Odd automation issues - IMS3000 + Christie S4 + CP750

[Dave Macaulay]

Putting an IMS3000 in a Christie CineLife S4 projector I ran into some odd problems.

First, there aren't "channel numbers" in "CineLife" projectors with their new PIB (or whatever they call it now), macro name cus are used. But an IMS macro cue with the exact channel name does nothing. After a lot of asking around I found you need to put the macro name in as "PRESET macro-name". I searched the installation manual for PRESET and no hits. They actually can do channel number cues but only when you have a macro with the name "1" or whatever number you like. It seems silly to have macros with nondescriptive names just so the legacy channel switch method works. I did not try that way.

Second, the cue library included in the IMS3000 for a CP750 has cues as "cp750.sys.fader.50 \n" - note the space before the "". That apparently worked with previous software versions but no more. The space has to be edited out of the cue. Dolby will presumably fix this is the next IMS3000 version release. Embarrassing to have a Dolby server error trying to control a Dolby CP. I have not tried with a 950 or 850.
I don't know if a software update disables existing CP750 cues but that's unlikely IMO.

Just FYI. Maybe save somebody some grief.

[Steve Guttag]

Yeah, I don't know what the S4 designers have against presets. Barco has dropped them to 9 on the S4 and while you can have a bazillion Macros, you can only assign them to 9 presets. It would seem like Christie has taken a similar approach to it channels.

What I like about presets/channels is that they allow one to have commonality in function. That is, if you make FLAT (2D) as your preset/channel 1...it's ALWAYS that, regardless of what it is named. One can set up cues that call that preset for any brand of anything and know it will be the FLAT preset (and likewise for the SCOPE and other commonly used presets/channels).

It's great that one can call Macros by their name too but for the more common ones, I'd like to be able to assign them to a preset and call that.

[Bruce Cloutier]

I am pretty sure we've seen issues where the newline termination was left off but nothing regarding a space before it.

[Steve Guttag]

The CP750 does not need a new line termination. However, it should not freak out if it gets one. I believe the CP950 does require one and/or possibly the carriage return.

[Dave Macaulay]

Removing the entire trailing "<space>\n" works on the CP750 but Dolby told me to just take out the space so that's what I did. I don't know what the older IMS software actually sent out, maybe that blank was removed.

[Caleb Williams]

If anyone finds this in 2025, the CP950 does require a new line after every command to work consistently.

There was also a bug in a previous version of IMS3000 software that caused the space to be interpreted and a character the CP750 didn't recognize. As of 3.5.20 that bug is fixed.

[Shibu Paul]

"It's better to map Christie S4 cues using 'FLAT' and 'SCOPE' labels directly, rather than numbering them (e.g., 1.FLAT, 2.SCOPE), as using only letters can sometimes cause execution issues with GDC servers."

[Ryan Gallagher]

Yeah, I don't know what the S4 designers have against presets. Barco has dropped them to 9 on the S4 and while you can have a bazillion Macros, you can only assign them to 9 presets. It would seem like Christie has taken a similar approach to it channels.

What I like about presets/channels is that they allow one to have commonality in function. That is, if you make FLAT (2D) as your preset/channel 1...it's ALWAYS that, regardless of what it is named. One can set up cues that call that preset for any brand of anything and know it will be the FLAT preset (and likewise for the SCOPE and other commonly used presets/channels).

It's great that one can call Macros by their name too but for the more common ones, I'd like to be able to assign them to a preset and call that.

How would a rep/art-house/screening-room handle such a low "preset" count? Do you just have macros for each format/source combination and use the 9 available to just deal with the format/screen variables?

I don't even do 3D here and I regularly use more than 18 christie channels if you include all the ALT source ones I need on a regular basis too.

[Ryan Gallagher]

I meant 9 presets, for some reason the forum is not taking that edit.

[Steve Guttag]

Since Barco calls Macros by name, you call them as such. Instead of using the touchscreen on the side of the projector, you use the Web UI "Web Communicator." For example:

image.png

The ones listed after "Preset 9" are available on Web Communicator, like FLAT_200. And, if you have Q-SYS, the S4 plugin provides for having many more "Presets." I only put 16 on this site (they haven't gone beyond that but I could go dozens more, if needed):

image.png

You can see that their day-to-day ones are in the top 9 (and consistent with their S2 projectors).