MasterImage 3D has opened a European office at Pinewood Studios in the UK.
Brian Kercher has been named managing director of 3D cinema, MasterImage 3D Europe. He joins from Eastman Kodak, where he worked for 15 years and was most recently general manager of the company’s digital cinema business.
Andrew Lee, a 20-year verteran of the 3D industry, has been named director of sales engineering. Relocating to the UK from Toronto, where he joined MasterImage in 2009 and was most recently vice president of cinema technology, Lee will head technical operations of MasterImage 3D Europe. Lee built his expertise at IMAX, where he spent fourteen years developing 3D glasses and 3D camera and presentation technology.
MasterImage provides 3D solutions for cinemas, flat panel displays for televisions and mobile devices, and cameras. In the past six months MasterImage has doubled its theatrical market share, with more than 1,600 systems installed worldwide (over 500 of them in Europe). All six major Hollywood studios, along with independent distributors, support the MasterImage format for their 3D features. In 2009 the company also commercialized the world’s first glasses-free 3D mobile device, the Hitachi Wooo.
“The quality of the MasterImage 3D presentation is unrivaled, and it has a cost of ownership that cannot be matched by 3D technology that uses expensive glasses or an endless ‘seat tax’ business model,” said Kercher.
Said MasterImage CEO Younghoon Lee, “With Brian’s and Andrew’s experience and leadership, our European operation will help us to meet the demands of our growing customer base and deliver 3D images to a worldwide market hungry for 3D content and the means to view it.”
— By Scott Hettrick