(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – As of Friday, March 16, 2012, the Triplex Cinema will be a fully digital theater with 3-D capability. To accommodate the installation of the new, state of the art digital projectors and screens, the Triplex will go “dark” on Monday, March 12 through Thursday, March 15. On Friday, March 16, the Triplex will reopen projecting brighter, sharper, clearer and richer images than ever seen before on South Berkshire movie screens. The upgrade includes  Real D 3D digital projection and new 5.1 Dolby Digital sound.

Unlike with conventional film prints, the image quality of digital film doesn’t degrade over time and repeated use. The conversion to digital will also better accommodate the Berkshire International Film Festival, as festival films increasingly come in a variety of digital formats. The Triplex also hosts a number of one-time special event screenings on DVD that will no longer have to be confined to the smallest theater, since all screening rooms will be DVD capable.

Triplex owner Richard Stanley says, “We knew from the time we were planning the Beacon in Pittsfield that digital projection was where the industry was headed. That’s why we chose to open The Beacon as an all-digital complex. But recently, the studios have made it clear that they are going to stop providing theaters with film prints sometime within the next two years. So it really became a now or never situation.”

Triplex and Beacon general manager John Valente draws a parallel between going digital and the Academy Award-winning film, The Artist.  “The Artist is the story of a man whose career is nearly destroyed because he fails to adapt to the new technology of ‘talking pictures,’” said Valente. “We faced a similar decision here at the Triplex. Once the major studios drew a line in the sand, it was a case of ‘adapt or die,’ and we chose to adapt.”

Valente adds that he foresees no significant change in the theater’s booking policy and points to the March 16 reopening as a typical eclectic Triplex mix. In addition to holding over the Academy Award winner for Foreign Language Film, A Separation, the Triplex will open Pina, the creative documentary about the late choreographer Pina Bausch, in 3D, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax in 3D, and Friends With Kids,  a romantic comedy starring Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph with Mad Men’s Jon Hamm.