Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Can Doremi Digital products work with Dolby Digital Server?

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Posted by Rian Gayle (Member # 7571) on 04-08-2013, 08:37 AM:

Good morning,

I am deaf and have been trying to find ways to make movie theaters accessible to the deaf community in Jamaica.

I contacted the head of the movie cinema in Jamaica and mentioned that they could add this product: http://www.doremilabs.com/downloads/manuals/CaptiView_and_RearWindow_Setup_000469_v1_9.pdf (Rear Window Captioning) - Captiview.

They mentioned that it's a Doremi product that works only with Doremi Digital Server and unfortunately, their theaters use Dolby Digital Server.

My question is, is it possible for Doremi product to work with Dolby digital Server or is there a way to or a product to make the two work together?

Thanks in advance.

Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 04-08-2013, 08:58 AM:

Doremi has two accessibility systems. These are CaptiView and CaptiLink. CaptiView works only with Dormei servers. It uses a USB RF transmitter that plugs directly into a USB port on the server and relies of special software on the server. The CaptiLink system, however, uses SMPTE standard methods (especially the Auxiliary Content Synchronization Protocol) and will work with any SMPTE compliant system.

All systems I'm aware of support the SMPTE closed captioning protocol, though Doremi requires a special license to enable it. Further, SOME systems directly support Rear Window displays out of an RS232 port on the server.

Other SMPTE based closed captioning system include a system from Sony and the system from USL, which I designed.

All these systems are regularly tested for compatibility at ISDCF Plugfests.

Harold

Posted by Rian Gayle (Member # 7571) on 04-08-2013, 09:11 AM:

Thank you Harold.. I have to read through thoroughly to make sure I am familiar with the systems you mentioned, unfortunately I am not.

So from what you are saying, there is not much hope for CC devices or Rear Window devices working with Dolby Digital Server unless it uses an SMPTE system, right?

I will have to look around to see what CC devices or Rear Window devices work best or is adaptable with the Dolby system.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 04-08-2013, 10:13 AM:

You should als try to contact Dolby about it.

- Carsten

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 04-08-2013, 12:44 PM:

Harold is incorrect. Doremi makes their Fidelio (HI/VI-N) system and their Captiview work for all of the DCinema servers. They are called "Access Link" and Captilink for the Non-Doremi systems.

Posted by Rian Gayle (Member # 7571) on 04-08-2013, 01:21 PM:

From what I was reading... http://www.doremilabs.com/downloads/manuals/CaptiLink_User_Manual_002498_v1_0.pdf

It means that CaptiView can work with the Dolby Digital Server, once the CaptiLink is added to that server?

So the solution will be to suggest to the movie theaters to get CaptiLink and its components for CaptiView to work. That's if they can't get other Closed Captioning devices to work with the Dolby Server directly.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 04-08-2013, 04:08 PM:

The Accesslink transmitter has a USB port to accept the Captilink dongle...so it all does essentially the same thing but not in the server itself.

Note, the USL UPC-28C works too (with Dolby)...they both work by pulling the information right off of the Ethernet network the projector and server are communicating on ("Auditorium Network" in Dolby speakage)

Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 04-08-2013, 10:24 PM:

Thanks for the clarification, Steve! So, Doremi captioning (and HI/VI) are available in two versions. One exclusively for Doremi servers, and the other for other servers that support the SMPTE Auxiliary Content Synchronization Protocol (pretty much all of them). You can check to see if your server supports ACSP by telnetting to the server on port 4170. You should see the name of the server along with some garbage characters (this is the announce message which is largely binary, but includes some text). If the server refuses the connection, it does not support the SMPTE protocol, or does not have it enabled. I've also seen problems due to managed switches blocking access. Sony's system is interesting in that the server needs to know the IP address of the captioning device. It will refuse the connection otherwise. All other servers that I'm aware of will accept multiple connections from any device. The original question was about Dolby servers. They definitely support the SMPTE protocol (I was testing with one today). I am not aware of a server that does not support the SMPTE protocol, so they can all be used with Doremi CaptiLink, Sony, and USL captioning systems.

Harold

Posted by Phil Ranucci (Member # 3820) on 04-09-2013, 01:42 PM:

We tried this combination a year ago and it never worked properly.It was installed by Doremi as a test with USL and Rear Window. Random dialogue from the feature would pop up or freeze on the screen. With a Doremi server it was great and Rear Window with a Doremi worked too. Due to space reasons we didn't try the Dolby with Rear Window. Unless they've made huge strides I'd try out the USL system or Rear Window.