Cinema -- ‘Texas Style’

In late February, the Santikos Theatre chain, based in San Antonio, Texas, began showing their feature presentations on Kodak Digital Cinema systems in several sites, including the legendary Palladium, San Antonio’s Entertainment Palace, and the new Silverado 19 in Houston. During installation, we talked to Santikos Theatre’s Director of Business Development, Richard Cieplechowicz about his circuit’s philosophy and their plans for the future.

On the meaning of the Santikos brand

Mr. Santikos is all about customer service, about building palatial theatres that are so much more than building a basic structure and putting in some seats. A long time Texas resident, this city has been good to him and he is paying them back by putting in the best of everything, by building theatres like the Palladium or the Silverado. Those who come to his theatres are his extended family, so he wants to be sure they have a memorable experience.

On their digital feature experience

We’ve had just two digital systems and we use them to show 3D presentations – and we’ve been very happy with their performance. The audiences clearly prefer 3D digital over a traditional 35mm print of the same movie in 2D, but, we also have IMAX and people prefer that over everything else. There is no experience quite like seeing an image four stories high; it’s just so much better than anything audiences can see any other way.

On feeling pressure to adopt digital systems

We want to stay competitive with the experience we offer to moviegoers and that includes having the best technology. The Santikos experience is much more than a great image on the screen – but a great image is important and digital delivers that. So, a lot of the pressure to adopt digital comes from the pressure we are putting on ourselves to continue to innovate in ways that improve the customer experience.

On the hurdles and challenges with digital systems

One of our big uncertainties is – how long is this equipment going to last? The Mission Drive-In here in San Antonio, one of the oldest drive-ins in the state of Texas, had film projectors that have been working for 60 years. In comparison, my laptop needs to be replaced every four years. What’s going to happen with the digital system, in just a couple of years? That’s why it’s important for us to work with a partner we trust, someone with the depth of technology to protect us from uncertainty, someone with the vision to keep pace with our plans for the future. That’s one reason we chose Kodak.

On the ways digital might change their business

For feature movies, digital will mean a consistently great presentation throughout the entire run of the movie and that’s just something we can’t always guarantee with film. Beyond that, we can show more diverse content. We’ve shown the Opera, provided by Screenvision. We’re showing the ‘Hannah Montana’ concert. Those are added streams of revenue on slow days for us – and they’re added opportunities for new forms of entertainment for our customers. They’re generating money, attracting people; we couldn’t do that with 35mm film.

On evaluating digital systems

First and foremost, we look for reliability backed by service. For us, this is new technology – and we can’t have ‘down screens’. From our point of view, most systems are the same; everyone is DCI-compliant, everyone has their own nuances, but the basic equipment is the same. The differentiator, for us, is service. And the reason we chose to go with Kodak for our new digital cinema installations was the service level that Kodak offered, the commitment the company made to take care of that equipment, a year from now or five years from now.

On preparing for digital installation

For the nine-screen installation in San Antonio, the only difference between installing film projection and installing digital systems is – with digital, we need to run a few extra data lines. It’s the same basic power, the same exhaust system -- but that’s because, when we designed this theatre, everything was designed with digital in mind. If we were to put digital into one of our older theatres, there would be a lot more work involved in retro-fitting that theatre, in adapting what’s there for the requirements of a digital system.

On working with Kodak to handle the installation

Kodak installed their digital cinema systems on all screens of the newly-constructed Silverado 19 in Houston and on 9 screens in current Palladium theatre in San Antonio. But what really impressed me about Kodak was – while we were still in the planning stage, they set up conference calls with us, they came out to our site – before we had made a firm commitment to them – to help us prepare for digital. They didn’t have a guarantee and yet they wanted to be sure we were set up correctly to launch digital. They gave us that level of service that we try to give our customers – and that was a big factor on why we went with them.

On technology and the future of cinema entertainment

Technology is just going to be so much more important to what we do -- from the continuing advancements in digital projection – to the connectivity of the various systems. As we get more and more theatres on line with digital systems, we’d like to program trailers and features – even pre-show and lobby materials from our corporate offices. We have plasma screen concession menu boards, we have box office menu boards, auditorium menu boards lobby monitors, POS systems, digital projectors – it’s such a huge network that needs to be controlled and right now we have so many separate systems to operate them. As we work with Kodak to do all that from a central point, we’ll offer a much more coordinated experience to our guests and bring more efficiency to theatre operations.

On the circuit’s plans for the future

We’re growing. The Silverado came on line in February and we have several more theatres planned – some for San Antonio, others for elsewhere in Texas. In the next four years, we see the circuit doubling in size. As we do that, our technology will be more efficient, the amenities we offer will be greater, but we’ll still be dedicated to the goal Mr. Luis Santikos had when he first went into the nickelodeon business so long ago – and that his son, Mr. John Santikos, maintains today -- to entertain the audience with quality, with innovation, and always with great customer service.