Log out timing on IMS3000

[Graham Cooke]

Help: Assistance requested with IMS3000

I am one of a group of volunteers who operate Movies@Malmesbury, a rural cinema project based in Malmesbury, Wiltshire in the UK.

After 13 years of using an early version of the Dolby Cinema Software and an elderly Dolby DCP projector, we have recently fundraised and purchased an NEC 1202L Laser projector equipped with Dolby IMS3000.

The projector is stunningly clear (we back project) and the sound is amazing, but it is a very different system from the one we have been used to.

The hall we operate in is a multi purpose room, so the acoustics aren’t wonderful, and we have been used to being able to adjust volume levels mid playback. Sometimes films or live events begin far too loud, or quiet, and it has been useful to be able to adjust the settings according to the requests of the audience.

Imagine our dismay when we discovered that the simple slide control we had on our monitor screen was not replicated on the IMS3000 web UI. We have got around this by creating a series of Quick Controls, by editing the existing Sound macros, and they work very neatly, but we have found a problem.

The Dolby IMS3000 software logs itself out of Admin or Manager after a period of time. When this happens we lose all control of the system until we log back in. I can understand the need for a log out after a period of keyboard inactivity but for our purposes, when we have a number of projectionists offering their time to run films, it is unacceptable.

My request is does anyone know what the “Log in / Log out” time is and how can we adjust it so that the system does not log us out while a film (or a live event, such as an opera, which can last upwards of 3 hours) is running.

Many thanks.,

Graham

[Steve Guttag]

If you are on the current version of IMS3000 software (3.5.13 though the feature showed up in 3.4.11) you can go to the Setup>Control Panel>Account Manager>Group WebUI timeout (button in upper-left). From there you can set the timeout to whatever you like (up to something like 900 minutes) for each access level.

As for the fader, if you have the sound processor option, there is an up/down button by the volume indicator to allow scrolling the volume. If you are using an external sound processor, like the CP750, then no, it does not integrate as seamlessly as the DSS series of servers did. The IMS line of servers are descendants of the Doremi line, not the Dolby DSS line. It is really too bad that the DSS UI hasn't been ported to the IMS line.

[Graham Cooke]

Hi Steve, Thanks so much for getting back to me so quickly. We received a very brief introduction to the system when it was installed and have been reluctant to venture too far into the innards of the software for fear that we might screw the whole lot up. I'll take a look at it this afternoon - I'm projecting "Indiana Jones". We are using the CP750 but if we can stop the system logging us out, our Quick control macros work well for quickly and seamlessly adjusting the volume.
Regards
Graham

[Carsten Kurz]

Why don't you adjust the volume on the CP750?

[Dave Macaulay]

The CP750 can use a remote fader that may still be available. I would hesitate on using the control software, it gives access access to settings that should only be used by trained techs. A simplish program that sends network commands to change the fader level and input wouldn't be hard for a good programmer.

[Leo Enticknap]

Unless any of Graham's volunteers are inclined to tinker, I wouldn't have thought that there would be a problem in using the CP750 app on a laptop or tablet with a wifi connection to the projection LAN, especially in "simple" mode, which just shows a UI that is a visual representation of the CP750's front panel. There is a "Do you really want to do this? Playback will be interrupted" warning if you try to go in to the tuning part.

But sorta agreed: it would have been nice if that app had the option to put advanced mode behind a password, like the Barco and NEC communicator apps do.

[Steve Guttag]

I would NEVER have the client use the control/setup app for something as trivial as setting volume. That can be done via other, safer, means. Heck, one could load an instance of QSYS and run it in emulate mode to control the CP750 without even having any QSYS in the building (I'm the Q-SYS Corner guy).

But, the realities are, the IMS3000 can control the CP750. How many unique volume levels do you REALLY need. I, often provide from about 3.5 to 8 in roughly 0.25 increments plus a standard AD, Preview and Feature level. With the quick buttons, one can provide enough volume levels to cover most any need. If you need down to 0.1 precision, I would question how many people can really hear that small increment.

[Graham Cooke]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. Using Steve's advice I have now successfully changed the Web UI log out from its default of 60 minutes to its maximum permissible level of 720 minutes. I know this sounds excessive but we sometimes have two films followed by a live event (opera etc) with three different volunteer projectionists. The main concern we had was that the system logged users out after 60 minutes. I know that logging back in is not that difficult but we needed to keep the instructions for our volunteers down to a minimum and by setting the level that long we can now ensure that no one finds themselves logged out when they need to make a change to the volume at playback.

We would have loved to have been able to manually change the volume level on the CP750 but we back project onto a screen and use a multi purpose hall in a listed (meaning we can't make any structural changes without huge amounts of paperwork) building. Sadly, the CP750 is in a cupboard on the other side of the stage and my days of commando crawling across a dusty stage to avoid being highlighted by the projector are long gone. It didn't matter that the CP750 was unaccessible when we had our old system beause a volume control was available as part of the very old Dolby Cinema software.

We do need to vary the volume according to the pre set for each film and also according to numbers in the hall. A recent live opera was so quiet we had to increase the volume level from 5 to 8 so that our audience could hear the spoken introduction. Once the music began we had to turn it down for fear of lifting the roof. Our increments are plus or minus 0.2.

Many, many thanks for all of your advice and assistance - it has really helped. I hope I'll be able to call on your collective expertise in the future.