Time Antaeus has appointed Christie Digital Systems USA to deploy its digital cinema offering in China.

The Chinese digital cinema organisation has appointed the US entertainment company to install 800 Christie CP2000 series DLP Cinema(r) projectors together with 800 Time Antaeus' Montage CDCS2000 D-Cinema Servers into a number of cinemas throughout China by the end of 2010.

"As a leading player in the local cinema industry, we have contributed to the digital cinema infrastructure in terms of production and distribution. Now, we have completed the digital chain by embarking on the digital exhibition platform," said Zhang Baoquan, chair of the board for Time Antaeus.

"By advocating digital cinema deployments on a massive scale, we hope to turn digital movies into mainstream popular culture that is readily available and affordable to the masses."

Jack Kline, president of Christie's, added: "Time Antaeus' massive rollout is the largest single, commercial effort and places China at the forefront of the digital cinema evolution.

"With its market of affluent consumers, China demonstrates huge potential for the entertainment market, especially for the cinema industry. These favourable market forces will continue to propel the explosive growth of digital cinema in the country."

A former collaboration involved 120 Christie CP2000-ZX digital cinema projectors being installed to deliver visuals during the opening ceremonies at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.