R&D Spirits
Toward Digital Cinema with the World’s
Highest Image Quality
Tetsuro Fujii
Project Manager
First Promotion Project
NTT Network Innovation Laboratories

One form of content especially suitable for the optical-fiber-network era is digital cinema.
NTT Network Innovation Laboratories has developed equipment for distributing and projecting
digital video with the world’s highest image quality as a result of its research on super high definition (SHD) images. This innovative equipment is expected to bring about an evolutionary
jump in Hollywood movies and the field of cinema in general. What kind of changes will thisnew system called “4K digital cinema” bring to the movie industry and information-communication services? What problems must be solved to make digital cinema a commercial success?
We put these questions to Project Manager Tetsuro Fujii, the driving force behind this development project.

Development of a 4K digital cinema system
praised by Hollywood—Dr. Fujii, could you tell us something about yourproject’s research theme?

“4K” for approximately 4000 pixels horizontally.
Picture quality in movies is expressed by the numberof pixels in the horizontal direction. Thus, HDTV,
which has 1920 pixels horizontally, is called a “2K”
system. While existing versions of digital cinema aremostly based on the HDTV 2K level, our 4K systemcorresponds to the world’s highest level of image

We are working on distribution and projecting systems for super high definition (SHD) images aspart of our research on encoding (Fig. 1). We
began this research around 1990 with the aim ofdeveloping applications suitable for the opticalfiber-network era. What do we mean by superhigh definition? Well, high-definition television(HDTV) has 1000 scanning lines but our system
has 2000. And while standard television displays
30 frames per second, our system can display 60
frames per second (Fig. 2). So we have doubled
existing picture quality both spatially and temporally. Up until recently, we were busy developing
static-image systems for the medical-treatment
and engineering-design fields, but we have since
shifted to moving-picture research to exploit theFig. 1. SHD digital cinema distribution system.
unique characteristics of the new world of optiFrom
theleft: PC-server, GbE-hub, JPEG2Krealtime decoder
cal fiber networks with its high bit rates. Our
andprojector(GbE: gigabit Ethernet).
main target is digital cinema [1], which we call
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R&D Spirits

quality in digital cinema. Furthermore, equipment such as
ours cannot be found anywhere
else. This level of quality isappreciated by even Hollywood
and is being incorporated into
digital cinema standards. We areworking to commercialize digital
cinema using NTT’s optical fiber
network in cooperation with people from the Hollywood movie
industry.
—What is the main technicalissue surrounding this research?

Spatialresolution
60-mm
film
2000
lines

SHD
movie
2048p@24

35-mm
film

1000
lines

70-mm
film

Digitalcamera> 4 times higher quality
35-mm(4 perforations)
film

1080p
@24

Computerdisplay
1080i
HDTV

1080p

TV
That would be the search for acoding system oriented to picture
quality. For the remote medicalp: pixels
treatment system that we worked
Still image
on prior to digital cinema, it was
030
60
Frames/s
important to ensure accuracy for
Temporal resolution
diagnostic purposes, and this creFig. 2. Characteristics of SHD digital cinema.
ated a great need for reversible
image coding. For that reason,
we especially focused on lossless coding. Similarly,“This is exactly what we want!” It was at that time
for motion pictures, we set out to develop a systemthat we began researching ways of adapting our
paying particular attention to how we could deliver aequipment to digital cinema.
picture having the highest possible quality in each
The second breakthrough occurred during aframe. In this regard, JPEG and MPEG can display
demonstration that we gave in 2002 at the Entertainonly 8 bits of data for each of the RGB (red/green/
ment Technology Center of the University of Southblue) components, which does not really provide
ern California. This demonstration was attended by aenough depth of color for movies. To improve uponwide range of movie-industry people including reprethis, we developed equipment that could run
sentatives from the seven major Hollywood studios,
JPEG2000 and display 10 bits per color.
members of the American Society of Cinematographers, and the chief technical officer of the Digital—Were there any breakthroughs in this development?
Cinema Initiatives (DCI), an organization devoted todrafting global standards for digital cinema. All ofYes. There have actually been two breakthroughs.
these people came to evaluate our digital cinema sysThe first was the recognition that we received from atem, and it was here that they decided to adopt our
Hollywood engineer when we demonstrated our syssystem as “4K digital cinema.” A proposal for a globtem at the 2001 SIGGRAPH exhibition in Los Angeal standard on image quality in digital cinema wasles. At that time, there was much concern about nextlater drafted at DCI in accordance with our ideas.
generation cinema. Everybody wanted higher quality
movies, but there was no equipment to provide them.
—What is your specific business plan here?
Some people thought that HDTV was the way to go,
and much debate on this ensued. It was against thisWe can think of two formats in which we could
background that engineers associated with the movie
develop business for digital cinema. The first is theindustry in Hollywood came to SIGGRAPH to check
distribution of digital cinema by file transfer in which
out new trends in motion-picture technology. I’ll
content that is currently being delivered by physicalnever forget the emotion I felt when one of those
distribution would be provided to users via opticalengineers observed our video images and exclaimed
fiber. The technology for this type of distribution isVol. 3 No. 3 Mar. 2005

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R&D Spirits

nearly complete. What remains to be done is toextend optical fiber to movie theaters and introduce
projectors for digital cinema, which is expected tooccur in the not-too-distant future.
The second format is the distribution of digital cinema by streaming. The development of digital cinema
facilities will make it possible to present sports
events, concerts, musicals, and other forms of entertainment in real time. This format will be the second
phase of business development following completionof the first format that I just described. In this second
phase, we will target not only movie theaters but also
municipal halls and other venues to expand the market for digital cinema. For this format, however, there
are still a number of technical issues that must be
addressed, and we expect phase two of our businessstrategy to take longer (Fig. 3).
—What problems are you faced with at present?
One problem is the development of security technology for digital cinema. Needless to say, a major
worry of people in the movie industry is movie piracy. In the case of analog film, the process of supplying such movies to movie theaters is such that the
copying and videotaping of films is not rare. Digital

film, on the other hand, can be encrypted and digitally watermarked, for example, enabling security formovies to be maintained and managed in ways notpossible with analog. Hollywood has high expectations in this regard. We are currently working on thedevelopment of digital watermarking techniques for
digital cinema in collaboration with the NTT Cyber
Communications Laboratory Group.
We also need to find an appropriate transmission
system for achieving realtime streaming of digital
cinema. Here, as well, development work is underway. Achievements to date include 300-Mbit/s
streaming of digital cinema from Chicago to Los
Angeles, and 400-Mbit/s streaming from a server in
Keihanna Research Park (in western Japan) to a hallin Tokyo during a symposium held during last fall’s
Tokyo International Film Festival. The latter experiment amazed even visitors from the Hollywood
movie industry. They hinted that such a successful
streaming experiment for digital cinema could only
be done in Japan. For the projection of Japanese
movie called “Shitsurakuen,” at this Tokyo International Film Festival, our group received the 2004
AMD Award for Digital Contents of the Year—Technology Prize.

Projector

Digital cinema theater
Sports events

Projector

Community and city hallMusical

Education(College, High school)

Operation center

Fig. 3. Optical networks for high-quality images.

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NTT Technical Review

R&D Spirits—How do you think this research will evolve in theyears to come?
In our minds, the main point is not simply the
spread of 4K digital cinema but rather its connection
to distribution services by optical fiber networks.
Delivering content by physical-distribution means, as
has been done in U.S. digital-cinema trials, would notconstitute a successful experiment as far as we areconcerned. The content would absolutely have to bedelivered by an optical fiber network. Moreover, inthe next phase, we are aiming at the streaming of digital cinema as I described earlier. I see digital cinema
as a process that once begun cannot be stopped, andin this sense, I would like to see it expand into a system that can deliver live content throughout Japan via
streaming.

Taking the lead in digital cinema by adoptinginternational standards on 4K systems—Dr. Fujii, what is happening in the world of digital
cinema elsewhere in the world?
Well, to begin with, various types of equipment are
being constructed to present digital cinema at the 2K
level. In Japan, there are currently 20 or so screens for
digital cinema, but these are all 2K-HDTV systems
manufactured in the United States. At the same time,
Japan has been strong in the digital-imaging and digital-video fields from the start, and the cameras, projectors, and displays now being used in Hollywood
are mostly Japanese made. It is therefore no surprisethat Japan is out in front in 4K technology, and various Japanese companies including NTT have eachbeen trying to be the first to market a 4K system.
Consequently, on seeing the results of Japanese
R&D and current Hollywood trends in digital cinema, you would think that the market for 4K systems
is very promising. Even the defense industry in the
United States is beginning to make inroads into thismarket. Nevertheless, there is still some hesitation toinvest in 4K systems. Optical fiber networks in the
United States have yet to be fully deployed, and to
make matters worse, antitrust laws dictate thatmovies studios and movie theaters cannot invest capital in each other, which results in less than desirable
management of movie theaters on the whole. In short,an environment for achieving digital cinema has notreally been established. The situation there is different from that in Japan where the optical fiber network

Vol. 3 No. 3 Mar. 2005

is nearly complete and where movie theaters, production companies, and distribution companies havecross-capitalization relationships, making investment
in digital cinema relatively easy. For this reason, theway we look at digital cinema is somewhat different
how they look at it in the United States.
As for Europe, digital cinema is seen as a potential
and important form of entertainment during the winter months especially in northern Europe, and there isa strong desire to achieve digital cinema as soon as
possible. There is also much enthusiasm for standardization in Europe, but if anything, priority is
being placed on early deployment as opposed to thetechnology itself. But some countries, like the U.K.
and Italy, treat movies as an industry, and they feelthat technology is also important in deploying digital
cinema in the right way. The approach to digital cinema therefore differs from region to region.
—How are standardization efforts coming along?
There are basically two global organizations thatare now studying technology for displaying highquality movies on large screens. The first is the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers(SMPTE). This organization is typical of those promoting movie and video standards, but in terms ofmovies, their activities are especially focused on the
Hollywood movie industry. You might remember the
DCI proposal that I mentioned earlier. Actual standardization based on this proposal is to be finalized
by a SMPTE committee called DC28. In this regard,
it is our intention to develop equipment conforming
to SMPTE standards as early as possible and to
become a market leader in digital cinema.
The other organization is the International
Telecommunication Union Radio Communication
Sector (ITU-R), which deals with issues related tobroadcasting. Whereas standardization at SMPTE is
focused on digital cinema for movie theaters, the talkat ITU-R is about standardization of large screen digital imagery (LSDI). The idea here is that enjoying
TV on large screens much as you do at a theater is anatural extension of TV’s historic growth to date.
Content here would include movies (other than newly
released films) and live broadcasts such as ones ofsports events and concerts. This trend is especiallystrong in Italy, France, and the U.K. LSDI standards
do not stand in opposition to SMPTE standards but
are being prepared using them as a base.

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R&D Spirits—What role does NTT play in these standardization
activities?
First of all, there is only one set of equipment making up a complete 4K system in the world, and that isthe equipment on our site. Under these circumstances, we cannot help but agree to requests fordemonstrations and the like. We have already established a partnership with DCI and we are offering
technical advice to ITU-R. We have also initiated discussions with the European Digital Cinema Forum(EDCF) on the spread and use of 4K systems.

Achieving original results: the thrill ofresearch—Dr. Fujii, how did your R&D career begin?
In my fourth year at university, I analyzed brain
waves, and as part of my research on adaptive filters
during my master’s and doctoral courses, I worked on
algorithms for adaptive-equalizers and echo cancellers. Signal processing was therefore my starting
point as a researcher, and it has become a core technology for me.
—Could you tell us something about the research thatyou have been involved with up to now?
Well, for about one year after entering NTT, I
researched echo cancellers as an extension of my university studies. I actually presented a well-organizedpaper about the analysis of algorithms for stereo echo
cancellers at that time. This research, though, wasahead of its time, and the results presented in that
paper did not attract much attention on release. Just
the other day, however, I was talking with aresearcher from an electrical equipment manufacturer, and he said that my paper has since become the“bible” in this area. Next, in my second year at NTT
during a time of organizational restructuring, myresearch shifted from audio to video though remaining in the field of signal processing. I began to investigate how digital signal processors (DSPs) for video
applications should be designed, and during thattime, I constructed a parallel processing systemcalled NOVI, achieving a level of performance thatwas then the world’s highest for such systems. Butaround the same time, optical fiber and asynchronoustransfer mode (ATM) were becoming practical, and I
began to realize that image-related applications weremore appropriate for optical networks than metallic
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ones. It was at this time, around 1990, that I entered
the world of super high definition images.
From the very start of this research, the group that I
was in chose moving pictures as its main target. But
as our research progressed, we also came acrossapplications based on still pictures. We therefore
decided to start our search for a practical applicationof SHD images using still pictures, and we began in
the field of medical treatment. In 2000, as a jointresearch project with the Keio University School of
Medicine, we completed an SHD X-ray viewing station using a 28-inch, full-color, liquid-crystal screen
incorporating all of the devices and functions needed
for remote diagnosis conferencing. This system also
attracted the attention of the art world, and in 1997, it
was used for a presentation at the Whitney Museumof American Art in New York City. At present, there
are efforts in Japan to build archive systems using our
4K system as a platform. Our system has also been
incorporated into CAD/CAM processes in the automobile industry, and it appears that many units ofsuch equipment are being used. In this way, we firstworked on achieving working systems using still
images, but at the same time, research on our original
target of moving pictures advanced steadily bringing
us to our present research activities.
—Is there anything in particular that you came topursue during the course of all this research?
Yes. One thing would be signal processing technology. I don’t mind saying that I can hold my own withanyone when it comes to signal processing. Anotherthing would be 4K digital cinema. When I began
research on SHD images, my superiors and colleagues would say “one day, we’ll all be seeing
movies in SHD.” At that time, it was no more than adream, but today, after 15 years, a realistic system iswithin reach, and while completion may still lie someyears ahead, this is still a very emotional time for me.
—What do you find interesting about research work?
I enjoy the challenge of trying to do something thatno one else has done. Thinking up an entirely new
method or achieving results that no one else in theworld has obtained can be a deeply moving experience. I was fortunately able to experience this feelingearly on with my university graduation paper. In actuality, no one knows how useful the fruits of research
will be to society. Nevertheless, the thrill of research
can be experienced quite early in a researcher’s
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R&D Spirits

career. Once you have felt that thrill, you are driven to
seek it again. Even if you have felt it many times
before, it is still a fresh and invigorating feeling of joy
when it hits again. If a researcher should ever lose thissense of excitement, he might do better to take up
another line of work.

A desire to explore new worlds with signal
processing technology at the core—Dr. Fujii, what are your future aspirations?
There is much talk by the people around me that our
next challenge will be an 8K system. I myself don’t
have much interest in tackling 8K right now. Of
course, 8K and even 16K are conceivable from astrictly numerical viewpoint. But, in reality, I don’t
see a feasible business vision for 8K or higher systems even if reasons can be found for exploring thetechnology for them. This is because the maximum
size of film in use today is 65 mm, and this can be sufficiently supported by a 4K system. In other words, as
there are no business requirement of 8K and 16K levels of quality, it would be way too early to enter thatfield now. Accordingly, I could see myself taking on
a completely different research theme only when
everything that needs to be done for 4K has been satisfactorily dealt with. Though I do not have any specific ideas at this time, I believe that there are still
many things that I could pursue based on signal processing technology, my specialty.
—What is your ultimate dream as a researcher?
I would love to be able to enjoy SHD video, the current target of my research, in my own home. If digital
cinema can be achieved in the theater, it is natural toexpect the next step to be digital cinema in the home.
At present, there is still no strategy for expanding the
distribution of 4K movies to the home, but just thesame, I would like to make it possible to see myfavorite content with a beautiful picture whenever I
like while resting comfortably on a sofa in my home.
—What is it like working at NTT Laboratories?
Whenever I am outside in the real world, I feel as if
my wish has been granted. Signal processing technology, which lies at the core of my work, has provided me with a basis not only for creating algorithms
but also for producing systems that are useful forsociety. NTT Laboratories has provided me with aVol. 3 No. 3 Mar. 2005

very enjoyable and gratifying work environment.
—Dr. Fujii, could you leave us with a message foryoung researchers?
I’d be happy to. It is important that you find yourcore technology as a researcher as early as possible.
Without such a core, it is going to be difficult todecide on your approach to research. Even if youcome to be involved with various research themes,
and even if you can discuss particular topics withother researchers, having a core technology is goingto make a world of difference. One of my jobs as amanager is to help young researchers find their coretechnology, but the truth is that a researcher will
never develop a core without making a personaleffort. To become a good researcher, I believe you
have to find your core technology early on and makean effort to embrace it.
Reference[1]

T. Yamaguchi, D. Shirai, T. Fujii, and T. Fujii, “SHD Digital Cinema
Distribution over a Global High-speed Network: Internet2,” NTT
Technical Review, Vol. 1, No. 5, pp.10-15, 2003.

Interviewee profile■ Career highlights
Tetsuro Fujii received the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D.
degrees in electrical engineering, from the Universityof Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan in 1979, 1981, and 1984
respectively. In 1984, he joined Nippon Telegraph andTelephone Public Corporation (now NTT), Japan. He
stayed at the University of California, Berkeley, from1988 to 1989, as a visiting researcher. He has been
engaged in research on adaptive signal processing,image signal processing, and transport processing. His
current interest is super high definition image processing and its application to digital cinema. He became a
Project Manager of First Promotion Project, NTT Network Innovation Laboratories in 2004.
■ Major awards
Achievement Award of IEICE (The Institute ofElectronics, Information and Communication Engineers) in 2004. Best Technical Achievement Award ofAMD (Association of Media in Digital), 2005.

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