GDC TMS transfer from TMS to SMS stall bug

[Steve Guttag]

Wait, what? Mark has zero issues with GDC and NEC? Shocker!

[James Gardiner]

The TMS market has a very unusual evolution.
TMS software has been bastardised by the VPF. Developed as a side effect of the VPF, typically by engineers that were not suited, as it was an afterthought pushed by the VPF and not the actual industry itself. Meaning, we now have TMS technologies based on poor foundations. Some have moved forward, some have not.

It is an over saturated market and a race to the bottom. I actually think TMS prices are extraordinarily low, with key players trying to capture as much of the market as possible, then squeeze customers when dominance was archived. Still, I don't think it has worked out that way, and prices are still low. These low prices do make it very hard for new entrants. TMS's are typically developed now as an adjunct to a larger business model. They don't appear to make much sense or profitability without those added business capture.

IMHO, using Windows as a TMS server is a poor choice.
If looking at how most POS systems, (The side of the industry that actually makes a lot of money, cinemas do not cut corners on POS systems.. so $$ available to keep the technology up to date), you will have noticed they are mostly all containerised now. Or run on preconfigured VMs.

I remember posting on this forum many years ago and indicating how the industry should be moving to containerised implementations as they are so much easier to support, upgrade, rollback etc.
It was not received well, and I was blasted for suggesting it. Many in here hand very strong opinions.

The larger TMS vendors do appear to be going in this direction, but legacy would appear to be holding some back.

But in general, having to get out a SQL tool to inject raw SQL into a database for an engineer to do any form of work.. is a fail from my standpoint.
Plus, installing a TMS should be a handful of commands on a command line. Not the 1 hour of manual labour, installing everything by hand.
System orchestration and repeatability is the path to effective and low labour/costs.

I understand small cinemas like to go with DESKTOP based apps, but honestly, is a poor path going forward.

One decent server with the ability to run containers, One for POS, one for Website, one for TMS, 2-4 for each DCP digital delivery system. and not the 7 individual servers. Yes, technically it's a little harder, as you need staff that are up with the times in terms of running containers, but as a small cinema, can you afford the extra costs/support issues etc that comes with so much more hardware? One good server that is setup to be reliable is a better path. Not 7 computers (most not fault-tolerant) of different quality and age.

I am surprised GDC has not redeveloped their tool into a container based/web based solution.
I know Comscore is going in that direction.
I think AAM is/has, but they have business practices that don't allow 3rd parties to support their software in my part of the world. So I cannot really find out. (I did try)

Then we have the new developments in terms of "Hyper convergence" see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-...infrastructure
The DCI website indicated the new ICMP-XS was recently approved. It is known to have 10Gbe SFP+ interfaces and decent SSD storage space. This makes all the servers act as a virtual file server. Where content is duplicated and moved between screens as needed, making them the TMS storage system. GDC kind of went in this direction but with a centralised storage, a no-no in cinema land. But they were limited by 1Gbe interfaces. A "Hyper convergence" type implementation still allows each screen to act as an island, but at the same time gives you a visualised distributed fault-tolerant storage system.

This does bring up a number of questions in where next generation TMS implementations will go, and specifically interoperability issues. But still, an interesting development.

[Steve Guttag]

Some POS systems are pricey...many are not. It all depends on the exhibitor and what granularity of information/features they want as to how pricey it all gets.

On the TMS front...absolutely, VPFs steared that ship. AccessIT/Cinedigm/Comscore had a bit of a lock with TCC for quite a while, at least in the USA. AAM also seems to have gotten a foothold in Europe. GDC and their TMS was late to the game but it did serve them in the ability to take most any Windows 7 desktop (the OS of the day) and have a TMS/LMS and if one used GDC servers too, you could get a (reduced) VPF deal (reduced because of the year of entry).

Those that couldn't get in on the VPF bandwagon (and there was another deal for the Drive-Ins with Scrabble), independent TMS systems have emerged a bit, like Cine Digital Manager, I don't know if Unique got in on the VPF thing but I have seen that one emerge some too. There is competition amongst the TMS vendors. Most of my clients are sticking with what they had in the VPF days, out of familiarity, if nothing else. Some, are switching for desired features.

I anticipate putting in ACE, CDM, GDC and AAM in 2025, depending on the client. I believe all will be on-premises systems rather than cloud based. I've seen feature improvements from all of them in the past year so the development continues. I do recall when one of them was VERY standoffish a few years ago when I approached them. Now, they all seem interested in being more accommodating with whatever equipment you have.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Wait, what? Mark has zero issues with GDC and NEC? Shocker!

Two server failures out of 40 odd systems up until 2018. Yea, that's pretty close to zero!! And one of the servers was just an upgrade swap out. Loaded the same drives back into the Raid's and off it went.