Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Computers in daily operations...

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Posted by Don Cross (Member # 2980) on 01-28-2005, 01:25 AM:

I've noticed quite a spectrum of computer hardware in the theater business. Some theaters are able to somehow get away with using a system which far outdates Microsoft Windows, or even color computer screens. Nothing wrong with an older system if you are able to make it work for you.

A note of caution about using an older system is: What happens if it fails to the point where the data is lost beyond being able to retrieve it? What about computer security?

On the other side of extremes, I've seen a few theaters operated by some very impressive networked computers costing several thousands of dollars. I know it's not quite a Dell 8400 with RAID or an Alienware ALX; but they're still impressive.

Was curious as to what types of systems everyone was using for their daily theater operations. Have any particular hardware or software favorites? Would there be anything that you would change about it? Does the system have a good learning curve or does one need to work for NASA.

I'm aware of how some people tend to get a bit terroritial when it comes to their personal computer favorites so- please- no flame wars...

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 01-28-2005, 05:54 AM:

Our POS system is Venue and runs on a Win 2k server. I honestly couldn't tell you what OS the terminals are running as they just boot straight to the POS system with no mention of what the OS is.

As for the office computer, its a Win XP based system with the Office suite.

I don't think anyone running a DOS based system has to worry about data security or virus issues anymore, as they are probably not on the net and no one writes DOS virues anymore.

Posted by Mike Williams (Member # 1140) on 01-28-2005, 02:42 PM:

I am waiting for somebody to come out with a MacOS based POS/Back Office system. My experience with OSX is that it is pretty stable and secure as well as user friendly.
I guess the main drawback is cost. Apple has never been cheap.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 01-28-2005, 04:26 PM:

Dickinson Theatres used to have a Mac-based ticketing system. I'm told that it was written in-house and was so full of holes that you could restart the box office machine and the ticket numbers would reset!

Posted by Don Cross (Member # 2980) on 01-28-2005, 06:47 PM:

I'm glad to see that someone has the same beliefs in the Mac OSX that I do. Over the years I've had quite a history of developing for two of the most popular operating systems; Windows (mostly XP Pro and XP home versions), and different variations of the Mac OSX. I've even been known to dabble in open source such as variations of Linux.

I wish I would have known about the possible market potential of movie theater operations a few years ago. I've done Mac work on programs such as Intuit Quick Books Enterprise Solutions, some Adobe programs for the communications industry, and some other office applications. Ironically I could never properly market them for movie theater operations. Maybe I'll give another attempt at it and see where it goes.

I'll have to see if I could get all of this to work on a system for under 2k per non networked terminal. In the past I've also noticed a few scratch programmers who leave their programs full of so many holes it almost should be titled swiss cheese. After a bit of tweeking I'm almost able to get my programs secure enough for even a bank to use.

Any ideas of key features in which this type of program should have??

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 01-28-2005, 09:39 PM:

I put forth that, UNLESS you know how to perform a task using nothing more than a pencil and a pad of paper, a calculator and a cigar box full of change you should not even attempt to do it on a computer.

Yes, I understand that, nowadays, it's often unweildy or even impossible to do some of the things that we do today unless you have a computer but my point is that you should know HOW to do a particular job BEFORE you computerize the task.

OK. I'm not saying we should go back to the days of mechanical adding machines. (Although the Curta Mechanical Calulator is pretty damned cool!) There are too many people who think, "Oh! I can do [this job] on my computer and it will be really cool!", but they don't understand the logical process behind the job before they embark on the project.

Once you have the process of doing a task firmly laid out in your head, the questions of what hardware & software platforms to use become easier to answer.

One thing that galls me a little bit is the idea that, just because a software system is old, it is no good. The lighting consoles in my auditoriums are all running on DOS and they work just fine. IF you strip them down to their essence, they are nothing more than DOS boxes with a turnkey setup. However, when I tell that to some people, they seem incredulous that such a system isn't running on the latest version of Windoze XP!

As far as I am concerned, if the system works AND you are not in danger of losing data, it doesn't matter HOW OLD the system is. If you have databases/files that need to be archived or transferred to a future system you should think about updating to a system that's more "futureproof". But, in the case I mentioned above, if the lights come on when the curtain goes up I could care less if the system ran on an old Apple ][ with 64K of memory!

I think it would be nice to see a theater system running on the Mac platform but I would like to see if OS X can be scaled down (hacked sytem) or if a good system can be made to run in Darwin (Unix) first. That way it would be harder for somebody to get inside the OS and mess with things they shouldn't or accidentally mess things up.

What I'd REALLY like to see is a theater running on an X Serve! [Cool]

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 01-29-2005, 12:49 AM:

I heard about that mac system with Dickinson, though I never saw it. Dickinson's new system, though not yet complete, is pretty good. I especially liked the IVR system that automated the theatre recording.