First Dream Theater set to open

Dream Theaters Inc. is set to open its first state-of-the-art theater next month in Guagua, Pampanga.

The opening puts into reality the vision of Dream Theaters to spur growth and development in the countryside by providing digital entertainment and information technology.

The firm provides direct-to-site movie broadcasting service powered by Dream Broadcasting’s satellite technology through a tie-up with Mabuhay satellite Agila II.

The Dream Theater will also house an Internet café where one can surf the Internet, e-mail, chat or play network games. The café will utilize a high-speed Internet Protocol service called Dream VSAT.

Majority of the movies to be shown in the theater will come from local producers and the balance will be sourced out from foreign producers. The films will be converted into digital format before the broadcast to ensure high-quality sound and video.

To address the concern about piracy, Dream Theaters employs the fingerprinting technology, which is capable of detecting unauthorized reproduction of the film while it is being broadcast to different Dream Theater locations.

The Dream Theater is available for franchise through Franchise One Corp., the exclusive distributor.

Franchise One is composed of well-respected men in the business community, including former Finance Secretary Jose Pardo, former Internal Revenue Commissioner Dakila Fonacier, former National Development Co. general manager Samie Lim and broadcast tycoon Menardo Jimenez.

Pardo, who sits as Philippine Multi-media Systems Inc. chairman, owns the master franchise of Wendy’s and part of 7-Eleven; Fonacier owns Odyssey Music Corp.; Lim owns Automatic Center, Blim’s Furniture and Sogo, while Jimenez owns part of GMA 7 and is now a director of San Miguel Corp.

Eldon Cruz, president and chief executive officer of Dream Theaters, said the venture is the brainchild of Philippine Multi-media Systems, a P1-billion company that offers the most advanced technology in digital broadcasting through Dream Broadcasting System.

Through a graduated expansion program, the target is to set up 100 theaters per year under a five-year development plan at a cost of about P2.5 million per theater.