Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: What is DataStat Digital Sound?

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 10-17-2011, 05:48 AM:

Saw this on the credit crawl for PRIEST. It had Dolby, SDDS and DataStat. What is this, how is it different than the other two and where does it reside...in between the sprocket holes on the OTHER side of the film? Not much geography left to stick a new digital soundtrack.

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 10-17-2011, 06:21 AM:

Hello Frank

Have you ever heard that DTS is now DataSat?

It is 100% compatible with your present DTS systems.

Same process / new name.

KEN

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 10-17-2011, 06:36 AM:

Hey Ken -- thanks. I did hear that, right here on FT, but I never actually saw it in print or on a credit crawl and it just drew a blank. Happens a lot these days. [Confused]

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 10-17-2011, 09:22 AM:

Frank: it get worse with the years. . . . at least I think so. Louis

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 10-17-2011, 11:44 AM:

OK, I've made it over the hill, now what?

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 10-17-2011, 12:32 PM:

It's downhill all the way!

Most of the frequently called phone numbers in your address book start with "Dr.".

KEN

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 10-17-2011, 02:18 PM:

Don't worry, Frank.

You might be over the hill but, from now on, you'll pick up speed.
[Big Grin]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-17-2011, 08:43 PM:

Don't worry, Datastat chose the worst possible name for their company, one that is instantly forgettable. Serves 'em right for choosing such a dumb name. I wonder who was the guy who made the final decision on that name.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 10-17-2011, 09:02 PM:

It was probably Frank. [Wink]

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 10-17-2011, 09:03 PM:

I think a comouter program chose the name to save on labor! [Cool]

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 10-17-2011, 09:23 PM:

quote: Joe Redifer
Datastat chose the worst possible name for their company

Given that DTS was a well established name, they should have at least done something like "Datastat DTS" or "DTS by Datastat".

Posted by Connor Wilson (Member # 6088) on 10-17-2011, 09:32 PM:

Yes, it's basically DTS, all flesh, blood and heritage. The thing is, DTS sold off their film division and are now a consumer-focused company.

But the Datasat logo can also advertise a digital cinema using their equipment. Their flagship audio processor, the AP-20, can play up to all 16 channels of the DCI spec (most Dolby processors can do up to 8). Maybe we'll see Datasat 3-Dimensional 16-Channel Envelop-Sound sometime in the future?

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 10-17-2011, 11:05 PM:

Yup....guess we should get a headstart growing a couple of extra ears in the back and on top of our heads.

Posted by Jock Blakley (Member # 6552) on 10-17-2011, 11:41 PM:

Indeed, so forgettable and bland is the name that none of you have noticed it's "DATASAT", rather than "DATASTAT" [Big Grin]

Naturally I'm still seeing posters and credit crawls that use some version of the old DTS logo.

Now I'm just waiting for Deluxe to start sending out boxes marked "DDE/SR-D/SR/CYAN" and royally confusing everybody.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 10-17-2011, 11:52 PM:

quote: Connor Wilson
Yes, it's basically DTS, all flesh, blood and heritage. The thing is, DTS sold off their film division and are now a consumer-focused company.

But the Datasat logo can also advertise a digital cinema using their equipment. Their flagship audio processor, the AP-20, can play up to all 16 channels of the DCI spec (most Dolby processors can do up to 8). Maybe we'll see Datasat 3-Dimensional 16-Channel Envelop-Sound sometime in the future?

or at least 11 channel sound:

five front + bass
four surround
overhead channel

[Wink]

Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 10-18-2011, 09:21 AM:

Funny how the mind plays tricks on you. I've always known it was Datasat and my mind completely ignored the second T and read it as Datasat in the title and every post above Jock's.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-18-2011, 12:16 PM:

Yeah, I think it's pretty crazy for "Datasat" not to have some arrangement in carrying on the DTS brand name.

While the Datasat brand name has started to appear on movie posters, movie trailers and end credits I think the brand name will be visible there only temporarily. The lossy compressed theatrical digital audio formats are made specifically for 35mm prints. With film prints on their way out and seemingly generic uncompressed Linear PCM becoming emerging as the main audio standard via digital cinema it's only a matter of time before the Dolby Digital, DTS and SDDS logos are dropped from movie marketing materials.

Movie distributors sure have not been advertising the digital cinema systems in movie marketing. Just digital 3D (and only RealD and IMAX 3D at that). Companies other than Dolby who make D-cinema servers have virtually no chance of becoming a household name since there is no consumer electronics tie-in to it. In the end the Datasat brand name may only be a curious footnote in terms of visibility to average movie-goers.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-18-2011, 01:43 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
Movie distributors sure have not been advertising the digital cinema systems in movie marketing.

Well that would be almost impossible, given all the different brand names and equipment combinations available. Plus they use the same materials to advertise locations where film is being shown.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 10-18-2011, 02:41 PM:

Bobby: I think the only reason they are there now is legal. Credit is a portion of the contract that involves payment. Louis

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 10-19-2011, 09:07 AM:

quote: Joe Redifer
Don't worry, Datastat chose the worst possible name for their company, one that is instantly forgettable. Serves 'em right for choosing such a dumb name. I wonder who was the guy who made the final decision on that name.

I don't know who it is, but that guy must have gotten a job over at Netflix this summer... <cough>Qwikster</cough>

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 10-19-2011, 11:44 AM:

Scott, these things don't get done by one guy...stuff that you and I do in a matter of a few minutes, in the corporate world, it takes a gaggle of suits all shooting two dozen emails back and forth in "phase one" of getting something done. Then a slew of back and forth calendar meeting emails set a date for a conference for phase two -- the "proposal phase," then a few hours all sitting around in a conference room "batting ideas off each other," each trying to look smarter than the other for phase three, then, when they finally all agree and spend an hour pat each other on the back wondering if they scored the most points to position themselves for the next move up the ladder, they will then have to hire an independent "focus group" because not a single one of them has the cahones to risk doing anything that might fail (gasp!) and they will always need to blame it on someone other than themselves, so it will be that bunch of real people the focus group paid to sit in a room giving their opinion on the "brilliant idea" the suits came up with. If it fails, they can say it must not have been a good "demographic slice" they got in the focus group. Yah, that's it, it was those stupid people off the street...what do THEY know.

Evidently in the case of Netflix, one of the suits in Budget and Finance thought it would be cost effective to skip the focus group and take a bold move and go with Creative Dept.'s "brilliant idea."

And that, boys and girls, is the story behind Netflix landing a 23% price increase on loyal customers without so much as a howdydo and an ASSinine name launch like Qwix-effin-ster.

You can bet that when this thing crashed and burned as nastily as it did, there was a lot of rats running from the sinking ship and you could hear lot of it-wasn't-my-idea"s in the hallways.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-19-2011, 12:38 PM:

Frank, you forgot about all the people the execs use to create lots of PowerPoint presentations on each version of the "brilliant idea" along with enough printed material to eradicate a small rain forest.

As for the Netflix price increase: I think that one goes to the movie studios and them wanting an ever increasing amount of money from the Netflix pie. It's about taking care of share holders. And the only thing share holders want is that stock price gaining lots of value quarter after quarter after quarter. And the only relatively simple way to manage that: price gouge that stupid fucking customer. And that's because the customers can go fuck themselves.

Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 10-19-2011, 03:59 PM:

My old boss used to quote a commercial that he saw once that showed a stuffy boardroom and a bunch of old guys sitting around saying "we're going to give them, what we want to give them, when we want to give it to them".

Posted by Andy Frodsham (Member # 4061) on 10-19-2011, 04:23 PM:

I assume the new, truly awful, over-long, slow Datasat trailer is a product of corporate mentality - essentially inappropriate and compatible with nothing!

Outer space, flying saucers and more than a passing reference to ET; I'd love to see how anyone could stick that onto the head of, say, 'Jane Eyre'!

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-19-2011, 06:41 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
As for the Netflix price increase: I think that one goes to the movie studios and them wanting an ever increasing amount of money from the Netflix pie.

Well you can hardly blame them for that. They get over half of the money from the theatres, then two months later they turn their product over to an outfit that'll let a dozen or more people watch their movie for a buck.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-19-2011, 11:06 PM:

Yeah, and those movie distributors are the same idiots who agreed to the arrangement in the first place. I'm more appalled at their stupidity of letting RedBox decimate much of the brick and mortar video rental business. But then those same geniuses came up with rental specific Blu-ray and DVDs that are more aggravating to watch than old VHS tapes. Forced trailers and commercials, no extras, no chapter stops, etc. At least with a VHS tape you could cue the movie to the beginning. You can't even do that with one of those damned rental discs. They suck! Consequently my video rental habits have dropped off to next to nothing. Brilliant move Hollywood at pissing off a formerly loyal customer!

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 10-20-2011, 09:05 AM:

When the split happened between the commercial group and the consumer technology group, I can imagine there being a tug of war negotiation in the conference room about who could keep the DTS branding.

The brand recognition of DTS is much more important on the consumer sector than in the commercial sector, so either that group got a sweet deal or they paid dearly to keep the brand on their team.

In a few short years, the DTS technology would seem to be irrelevant in the commercial sector, as the conversion to digital cinema brings with it the brandless PCM lossless multichannel sound. While Datasat may or may not make equipment for the behind the scenes work, its presence in front of consumers is fleeting at best.

In contrast, DTS in the home has flourished in the past couple of years, and I would say that it has eclipsed Dolby TrueHD as the dominant sound format on Blu-ray discs. Not bad for a brand that was on the ropes in the consumer market not too long ago...

But still, Datasat Digital was the best the commercial team could come up with? It sounds like a satellite communications company. There really needs to be a version of WikiLeaks for company employees to post how such decisions got made, that would make for some interesting reading.

Posted by Jock Blakley (Member # 6552) on 10-20-2011, 09:52 AM:

Wasn't being a satellite communications company Datasat's main purpose before it got involved with digital sound?

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 10-22-2011, 12:31 PM:

quote: Scott Jentsch
There really needs to be a version of WikiLeaks for company employees to post how such decisions got made, that would make for some interesting reading.

And so the old adage rings true: Really bad decisions make really great stories!