July 6, 2006 Tokyo -- NTT has announced that U.S. entertainment company Paramount Pictures Corp. will join the world's first field test for digital cinema distribution via fiber optics.
Paramount will be the third firm to provide movies for use in the trial launched in October last year, following Warner Bros. Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Joined by a total of 10 companies, the 4K Pure Cinema trial is aimed at testing digital movie distribution via fiber-optic networks directly from the United States to NTT and its two regional fixed-phone units of NTT East and NTT West.
The group has decided to extend the trial period by four months--to December 2006--with the intention of putting the system into practical use. In September, another cinema will join the project to make a total of five participating theaters in Tokyo and the westernI city of Osaka, NTT confirms.