Waag Society, SURFnet, SARA and the Universiteit van Amsterdam will be the first Dutch participants in an international network to develop the cinema of the future: CineGrid. CineGrid combines the newest generation of digital cameras and projectors to supercomputers and a fibre-optic network that makes 4K cinema possible. At the moment, there are only three places in the world where you can experience 4K cinema: two in America and one in Japan. Thanks to the Dutch initiative, by 2008 Amsterdam will become the first European CineGrid node in Europe.

The recordings and projection of 4K cinema offers four times better quality than HDTV and are almost as clear as the human eye can perceive. The quantity of data is enormous: a full DVD cannot even hold one minute of 4K film. This means that for an hour and a half of film, you would need ca. 1200 DVDs. If you wanted to transport it or broadcast it real-time without a delay, you would need an enormous amount of bandwidth.

The development is still in the experimental phase. Based on these experiments, a wide spectrum of opportunities and applications are opening in education, (medical) science, art and entertainment. The Netherlands is playing a crucial role in these developments thanks to the internet hub Amsterdam, the high-speed networks of SURFnet and SARA and the presence of a strong and innovative creative sector that is prepared to use the new opportunities.

You will be able to see 4K in Amsterdam during PICNIC'07. On 26 September, American and Japanese initiators, Dutch speakers and the public will discuss the possibilities the technology offers today and will offer in the near future. Unique 4K fragments will also be exhibited. Jaap Drupsteen and a number of students at the Sandberg institute have made 4K films which will be shown, as will fragments of the presentation Era la Notte recorded during the Holland Festival. The speakers will include Marleen Stikker (Waag Society), Cees de Laat (UvA), Jacques van Veen (Holland Festival), Sandra den Hamer (Filmmuseum) and Tom Defanti (University of California at San Diego).

Attendance of the seminar and demonstration is free, but advance registration is required. You can register to attend at http://www.picnicnetwork.org/artefact-5679-en.html