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Author Topic: Dolby D-Cinema Seminar Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-26-2006 01:04 PM                     Those of you techs that are wanting to know the ins and outs of D-Cinema should consider this seminar. Its an extremely well thought out course and very informative. I look forword to D-cinema and those of you that might be leary about it need to attend this! Mark Mark  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 07-26-2006 06:15 PM                     When? Where? Cost? etc...?  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-27-2006 12:00 AM                     I donno when the next one is but I will ask tommrrow and post it here. The cost was 800.00 plus hotel. You get a great rate of about 80 bucks a night. Held at Dolby in SF. The main thing is that for those of you that know nothing or little about this stuff Dolby has sure done an inredible job on the design of their Server and Show Manager. It has by far the most straight forword user interface I've seen... any bubble gum chewing booth kid could easily be taught to program and run them.... unike other servers that actually require engineers to come in and load and program. Dolby has spent the better part of 6 years designing this system and the care and great thought that went into it is beyond belief. Its one of the most impressive pieces of gear that I've seen in a very long time. Mark  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 07-27-2006 12:15 AM                        If the server is so easy to operate (I have seen it, but not played with it), what are the $800 for? Do they also cover digital projection in general, theory and practical work on projectors, servers and integration into existing setups, stuff like that?  |  IP: Logged Paul Konen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 981 From: Frisco, TX. (North of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-27-2006 08:53 AM                     True, the server is great and integrates well with existing automation. It's alot to ask for a booth to find space for a 4' tall rack to hold all the equipment, when there are other systems that can utilize 3 - 5u of existing rack space. Hence, I'm sure the price point on all of that is somewhat high. It is quite durable and functionality is great!  |  IP: Logged Sam D. Chavez Film God Posts: 2153 From: Martinez, CA USA Registered: Aug 2003 posted 07-27-2006 08:57 AM                       The course is ongoing for another day and a half so we will give a review at the end. The cost is to cover expenses and meals and has never been a profit center. This is the first general course of DCinema. The previous ones were to train a specific group of installers for Chicken Little.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-27-2006 09:30 AM                     quote: Michael Schaffer Do they also cover digital projection in general, theory and practical work on projectors, servers and integration into existing setups, stuff like that? Yes. Today is the hands on day with projectors... yesterday was hands on day with the Show Store, show manager and automation interface... programming for it's network and proper installation of it as well. We also discussed different network links... Cat 5e, 6 and fibre links. The latter probably being the better route for this stuff since its immune to noise. Like Sam says we will give a more complete review of it all at the end of things. The course is well worth its price even if you just want to just efficiently learn how to use the equipment! Mark  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-28-2006 11:34 PM                     Dolby has not set any dates yet for future courses but they assured me there will be more of them comming up. Anyone wanting to go might want to get in contact with them so they at least have your name when the next one is being planned. Mark  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 07-28-2006 11:45 PM                        When you were at the Dolby headquarters, did you behave or did you keep telling them that you think everything except Panastereo products suck? In other words, should we act like we don't know you?  |  IP: Logged Sam D. Chavez Film God Posts: 2153 From: Martinez, CA USA Registered: Aug 2003 posted 07-29-2006 12:01 AM                       The Dolby course was very thorough and lively with lots of give a take. The technical information was very forthcoming and open unlike the stance taken by of some of the DLP projector companies who are somewhat secretive. Dolby seems to be concentrating on one of its core strengths of training the industry about theatre technology. It's a model that has worked for over 30 years and in exchange the industry has always rewarded Dolby with the lots of business. Hope it works this time. The hardware and software seem very well done and the features make it very easy to load, assemble, and run a show. It's all really quite easy, once you get past the IP addresses and such that seem to challenge the older techs. Welcome to the future. We also had a session on the Barco which is what Dolby chose for their screening room. The Barco setup software is quite elegant and makes it a breeze to converge and fit to the screen. We also had a run thru on the Christie and NEC setup software. The picture was flawless on a 30 foot screen. All that remains is the cost issue. The projector prices are still very high and the servers are all over the place in terms of quality, ease of use, and price.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-29-2006 12:41 AM                     quote: Michael Schaffer When you were at the Dolby headquarters, did you behave or did you keep telling them that you think everything except Panastereo products suck? In other words, should we act like we don't know you? Of course I would deny that I know you..... We all had a hoot at dinner every night! I pretty much agree with everything that Sam said and I'd have to say that seeing the 2K unit on a 30 foot sereen at Dolby was very reminiscent of watching something in 70mm. Extremely sharp and with JPEG 2000 running there was that extra bit of detail and better color saturation comming through that really made the picture quality stunning. Keep in mind that this projctor was perfectly converged when we walked down to the screen to check it. The best word for the Dolby Show Store and Server is amazing! Mark  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 07-29-2006 01:56 AM                        That really does sound like you had a lot of fun there. I would have been interested to come, too, but I had no idea this was going on before Mark posted it about it here. We have had digital projection for years and now we have a system in each of our screens and run most of them in digital most of the time. We also did a lot of alternative content and other stuff, including digital open air, so I could maybe have contributed a thing or two. There are a few more problems in daily life than meet the eye at first but overall, yes, it is by far not as rocketsciencey as some seem to think... I have worked extensively with Barco, Christie and NEC systems, and with Doremi and Avica servers setups, so I would have loved to take a look at the Dolby server concept in action, but again, I had no idea this was going on. Sam - did you also teach classes at the seminar?  |  IP: Logged Wolff King Morrow Master Film Handler Posts: 490 From: Denton, TX, USA Registered: Feb 2004 posted 07-29-2006 02:26 AM                        I've had to become quite learned with my Dolby Digital Cinema setup. It has its advantages, but the main disadvantage is when glitches or other failures arrise, there's little chance of an easy fix or quick swap out. We've had quite a few problems and most involve the dreaded "software bug". Sometimes the machine would work fine, other times the software would decide something has critically failed when it hasn't. Patches introduced to the system every couple of months seem to trade one problem for another. A patch one month would make all but one thing work great like a light cue, then the next patch to fix this problem would screw up half a dozen other more important functions. I imagine once the kinks are worked out, it will become a more stable alternative to 35mm. [ 07-29-2006, 04:45 AM: Message edited by: Wolff King Morrow ]  |  IP: Logged Sam D. Chavez Film God Posts: 2153 From: Martinez, CA USA Registered: Aug 2003 posted 07-29-2006 10:48 AM                       I was there as a student as Dcinema is all new to me. It was a bit sureal to attend class as a student after conducting Dolby school for 14 years. Even after a 12 year absence, it feels very familiar. As to the attendee's, they were all dealers and their technicians. I can personally attest Mark was on his best behavior, except for some hideous Bermuda shorts he wore to the classes.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 07-29-2006 11:54 AM                        Looks to me like the migration to JPEG will make a difference that will give some stability to the market. I agree with Mark that the detail (only in JPEG) was amazing, showing frizz on hair and individual blades of grass, etc. Possible future problems are: 1. Obsolence & the insurance to cushion it. 2. Inability to cover very large screens. 3. A financial plan that makes sense, givien the previous obsolence issues. Louis  |  IP: Logged

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