Shutdown questions

[Phil Ranucci]

Asking for a friend.
How long can IMBs go without power?
The UPS on our Barco keeps the card cage on, but also the fans run at a low speed.
In order to fully power them down, how often would they need to be powered up for an hour or so to keep IMB alive?

[Carsten Kurz]

One major european integrator reacted very fast - today, cinema closures have been mandated throughout germany, and just a few hours ago, they send an email to all cinemas with basic instructions how to deal with a shutdown.

Actual recommended numbers vary between different types of equipment. If possible, power up for an hour weekly. For some devices, this may be possible using a simple timer without actually entering the building yourself. The most critical part indeed is the media block - IMBs contained in projectors will need the projector to be powered, classic media blocks like Doremi dolphin boards, Dolby CAT 862/DSS200/DSP100 require the server to be powered. Not all servers use rechargeable cells, so, powering them up for short periods may not be necessary or useful. These same systems using HD-SDI links to the projector need to keep alive the Enigma board in the projector, so, in that case, the projector needs to be powered regularly as well. I guess, though, that all systems should survive a few weeks without any special action taken. Unless their batteries are already approaching EOL.


I switched off everything today, except for our ice cream freezer. I unplugged the fridges for our (bottled) beverages and left the doors open. I will probably be on site once every week to actually watch a movie or netflix serial. That should be enough for our equipment. We informed the Gofilex NOC about us shutting down our Gofilex DCP transmission system, and they confirmed. For now, our shutdown is scheduled to last about 5 weeks.

- Carsten

[Dave Macaulay]

Enigma LD has at least 6 months battery life after 24 hours powered.
Doremi Dolphin and IMB have non rechargeable batteries that should be replaced every 4 years, possible imminent failure at 5 years. The server will warn with a red ball after 4 years. With the server plugged in but off, the 5V standby power will power the Dolphin RTC ok without any battery (not at all a good idea of course, but good to know if you encounter a server with over 5 years on that battery). IMB similar but you can't change the battery with the card in placin - Dolby says it should keep its RTC and certs for 5 minutes after being powered for an hour, so the battery can be changed safely.
You can theoretically find the battery last change date in a Doremi diags package... but good luck with that. Use the Dolby online log analyzer (http://loganalyzer.dolbycustomer.com) it's under "DATE & TIME". For IMB, the projector must be on and connected to the server when that package is generated to get the battery info.
Other brands vary. GDC have replaceable non rechargeable batteries but no warnings. Dolby DSS don't have replaceable batteries and I don't know if the media blocks die after some time unpowered. Barco non rechargeable ICMP battery should be replaced at 5 years, no warning, recommended to do it at 4 years.

[Brad Miller]

Yes Dolby HDSDI media blocks will die if left unpowered for too long. Dolby claims 6 months after a 48 hour charge, but I can confirm after 10 yearsitdoesn't actually hold a useful 6 month's of "storage life" on it. Same goes for the enigma modules.

Basically, whatever the manufacturer claims, at least cut that time in half. Better to power on your systems (no lamp) for at least 2 hours each week to make sure, since you will need more "recharge time" the older the equipment gets.

Meanwhile the film systems can go unpowered for 10 or 20 years, no problem at all. :P

That being said let's continue this in the thread which was posted before this one:
http://www.film-tech.com/vbb/forum/m...ing-a-shutdown