Philips enters the fight against pirates in cinemas, wanting to stop the practice of creating "screen"

Over the years, ekranki have been a significant problem for copyright holders. There is no information about how badly the illegal copying of films in cinemas reduces the income of the creators of motion pictures. But copyright holders claim that they are suffering huge losses due to illegal copies of films made by visitors when watching a new film (now the Chinese are particularly active in this regard, where control over the cinema halls is not as strict as in Europe or the USA). It is for this reason that the active struggle is taking place with the “pirates” in cinemas. In order to detect the intruder in time, the owners of cinemas use different methods. These are night vision goggles for employees, and infrared sensors, and other ways to identify the person who is recording the EKR.

But the struggle has been going on for a long time, but there’s little sense. Of course, the quality of most films recorded in cinemas is hardly acceptable. Poor recording quality, jitter, noises - all this makes pirated copies of this kind poorly suited for comfortable viewing and enjoying the picture. But if you have been waiting for a movie for a long time, you don’t want to go to the cinema, it will not be available soon, then all these troubles can be overcome. Almost immediately after the movie appeared in cinemas, copies of it, albeit low-quality ones, appear on torrents in free access. There are quite a lot of impatient movie fans who are ready to watch ekranki. And this annoys filmmakers who do not want to lose from the hands of potential buyers.

The other day about the new way to deal with those who record movies in cinemas told Philips. She suggests using a special kind of screen backlight, which can prevent “operators” from recording everything that happens on the screen. Many large companies are interested in this idea, since the creation of illegal copies of motion pictures is considered one of the deadly sins of one of the main threats to commercial cinema.
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Now Philips has filed a patent application, which is directly related to the new method of dealing with "screeners". The developers claim that this method will radically reduce the number of illegal copies of films recorded in the cinema.

“Major film studios are losing large sums due to pirates. The global cinema industry, including distributors, cinemas, retail and online stores lose billions of dollars each year, ”the statement reads. The company also claims that modern methods of dealing with movie pirates, including tags and watermarkas, are effective because they allow tracing the path of the screen to the specific cinema where the copy was made. But this is only a preventive measure that cannot prevent the recording itself. The source of pirated content is good, but it would be better if it did not exist at all.

Illumination of the screen, according to the company, will allow to spoil the recording of pirates. For this purpose, it is planned to use a clever system, where the light source will flicker with a certain frequency (without disturbing the audience). This blink will make copies almost unwatchable. “The solution proposed in the application is the flickering of visible light emanating from an additional light source, with a certain frequency during the display of the film in the cinema hall,” the application says.


In the event that the flicker frequency is chosen correctly, the cameras (most models used by pirates) will not be able to record correctly. So all the frames will be streaked with light. Well, such a “movie” is hardly anyone who will watch, even if he really wants to.

According to the authors of the idea, they decided to use the principle laid down in the backlight technology of conventional TV screens. In many models (including Philips), this backlight works when a movie or TV program is shown. And not only the brightness of the backlight is changing, but also the flicker frequency, which in the case of a TV makes viewing more comfortable.

In the cinema, for viewers, this way of protecting the content will be almost imperceptible. But for the camera lens is a critical interference.

So far, the creators of screen copies of films can sleep peacefully - a patent application is not yet ready technology. Philips has said nothing about when its development can be implemented and put on commercial rails. But most likely, the "pirates" will still find a way to make a copy of the film and with the screen backlight in the cinema. Indeed, despite the evolution of the content protection system in the cinema, "ekranki" continue to appear with enviable regularity.