THE PROJECTION BOOTH at Singapore's Suntec City multiplex sounds like those at theaters worldwide. After the projectionist feeds the film through the projector, the room fills with the clickety-clack of the spinning reels. But beside each of the five traditional projectors sits a newfangled model that takes no effort to load and makes no noise other than the hum of a cooling fan. These are digital projectors for showing movies delivered on removable hard drives. "My guy just needs to push a few buttons" to start a digital film, says Oh Chee Eng, a top executive at Eng Wah Organization Ltd., the theater's owner. "If s so much easier." While music, television, and even radio have all moved to digital formats, the movie industry still clings to technology dating from the days of Thomas Edison. That's starting to change, though, since Hollywood last year finally settled on a common format for digital movies. Digital-cinema advocates say the technology will lower costs, add piracy protection, and provide new sources of revenue to theater owners by helping them show live events such as concerts and soccer matches. "It's really starting to take off," says Al Barton, vice-president for digital-cinema technologies at Sony Pictures Entertainment in Hollywood.
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