Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Anyone had any experience of LANsat from MPS (UK)

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Posted by Ben Edwards (Member # 8199) on 04-30-2015, 06:54 AM:

I am involved with a small independent in the UK. We have been contacted by MPS offering us a LANsat server/package to enable us to download DCPs and trailers.

It is free of charge and includes

Loan of an 18TB LANsat server
Installation of the LANsat
Loan of a satellite dish for use of LANsat delivery
Installation of the satellite dish
24hrs 7 days a week content delivery support

Anyone using this, sounds great but wondered if there is a downside.

Ben

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 04-30-2015, 09:07 AM:

Hmm, downside...?

From the latest edition of 'Cinema Technology Magazine':

'The cinema is well equipped with modern distribution kit. Nick said that about 50% of the films are still coming to the cinema on hard drives, but that proportion is dropping fast. A look at the racks showed kit from LANsat, Arqiva, dcinex, DeLuxe, Dolby and Unique - the company uses Pearl and Dean to provide its ads, via the Unique system.'

- Carsten

Posted by Ben Edwards (Member # 8199) on 04-30-2015, 09:23 AM:

We don't play ads, just trailers. Will see if we have to.

Posted by Cathal Griffin (Member # 5166) on 04-30-2015, 11:54 AM:

We've been using one for about 6 months. We have the Unique box as well. We did have the Deluxe Connect system but they've killed that project and taken the equipment back.

The LANsat is a really nice piece of kit. We probably get 30-40% of our features through it. You can have them push the content onto your servers or pull it using FTP.

It certainly has dropped our delivery costs.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 04-30-2015, 03:54 PM:

My focus wasn't on ads - I should have snipped that last part. Of course you don't have to play ads just because you install one of these boxes.

My focus was on having 6 different 'boxes' running in the booth, yet still receiving 50% of their content on discs.

I know cinemas in germany with a satellite box, and all they received in over a year was some trailers...

- Carsten

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 04-30-2015, 04:05 PM:

My nearest customer told me his transport bill dropped by £200 per month after I installed the Lansat.

It's a good box, more and more distributors seem to be signing up with it. The Unique box is only 2Tb and only really for ads.

You're also getting a satellite receiver plus LMS storage which you can use.

Posted by Nick Anton (Member # 8838) on 04-30-2015, 04:09 PM:

I just installed one today in our place. It seems to be the way to go and should def cut down transport costs. I'm testing the satellite side of it tomorrow…we shall see.

Posted by Philip Jones (Member # 6677) on 04-30-2015, 04:48 PM:

We've had one for about 18 months and have no complaints at all. We get just under half of our films delivered to it as well as a lot of trailers. It is also a satellite receiver so we use it for the live shows and it can record these as well.

We also have the Unique box for ads and they have just started doing Disney's feature films as well which is good.

We did have a Deluxe Connect but as was posted above, they have stopped that now. It was very under utilised when it was in there - only ever had about 4 films delivered in a year.

It's just a shame that the distributors can't sort themselves out so nothing gets sent on hard drive anymore, thus saving us all transport costs.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 04-30-2015, 04:49 PM:

Our transport cost dropped from 1200€ to 250€ after we went digital. Now with 5 boxes running 24/7 and still getting lots of discs, cost for electricity will eat potential savings I guess.

I'm afraid that we will need to install all this gear for a few years and then wait for most of them to drop out one by one until one or two have eaten the others and stay.

- Carsten

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 05-01-2015, 05:07 PM:

Could one of the downsides (maybe the only one) of broadband delivery be receiving a more compressed version of the DCP?

I know that in some countries some distributions create a special, more compressed, DCP for satellite/broadband distribution.

Has anybody ever compared the LANsat/Deluxe/whatever version with the regular DCP stored on an HDD?

Posted by Ben Edwards (Member # 8199) on 05-03-2015, 10:17 AM:

Thanks everybody, lots of useful replies.

In terms of lower quality DCPs being sent the current size of the HD ones is well within overnight transfer. Maybe is was something that was done in past when connections were not as fat.

Ben