Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: What are my options for media servers in my small museum cinema

This is topic What are my options for media servers in my small museum cinema in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by John Hogan (Member # 10202) on 06-04-2019, 04:46 PM:

We currently have a Christie Solaria One with the (notorious) integrated media block. This system has served our small theater well for film festivals and occasional private screenings.

With an eye toward the future, I'm considering my options when it comes to cinema servers. I'm familiar with Doremi, and a little searching showed me that both Dolby and QSC now offer 2/4K DCI compliant solutions as well.

My question for the forum: are there others I should be considering?

Our theater schedule is very random, with weeks-long periods of darkness followed by multi-day festival events.

As we are a single screen, and always have a projectionist present, I don't need lots of automation features.

What I do need is something that is straightforward to operate and will handle the file formats and encryption keys that one could reasonably expect in present-day digital cinema.

Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Thank you.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 06-04-2019, 05:13 PM:

There are options now to swap the Christie IMB-S2 to something more reliable, so you can keep the Solaria One. I think Dolbys IMS2000 is one.

- Carsten

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 06-04-2019, 05:14 PM:

Until the end of the year, Christie does have a program to trade out your IMB S2 for either the Dolby IMS2000 (currently our most reliable server) or the GDC SX3000. They are not free trade outs but are substantially reduced costs and you can kiss your IMB S2 worries goodbye. So, if you are keeping the Solaria 1, then those are your two best options.

The IMS2000 has a web interface while the SX3000 uses a more traditional monitor/keyboard or touchscreen (not the Christie TPC, but a standalone touchscreen like a Planar).

I, or anyone else, (except Mark G) can give you pros and cons to both systems. But then you are starting to get into a "do you like Ford or Chevy" sorts of arguments. many thousands of them (both) are used world wide so they are each going to have their proponents and detractors.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 06-04-2019, 06:02 PM:

The biggest issue with "film" festivals and digital cinema is support for non-standard frame rates. Make sure that whatever you get will support 25fps and 30fps DCPs. Most (all?) Doremis will do this. Not everything else will.