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"FROM WHERE I SIT...<br />
Our Forum For Readers Just Like You<br />
When<br />
1<br />
stepped off the airplane in<br />
Moscow for the first time, I knew the<br />
trip would be exciting. Like any<br />
other country, Russia proved to possess some<br />
things that were familiar and others that were<br />
very different from what I had expected.<br />
There's also anticipation in visiting a country<br />
rich in culture and history that I had read about<br />
and enjoyed in music, art, films and literature.<br />
You know that you are in one of the world's<br />
most important cities.<br />
hy Norm Schneider<br />
EAST<br />
EURO<br />
BIZ 101<br />
99<br />
opening in large numbers. This energy is apparent<br />
in most of the ex-Soviet countries. But<br />
the change is causing some problems.<br />
The economy ofmany Eastern countries has<br />
been hard hit by the transition, and capital is<br />
hard to obtain. Cinemas in the large cities are<br />
mostly historic buildings that are single-house<br />
theatres that hold from 750 to 1 ,500 patrons.<br />
Multiplexes are starting to pop up with the aid<br />
of foreign investors that can finance such ventures<br />
and bring expertise in the operation of this<br />
manufactured in the Soviet countries, most of<br />
the systems were monaural, and installation<br />
expertise was not generally available. That is<br />
all changing!<br />
With the expanded travel firom East to<br />
West, theatre owners are building state-of-theart<br />
cinemas with the latest technology in pic-<br />
Cinemas in the large<br />
cities are mostly<br />
historic buildings<br />
that are single-house<br />
theatres that hold<br />
from 750 to 1,500<br />
patrons. Multiplexes<br />
are starting to pop<br />
up with the aid of<br />
foreign investors.<br />
ture and sound. Renovation of existing cinemas<br />
is increasing as private and governmentowned<br />
cinemas try to attract customers with<br />
first-classpresentations.<br />
Some areas of Eastern Europe are more<br />
progressive in their plans and progress than<br />
EAST SIDE THEATRE, WEST SIDE SOUND: Moscow's Cinema Khudojestvenny,<br />
one of Russia's moviehouses to have received Western sound upgrades.<br />
With the change of government to democratic<br />
policies, there is a hu.stle and bastic to<br />
adapt to the new cnvin)nment of free enterprise<br />
and entrepreneurship in basincss. Construction<br />
is everywhere, and new businesses arc<br />
foim of cinemas. Stereo sound systems were<br />
rare until recently, and they have been sold and<br />
installed primarily by Western companies<br />
from Germany, America and others. Because<br />
very few products for stereo systems were<br />
others. Countries like Hungary, Poland and<br />
Slovakia are moving along much faster than<br />
are Bulgaria, Romania and others in terms of<br />
the renovation and upgrading of existing sites<br />
and in the construction of new cinemas. This
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