Technicolor announces big digital cinema roll-out in Europe

Technicolor Digital Cinema, part of the Thomson corporation, announced this morning that it is putting digital cinema systems into 130 screens owned by the Kinepolis Group in Belgium. (Who knew there were that many screens in Belgium?) They're using projectors from Barco and digital cinema playback systems from Dolby. From the release:

The company will convert approximately 50 percent of each of Kinepolis' Belgian multiplexes to digital cinema systems by early 2007, including its new eight-screen, fully-digital facility in Bruges opening today. Thomson will transition the circuit's remaining screens in Belgium by the end of 2007.

According to Technicolor's PR folks, this means that Technicolor is doing all of Kinepolis' 130 screens in Belgium by the end of next year. (Kinepolis has about 300 screens total, in Belgium, France, Spain, Poland, and Switzerland.

Other big European digital cinema roll-outs have been happening in Ireland (515 screens) and the UK (240 screens).