The DTS-CSS Cinema Subtitling System enables cinema owners to have a greater level of flexibility in programming the screening of first-run movies to better accommodate these underserved audiences. The first film to be made available to the trial is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, from Warner Bros.

This innovative technology has been developed by DTS, provider of the un-compromised, multi-channel digital sound system installed in most major cinemas in the UK. The DTS-CSS system utilises the same unique CD-ROM based technology as the DTS Digital Sound system, but can play independently with any other sound system that may be installed in the cinema.

The trial is being conducted by a working group that includes the Cinema Exhibitors' Association (CEA), the Film Distributors' Association (FDA), the Cinema Advertising Association, RNIB, British Deaf Association, National Deaf Children's Society, and RNID. CEA chief executive John Wilkinson said "DTS has been closely involved with the working group for two years. This research programme has been exploring ways of bringing cinema efficiently to audiences who are hearing or visually impaired. These ongoing trials will help us identify for them a better cinema experience, which is the aim of us all."

The DTS-CSS provides two vital solutions. First is captioning. Traditionally, deaf and hard of hearing audiences had to wait until a specially captioned print - in which the captions are etched onto the film - was available in a nearby cinema; these special prints have historically been produced in limited numbers.

What the DTS-CSS system does is project the captions onto the screen, using a small video projector, which enables the cinema to use a standard release print for captioned shows. To run a showing with captions, a DTS-CSS equipped screen simply needs to turn the system on.

A captioned presentation is different from a subtitled presentation in that the caption information is much more explanatory than subtitles, describing sound effects as well as dialogue, which itself is placed on the screen to denote who is speaking and where the action is taking place.

The second solution, audio description, has been developed for the blind and partially sighted. The audio description is received on infrared headphones and does not disturb other moviegoers. In the gaps between dialogue a narrator describes the scene and the action, characters are described, visual jokes explained and body language outlined in the narrative, while the "open ear" design allows the user to hear the same movie soundtrack being heard by the rest of the audience.

All eleven screens, located in Belfast, Cardiff, Gateshead, Glasgow, Guildford, London, Nantgarw, Uxbridge and Wolverhampton, are offering audio description during the trial, with five of the cinemas also providing captions. Both services will be offered at selected showings.

Michael McAdam, Managing Director of the Moviehouse cinema in Belfast remarked, "Initially this new service will be available only during selected showings so that we can gauge interest in it. It is part of our company philosophy to make movie-going as accessible and enjoyable to as many members of the public as we can."

Denise Evans, Head of Broadcast and Talking Images at RNIB states, "RNIB welcomes the DTS trials so that blind and partially sighted people can experience audio described films independently in the cinema. No longer need they be frustrated by not knowing what's happening on the screen as audio description fills in the gaps where there is no dialogue with an audio commentary which is received through a headset. We hope that this system will attract back to cinemas those people who, having lost their sight had stopped going, believing that the cinema had nothing to offer them. We also hope it will attract new cinema-goers who are visually impaired."

RNID Chief Executive James Strachan comments, "Deaf and hard of hearing people have largely been excluded from enjoying the cinema until recently. RNID welcomes this initiative, as it will hopefully mean many more deaf and hard of hearing people will share with millions of others the pleasure of going to the movies. We look forward to the results of this trial."

DTS is the international technology company behind major advances in multi-channel digital cinema sound. To provide uncompromised audio fidelity, it adopted a unique technique of using a proprietary timecode on the film to synchronize audio on specially encoded CD-ROMs. This same technology allows the captioning and audio description to be synchronized to the film. By providing each release print of the film with caption and audio description discs, any print can be used for captioned and described showings at any time.

Jon Kirchner, DTS president and CEO, added "This is the first trial of its kind anywhere in the world and we are excited by the opportunity of bringing open access to UK movie-goers. We believe our technology is the ideal solution-it's an affordable investment that will yield significant savings for film distributors, increased audiences for cinema exhibitors, while offering a high-quality and flexible service for under-served audiences."