GEO FOCUS CHINA
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www.audiomedia.com Eastern Promises
Long known as a hub for manufacturing, the Eastern superpower’s rising middle class has created demand for an entertainment industry that is fast gaining on its Western rivals.
POPULATION: 1.35 BILLION
AS THE People’s Republic of China moves further away from its isolationist past and into the global community the country has seen exponential growth in its entertainment industry (and, in turn, its pro-audio industry). The Chinese box office has
continued its remarkable evolution with revenues up 27% year-on-year in 2013, bringing in £2.2 billion according to Chinese market researcher Ent Group. The most exciting insight to come out of this research, however, is the rise of Chinese-made pictures, which now account for approximately 71.2% of annual box office revenues. According to Zhang Hongsen, head
of the film bureau under the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television, of the top 10 highest-grossing films last year, seven were domestic with director Stephen Chow’s action comedy Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (Xi you xiang mo pian) gaining the top spot, grossing £126 million. Yet while China has risen into a
global film hub (it passed Japan in 2012 to become the second-largest movie market in the world and is expected to surpass the US by 2020 as the most lucrative film market), naysayers are quick to point out the restrictions put on foreign content producers trying to
tap into the country’s market. Along with strict censoring (with re-
edits often completed without the the input of the original directors) the state- run China Film Group imposes a quota on foreign films that can open in the country, along with ‘blackout’ periods during which no imported movies are allowed to play in theatres. Yet things are starting to look up.
Under a China-US film agreement signed in 2012, the country increased its annual import quota of Hollywood blockbusters from 20 to 34, lifting imported films’ share of revenue from 17.5% to 25%. The has led to a huge demand for
facilities. According to a Wall Street Journal article, Wanda, the movie exhibition unit of Chinese real estate and media conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, recently committed to building 120 IMAX screens by 2021. Wanda has also announced plans to build a £5 billion film studio and entertainment facility in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao dubbed ‘Oriental Movie Metropolis’. The facility will include a 10,000sqm film studio and 19 smaller facilities, along with a theme park similar to Universal Studios. “The future of the world’s film
industry is in China because we have 1.3 billion people, and we will have the biggest film business in the world by
2018,” said Wanda Group chairman Wang Jianlin at the official unveiling of the Movie Metropolis last fall, which featured Hollywood elite such as John Travolta, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Christoph Waltz. Yet while the domestic Chinese film
market is entering a golden age, the music industry is struggling to stay afloat as massive widespread piracy threatens to crush an already ailing industry. A 2012 special report by the US
Trade Representative claims that an estimated 99% of all music downloaded in China is done illegally. The report goes on to explain how in 2010 total music revenue (which includes both legitimate physical and digital sales) was under £40 million. Compare this to £2.5 billion in the US or £42 million in Thailand – a country with less than 5% of China’s population and with roughly the same per capita GDP – and the situation becomes clearly dire. This, however, has not led to a lack
of demand for live entertainment (and the associated pro-audio equipment) as over the past few years the Chinese government has continued to allocate more funding for cultural projects, fueling the country’s pro-audio industries. According to a recent report from Deloitte, China’s culture and entertainment industry is expected to
Shenzen Media Group Upgrades TV Studios >>> BROADCAST
recently upgraded two of its studios with new kit from Studer and Bel Digital Audio. Harman’s Chinese distributor, Advanced
Communication Equipment Co Ltd, supplied a Studer OnAir 3000 digital console in each of the newly refitted studios to boost audio quality and capacity. The Studer OnAir 3000 is equipped with 30
ONE OF China’s biggest television networks, the Shenzen Media Group’s (SZMG) TV Network
18 February 2014
motorised faders, three master faders, and the Studer SCore Live processing engine connected to a D21m I/O audio interface system. With the addition of a GPIO card, it can support up to 16 channels, which enable audio and video functionality to be used in two live studio shows
and broadcasting programs. According to the operators, this feature reduced the SZMG TV Network’s workload considerably. As part of the refit, Hiroshi Technologies also supplied two of Bel’s new BCR-A4-4OB in-rack monitors and two of the company’s 7150 audio synchronisation delays. The Bel BCR-A4-4OB is a two-channel
compact multi-input audio confidence monitor and has only recently become available as a non-custom product while the 7150s can be used to delay stereo audio by up to 10.4 seconds.
www.beldigital.com www.studer.ch
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grow by 20% year-on-year during the next seven years to an estimated worth of RMB5.5 trillion (approximately £556 billion). The country is already flooded with
massive music festivals such as Beijing’s Midi and Strawberry festivals, and the Zebra Festival in Chengdu, with industry veterans looking to add more. “What makes the film industry
successful with millions in revenue? Even some bad movies sell well because watching films during the weekend is becoming a lifestyle among young Chinese people. Why don’t we run the music business like the film industry?” commented Chinese music industry veteran and Evergrande Music GM Song Ke in an article on China Daily where he unveiled plans to tour large- scale music festivals around 60 cities in China later this year. The tour is planned for mainly
second- and third-tier cities with tickets priced the same as going to the movies, around the equivalent of £10. “In the United States, every weekend
you can enjoy some musical events at open squares. That is what we need,” added Evergrande Music’s managing director Gao Xiaosong. “We hope [this] new way of enjoying
music could be healthy and helpful to the development of China’s music market.”
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