The Value of Networking from XDC

http://www.xdcinema.com/blog/

 

The Value of Networking

June 26th, 2008

 

Jerome Delvaux, VP Technology at Belgium-based XDC, explains how fully-integrated and networked Digital Cinema solutions can assist exhibitors.

 

Digital brings new opportunities for the central management of a cinema multiplex with the Theatre Management System (TMS). The question is: would you, as an exhibitor, prefer to have timely updates and overviews on all of your operating digital screens? If so, then there’s no longer any need to go to every single projection booth before starting the show to check if the 35mm projector is ready to run or else whether the audio system is playing properly and at the correct volume. With integrated and networked digital systems, all areas of the cinema are now interconnected, internally as well as externally.

 

 Theatre Management System

 

While most exhibitors are now familiar with digital projection systems, it seems they’re less well-informedwhen it comes to the opportunities offered by the TMS which provides more flexibility, effective monitoring control and new business possibilities such as live events, digital adverts and data-processing. With it, exhibitors can manage all of their multiplex screens directly, centrally, and therefore remotely, from the convenience of their desks. TMS also brings many new integrated and networked features that don’t even exist with the analogue technology. All day-to-day operations, weekly movie uploads and screening schedules are integrated into the system and so it is possible to set up a complete show for the entire multiplex (including preshow programmes, ads, trailers and movies). Externally, the cinema is connected to the booking system, advertising agency, distributors and content providers, as the following schematic illustrates.

 

Media-Catcher

 

The XDC Cinestore® Plaza (the engine room inside each multiplex in which resides the server) is perhaps an excellent illustration for the range of solutions offered by the TMS for a typical multiplex. It’s a hardware and software suite that enables the full management of a network of screens from a single point, while boasting a library capacity of up to 14Tb. It also includes a media-catcher for all kinds of media used in delivering content. Whether exhibitors use USB 1.0/2.0, Firewire, SATA, external Ethernet disks or internal harddisk cartridges, all that is needed is to plug in to the mediacatcher, the latter allowing the exhibitor to transfer content via a broadband connection or else via satellite according to the operator’s requirements. Ingesting from the TMS, either to individual screens or to the central library, can be readily performed. It is also very straightforward to set up and transfer shows to specific screens, thus scheduling an entire multiplex while no longer needing to be concerned whether or not the assets are stored on the Screen Management System local disks. All these features are available because the exhibitor is now managing a network of screens instead of several single screens.

 

In the very near future, the TMS will prove to be the centrepiece of the multiplex amid our ever-emerging and interconnecting digital world. Additional features will also include the management of plasma or LCD screens within the cinema lobby, as well as the digital posters dotted throughout the multiplex itself. The TMS will also be able to manage newer, emerging technologies such as mobile advertising and/or seat-sensor technology.