Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Technical Details of Fathom Events

This is topic Technical Details of Fathom Events in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Lincoln Spector (Member # 6835) on 03-23-2012, 08:05 PM:

Hi, folks. I'm new to this forum. Consider me an interested amateur.

Does anyone here know tech details on those special events done in movie theaters these days.

Wednesday night, I attended a special screening of Casablanca at the local AMC multiplex, presented by Fathom (they do operas, etc.). The image quality was well beneath what I'd expect from
DCP. You'll find my comments about it at http://bit.ly/GIuokX.

So I'm wondering exactly what I was watching. I'm guessing it was something that was highly compressed, then sent over satellite.

Lincoln

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 03-23-2012, 08:30 PM:

Linclon, welcome. I actually posted a link to your comments earlier in the Film Yak forum:

http://www.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=005531;p=12

So the admin's may move you over there, but maybe we can get an answer for you.

Posted by John Thomas (Member # 6509) on 03-23-2012, 08:35 PM:

The projector for our Fathom events is one of these:

http://us.sanyo.com/projectors-products-by-category-wide/plv-hd150

The projector is capable of 1080p, but I'm not certain whether or not the content is 1080p. The content is run from a Dish Network receiver/DVR, so yes, compression is definitely a factor.

I would expect that as AMC goes fully digital and ditches the "preshow" projectors, you would see more Fathom events run on the Christie's and Sony's (for better or worse) that they're deploying.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 03-23-2012, 08:53 PM:

If you want to present the Met Operas, forget about Fathom and go with ByExperience.

They don't use Dish Netowrk equipment. They have their own satellite and they use better equipment. The signal and picture are noticeably better. They do broadcast in 1080 and Dolby Surround.

ByExperience is a direct partner with the Met. They are not a subcontractor like Fathom.

The down side is that you'll have to procure and set up your own equipment and you have to maintain it yourself, too. Fortunately, it's not that expensive. They have vendors where you can get all the equipment. It's not really THAT expensive. I think the receivers are $500 apiece. (They ask you to buy two for redundancy.) Dishes are a couple-few hundred a piece. (Again, two for redundancy.)

They have a hotline that you can call in for tech support and they'll help you as much as possible.

If the dish blows off the roof, you have to get somebody to fix it. However, I think they have a list of contractors you can call. (Mercyhurst uses a company called Cleveland Satellite.)

We started out with Fathom events but, after the first year, we went with ByExperience because their terms were much better.

Posted by Edward Havens (Member # 4715) on 03-24-2012, 03:37 PM:

Now that Fathom is starting to program more 3D events, we now run all our Fathom (and pre-show) content through our 2K DLP projectors. The difference in image quality now is amazing.

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 03-24-2012, 04:39 PM:

I too saw the Casablanca event. It was run through the Dish system, and you're right: not as a good as a true DCP. I don't remember if Lord of the Rings was a Fathom event, but those did run off of a DCP and looked pretty awesome.

Our local cinema does run everything off of their 4K Barcos.

AJG