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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: NEC NC900 IMS
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 08-15-2019 07:50 AM
The decision as to whether or not (and if so, when) to install software/firmware updates into projectors and servers can be a difficult one, and should always involve reading the release notes to establish what the update is supposed to do, followed by a risk/benefit analysis. In rough terms, this goes as follows:
Benefits
- Manufacturers will often require the machine to be running the current release version before being willing to assist with troubleshooting. Therefore, keeping machines current avoids the need to have to do the updating under pressure and while trying to fix a bigger problem.
- The update can fix bugs that are affecting your operation.
- The update can improve efficiency and reliability (e.g. NEC 900 updates improving lamp life, or ICP 4.5 putting the DMD mirrors at rest in a position that exposes them to less heat).
- The update can add support for new technical standards, e.g. SMPTE DCPs.
- The update can add new features that can benefit your operation (e.g. the ability to import and export automation cues in DSS 4.9).
Disadvantages- The updating process itself can go wrong, resulting in an unstable or even, in the worst case scenario, a bricked system. This is especially a risk if it is not on a UPS.
- The update can change the behavior of the system (e.g. rearrange buttons on a web UI) that imposes a learning curve on the end user, or even the tech.
- The update can introduce new bugs (e.g. Barco B series, 2.54 breaking the Smart Maintenance function).
- The update can break the reliable interaction between the machine being updated and others it has to interact with. I experienced this with an IMS3000 and a Lumagen scaler a few months back, and in the end the only way we could make the system reliable again was to downgrade the IMS to its previous version.
I would always want to establish which of these potential pros and cons applies to an individual update scenario, and then discuss with the end user if and when to do it.
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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster
Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 08-15-2019 02:00 PM
quote: Leo Enticknap
The decision as to whether or not (and if so, when) to install software/firmware updates into projectors and servers can be a difficult one, and should always involve reading the release notes to establish what the update is supposed to do, followed by a risk/benefit analysis.
I could not disagree more with that perspective. Until recently, you could be assured that there was suffucuent viable updating on a yearly basis and in checking on a twice yearly basis. Especially with the NC900C. I had one site in Ogden, UT that ran their GDC severs on Ver 7.8 Final until hell froze over when one day they had to be able to play SMPTE content. So we updated all their servers in a rather large one time jump to the latest 8.XX, what ever it was at the time. Before this and like the 330 others I tend to, they never had one GDC problem over a 6 year span. Since the jump to 8.XX this site has since then seen multiple IMB failures, more than one on some screens, and one motherboard failure. While all the other sites I tend to... all 330 of them... recieved at least twice yearly incremental updates. None of those sites have had any issues with GDC except normal drive replacement.
And yes, the manufacturers generally won't support you until you have run the latest upgrade to see if that fix the issue you are having.
No it ain't necessarily broke, but keeping up with the Smith's may keep yours from breaking too.
Go figure....
Mark
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 08-16-2019 08:09 AM
quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
I had one site in Ogden, UT that ran their GDC severs on Ver 7.8 Final until hell froze over when one day they had to be able to play SMPTE content. So we updated all their servers in a rather large one time jump to the latest 8.XX, what ever it was at the time. Before this and like the 330 others I tend to, they never had one GDC problem over a 6 year span. Since the jump to 8.XX this site has since then seen multiple IMB failures, more than one on some screens, and one motherboard failure.
Stories like this are precisely why Richard and many others prefer to take the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to software and firmware updating.
My position is that neither "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" (because, as you point out, eventually something will break from lack of maintenance), nor keeping up with the Smiths is the most effective approach.
Software and firmware updating for projectors and servers is a bit like spinal surgery: you're doing it for the benefits, but there are also significant risks involved. Therefore, unless the update is to fix a mission critical bug (Enigma 18.4 would be the classic example) and the OEM is advising its immediate installation, regardless of any other circumstances, I would always wait at least 2-4 weeks from publication, to see if any reports of new bugs surface. Barco B series 2.54 and IMS2000 2.8.22 are examples of this - bug reports did surface within a couple of weeks, and these versions were withdrawn.
Otherwise, I agree that leaving it 4-5 years between updates is likely asking for trouble, hence my reply to the initial posting, that I suspect that having an IMS in a projector with a five-year gap in the software/firmware versions between the two carries the high risk of some unusual and erratic s*** going on. However, if I see an update for a machine that I last updated a month ago, and the release notes indicate that there is nothing in the update that is relevant to the operation of the site in question, then why eat the risk, for no reward?
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