Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: BettyBox

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

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Posted by Yves Richarz (Member # 10865) on 05-23-2019, 05:01 PM:

Has anyone heard of the "BettyBox"? Apparently a device to stream content to for display in private DCI installations, so that the end user does not have to ingest content from a hard drive. If anyone has heard of it, I would be interested in finding out more about it such as who makes it and how can you get one?

Posted by Daniel Schulz (Member # 1881) on 05-23-2019, 09:56 PM:

I have heard of it, and as a side note back when I worked at DTS worked with the Betty in question (this was pre-digital-cinema, so before the BettyBox was invented).

AFAIK it is used only in very VIP situations; studio executives and A-List talent that are on the Bel-Air Circuit for getting DCPs. I'm afraid I genuinely don't know who you'd contact to get one, but those companies servicing the Bel-Air circuit might have some idea.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-23-2019, 10:14 PM:

I encountered one, once. It's not a streaming device. Essentially, it's a server motherboard with two NICs, plus a humongous great RAID. If I remember correctly, the one I saw had about 100 TB of local storage.

The thing simply downloads all the currently released mainstream DCP features, which are pushed down the line into it from Deluxe Technicolor, or whoever services it remotely, overnight, when bandwidth usage is low. From there, a feature and KDM can be pushed into your TMS, DCP server or IMS acting on remote or local instructions.

An NDA I had to sign to work at this location prevents me from explaining more, other than to note that it was a screening venue that could be required to play any mainstream Hollywood title on current release, or to be released in the near future, at almost zero notice, hence the need for such a huge amount of local storage. Unless you are in this situation, I can't imagine any other reason why one would need it.

Posted by Yves Richarz (Member # 10865) on 05-23-2019, 10:21 PM:

Thanks for the info. We do DCI theaters for high-end Hollywood talent and other top brass in the industry, but so far have always done content delivery the old way by getting a hard drive and ingesting it.

I had heard about the Betty Box for a while, but never been able to get anything really concrete. It would certainly make the process much easier on the end-user.

I figured I would get some info on this forum and I appreciate the time you took to answer. I will look around further to see what I can come up with and post it when I do.

Thanks again!

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-24-2019, 02:15 PM:

It sounds liek a valid attempt to stop the leak of "Screeners" from the Hollywood voting entourage. At any rate, it wold be a good way to counter that problem.

Mark

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-24-2019, 04:12 PM:

Agreed. That having been said, I get the impression that these things are only being offered to the very highest end screening rooms and Bel-Air Circuit home theaters, meaning that only a small proportion of AMPAS voting members are likely to have one. Apart from anything else, a lot of AMPAS voting members are not wealthy enough to have a DCI-compliant screening room in their home at all.

If I remember correctly, AMPAS was trying to push some high end streaming box (I seem to remember that it cost something like $40k if you or I wanted to buy one) as an alternative to screener discs. But they ran into huge opposition from members, who won't give up the flexibility, and permanence of ownership, of the discs, without a fight.

Posted by Ben Ritterbush (Member # 10707) on 06-13-2019, 05:07 PM:

I am intimately familiar with the Betty Box - named after Betty Pollakoff. I could provide historical data if anyone cares to read.

At this time, Uni has abandoned plans for large scale deployment due to a number of issues.

However, CineSend has created their own box, which has been in use on the festival circuit for years. Now it's being deployed in Canadian cinemas and coincidently the bel-air circuit. It's far and away a better appliance which leverages Aspera up/down and AWS S3.

CineSend CSX

Posted by Paul Finn (Member # 10726) on 06-14-2019, 09:32 AM:

CSX?? I thought CSX is the huge eastern USA railroad transportation company I worked for over twenty years at. The company is also highly technical. Paul Finn