Dolby product update webinar this morning

[Leo Enticknap]

Don’t know how many of you were on the Dolby product update webinar this morning, but for those that weren’t, there were, IMHO, two actual pieces of news.

News item 1: Dolby have just launched a standalone docking station for the IMS1000, 2000 and 3000. It enables you to power up an IMS without putting it in a projector. This enables you to do three things: charge up the certificate battery, connect to its web UI in order to configure, ingest etc. – so having one of these things would enable you to preconfigure an IMS before shipping it onward to a customer, for whom it would be plug and play, without needing to put it in a projector to do so – and check it for faults. Basically all the docking station does it to give the IMS power, which will charge the cert battery and give you access to its web UI and the contents of its onboard RAID. The docking station will accept an IMS with any faceplate on it, or none. I think that this will be a very valuable tool to enable us to catch IMS problems and issues before we get it to a site.

News item 2 was about putting an IMS3000 in a Barco SP4K. There is a significant gotcha. If you put a non-Barco IMS in an SP4K, the projector will let you run it for 200 “grace hours,” and then lock it up. To unlock it, you need a KDM from Barco/Cinionic that is specific to that serial number of IMS, and projector. You need to ask Dolby for this KDM, giving them the serial number of both the projector and the IMS. So when we do such an installation (e.g. an IMS3000 with ICP-D in an SP4K), it’ll be important to not just see that “the damn thing works” (with apologies to Philo Farnsworth) and then walk away, because it won’t stay working for very long unless we get the KDM and then upload it. The same thing applies if we swap out an IMS that has gone bad in such an installation.

The rest of it was essentially a briefing on the withdrawal of the IMS2000 and its replacement with the IMS3000 “server mode,” plus a roundup of the bug fixes and new features in the current round of software and firmware updates.

[Jim Cassedy]

Wasn't able to make the webinar this morning, but they covered the docking station fairly well in another session last week.
It is an interesting product, although as of last week they said they still didn't have an exact shipping date or price.
'

[Marin Zorica]

Instead of docking station, why they just did not put dc Jack somewhere on board or piece of cable like ti gore boards used to have Instead of having docking station? I know for earlier IMS1000 and 2000, but they could have it in new 3000.

[Marcel Birgelen]

You can charge more for a fancy "docking station" than just a DC adapter.

News item 2 was about putting an IMS3000 in a Barco SP4K. There is a significant gotcha. If you put a non-Barco IMS in an SP4K, the projector will let you run it for 200 “grace hours,” and then lock it up. To unlock it, you need a KDM from Barco/Cinionic that is specific to that serial number of IMS, and projector. You need to ask Dolby for this KDM, giving them the serial number of both the projector and the IMS. So when we do such an installation (e.g. an IMS3000 with ICP-D in an SP4K), it’ll be important to not just see that “the damn thing works” (with apologies to Philo Farnsworth) and then walk away, because it won’t stay working for very long unless we get the KDM and then upload it. The same thing applies if we swap out an IMS that has gone bad in such an installation.

And down we go the long and undiscovered road of certified equipment needing its own certificate... I hope this "grace period" at the very least shows up as a big-fat warning somewhere?

[Elia Orselli]

You can charge more for a fancy "docking station" than just a DC adapter.

As they said in the webinar, the 12V adapter will not be included with the docking station!

I think that it would be quite easy to build such a docking station, knowing the correct pinout of a projector backplane. Isn't it standard?

I think that this will be a very valuable tool to enable us to catch IMS problems and issues before we get it to a site.

I use to test IMS with a projector, I think it's an important part of the preparation before the on site set-up.
Even if this docking station will be sometimes useful, I would prefer a clarity board (I'm not sure I well remember/spell the name), the "projector simulator" that dolby uses for testing and repairs: 2 rack units, dvi and audio output...

[Marcel Birgelen]

As they said in the webinar, the 12V adapter will not be included with the docking station!

I think that it would be quite easy to build such a docking station, knowing the correct pinout of a projector backplane. Isn't it standard?

It reminds me of the experience of buying a printer where they couldn't spare the $0.50 for the USB cable... But... but... It was in the webinar.

If you can find a comprehensive sheet listing the pin-outs, I'd love to have that. Unfortunately, the "Series 2" and upward backplane seems to fall inside the DCI closed-box specifications...

[Steve Guttag]

USL used to have the EP-100, which would power things like the HDSDI board of a Barco and the CAT745. It was a VERY minimalist board. Just the edge connector, a handful of components and they included the wall-wart power cube. I use one, to this day, to keep our spare Enigmas charged. I like that it powers the HDSDI board so it lights up the Enigma's LEDs so you know that everything is okay with it. With the standard charger and the charger port, it doesn't light anything up. You are going on faith that everything is going well.

I did not see the webinar so I don't know if they showed what the new piece will look like.

I wonder if it could be used to keep an IMB/IMS powered while a battery was being changed (either soldered or socketed). I suppose it would be up to the design of the IMB/IMS if the certificate ever uses the projector power for certificate storage or not.

It looked like this:


Screen Shot 2020-04-22 at 6.37.42 AM.png

[Leo Enticknap]

This is the docking station:

GoToWebinar 000.png

[Mike Renlund]

Hello everyone, a few notes to answer some of the questions/concerns in this thread.

1. The license for a Barco Series 4 is targeted to the Barco ICP-D device in the projector. This allows use of a 3rd party media block (Dolby, or anything other than an Alchemy). You do request the license from Dolby and we'll turn around to get it from Barco, Once they send it to use, we'll then provide it to you. The 200 hour "grace period" is counted down when the lamp is on. If the lamp is off, the counter isn't running. You will need to provide the Projector serial number and Projector article number, as well as the serial number of the IMS2000, IMS3000, or IMB (used with ShowVault). Once authorized, you could replace the Dolby Media Block with another Dolby Media Block without requesting a new license.
2. As to the Docking Station, we built it to have voltage protection (over- or under-volt) as well as proper polarity protection and a fuse. We wanted the chassis to be secure enough to hold the unit and prevent accidental damage in a warehouse or other location. We didn't think a small cable connection to the board would provide all of these things to protect a device that you have purchased for several thousands of dollars.
a. Price and availability are still coming.
b. We selected a very common power supply connection (12v, 5a, J1 barrel connector with tip positive) so that it could be found anywhere in the world. A lot of cost in products these days is due to the compliance costs for many different countries. By selecting something that is easy to find/order everywhere...we lower the cost of the device overall. The Docking Station manual has information on the power supply specs to help you in finding one. One that we have used is: Mean Well GST60A12-P1J
c. Dolby IMS servers have non-replaceable rechargeable batteries and will be kept at the highest charge level as it is used daily in a projector. This docking station can be used on spare equipment to keep the battery charged. The IMB used with ShowVault has a non-rechargeable cell that can be replaced.

Mike at Dolby

[Leo Enticknap]

Once authorized, you could replace the Dolby Media Block with another Dolby Media Block without requesting a new license.

That is a huge relief. I was imagining a situation in which one goes bad, a tech comes out and replaces it, the show is back on the sheet, and then, a month or so later, the projector stops working and there is another panic service call.