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Business
Building on its success all across North America, Cinemuse adds a Connecticut
museum to its growing network
The Discovery Museum and Planetarium in Bridgeport,
Connecticut, is the latest institution to join the growing CineMuse high-definition
cinema network. The network now totals more than forty museums across
the United States and Canada.
"Our audience was looking for this," says Paul Audley, president
of the Discovery Museum. He says he was drawn to CineMuse by the content
it can provide. "It was very attractive," he says, "and
it's geared specifically to our interests."
The Discovery Museum is a science and industry museum with a large school-age
audience of children mainly in grades three through eight. Audley hopes
the programs will add to his existing audience by attracting what he calls
"unescorted adults," namely grown-ups who aren‚t at the
museum with a group of kids. The idea of belonging to a group with common
interests also appealed to Audley.
The Discovery Museum's CineMuse theatre will be up and running later this
month. When it starts running programs it will join institutions such
as The Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. Lorna Sierolawski, the Nature
Museum‚s senior producer, broadcast and multimedia, says the program
has been a success ever since it began.
"During our first summer of operation (2001), we experienced a three-percent
increase in attendance without any new exhibits," Sierolawski says.
"We were running the show Diving With the Great Whales. It
is difficult to directly attribute this to our HD cinema as we don't sell
separate tickets, however, you be the judge."
"Our current BBC feature Walking With Dinosaurs: Death of a Dynasty
has been very popular," she says. "People remember Walking
With Dinosaurs from when it was on television and have been excited
to see it again in HD on the big screen. This is also the original British
version and the first time it has been shown in high-definition."
"With the incredible resolution of high-definition," Sierolawski
says, "visitors get to experience nature as if they are right there.
[Before joining CineMuse] we had a large, fully equipped auditorium that
was remaining empty for most of the daytime hours. Now, for a relatively
small capital outlay, we have a vibrant, flexible new program offering
that both the general public and students from local schools are able
to enjoy. Because of CineMuse's large library of titles, we are able to
program a high-definition title to complement each new exhibit and the
priority themes of our Museum."
Sierolawski continues, "We have also started to develop educational
resource materials that expand on the content of the shows, such as teacher's
guides, activity sheets and links to our exhibitions. And we are looking
at developing new hi-def documentaries with other members of the CineMuse
Network."
Founded in 1996, CineMuse is headquartered in Robert DeNiro's Tribeca
Film Center in New York City. Ted Geier, president, says the business
model was to use existing HD technology and programs and take advantage
of built-in audiences. "They already go to the museum," he says.
"They already go to the university."
He says CineMuse acts as a partner and works with each site to set up
the equipment and develop targeted programming. "We generally use
projectors like JVC's D-ILA but all we require is that the projectors
have sufficient resolution and brightness," Geier says. "We
do rent equipment to help sites get going, but we encourage them to purchase
their own equipment and we help them figure out the most appropriate configurations
for their sites."
CineMuse Network members present programs from the CineMuse Library. It
includes programs from distributors such as the BBC, Sony, Time/Warner,
Rabbit Ears, and others in a variety of categories such as performing
arts, nature and science, visual arts, documentaries and family programming.
Invariably, says Geier, when people see a high definition program for
the first time their reaction is, "Wow! That's the best picture I've
ever seen."
Links
For more information about the people, companies and organizations featured
in this article visit them at their Web sites.
CineMuse www.cinemuse.com
Discovery Museum and Planetarium www.discoverymuseum.org
Canadian Museum of Nature www.nature.ca
JVC www.jvc.com |
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