Doremi to GDC conversion

[Armand Daiguillon]

Hi all,

I have two theaters, but one just closed down. Just too slow ....
The currently open theater has doremis the old theater had GDC SX3000's. Both had same NEC900C projectors with Jnior boxes.
I took all the SX3000's out of their projectors and brought them to the new theater along with their GDC TMS server.

Now taking them out was easy .... but is installing them in the new location going to be super hard ?
If I put them into the new projectors will simply telling them to "re-marry" work ?

Will the automation cues work ? Both locations used Jniors, but would those need to be reconfigured ? (im thinking probably ....)

IP address schemes were already same at both locations (they were originally set up by same people)

If possible i'd like to do this myself. I already have to call out my local service company to re-align all the crystals in the projectors because light output is very low.
I can't afford to have them do everything - things are rough right now.

Any suggestions to make this easy ?
And some may ask, why swap out the doremis in the first place ? The answer is that aside from liking the TMS interface better, the GDC IMB's have eSata inputs which I need for film festivals, it makes the "live play" nice and easy.


Thanks !!!

[Steve Guttag]

Note, the GDC TMS server will work with the Doremi servers. The GDC TMS is pretty agnostic. GDC just doesn't call it Doremi. I forget, off the top of my head, what they call it but it should stand out (and it will work...heck it even has a feature not present on GDC servers...the TMS will let you know if the Doremi is in schedule mode (at least if your TMS is current). Note, Doremi had P-ingest for the older servers (ones that did not have USB3 ports like the IMS3000...one had to get about a reel in before starting the show and it would "play while ingest." The trick is, you are filling the bit bucket while draining it out...you need to have enough bits in there to ensure that it NEVER runs out.

I have a site with a GDC TMS that has SX-2000ARs, SR-1000s and an IMS3000 (Doremi/Dolby). From the TMS, you'd never know which was witch (as far as the dashboard (aside from the Doremi having the schedule mode indication), Schedule view, YouTube...er...Content screens.

But, be that as it may, I like uniformity under one roof so if you have SX3000s on all screens, there are benefits there than having a mixed set of servers.

The IP schemes may be similar but not exact. For instance, my IP schemes are similar from site to site (all servers have their 4th octet be 110+screen number) but the 3rd octet will be different for each site. If one is trying to look at their entire universe, you don't want identical IPs. Now, if that scenario is not of any concern, then sure, one can set up all sites with identical IPs. You'd have to check your IPs on the various devices to see if they used identical or merely kept it similar.

I'd say that my automation schemes are, again, similar, from site to site. I try to keep the Macro numbers matched but different theatres may have evolved at different times and that would cause variations. Furthermore, what one site may have to contend with, in terms of equipment or regulations may force differences.

I would compare the Automation cues on each site and see if all of the cues already line up. If their names and their execution commands are the same...you'd be down to getting all of the IPs right. I don't know of many people that don't have the screen number in the IP address, somewhere so if you moved a screen 4 system into a screen 1...you'd be bound to have two screen 4s (if you have 4 or more screens) and have a collection of conflicts. That said, if the cues do line up, then, it is just a matter of reconfiguring the server for the IPs of its new home and what it will be talking to.

I can appreciate the desire to save money but there are times when it is best to have someone that knows what they are doing. Getting everything talking well and predictably will save a lot of grief in the long-run.

[Armand Daiguillon]

I had thought about temporarily just using the TMS with the existing doremis, (since I wont have any film fests for a few months) but it can't connect to them. In the setup area on the TMS where it shows the IMB IP addresses there is a drop down for "server type" and it says "sx-3000", but its grayed out and can't be changed, I assume this is why it can't connect to the doremis ? Oddly this is the only grayed out field - everything else I can change. Maybe my old version only supports the sx3000's ?


Thanks !

[Bruce Cloutier]

Armand, just contact support [at] integpg.com or chat from the website and Kevin and his team (i.e.Tony) will assist you with any JNIOR changes that you may need.

[Steve Guttag]

You cannot swap a server like that. You have to uninstall that server (remember the TMS has to know about certificates/KDMs for servers). It is not a casual change. So, you, in set up delete the server (and I suggest rebooting the TMS. Then add in the server...again reboot. The reboots shouldn't be needed but it forces the program to handshake with everything anew again.

[Armand Daiguillon]

You cannot swap a server like that. You have to uninstall that server (remember the TMS has to know about certificates/KDMs for servers). It is not a casual change. So, you, in set up delete the server (and I suggest rebooting the TMS. Then add in the server...again reboot. The reboots shouldn't be needed but it forces the program to handshake with everything anew again.

It seemingly is all working properly now. Only difference is that when you open the TMS software it does not auto connect to the doremis like it did the gdc's, I have to manualy click on each unit in the monior window and then it manually connects to each one, this only needs to be done once if you reload the software so no big deal. There was a snag where I couldnt transfer files at first but once i updated the ftp address to the new one in the "transfers" section - it all worked fine.

Thank you very much !!!
I can put off installing the GDC's for a while until I can afford it. (which could be a while, lol)

[Steve Guttag]

Again, on the set up section (Preferences), there is one for auto connection

Screen Shot 2022-11-30 at 8.40.29 AM.png

That is where you tell it you want the server to auto connect (it defaults to off...for some reason) and it is server-by-server. It is fiddly, in my experience. So, plan, again, on setting it. Reboot the TMS and see if it took. If not, wash, rinse, repeat until it takes.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Another important thing to consider is the certificate batteries in the SX-3000's. They last 3 years almost to the day, I always replaced them at 35 months to be on the safe side. So if you let them sit for a long time then they may brick up on you and become unusable.

BTW: IDK how may screens you are switching over, but this whole thing should not take more than 2 hours if the existing ethernet cabling is ok.

[Gordon McLeod]

We have been finding that the tatarn batteries are lasting about a 1.5 years before they measure low. We change them every year

[Armand Daiguillon]

These doremi's seem to like to disconnect a lot from the tms and need a lot of manual "reconnecting". It happens most often during transfers - any ideas as to why ?