This is topic DCDC satellite distribution for a single screen in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-14-2019, 02:36 PM:
 
I think we are about the only theater in our area that's not getting our movies via satellite....but we're also the only single screen in a 40 mile radius.

I inquired about DCDC and received back a form to fill out, along with an email that said there are certain "minimums" that have to be met to supply us with the equipment....but of course, they didn't state what these minimums were. I sent the form in a couple of days ago but I haven't heard back. We meet all the other criteria (own the building, have a way to get the cables in, have an available circuit for the catch server, etc)

We play about 45 movies a year these days, usually within the four-week window that DCDC operates in. Do we have a shot at getting satellite delivery?
 
Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 08-14-2019, 05:52 PM:
 
One of the considerations is whether you normally play the content before it is deleted from the server. Looking back at my emails on the deleting schedule it appears to be a minimum of 4-6 weeks, but varies by title. Deletions scheduled for 8/16 are:
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-14-2019, 07:14 PM:
 
OK, so here is a real-life question.... I see on your list there, Pets 2 and Rocketman. We usually play "catch-up" movies in August that we missed earlier in the summer, so as it happens we are playing those two films starting on the 16th. I assume as long as I copy them over to our server before the deletion date, I'd be good...right?

I think about 90% of the movies we play are within the 4 week window.
 
Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 08-14-2019, 08:12 PM:
 
I'm not sure this isn't just me, being seriously old-school, but...
I've been dragging my feet on this because they want to put their dish on top of my snack bar, right in the middle of the roof, visible to everyone. My roof is flat, so there's no way to conceal it without building a "beauty fence" (!) around the thing.

I don't want anyone to get the idea that I'm just playing HBO for $10 a person, even if it's clearly not true.... to me, at least. So, I pay the extra $20 per DCP. In the end, I'm paying not to have to deal with an image I don't want to project, but there you are.
 
Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 08-14-2019, 10:08 PM:
 
Jack
Many customers assumed we were playing movies on DVD when we were still using film. Given modern technology, I don't think anyone would draw conclusions about using a satellite to receive content. As long as your picture looks good on the screen I doubt anyone would even give it a second thought.

Mike
If you have an LMS you can actually ingest the titles as you need them and keep them on your server as long as you have space. If you don't have an LMS it becomes a bit more complicated because the titles are downloaded to a CRU drive which you move to your server and manually ingest. The CRU is constantly overwritten, so you have to be on top of checking it for new content. That being said, as long as the content exists on the satellite server they can publish it to the CRU within just a couple hours.

I have the Cinedigm (Hollywood Software) LMS system. We are set up to be able to browse all published content on the satellite server and download whatever we need. This helps manage space because we are not having 16 different versions of a movie dropped on us. We also only need to ingest the trailers we actually use.
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-14-2019, 10:39 PM:
 
quote: Justin Hamaker
If you have an LMS you can actually ingest the titles as you need them and keep them on your server as long as you have space. If you don't have an LMS it becomes a bit more complicated because the titles are downloaded to a CRU drive which you move to your server and manually ingest. The CRU is constantly overwritten, so you have to be on top of checking it for new content. That being said, as long as the content exists on the satellite server they can publish it to the CRU within just a couple hours.
Here's where my confusion starts.... originally I was told that we needed a "TMS" (not LMS) to move content around with. Then later I was told that we don't need that since we're a single screen. But I wonder if this "movies off the break" situation will change that?

I'm not clear on the difference between a TMS and an LMS.

quote: Jack Ondracek
I've been dragging my feet on this because they want to put their dish on top of my snack bar, right in the middle of the roof, visible to everyone
I feel the same way about the dish. Our roof is angled, so the dish (assuming we get it) WILL be near the back of the building, well out of view. To this day we don't really promote "digital cinema" at all and occasionally people are still surprised that we don't use film.
 
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-15-2019, 06:34 AM:
 
Mike,

TMS and LMS are much the same except the TMS (Theater Management System) goes a bit further than the LMS (Library Management System) and allows you to create pre-programmed schedules to run your films on. You can do it at the theater or remotely. GDC has the least expensive option for a TMS and thats pretty much what everyone with more then one screen got when I did conversions. There is one single screen with a GDC TMS in Price, Utah, but he has three more screens just down the street in a seperate TMS. He does DCDC down load at both sites and has the DCDC catch server tied into both TMS's so he can retain content longer than the DCDC normally does. DCDC installs the equipment for free, but they do not tie their catch server into your TMS. An outside tech has to do that, but it is like a ten minute job.
Because of your limited down stairs space the Catch Server and the TMS Server would have to go upstairs and you would access them from the box office computer remotely with a desktop connection or remote viewer.

Mark
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-15-2019, 12:11 PM:
 
Mark - sending email.
 
Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 08-16-2019, 05:44 AM:
 
There is no difference between TMS and LMS. They are two terms used for the same thing. Maybe a specific vendor differentiates the two, but overall, they are the same thing.

There is generally no reason for a single screen theater to have one. I don't know whether DCDC absolutely requires one. I would think that you could use an FTP client to retrieve content, but I certainly could not swear to this.

EDIT:

Thinking on this further: GDC and Doremi allow you to ingest directly from an FTP source. Typical sources would be a TMS and each of the other screen servers in the building. This is a handy feature for ingesting content at the last minute or when the TMS is down. DCDC can also be configured as a source. So I can't really think of a reason why you would HAVE to have a TMS to use DCDC. All you need to know is the IP address of the Kencast server and the FTP credentials.
 
Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 08-16-2019, 10:13 AM:
 
quote: Jack Ondracek
I've been dragging my feet on this because they want to put their dish on top of my snack bar, right in the middle of the roof, visible to everyone. My roof is flat, so there's no way to conceal it without building a "beauty fence" (!) around the thing.
You don't HAVE to put it on the roof. We brought in DCDC early in the spring of 2018. They came out and did a site survey and said they would mount it to my metal roof with screws. I said, "you're not going to penetrate a perfectly good metal roof for a satellite dish". Our other option they gave me was to "mast mount" the dish on a pole 10 feet away from the building.

What we ended up doing was trenching a conduit run 140 feet away from the building up on top of a hill behind the concessions stand. We ran 2" conduit from the building in the trench up to the top of the hill and terminated it with a PVC weather head. I had a 4'-0 x 4'-0" x 4'-0" hole dug on top of the hill for the satellite dish mounting pole and filled it full of concrete. The pole to mount the dish on is a 2 1/2" dia. RIGID metal conduit pipe.

On the building end, we used a 2" long sweep radius bend to come out of the ground and then used an 2" LB fitting to go thru the concrete block wall.

We had all of that done before the DCDC installation guy showed up. He told me that ours was one of the easiest he'd done because we had already done the hard part ourselves.

If you use Google Earth, you can see where we trenched from the building to the top of the hill. The satellite imagery from Google Earth doesn't show the dish yet. Looking on the Bing Maps aerial imagery you can see the satellite dish up on the hill.

We only have two screens, so we don't really need a TMS system. Both of my GDC servers are linked to a Gigabit switch that the DCDC catch server is also linked to. We can ingest from CRU, USB, DVD, DCDC, or the opposite screen server. It's all done via a touch panel on the back of the projector rack.
 
Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 08-16-2019, 01:53 PM:
 
Mike -

The TMS/LMS thing. You don't actually need one to get the Satellite content. You just need to be able to push the content from the Satellite server to your GDC server.

They base whether or not you are eligible for a Satellite on your grosses and how many new films you play a year.

They pay for everything, so they want a solid investment.

P.S. I am in the process of switching my entire circuit over to DCDC. So far we have done 9 locations. Our single screen was not eligible because it is closed 5 months out of the year.
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-16-2019, 02:40 PM:
 
quote: Dennis Benjamin
They base whether or not you are eligible for a Satellite on your grosses and how many new films you play a year.

They pay for everything, so they want a solid investment.
Sure, I get that. I just wish they would put a simple number somewhere. "If you play X or fewer movies per year, or gross less than $X, you're not eligible." But they don't.

I submitted my form on Tuesday of this week and have yet to hear back yet, but I'm still hoping it works out.
 
Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 08-16-2019, 03:54 PM:
 
Why would they care what your grosses are?

I thought you paid them per movie that you get off of their service so why would it matter to them if your gross was $1.95 or three million dollars?

Or do they charge you by tickets sold? Something else?
 
Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 08-16-2019, 04:51 PM:
 
As I recall the LMS/TMS was a requirement for monitoring with the VPF deals. Our single screen drive-in had a micro LMS installed which served no purpose except monitoring - we didn't use it for content, scheduling, or anything else.
 
Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 08-16-2019, 05:39 PM:
 
Some VPF providers might have required that, but not all did.

quote: Frank Cox
Or do they charge you by tickets sold? Something else?
I don't know the cost structure of DCDC, but it's supposed to be a "coalition" and therefore it should be more of a non-profit based setup...

Similar shops that offer content distribution here in Europe charge a monthly recurring fee for their equipment (if it's rented) and service subscription and you usually pay a one-time installation fee. They usually don't charge per ticked sold.
 
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-17-2019, 02:00 PM:
 
quote: Ken Lackner
There is no difference between TMS and LMS
Well, the names are specific... Library management System, and Theater Management System. I guess this happens when you let the front office gals name your new invention.
 
Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 08-17-2019, 07:17 PM:
 
A TMS just handles talking to the servers/projectors...etc but has no associated storage associated with it. An LMS is a storage system as well. So, typically, an LMS has an assoicated TMS with it but the same is not true in reverse, a TMS does not necessarily include an LMS (storage that is essentially part of the TMS system).
 
Posted by Brent Barnhart (Member # 10321) on 08-17-2019, 11:54 PM:
 
Also, if you miss a movie on the break and don’t have it downloaded they will send a hard drive. In fact, they will do that if the satellite transmission fails.
I don’t know their requirements, I have it in all 3 of my twins and 1 of my single screen Drive-Ins (about to convert the other). I like it.
I did just meat with an owner of a single screen indoor and she said she had a hard time getting it, but pushed and got it.
 
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-18-2019, 09:56 AM:
 
quote: Steve Guttag
A TMS just handles talking to the servers/projectors...etc but has no associated storage associated with it.
Steve, Are you nuts! There is that nice "Manage Media" tab on the GDC TMS just to the right of the "Create Schedule" tab... It allows access to and movement of all media loaded on any of the servers. You can even move the media at a predetermined scheduled time and you can move media between all screens at once if your CPU and network is powerful enough. It seems to me I ran both manament and media cabling for all the GDC TMS systems I built and installed. As well as for the Cinedigm systems. All of the 40+ GDC TMS I built have 6tb to 8tb of media storage. Every GDC TMS I have encountered in the field that was supplied by Stwong also has at least that much media storage, a couple had more. Cinedigm did have a small management conputer sold through Strong that had no storage at all. It was in fact an el cheapo, non IT grade, desktop Dell computer just used for logging playout lists.

[Eek!] [Big Grin] [Razz]
 
Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 08-18-2019, 11:09 AM:
 
And those systems with on-board storage would be considered an "LMS". However, a GDC TMS software need not have local storage to operate. One can ingest into the individual servers and the TMS software can move content about without any local storage of its own (no library). The advantage of an LMS is you have a common holding tank to put content that is NEVER showing a movie so ingest speeds are fast, even with shows running nor are you waiting until BOTH the source and Destination to finish showing a movie...once the destination finishes, an LMS can push content.

There are TMS software packages out there, including "web based" that have no inherent storage with them...they just run on an available PC or browser and just use the individual servers as the storage. Those are just TMS systems.
 
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-18-2019, 01:24 PM:
 
Theater management system, Websters:

Theatre Management System (TMS) is a software program for managing the essential operations of cinema theatres. It maximises operating efficiency by providing reliable centralised control and automation of multi-screen cinema complexes.

Library Management System, Websters:

"Library Management System is a term for computer-based system that manages the catalogue of a library. The main purpose of this system is to manage library daily operation efficiently. a) To build a system that can receive input and generate automatically output in easy way and short time."

Interesting that LMS doesn't mention anything about controling any theater functions other than the library. It does not mention remote access, or scheduling.

This is why the gals in the front office and the guys not familiar with the proper terms should never be allowed to name a new system that comes out of the lab.

[Razz]
 
Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 08-18-2019, 07:29 PM:
 
quote: Brent Barnhart
Also, if you miss a movie on the break and don’t have it downloaded they will send a hard drive.
This isn't necessarily the case. I get stuff published from the satellite server for off-break openings almost every time we have one. The exception being if we play something after the content has been deleted. When something is about to be deleted they will usually publish it to your system. When this happens I will download it/save it when it's something I know we might play.
 
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-18-2019, 08:40 PM:
 
I have never seen a theatre with the satellite delivery setup, but I deal mostly with independent cinemas, art-housey and repertory titles, and "film" festivals. Is satellite delivery at all relevant to this end of the industry? As far as I know, it isn't, but maybe this has changed.

Everyone I know is still getting CRU drives delivered.
 
Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 08-19-2019, 05:58 AM:
 
Scott, I am not aware of any satellite distribution besides DCDC. As far as I know they only do satellite delivery for wide releases, or titles that may go wide. I don't know what a satellite delivery costs, but I suspect it would be prohibitively expensive for small releases or one off distribution.

When DCDC delivers content via satellite, it is picked up by every authorized Kencast server, regardless of whether the location is booked. Then it is stored on the private side until a booking is established. At that point it is published to the public side of the server where the theatre can see it.

As far as I know, DCDC only does one transmission for each movie, but may do it again if they have failures above a certain threshold - say because of bad weather. In the years we have been receiving content by satellite (7 maybe),i don't think we have had a single instance of a title not being available when it should have.
 
Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 08-19-2019, 01:26 PM:
 
Eclair has some sort of delivery system for indie films, but it's only available over broadband.

I believe DCDC has two broadcasts for content delivery in case regional weather causes delivery failures.
 
Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 08-19-2019, 05:27 PM:
 
In Europe nowadays, satellite is mostly used for alternative content/live. They used to do DCP transfers as well, and some systems are still up, bust most mainstream and arthouse content is now delivered through broadband, both features and trailers. In germany, we have 3 different companies dealing with these transfers, these are typically also shipping discs to non-enabled locations or in case of line issues. But we still get a solid amount of hard discs. I'd say currently, it is about 50/50. We don't pay for the transfer (at least not directly, it is certainly hidden in MG anyway). As a matter of fact, some of these companies pay a small fee to the cinema for (ab)using their broadband line for transfers. Other companies order their own line and install their own equipment, and all you provide is power and attention. I think DCDC works better in the US because it is a larger and more unified market. I also guess that in Europe many smaller urban sites do not even have a chance to install the necessary dish. But for satellite to be profitable, you have to deliver to as many sites as possible in one go, and that never took off here.

- Carsten
 
Posted by Greg Routenburg (Member # 1742) on 08-20-2019, 02:09 PM:
 
Mike, being a single screen, you can actually run the Cine Digital Manager TMS out of France for free. The free version has some limitations but it would give you a good feel for what it can do and if you come into some extra dough, you can upgrade it at any point to enable the extra features. I run the free version at one of our twins and it does a nice job.
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-20-2019, 06:32 PM:
 
I just got an answer back from DCDC saying that we don't have enough "turns" to qualify for satellite distribution.

But, still not saying what the minimum number of "turns" is.

It's really irritating that they don't give us anything to shoot for. I could always play more movies on the break, or download movies to save for later (if that's possible). Or, I'd even be willing to pay a fee for the downloads, as long as it would be the same or less than we're paying now for UPS deliveries. I'd like to have the convenience more than anything.

I wrote back and asked a few of these questions, so let's see where that goes.
 
Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 08-20-2019, 06:49 PM:
 
It was my understanding that the theatre pays a fee for each movie that you get from their system.

Isn't that how it works?
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-20-2019, 07:27 PM:
 
That's how I understand it.

The relevant number here is, in the last year we played 30 movies within their four-week window before the content gets deleted. According to their note, that's not enough, but she didn't tell me what "enough" would be.

I wrote back and asked what that number would be, and also if it would be possible to download content we anticipate playing (and pay the appropriate fee) and save it for later. I usually have about a 90% idea of what we're going to play.

So we'll see.
 
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-22-2019, 10:27 AM:
 
WTH! If you are paying per download why would they refuse you? Doesn't make sense to me.

Mark
 
Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 08-22-2019, 10:47 AM:
 
...because the theatre doesn't bear the entire cost of the download. Some of that is borne by the studio in lieu of what they would pay in a hard drive production fee. DCDC bears the cost of installation and maintenance of the system, and it's likely too difficult for a single-screen theatre to have enough bookings (or "turns") in order to provide a reasonable ROI on their install/maintenance costs.
 
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-22-2019, 11:12 AM:
 
So then the theater may have to sign a contract that runs a few years longer, or pay a little more per download so DCDC recoups it monies. It just seems like they've dropped the ball again for smaller exhibiters.
BTW: I have a single screen in Utah that has DCDC!

Mark
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-22-2019, 12:54 PM:
 
quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
It just seems like they've dropped the ball again for smaller exhibiters.
Yup. There are advantages to being on the bottom of the food chain but it gets really irritating not having the perks enjoyed by the big boys.

I did write back and ask what their "minimum" is.... if it's 100 movies or something like that, then we're screwed.... but if they're looking for, say, 40 films in a year, we should be able to hit that just by creative/careful booking. I just want to know what the freaking number is.

Or I'd be willing to pay for the equipment too, as long as there's a reasonable upgrade path.

If anybody knows anybody "higher up" in DCDC that I could contact to grease this up a bit, I'd be all ears.
 
Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 08-22-2019, 03:00 PM:
 
Still no studios offering their DCPs as download via broadband in the U.S.? And nobody jumping on the bandwagon of doing so? In this day and age, it can't be much more expensive than timeslots on a satellite transponder...
 
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-22-2019, 03:58 PM:
 
Mike.... It would appear that Darla, Maya, or Sharon should be able to answer your questions. I would start by making phone calls... And I'd start with Darla since she is VP Of Exhibitor Operations.

Who We Are

Phone: 310-651-2600
Fax: 310-651-2601

E-mail: info@dcdcnetwork.com
 
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-22-2019, 05:54 PM:
 
quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
It just seems like they've dropped the ball again for smaller exhibiters.
Isn't that sort of normal for this industry?
 
Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 08-22-2019, 11:49 PM:
 
We are saving at least half our film delivery costs per year by switching to Satellite. They pay to install the system, we save half the money we were spending a year.

It was a no brainer for us.
 
Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 08-23-2019, 04:44 AM:
 
Over here, it is no problem to install the dish on your own using local companies. Maybe there is a way to negotiate dish installation and cabling.

- Carsten
 
Posted by Rick Cohen (Member # 6140) on 08-25-2019, 04:08 PM:
 
Maybe if you offer to purchase the satellite dish, server, and installation on your own dime, they will service your location. DCDC is a business, so they will expect a return on their investment. If you are not generating enough delivery fees to meet their criteria, they look at you as a money losing proposition. Maybe if you can remove the burden of the initial investment from them, they will be more willing to add you to their delivery network.
 
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-25-2019, 07:46 PM:
 
Rick, Are any drive ins using the service?
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-25-2019, 09:14 PM:
 
quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Mike.... It would appear that Darla, Maya, or Sharon should be able to answer your questions.
Maya is the one who shot down my original inquiry.

I did write back and ask what the mininum bookings was (no answer yet) and there is a DCDC theater in western Montana that will be closing next year when their lease is up, so maybe we can use that equipment here...that owner is going to check with DCDC about that when it gets closer.

I also did find out that it's possible to download a movie and save it if you expect to play it later, so in reality, they would get paid for all of our bookings in a given year, not just the 30 that played within the 4-week time frame.
 
Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 08-26-2019, 10:28 AM:
 
quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Rick, Are any drive ins using the service?
I'm not Rick, but I know of several drive-ins that have DCDC - mine included. We are a two screen drive-in, have no TMS, and DCDC works wonders for us.

They came out and did a physical on-site assessment, and once I got my part of the installation taken care of, they came back out installed the dish, the Kencast server and the rack it's all in. I ran the interior cabling to our content media network rack, and had the tech guys at American Cinema dial-in and configure the GDC servers to add the DCDC system as another ingest source. Pretty painless.
 
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-26-2019, 11:11 AM:
 
Barry, so I guess the ultimate question is... How many films a year do you book?

Mark
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-26-2019, 12:14 PM:
 
Barry's got two screens though... Mark didn't you say you had a single screen customer in Utah? Is he part of a chain?
 
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-26-2019, 12:18 PM:
 
I'm not sure if Barry runs all year round though. We are far south here, but not THAT far south.

My customer has three more screens down the street. But each site has a dish and server. He is first run on all his screens.

Mark
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-26-2019, 01:33 PM:
 
Also drive-ins tend to book a lot of double features so that would also raise their count of movies.

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
My customer has three more screens down the street. But each site has a dish and server. He is first run on all his screens.
That probably won't work for a comparison either then -- I talked to a friend of mine who has a small chain in western Montana, they have a couple of single screen locations that havd DCDC, but they agreed to install it at the singles due to the numbers generated by the whole chain. (They have 11 locations total and around 24 screens.)

We need to find out if there are any single screen, single locations operations I guess. (If not, we could be a trendsetter....maybe?)
 
Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 08-28-2019, 08:42 AM:
 
quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Barry, so I guess the ultimate question is... How many films a year do you book?
Last year (2018) we booked in and played 59 different films. We've played 37 different films so far this year.

We are seasonal, but being in the south our season tends to run longer than the drive-ins up north. Our season runs from the 1st weekend in March until the first weekend in December.
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-28-2019, 12:30 PM:
 
Barry - did you have to pull any of those off the server to keep for later, or did you play them all within the 4-week window?
 
Posted by Rick Cohen (Member # 6140) on 09-01-2019, 12:40 PM:
 
I'm not Barry, but he stole my answer to Mark's question, so here goes:

We pull every movie off the server when it's about to be removed after 4 weeks. DCDC sends notices to inform sites when movie files are about to be deleted. If there is any possibility that we may play a movie down the line that we didn't open during the four week window, we pull it off the DCDC server and store it on our own server. We did this with Anna and Midsommer, even though we never played them, and probably never will. They only charge a delivery fee when you actually play the movie. It's mainly a convenience, if you play a movie outside the four week window, they will ship you a hard drive if necessary, but they prefer if you move it off the server before deletion.
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-01-2019, 04:36 PM:
 
Thanks Rick, that's exactly what I wanted to know.

I don't understand why they are balking due to the "not enough movies" issue when we could easily pull the movies we think we might play off the server.

Maybe the "problem" is the TOTAL number of movies we play... which has ranged anywhere from 45 to 65 movies in a year. The last few years it's hovered in the 40s because we're playing movie movies on the break, and not doing as much stacking.

But there again... they won't give me a magic number to shoot for.
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-16-2019, 11:08 PM:
 
Well, having just come back from the RMNATO convention and done a bit of networking, I found out from a guy (who shall remain nameless here, just in case it's "privileged" information) that DCDC is looking for about 80 "turns" before they'll let us have the satellite service. There are no options for us paying a little extra for delivery or anything like that.

Considering we have played a maximum of 65 movies in a year's time (and more recently, in the high 40s thanks to longer bookings on the break), I guess we can forget about it for the time being.

I'm tempted to write a letter to somebody about all of this and ask for some sort of solution but I don't know who I would write to.
 
Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 09-18-2019, 04:01 PM:
 
Maybe you should register as someone else's second location and then announce you've split up. [Wink]

I guess that once you're in, they don't easily throw you out because you did too few turns that year.
 




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