GSCA is pleased to announce the release of the Digital Immersive Giant Screen Specifications (DIGSS) version 2.0. DIGSS is an initiative to establish technical specifications for digital theaters with giant flat and dome screens. It shares many of the goals of the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) specification (which standardized digital projection for multiplex movie theaters), and presents specifications for the unique requirements of ultra-high resolution digital giant screens that were not part of the DCI specification. DIGSS-compliant theaters may be fully DCI compliant, partially DCI compliant, or non-DCI compliant.

DIGSS describes the technical specifications for immersive cinema films and theaters with the goal of maintaining and expanding a global network that is clearly differentiated from conventional movie theaters, and large enough to support a robust market of films designed specifically for giant screens.

DIGSS 2.0 is the third formal revision of the DIGSS 1.0 document that was the result of the Digital Immersive Screen Colloquium for Unified Standards and Specifications (DISCUSS).  

This latest version significantly simplifies the structures of the narrative section and the table of specifications compared to earlier versions. The intent is to make it easier for users to locate the information they need to ensure that any digital projection system they are considering as a replacement for their film system (or an early digital system) will provide the highest standards of image and sound quality.   

DIGSS 2.0 also recognizes two new technologies that have dramatically enhanced digital image quality: high frame rate (HFR), which increases the number of discrete images captured and presented beyond the standard 24 frames per second that has been the standard in cinema for nearly a century; and high dynamic range (HDR), which expands the range between the darkest blacks and the brightest whites that a projection system is capable of presenting.   

We would like to thank the GSCA Technical Committee, committee chairs Tim Hazlehurst (Marbles Kids Museum) and Michael Daut (Evans & Sutherland), and committee members James Hyder (LF Examiner), Alvis Wales, and Gord Harris (Christie) for their help in writing DIGSS version 2.0. 

Click here for the specifications and for further background information about the DIGSS initiative.