Behind the scenes at the Berlinale

The 64th International Berlin Film festival is has come to a close and this year has seen it live up to its reputation as the largest public film festival in the world - with 300,000 tickets sold and 1,100 films screened 2,500 times across 25 venues.

With this Berlinale making use of digitised film across much of the event, it was vital that the festival was supported by high quality storage services and robust, quality networks to distribute the film data across all venues.

On this basis, Colt was asked to be official digital cinema partner of the Berlinale festival. Having supported the festival for six years running, this year our datacentre and high-performance network formed the ‘digital heart’ of the event. Alongside this was quality management and monitoring to ensure an excellent experience for the festival’s international audience.

Digitalisation is an enormous technical and logistical challenge for the film industry – the distribution of digitalised films, and the associated volume of data, is an enormous task. The organisers of the Berlin Film Festival needed a trusted partner to help them overcome these challenges and Colt, with our technical expertise and knowledge, was just that partner.

Our technicians were on call around the clock and on-site at all Berlinale events during the ten days of the festival, and Colt’s Optimum services for IT and Networking – ranging from broadcast quality network services for data transmission, to scalable storage services and internet access – ensured that the spotlight remained on the stars of the show. 

Our ongoing support of the Berlinale festival is a clear example of how Colt delivers the best possible customer experience. Over the course of the past six years we have accompanied and supported the festival in its transition to digital cinema, making it easier for Berlinale to secure the enjoyment of the global audiences. What began with a connection for internet access and video services has developed into a trusted partnership, with Colt now at the digital heart of one of the world’s most exciting film festivals.