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Topic: The 5.1 of Catching Fire is out of sync here...

Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 11-23-2013 12:02 PM

A "manager" that doesn't know how to re-start the movie?

I can see one of the concession girls or even an usher not knowing anything about the "magic", but the bloody manager? What kind of people are running theatres these days?

I can restart my movie from the beginning of the playlist by hitting stop and then play, or restart the movie from the start of the movie by hitting pause and then moving the sliding doodad back to the beginning of the show. I assume other servers work in a similar manner.

Again, what sort of a "manager" doesn't know how to push stop and play?

I'm shocked by that degree of incompetence. Really shocked. Amazed... Truly astonished....

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Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006

posted 11-23-2013 12:51 PM

I will spare you all from another of my infamous "tin foil hat" rants.

But I can't resist throwing in at least one "I TOLD YOU SO!!"

I hope I'm in the audience some night when something like this happens.

I'll offer to go up & start or re-start the movie for 3/4 of the boxoffice cash.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 11-23-2013 03:16 PM

Frank, you'd be amazed at how little training is provided to people...and then those people "teach" the underlings.

You combine that with the fact most booths are so automated and work, most of the time, people just don't know what to do when something goes wrong. Why do you think Film-Tech offers the complete automation solution? We, aside from training people better, also are a bit more active in supporting our customers.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 11-23-2013 07:12 PM

We actually take calls to "turn up the volume a notch". Now these clients aren't so ignorant that they don't know HOW to change the volume, they just know they can call the NOC and get it done faster than walking upstairs and turning the knob themselves.

Still, we do get our fair share of calls to do things like turn on the cleaning lights because a patron fell and hurt himself or to back the movie up because there was a fight in the auditorium, etc. Many of the managers actually might not know how to back the movie up 5 minutes, but it doesn't matter with the full DCS package. They can concentrate on running their theater as they have no worries about the booth.

The issue here is for theaters without our package, they REALLY SHOULD KNOW how to do everything, and clearly that isn't happening.

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James Falloon
Film Handler

Posts: 72
From: Wigram, Christchurch, New Zealand
Registered: Oct 2003

posted 11-23-2013 10:10 PM

quote: Frank Cox
I can restart my movie from the beginning of the playlist by hitting stop and then play, or restart the movie from the start of the movie by hitting pause and then moving the sliding doodad back to the beginning of the show. I assume other servers work in a similar manner.

Again, what sort of a "manager" doesn't know how to push stop and play?

quote: Jim Cassedy
I hope I'm in the audience some night when something like this happens.

I'll offer to go up & start or re-start the movie for 3/4 of the boxoffice cash.

Just a quick note that not everyone down here in New Zealand has switched to digital yet. I'm not sure if the cinema referred to in the news article has made the conversion yet. Restarting a playlist may be easy, but restarting a film - well that's a different story.

Still inexcusable, but if they were playing film, at least the sound (when working) would have been in sync [Big Grin]

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Ken Lackner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1907
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

posted 11-25-2013 11:45 AM

quote: Brad Miller
Now these clients aren't so ignorant that they don't know HOW to change the volume, they just know they can call the NOC and get it done faster than walking upstairs and turning the knob themselves.

Do they not have the appropriate software on their office computers? You primarily use the Basis system, right? Can't you create custom control panels in Venue Manager?

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-25-2013 01:14 PM

We put Dolby's remote volume control in our office. Cost about 50 times what the parts are probably worth, but the time/effort saved in running up and down the stairs made it worth it.

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Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 11-25-2013 02:51 PM

Wow.

Precisely why I am moving in the direction I am with this business.

It never ceases to amaze me how much people DO NOT KNOW how to operate digital projectors.

Basic computer knowledge. Right?

AH-MAZING!

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 11-25-2013 10:43 PM

Ken, giving the managers access to the Venue Manager in a BASIS system would in essence be saying "here, now break the sound". No way. I'm interested in uptime, not dispatching field techs and losing shows.

Volume changes are a rare occurence. Remember the systems are adjusting volume based upon the attendance already. That being said we have been putting remote faders downstairs for the lobby systems that are ran on BASIS systems.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 11-26-2013 05:45 AM

Mike,

With respect to a hardware fader for a sound processor. If you factor in the time it took to design it, fabricate it and then the potential unit sales, supoort it...the price is probably a bargain.

That said, if your office computer had a NIC on the booth network, then you could adjust a Dolby fader via software. If you have a CP750, there is an app for it too. If you have a Dolby server (thought I think I remember you may have a GDC)...then merely put a VNC client on your office computer and you have the whole Dolby GUI on your office computer...which has the volume control on the front.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-26-2013 08:23 AM

On the topic of remote faders, these are incredibly useful in special-venue situations.

At one theatre (mostly a live stage house with occasional film screenings), we have a CP650 with a remote unit next to each 35mm projector and also one at the FOH mix position for the sound man. Since we show a mix of films, mostly older ones, the sound levels vary widely from print to print, and it is useful for the sound man to be able to adjust things to his liking on the first screening. Since the remote faders on the CP650 are all linked together, the operator can just note the fader values and use them for subsequent screenings of the same film (usually by assigning the appropriate fader settings to each format).

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-26-2013 07:08 PM

quote: Steve Guttag
With respect to a hardware fader for a sound processor. If you factor in the time it took to design it, fabricate it and then the potential unit sales, supoort it...the price is probably a bargain.

Hmm, I dunno....you can buy a full-featured desktop computer or a pretty good-sized flat screen TV for what these remotes cost. I'm sure the price is driven mostly by the limited market, plus that Dolby nameplate.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 11-26-2013 11:16 PM

Mike, have you ever designed something like that for small production runs? I have...and let me tell you, Dolby isn't getting rich off of them. It was probably in excess of a year before they even broke even on it.

We made the Sony changeover interface and had to sell it for about $150.00 each and it was just a little PC board with a few chips.

What it costs to make a TV in China with slave labor and a market with billions of sales is completely different than designing a specialty item with a mere hundreds of potential sales.

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William Kucharski
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 244
From: Louisville, Colorado, United States of America
Registered: Oct 2012

posted 12-02-2013 11:10 PM

I've been at theaters where they've done this and more.

The standard answer to errors pointed out even two minutes in (in the last case, the auto-masking system had broken at an AMC and they were showing a 1.85:1 film at the 2.35:1 masking setting so the top half of the picture was being lost in the black curtain) is "we can't restart a digital presentation" and offering you a free ticket to a future showing.

Even better was when they had screwed up the timing entered such that the lights came on about twenty minutes before the end of the film and the projection stopped abruptly after the programmed length of the credits.

Same deal - "here's a free ticket to see it again."

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-04-2013 10:13 AM

As Steve said designing and producing a limited production product one doesn't get rich
usually a min of 2 prototype boards that have full set up costs then often fixes for fitmware and at that point one finds out a component you used is no longer available

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