Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: satellite distribution for subrun

This is topic satellite distribution for subrun in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 10-17-2011, 11:37 AM:

How does satellite distribution work for subrun theatres like mine? How, for example, would I get a feature that's four weeks old? Do/would they (the ubiquitous "they") download a copy of the movie just-for-me when I have it booked? Or does it get sent out for its initial release date and if you don't save it on something right at that moment you're outta luck?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-17-2011, 05:51 PM:

I am totally guessing here, but I would bet that the satellite "prints" get distributed just like regular prints do, in other words they get sent out once a week, even if the movie is "older."

However given the way this industry does things I'm sure they've figured out a way to make it incredibly complicated.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 10-17-2011, 07:07 PM:

What I've heard is you would have a media server from Technicolor which would receive every feature film and then transfer it to your LMS once you have a booking. So at any given time you would have every film in release on your server, but they would not be playable.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 10-17-2011, 08:41 PM:

Justin has it right. Using the code key, you would then "unlock" whatever is booked. Louis

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-18-2011, 12:12 AM:

Both of you are incorrect. All of the mainstream content is on the satellite and downloads to the server at each location, but until your theater has an official booking, it will not be visible to your theater.

For non-mainstream stuff, hard drives are still sent, as satellite time is too expensive for the small release stuff. Also despite the encryption on the content, the studios don't even want you having the content if you aren't booked for it.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 10-18-2011, 12:18 AM:

..You can still kid your kid show series on HD's nowdays.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 12-14-2011, 01:34 PM:

I just got a flyer in the case with this week's Trail Mix hard drive titled "Why Drive when you can Fly!", flogging their satellite distribution service. This is the first time I've seen anything about this on an actual piece of paper.

It says to call or email for more information so I just sent them an email and it'll be interesting to see what they say about it.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-14-2011, 03:41 PM:

I'll bet it costs over 10 grand to get into it, which is crazy considering it's really just storage and a satellite dish. It'll be interesting to find out. I hope I'm wrong. But, if it costs more than about $30 per movie it wouldn't be worth it.

Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 12-14-2011, 03:49 PM:

I got the flyer today in trail mix as well. Haven't read it yet! Soon I guess.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 12-14-2011, 04:04 PM:

All the information that I currently have is what's printed on the flyer, and it says:

quote:
No Equipment to Buy
No Installation Fees
Reduces Physical Shipments of Hard Disk Drives
Immediate Savings through Discounted Print Delivery Fees
24x7 Customer Support

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 12-14-2011, 04:43 PM:

It wouldn't work if they'd charge any upfront cost. Only that you will find that the content you want to book for your subrun has been sent over the dishes weeks or months ago. And you wil have to order discs again. There is not enough capacity on these transponders to have all content there all the time. It is only economically feasible to have the mainstream content on it around the release window.

- Carsten

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-14-2011, 05:05 PM:

Well...I sure like the "no equipment to buy" part!

Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 12-14-2011, 05:07 PM:

Me to Mike and I don't even own the place! I guess Technicolor puts the equipment in for you.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 12-14-2011, 10:07 PM:

Besides, HD delivery is more of a solid way to get your content and to be ingested correctlly..satellite feed seems to "iffy" to ensure a 100% delivery..

Posted by Steven J Hart (Member # 2340) on 12-14-2011, 10:16 PM:

Of course this would only be good for content managed by Technicolor. I won't hold my breath waiting for them to install this system in my single screen...

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 12-15-2011, 07:55 AM:

Monte--agreed in principle, but I'm sure that there would be plenty of error-correction facilities built into the transmission mechanism. Ideally, the system would be smart enough to recognize a corrupted file and "phone home" to TES (or whereever) so that they would know to send the movie on a physical medium if/when the theatre is booked for it.

Sunspots aside, satellite transmission is reliable enough to be used every day for television news and network feeds. I'm not sure how this works now (is it all digital at this point, or is C-band still around?), but it is not exactly a new or untested technology.

Agreed with the comment that this will only be useful for wide releases at the national release date. UPS/Fedex are reasonably efficient data transport mechanisms, even if the latency is high.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 12-16-2011, 01:41 PM:

This satellite system, I can see, would mainly benefit the "big box" chains and their gazillion screens under one roof.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 12-16-2011, 02:27 PM:

I sent an inquiry to the email address on the flyer the day that I received it. I asked them for what they would charge me on an ongoing basis for use of the system, and how it would work for a theatre like mine that doesn't play many movies on the break.

I haven't received any reply yet.

On the other hand, I have just been hung for my movie tonight: I'm supposed to be playing Tower Heist. The hard drive arrived on last night's bus, so after my show was over I started ingesting it. It got to 45% and said "exception".

End of the line.

The replacement drive won't arrive until late tonight, so my theatre will be closed today.

I blame this on someone's (I don't know who) insistence on doing everything at the last minute. When a situation like this arises, there is absolutely no time to deal with it. I see no reason why they can't send stuff out on Monday or Tuesday instead of waiting until Wednesday so I won't get it until Thursday night.

Maybe the satellite distribution thing will solve this kind of problem.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-16-2011, 03:07 PM:

I'm surprised you get them that late. We usually get ours on Tuesday or Wednesday. The Chipmunks drive actually showed up on Monday this week.

Could it be the transportation they're using is slower? Our incoming drives usually come UPS overnight.

I do think they will make this system available to everybody, if not right away at least eventually. Not having to ship drives would definitely be in their interest. They could save $ on all the drives and the shipping cases, not to mention the labor saved on having to track all of that stuff. If the thing was only going to be available to the "big boys" I'd think they would write letters or make calls, rather than putting a flyer in with every drive.

Anyway - just tell everyone the "film didn't arrive." (I never call them drives -- they're still film to me!)

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 12-16-2011, 03:59 PM:

I'm really looking forward to getting some definite information about the satellite distribution but, again, nobody has bothered to reply to my inquiry yet. However, I suspect that after sending that flyer out everyone and his brother's dog is jumping on them to get the facts so I suppose patience is a virtue and all that.

As to when the drives actually arrive, it really varies. The drives come either on the bus or on one of three different couriers. Courier packages usually show up on Tuesday or Wednesday, but lately stuff that comes on the bus hasn't been arriving until Thursday night.

Having said that, my movie for next week (Arthur Christmas) came in the same bus shipment with the Tower Heist drive that didn't work, so it's here in lots of time.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-16-2011, 04:14 PM:

From a business model, it only makes sense for them to try and do the larger complexes first. However it is my understanding the ultimate goal is to have darn near everyone on it at some point.

Frank - why could you not borrow a drive from another theater? Was there nobody anywhere around playing that movie in digital?

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 12-16-2011, 04:44 PM:

My theatre is currently one of only two digital cinemas on this side of the province. The other one is a weekends-only community-owned theatre in a very small town.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 12-16-2011, 08:08 PM:

Don't know wether this would have solved your issue - but a friend just had a similiar case with a hard drive that would repeatedly stop half way through the ingest.

He was, however, able to copy the content to his local computer without any errors. Then ingesting over FTP to the Doremi worked fine and the DCP played flawlessly. Strange, but he was lucky he could play the title on the same day...

- Carsten