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Author Topic: How many theaters are receiving their content via satellite now? William Kucharski Expert Film Handler Posts: 244 From: Louisville, Colorado, United States of America Registered: Oct 2012 posted 03-11-2014 12:28 AM                     I was talking to the people at my local AMC and they said as part of a "test program" they haven't been receiving DCPs on hard drive at all since the beginning of the year - all their content has been satellite delivered and they haven't had any issues yet. I'm just curious as to whether the transition as begun en masse or if such distribution is still in the beta phase.  |  IP: Logged Vegard Olsen Film Handler Posts: 8 From: Bergen, Hordaland, Norway Registered: Feb 2014 posted 03-15-2014 08:31 AM                    Satellite is old school. In much of Europe DCPs are delivered via broadband.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 03-15-2014 09:22 AM                     'Much of Europe'? ;-) I suggest reading issue 23 of CinemaTechnologyMagazine to get the whole picture: http://emag.cinematechnologymagazine.com/archives.aspx At least the heart of 'old europe' is still shipping around hard drives. And will do so for a while. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 03-15-2014 09:26 PM                        Several of the theaters I serviced here in NM have already installed and are operating via the satellite servers for both trailer and feature DCPs and special content like the Met operas. Just about all of the screens I handled used the Cinedigm LMS package. They revert to obtaining physical road drives only if the sat servers go down.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-16-2014 12:06 PM                     I feel the Satellite delivery method is a little premature on the playing field. In fact it was in place and then abandoned once already by all the major distributers. Now it is back again. I like the broadband idea much better than satellite delivery. A good T1 line would be way faster and cheaper than satellite delivery. And with more and more areas installing fiber optics that speed will only increase beyond what copper lines can do. And interestingly, don't have a single customer that is even remotely interested in satellite delivery. I have asked them. Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-16-2014 02:39 PM                     We have customers currently receiving ScreenVision ads via DSL and, I think, Satellite in some locations (we didn't do the installation of that part). It has been working out quite well in those locations.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 03-16-2014 02:47 PM                     Preshow content isn't anywhere near the size of DCPs, so that's easy to transmit over a DSL or T1 line. Moving a large package of a few hundred gigs through a T1 line won't be as fast as you think Mark. Regardless we've got a VERY large amount of theaters receiving content via satellite and we have never had an issue. Physical hard drives have proven to be FAR less reliable than a satellite transmission due to the way people mishandle them.  |  IP: Logged Steve Moore Expert Film Handler Posts: 211 From: Leeds, West Yorks, UK Registered: Apr 2008 posted 03-16-2014 03:47 PM                     I'm not aware of many in the UK with sat or cable delivery; still mostly hard drive. In the last year I have received one faulty hard drive, which was physically smashed... and i knew this before i opened the box as is had a nice sticker stuck to the transit case saying so!  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 03-16-2014 04:05 PM                     If you read that issue of cinema technology magazine I linked to above, you will be surprised how different distribution is working world wide. Heck, there is even HongKong with a very fast local fibre network all cinemas are on - but they transfer discs on bikes around because there are only a few hundred or thousand metres between each cinema there and bike is still faster than fibre. Neither satellite nor broadband transfers directly onto the playout servers, so the internal transfer to/from the LMS takes additional time. Picking the drive from the bike courier and popping it into a server is still faster and gives a direct 'it's there and done' feedback. I guess the new DCDC satellite distribution system for north america now will be a game changer. You simply need a certain amount of deliveries/parttakers for the system to gain traction. Putting a dish onto your roof to receive two features a month is just not worth the hassle. It even makes things more complicated because you have to control multiple delivery channels for fulfillment. Some regions work well with hard discs, some with satellite, some with broadband. Most are still struggling to find the best method. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-16-2014 09:34 PM                     I've had almost no issues with hard drives. Three or Four bad ones in about 6 years. All were replaced same day or by the next morning and all arrived early enough that a failed drive was irrelevant. Mark  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 03-16-2014 10:02 PM                     quote: Carsten Kurz Neither satellite nor broadband transfers directly onto the playout servers, so the internal transfer to/from the LMS takes additional time. Picking the drive from the bike courier and popping it into a server is still faster and gives a direct 'it's there and done' feedback. Sure, but how are those hard drives getting to the courier? I think they're either being shipped in with the data already on them OR they've got blank ones in a warehouse in-town that they load from something sent over the net. I'd think that unless you're talking about movies that are already made in-town that don't need shipping, networked would be quicker.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 03-17-2014 05:03 AM                     I guess that these cinemas simply demand hard drives instead of network transfers because it works better for them with their interchange model. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Scott Jentsch Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1061 From: New Berlin, WI, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 03-18-2014 01:35 PM                        If I'm doing the math right, it would take over 151 hours to transfer 100 GB on a 1.5 Mbps T1 line. 15 Mbps cable internet connections are fairly commonplace, but even with that, you're talking 15 hours per 100 GB. Many cable connections have great burst rates, but I would imagine that even a business-class line would not deliver full-speed downloads 24/7 because of the shared aspect of cable connections. How many locations can obtain a DSL connection > 10 Mbps? Assuming that the target connection is fast enough to transfer a week's worth of movies in less than a week, where is the data coming from? That other end is going to have to be fast enough to handle potentially thousands of theaters downloading terabytes of data each week. It would all but require Akamai-style servers to be installed at strategic locations around the country, similar to what Netflix is doing, in order to ensure decent throughput capability. For that reason, I can see why satellite transmission is attractive. The download speeds that I found weren't spectacular (best was around 12 Mbps), and the upload speeds are pretty poor, but my understanding of satellite data broadcasting is that it can be uplinked once and then broadcast to multiple destinations, which greatly eases the burden on the supply side. For those with satellite connections, do you know what speeds you are getting? There is great potential in creating a mesh network for distributing these data files, but I would imagine nearly every studio head would stop listening as soon as they make the connection to torrents and the association of illegal downloading with that technology. I think an efficient distribution scheme could be created by interconnecting those thousands of theaters in a secure mesh network. Such a scheme could be used in conjunction with satellite delivery service or any other delivery method to provide for enhanced reliability (protecting against rain-fade and satellite outages, for example).  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 03-18-2014 03:18 PM                     Those dedicated SAT providers utilize a full transponder, some even bundle two - remember, compared to individual sat IP connections, this is again 'broadcast', so they do not need to segment channels for individuals. Typical transfer bandwith can reach 60-120MBit/s. That's quite something. Those countries which use broadband connections usually have limited coverage need and dedicated networks for content transfer. The only countries I know using broadband on a large scale for movie distribution are norway and the netherlands - rather small countries. Again, read that issue of cinematechnologymagazine, you will see that all of your potential issues are catered for there. E.g. 'edge servers' for broadband. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Edward Havens Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 614 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Mar 2008 posted 03-18-2014 03:46 PM                     I had my first satellite delivery system (Technicolor) installed in 2011, and a second (Deluxe) installed the following year. The DCDC system replaced both in 2013.  |  IP: Logged

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