Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Alchemy

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

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Posted by Christopher Pettersen (Member # 8328) on 06-04-2018, 06:41 AM:

Hi there!

Just wanted to hear if anyone can share their experience of playing ATMOS features on Barco`s Alchemy.

In January we completed a 14 Audiotorium Cineplex all Barcos-23BLP with Alchemy and CP850.
As is was a huge project we had Barco helping us out with the installation.
Since launch there is constantly issues with Atmos features,

-Alchemys crash upon load of playlist
-Random dropp of connection between CP850 and ICMP
-3 out of 5 shows has a sudden delay of 3-5msec.
-Projector becomes uresponsive upon ATMOS "link negotiation" if you`re lucky it won`t crash.
-Loading of playlist takes around 30sec.

All of these issues can be solved by selecting disable Immersive sound in the ICMP.
Barco and Dolby have now been working for 3 months figuring this out. I also hear "rumors" that other cinemas is experiencing the same.

Is atmos running fine on your site? If so what version of the ICMP are you running?

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 06-04-2018, 03:37 PM:

How can 3-5ms delay be an issue for you? Unless you mean seconds.

Posted by Magnus Eriksson (Member # 6085) on 06-04-2018, 03:46 PM:

Only one over here (so far). A DP4K-19B where I replaced a DSS220/Cat745 with an ICMP.
It didn't behave very well with Atmos tracks in the beginning. Since ICMP ver. 1.3.3.1 my phone has been relatively quiet. I don't think Atmos crapped out entirely since the update.
I think most trouble has been the need for double KDM:s (one for the feature and another for the Atmos track)-
/M.E.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 06-04-2018, 04:44 PM:

The most recent ICMP update deals with ATMOS instability, I don't know wether it cures all issues.

- Carsten

Posted by Magnus Eriksson (Member # 6085) on 06-05-2018, 01:25 AM:

@Christopher: what version are you running?
/M.E.

Posted by Tom Bert (Member # 5719) on 06-05-2018, 01:58 AM:

There was a bug on the CP850 (since early 2018) that causes a connection drop with ICMP. Dolby has a beta fix being field test (successfully) for over a month.

It is best that you reach out to your local Dolby contact to get that beta package (should be released soon)

Posted by Tacky Ting (Member # 8686) on 06-05-2018, 02:23 AM:

ICMP v1.3.3.4
Improve the JNior client behavior so that all input signals can be triggered without sending an output first
Reduce the polling frequency of the CPL and KDM validation between ICMP and CP850 in order to increase the reliability of the communication between those two devices
Improve “Play Now” reliability to avoid a ICMP crash
Display Port are now working after an ICMP update (fix on the EDID)
Special characters are now supported in show titles

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 06-05-2018, 02:57 AM:

I've seen similar issues with the latest CP850 software. The solution for us was to roll-back to the previous version.

Also, it looks like Tom Bert got hold on a temporary fix from Dolby, maybe you should mention this topic to get some leeway with them and hand-over the pre-release build to you.

quote: Marco Giustini
How can 3-5ms delay be an issue for you? Unless you mean seconds.

Some people are just very impatient. [Razz]

Posted by Christopher Pettersen (Member # 8328) on 06-05-2018, 09:58 AM:

Hi there and thank you for the replies!

As i can see so far i am not alone..

When it comes to the CP850 firmware i have a fresh dev package from may. (cp850-upgrade-2.3.0.3-4582574-dev-barco)
Nevertheless it did not do the trick.
We where on version 1.3.3.2 but around march they rolled it back as they thought it was part of our issue. Then Barco tech`s arrived and did a rollback of our ICMP`s.

I know that they have released 1.3.3.4 as Tacky mention, but will wait for confirmation on that i should try it.

Sorry for the confusion about the delay but it`s about 0.3-1sec delay randomly that instantly magically disappears when you disable Atmos. [uhoh]

Posted by Magnus Eriksson (Member # 6085) on 06-05-2018, 04:09 PM:

Has anyone tried 1.3.3.4 with CP850?
I don't want to be first since I'm going on vacation next week...
/M.E.

Posted by Tom Bert (Member # 5719) on 06-07-2018, 06:41 AM:

This is the SW version of the CP850 with the fix (it runs smooth in our test lab and with field beta users): 2.3.0.3.4595940

Posted by Tacky Ting (Member # 8686) on 06-07-2018, 08:06 AM:

Do you have any actual experience with the CP850? The delay is 30 minutes.

Posted by Magnus Eriksson (Member # 6085) on 06-11-2018, 08:12 AM:

So: is CP850 ver 2.3.0.3.4595940 and ICMP ver 1.3.3.4 a successful combo?
The setup in Sweden mentioned above was unable to play Atmos yesterday. A reboot of the CP850 fixed the issue.
/M.E.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 06-11-2018, 08:47 AM:

A german operator with ICMP and CP850 confirmed that they downgraded the CP850 to a previous version (2.3.0.2-443922) and since then have no issues. Wondering why this is not offered as a solution until waters have calmed? Is there something in the recent CP850 software releases that is exceptionally important?

That site also took other cautionary measures that may have been recommended to them by others:

- not filling up ICMP RAID to more than 70% (possible bandwitdh/throughput issue)
- only ingest those KDMs that are absolutely necessary to play specific ATMOS content

Currently, they are glad it works and not keen to evaluate which of those measures could be a sole solution.

- Carsten

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 06-11-2018, 01:43 PM:

We're at ICMP v1.3.3.4 and 2.3.0.2-443922 in our screening room. We're not doing a lot of Atmos, but it is relatively stable with this combination. If you're running multiple Atmos shows a day, I'd always on the lookout for potential trouble... We know that Barco and Dolby are competitors on next-gen sound, but they really should do some better cross-testing of their software releases.

It's supposed to be plug-and-play, maybe it will work this way with the IMS3000. [Smile]

Then again, I like the Alchemy better than the rebagged Doremi stuff...

As a side note: We reboot our CP850 every night, the thing is not your good old hardware processor anymore, it's primarily a bunch of software running on PC hardware. I've seen the thing becoming unresponsive after prolonged uptime, probably due to a few memory leaks...

Posted by Tom Bert (Member # 5719) on 06-13-2018, 05:59 AM:

quote: Magnus Eriksson
A reboot of the CP850 fixed the issue

That is normal expected behaviour

Posted by Anders Nordentoft-Madsen (Member # 3334) on 06-15-2018, 05:37 AM:

We have been running af combination of 2.3.0.3-4595940 and 1.3.3.4 since yesterday with no problems, before that we ran a previous 2.3.0.3 dev version together with 1.3.3.1 with no problems for about a month, only the day before the last did we have "immersive render errors" on 2 shows. I does seem like the problem was in Dolbys end, and that the new 2.3.0.3 have (mostly) solved the problem.

What connection methode are people using?

It maybe worth mentioning that there are 2 ways of doing this:

1. The old way, setting up on of the extra lan port on the ICMP to static ip and connction directly to the dolby atmos input port on the cp850.

2. New (and perfered, I think) way, though the "command" network on the CP850, still using the one of the ekstra network ports on the ICMP (set for static in the same range af the command port), since letting it run though the network ports on the projector will limit the conncection to 100mbit.

Posted by Mike Renlund (Member # 4675) on 07-02-2018, 11:10 AM:

Dolby has released 2.3.0.3 (build 4595940) for the CP850. Users with Alchemy ICMP servers should see far fewer Immersive Sound Errors with this software and Barco's latest release. We continue to work closely with Barco on some less frequent issues and plan to release future versions with other improvements.

CP850 users with other media blocks don't need to upgrade from 2.3.0.2. There aren't any other changes/improvements in 2.3.0.3. Just ones targeted and integration with ICMP.