Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: CineConductor

This is topic CineConductor in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 12-03-2015, 07:33 AM:

Is anyone using this service?

If so, what's your experience been like?

They are advertising unlimited DCP downloads for $75/month.

CineConductor, aka Ymagis Group, aka Direct Cinema North America.

Text below is from a Film Journal Article dated April 15, 2015

quote:
Ymagis Group, a specialist in digital technologies for the motion picture industry, announced the expansion of its content-delivery services in the U.S. through its new wholly owned subsidiary, Direct Cinema North America, Inc. (DCNA). Based in New York City and headed by industry veteran Barry Rebo as managing director, DCNA aims to provide both distributors and exhibitors with innovative technology services for specialty films, alternative content, cinema advertising and trailers.

“Our electronic booking portal CineConductor and the digital file download platform via broadband are designed to facilitate direct commerce between exhibitors and distributors,” said Rebo. “We are an enabler in a sense; we will never be a gatekeeper. Our company’s primary focus is on being an open platform available to all rights holders and, with the help of our expertise, to bring their content into the theatrical marketplace here in the States and Canada.”

“We are thrilled to introduce this new service, which may be regarded as an extension of what we have successfully accomplished over the past two years with our respective European businesses specializing in content delivery,” commented Jean Mizrahi, co-founder and CEO of Ymagis Group. “This new approach to delivery allows us to offer a cost-effective download solution for non-mainstream content in a manner similar to VOD platforms. It is clearly not our intention to enter into direct competition with current players; rather, we want to best use the growing high-speed broadband Internet services to address our North American clients’ needs by providing cinema exhibitors with greater flexibility in programming.”

Reps from Ymagis Group and DCNA will be present at the CinemaCon trade show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, April 21-23.Live demos of the following new solutions will be held at the company’s trade show booth 2012A in Augustus Hall: the online booking platform CineConductor, the Melody theatre management system, and their new all-in-one server solution for exhibitors, Orchestra, featuring a library management system (up to 12 gigabytes in storage capacity), content receiver, TMS software and back-office system for logs.

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 12-03-2015, 07:53 AM:

CineConductor has been working great since July for one client. Direct Cinema is handling it in the USA under a partnership. Basically a dell server with custom software in your booth feeding your equipment programming and keys through your network. We had some issues due to network security connection to the internet unique to the client but was resolved by Jesse in the USA and Ymagis team in France. Typical trouble free install around four hours. In South Florida there four other units in operation. They charge the film companies for their service. When a file is sent to your location they send out an alert e-mail to whomever needs to know.

Posted by Julian Antos (Member # 5497) on 03-29-2016, 12:56 PM:

Anyone else have any experience with this?

Their sales reps will not leave us alone and it's driving me nuts.

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 03-29-2016, 02:19 PM:

Ooooh a new server option?!?!?! I'm intrigued!

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 03-29-2016, 04:37 PM:

Only another DCP download (distribution/file) server, not a DCI playout server.

- Carsten

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 03-29-2016, 05:56 PM:

But "featuring a library management system, content receiver, TMS software"?

What's TMS software and library management system in that context then?

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 03-29-2016, 06:05 PM:

Well, as a download server, it naturally has to be sort of a fileserver as well. And if you're there, why not let it play the TMS game. Needless to say many locations installing this device will already operate 'their' TMS.

We have lot's of these services in europe, where the satellite distribution system never really took off. Now, many companies compete her with their boxes, and some cinemas operate 4 or 5 of them AND pile hard disc shipping boxes besides them...

- Carsten

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 03-29-2016, 08:17 PM:

Wow. Who knew it'd be such a lucrative business.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 03-30-2016, 04:58 AM:

Well it isn't. They just believe that whoever has the longest breath will get the largest piece of the cake at some time. That's why they install their equipment (and sometimes supply the broadband lines) for free. The more cinemas they get, the better their chance to prevail. Right now, most of them are burning money.

We committed ourselves to only one system that for us seems to be the best and seems to have the better chance to survive.

- Carsten

Posted by Jesse Crooks (Member # 9389) on 12-08-2016, 03:50 PM:

We use this service. We're an art house and we use them for live theater productions, a few first-run titles, and some pre-show ads. You log in to their website to select items for download and they push them to a server at your theater, where it's connected to our TMS via FTP. We use Dolby servers, and the CineConductor shows up as one of the dropdown selections on the Network Content tab. We've had a couple of minor technical issues, but nothing to be concerned about. If you plan to program enough of the content they distribute, I'd recommend the service.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 12-08-2016, 09:57 PM:

At, say, $50 per round trip shipping movement for a hard drive, plus the cost of the drive and writing to it, it doesn't take many downloads for the hardware in the booth to pay for itself. Once the many competitors whittle down to two or three in each territory and Internet speeds and reliability in a given territory get to the point at which online DCP delivery is solid and reliable, I can see this sort of system supersede hard drive shipping pretty quickly.

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 12-09-2016, 07:01 AM:

The Ymagis / Cineconductor has been very reliable in the past 18 months for my client; with the majority of their content being delivered to the venue. The client has picked up another vendor due to one distributor's product and their hardware is tinker toy compared to the Cineconductor set-up. Ymagis is working to be a one stop shop with laboratory / postproduction + digital cinema hardware and manufacturing services