May 15 2010
Ballantyne Strong, Inc. (NYSE Amex: BTN), a provider of digital cinema projection equipment and services, cinema screens and other cinema products, announced today that it has been selected to provide 200 NEC digital cinema projectors for China Film Group Corp. in theatres throughout The People’s Republic of China (PRC).
NEC digital cinema projector
Ballantyne expects to make initial shipments of 50 projectors in the second quarter of 2010, with the balance of the order to be shipped later this year. The new agreement follows a 100-projector order completed in Q2 ‘09 and a 160-projector order completed in Q1 ‘10.
John P. Wilmers, President and CEO of Ballantyne, commented, “We are gratified that China Film Group has expanded its commitment to Ballantyne and our NEC projector line with this, their largest order to date. As we have previously stated, China is a very attractive market opportunity for Ballantyne and our partner, NEC. With approximately 6,000 cinema screens currently, the PRC is focused on rapidly growing its theatre and screen footprint to as many as 12,000 or more screens in the next three-five years. We look forward to supporting China Film Group in bringing digital cinema to a growing number of Chinese consumers. We are also working on plans to bring our cinema screen products, including specialty ‘silver screens’ required for most 3D cinema methods, to serve the needs of this growing market and hope to initiate that effort in early 2011.”
Ballantyne has a sales and full-service office in Beijing, China and plans to open an additional office in Shanghai later this year.