Santikos Theatre, Palladium, in San Antonia Texas

Earlier this year, Kodak installed its Digital Cinema systems in several sites in the Santikos Theatre chain including the San Antonio Palladium and the new Silverado 19 in Houston. During installation, Santikos Theatre's Director of Business Development, Richard Cieplechowicz talked about the circuit's philosophy and plans for the future.

On the meaning of the Santikos brand

Mr. Santikos is all about customer service, building palatial theatres that are so much more than a basic structure with seats. San Antonio has been good to him and he is paying them back by putting in the best of everything, building theatres like the Palladium or the Silverado. Those who come to his theatres are his extended family; he wants to be sure they have a great experience.

On their reasons for installing digital systems

We want to stay competitive with the experience we offer and that includes having the best technology. With digital, we can show more diverse content. We've shown the opera, provided by Screenvision. We've shown Disney's Hannah Montana concert. Those are added streams of revenue on slow days for us – and they're added opportunities for new forms of entertainment for our customers. They're generating money, attracting people; beyond what we could do before.

On evaluating digital systems

For us, this is new technology and we can't have 'down screens'. From our point of view, most systems are the same; the differentiator, for us, is service. And the reason we chose to go with Kodak for our new digital cinema installations is the service level that Kodak offers, the commitment the company has made to take care of that equipment, to protect us from uncertainty, to keep pace with our plans for the future.

On working with Kodak to handle the installation

What really impressed me about Kodak was – while we were in the planning stage, they set up conference calls with us, they came out to our site – before we had made a firm commitment to them – to help us prepare for digital. They didn't have a guarantee and yet they wanted to be sure we were set up correctly to launch digital. They gave us that level of service that we try to give our customers – and that was a big factor on why we went with them.

On technology and the future of cinema entertainment

Technology is just going to be so much more important to what we do, from the continuing advancements in digital projection to the connectivity of the various systems. As we get more and more theatres on line with digital systems, we'd like to program trailers and features, even pre-show and lobby materials, from our corporate offices. With concession monitors, POS systems, digital projectors – it's such a huge network that needs to be controlled. As we work with Kodak to do all that from a central point, we'll offer a much more coordinated experience to our guests and bring more efficiency to theatre operations.

On the circuit's plans for the future

In the next four years, we see the circuit doubling in size. As we do that, our technology will be more efficient, the amenities we offer will be greater, but we'll still be dedicated to the goal Mr. Luis Santikos had when he first went into the nickelodeon business a century ago and that his son, Mr. John Santikos, maintains today, to entertain the audience with quality, with innovation, and always with great customer service.