Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Satellite Delivery

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

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Posted by Belinda Schull (Member # 7997) on 05-18-2016, 10:11 PM:

Hello Guys

Since deluxe and technicolor are sending the trailmix does anyone here with the satellite system knows the usual day and hour of the delivery? Also do they provide the IMAX trailers on this service?

Any information about it will be appreciated.
Thanks.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 05-18-2016, 10:52 PM:

Seems like the trailers usually come in Monday evening, but I'm not sure of the exact time. I don't think they provide IMAX format trailers, unless it's something they will send for IMAX theatres. But they do send regular trailers with IMAX branding.

We are currently on the Deluxe satellite system and will be converting to DCDC in the near future. I don't know if there is any real difference between the systems.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 05-19-2016, 06:43 AM:

We have a customer on DCDC and I believe that while the system can download everything they distribute, you can only "see" what you are subscribed/booked for. For instance, if you don't book a feature, you do not have the opportunity to even transfer it over. I don't know why that wouldn't be true for the trailers either.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 05-19-2016, 11:03 AM:

What kind of storage capacity is required to handle all that content?

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 05-19-2016, 12:08 PM:

If that applied to trailers, it would be very inconvenient.

I play trailers here for stuff that I intend to play but haven't yet booked all the time. I put the trailer for Bad Moms onto Mothers Day, for example.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-19-2016, 02:26 PM:

Studios won't take bookings for new movies until a couple of weeks before they are released, anyway -- so it would make no sense that you can't play a trailer without booking the movie, given that trailers are released months ahead of the movies.

Is it true that movies self-delete after a few weeks? If that happens at, say, eight weeks it would be no problem for us, but if it's four or five weeks, some movies would get deleted before we run them and we'd be back to getting hard drives.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 05-20-2016, 07:04 AM:

On the DCDC stuff...there is their main "Kencast" server that downloads everything and they put on some satellite storage units (just WD USB drives) to hold trailers. Note, it is the FEATURES that they restrict you from "seeing" not the trailers, that I'm aware (perhaps for IMAX they also restrict things) so you can get most any trailer from there.

I don't know first hand just how much total storage is in the system but I'm sure that determines how frequently Deluxe deletes content off. I hear that they hold features on the order of 6-weeks.

We are integrating a DCDC system into a sub-run theatre where they may play a movie 12-15 weeks off of the break...SO...they will have to "harvest" features the way they already do for trailers. That is, at the moment, when Trailmixes come in, they take off everything they could potentially get so they have the trailer when bookings become more final.

With features, this is going to require more storage to harvest. Since they have a Dolby DSS system (3-screens), I'm upping their storage capacity from a mere 3TB/server to closer to 12 (it was going to be less but drive prices have been coming down to the point where loading 4TB drives in will not be very pricey)...so amongst the three servers, they will have approximately 36TB of storage capacity and, in reality, given that much storage, they can store everything on every server too for at least 15 weeks. In truth, one could go with just 6TB/server because that is 18TB for the 3-plex, that is enough to hold everything but it would be distributed amongst the three servers...in the event of a RAID crash (or need to rebuild for other reasons), you may lose some content not on the other two servers...with 12TB/server, you are pretty much triple backed up and when the feature is booked, it is already on all screens (this exhibitor always has all content on all screens in his plexes to ensure he can switch auditoriums on a moments notice).

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 05-20-2016, 03:03 PM:

I don't know if the DCDC system is different from the Deluxe system, but when content is downloaded to the satellite server, it has to be published to the cinema's TMS system. We do not have any access to the satellite server. The Deluxe system purges features about 4 weeks after the movie opens to make room for the next feature.

We also have the Technicolor system which is more or less idle at this point. The Technicolor system has an external CRU drive which holds all the content that has been published to your system. This gives you an option to directly ingest content to your servers rather than having to go through the TMS system. My understanding is the DCDC system has a similar external drive.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 05-20-2016, 04:34 PM:

Justin,

In a TCC application, the DCDC server acts as a Satellite drive. Now the installer can configure it two ways. It can be fully automatic (you better have lotsa storage) where as content becomes available, it pushes it out to the TCC...or he can configure it so it looks like a permanently connected CRU drive...which is how I've done it.

The only catch there is that you have to "rescan" each time you are interested in ingesting new content but then you are only ingesting what you need.

For other non-tms systems, it can work with just normal FTP so on say a Dolby server, you can set up in Network Transfers a location with the suitable IP address (and user/password) and everything will be there in folders that you can chose to transfer over. Should work for any server brand that can handle FTP transfers from sources you can specify.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-21-2016, 09:55 AM:

I heard Amazon is also going to try satellite delivery.

Mark

Posted by Brian Mendelssohn (Member # 9108) on 06-08-2016, 09:55 AM:

Does anyone know how much these systems cost for independent theaters. We are on hard drives, but it seems like less headaches for a satellite system.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-08-2016, 06:33 PM:

From what I have heard, the equipment is supplied by the distributor and you pay a fee for each movie you receive keys for. The fee is about half of less of what the shipping charges are.