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Author Topic: Multi screening room playback overview - no TMS Gunnar Asgeirsson Film Handler Posts: 64 From: Iceland Registered: Jul 2006 posted 11-21-2017 09:45 AM                        Is there any application that allows me to display playback overview of 3 screening room at the same time. 1 of them is Dolby DSS 200 and the other two is DoReMi IMS1000 servers (Branded as NEC NP-90MS01). Since we do not have any TMS of caurse this 3 screening room act as different person. At the moment there is no GUI that can display all of them on the same monitor. I was even thinking about some gui that could display this from raspberry pi or something like that. The idea is that the ticket sale can have monitor just to see what is playing and how long time is left of the show. With absolutely no control of anything. Just to see what is happening. I know that is easy to grand some monitor view of the playback status of each room if the cinema have TMS but i dont know if i can do this without TMS.  |  IP: Logged Ken Lackner Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1907 From: Atlanta, GA, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 11-21-2017 03:54 PM                     Doremi and Dolby servers (and every server out there, as far as I'm aware) both support VNC. If you have a monitor with a high enough resolution, you could launch a VNC viewer and connect to each server and then arrange the window so you can view all three. Even though you don't need it, this would also offer remote control of the servers.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 11-21-2017 04:03 PM                     How is playback started on these three screens currently? - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 11-21-2017 04:21 PM                        Many (all?) VNC clients can be run in view-only mode so the server won't accept input from the client. Which might be what you want to have if you're just monitoring the servers.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 11-21-2017 06:04 PM                     quote: Gunnar Asgeirsson Since we do not have any TMS of caurse this 3 screening room act as different person. At the moment there is no GUI that can display all of them on the same monitor. They're in the same building, aren't they? So, I suppose they already share some common infrastructure, like power, water, heating and maybe even networking and Internet? They sell tickets from one booth? So, why couldn't they equally share one TMS?  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 11-22-2017 10:23 PM                        A DSS200 can itself act as a TMS for (if memory serves me correctly) up to three others. So if you could get hold of two more, plus Enigma boards or cat745s for the two projectors that currently have IMSes, there is a solution.  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 11-23-2017 06:48 AM                     Not sure what you mean, Leo. The DSS "TMS" mode is not a real TMS. It lets you link up to 3 DSS servers so one can control all three. You still need the other DSS servers. I don't think proposing that Gunnar scraps his IMS servers and buys DSS units plus the LD or IMB cards is realistic. The IMS servers can not support VNC. Dolby DSS servers do not have a webGUI. A PC could display the playback status by showing the two IMS's webGUI pages and a VNC screen from the DSS. That would be a nasty kludge - and give whoever is at that PC full control over the shows. I don't think what he wants exists.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 11-23-2017 01:51 PM                        I agree that it's only a viable solution if the extra equipment could be obtained used and at very low cost. However, a lot of places are now retiring DSL/DSS hardware and replacing it with IMS systems (I have replaced two units in the last week and a half), and so that may be a possibility. That having been said, the amount of used cinema equipment floating around in Iceland is likely very restricted. Incidentally, VNC is not the only way to operate a DSS over a network: you can install the actual Dolby Show Manager app on a Windows PC. This has the advantage that, unlike VNC, it does not mirror what is being done on a local keyboard and mouse hooked directly to the server. So if you wanted to give someone elsewhere in the building (e.g. the manager's office) the ability to see what the DSS is doing but not to operate it, you could install Show Manager on a PC connected to whichever network the DSS is configured to be managed over (auditorium or theater - it's the latter by default), change the Show Manager passwords to something other than the defaults, and leave it in monitor mode when Show Manager starts (i.e. don't log in at all). This will not affect what anyone does directly at the server, or via VNC from another PC. However, the VNC screen does mirror the local one. I don't know of any equivalent approach in the IMS. You have to log in to get past the front page splash screen, and so if the lowest level of login privilege still allows the user to operate the transport buttons, that won't work if you need to be sure that the user of the remote PC cannot disrupt a show, whatever they do.  |  IP: Logged Ian Freer Expert Film Handler Posts: 135 From: Wellington, New Zealand Registered: Oct 2003 posted 11-23-2017 02:14 PM                     Another idea: You could purchase a Jnior 4 series (if you don't already have one) and install and run their Event Manager software http://www.integpg.com/software/event-manager/ It doesn't quite cover all the functions you want, ie I'm not sure it has the function to tell you the exact 'time remaining' in any particular show, but it would at least show when the credits have begun etc. I've not tried it out (yet) so cannot give any personal experience, but as the Event Manager runs in a browser, you should be able to run that from your raspberry pi quite happily. I guess you could even set up a script or some method of automatically launching the browser (with event manager as home page) so it starts up to the right place, that way no keyboard or mouse would need to be connected. Cheers, Ian  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 11-23-2017 09:10 PM                     You could purchase the Dolby TMS software (Doremi TMS) and so long as everything is on the right versions, it is supposed to work with both DSS and IMS servers. But you'll be paying the big "D" in perpaturity to run that software.  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 11-24-2017 08:19 AM                     Maybe split the video signals for the 3 server control monitors out to something like a security cam display that shows all three feeds? Just need to have all three showing the playback progress.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 11-24-2017 09:43 AM                        We have one site with a Dolby (ex-Doremi) TMS running a mixture of DSS and Doremi servers, so yes, it does work. But as Steve points out, there is a significant, per-screen one time purchase cost, plus an annual license renewal. The GDC TMS is supposed to work the same way, too, but with pretty much any server or IMS out there. I'm about to install one next week in a site with a mixture of DSS and Barco Alchemy. Haven't done one before, so I'll be interested to see how smoothly it integrates them.  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 11-24-2017 05:03 PM                     Have fun. The TMS can't program the Barco ICMP black pattern, and the GDC black MOS clips will not ingest in the ICMP.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 11-24-2017 07:01 PM                     Black MOS clips aren't that hard. Whereas the TCC works with the Barco Alchemy, it can work with other black clips. Now if you want it to play a black while the Alchemy isn't selected as the active input, it will only do that on the Barco pattern. Or some such nonsense.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 11-25-2017 08:40 AM                        Thanks for the heads up, Dave. If the customer needs black video DCPs, I'll make some on my laptop while I'm there. Was both the GDC software and the Alchemy firmware on the latest version when you experienced this glitch?  |  IP: Logged

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