Trailer Made

Screen International 

A new system from Deluxe Technicolor Digital Cinema is designed to prevent errors in exhibition trailer screenings.

p40
http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?eid=99c463ba-98bc-45fe-880e-51aac9b47b9e

When a cinema in California this summer screened the Sausage Party trailer to families waiting to watch Disney-Pixar’s Finding Dory, exhibitors everywhere might have breathed a sigh of relief. After all, this is an accident waiting to happen when trailer scheduling is done manually.

A new electronic service from Deluxe Technicolor Digital Cinema (DTDC) and Unique Digital is designed to eradicate such errors by ensuring the correct features are targeted with the correct genre and rating of pre-show trailers.

It is just one element of a new agreement between two major industry players’ ongoing commitment to the exhibition and distribution community. A venture which is intended to seal the historically disconnected link between studios and cinema management.

“We are bringing to market a range of services to help link the value chain of servicing content to exhibition and deliver a high level of automation and cost efficiency,” explains Sevan Brown, director of worldwide business development and strategic planning, DTDC.

“With installs of electronic delivery via broadband and satellite reaching more and more sites this changes the dynamic of the relationship between exhibitors and studios,” he adds. “What’s more, exhibitors are faced with a wide number of service providers competing to install digital equipment on their premises making the market fragmented and confused. Our intention is to offer long term market stability by working with chosen vendors in each territory in order for the industry to focus on its business and make room for innovation.”

A major partnership in within this strategy is the distribution alliance between DTDC and Unique Digital. Following its successful launch and operation in Norway, the Smart Trailering service is now available in the UK. The system gives exhibitors full control to ensure content is used only during scheduled dates. Film booking departments can schedule trailers from head office, track electronic delivery and have playlists automatically updated on a theatre management system.

“Cinema owners can build their own playlist confident that they are using the correct trailer version and movie distributors can prepopulate metadata and advise on trailer requirements. Trailers can be sent by the content provider electronically straight to the site using Unique Digital’s Movie Transit content delivery system”,” says Brown.  

Large chains can centralise trailer scheduling from a head office while smaller independent exhibitors could manage programming remotely from home as required. The system further rationalises and understands delivery operations by giving exhibitors the ability to order trailers for an entire territory from one platform.

A next step is to feedback playback data - about when trailers are played, demographics of the audience - to aid studio marketing campaigns.

Initially launching across the UK and Ireland where Unique Digital has a deal across over 100 cinema locations, DTDC and Unique plan to expand the service into the Nordic and Baltic regions and additional territories.

“This is a scheduling platform with the focus squarely on adding extra value for both distribution and exhibition by allowing bespoke programming of content responsive to market conditions at either a central or local level with a further opportunity for reporting and analytics from the exhibitor”,” says Brown.

Another initiative linking the value chain in support of content owners and exhibitors will automate the creation and distribution of keys to the exhibition community.

Currently, the keys required to unlock content ordered by exhibitors for playback are sent by email to a cinema office where staff will typically transfer this to the specific projector and server via USB. With vital information stored on PCs and sticks, not only is this process fraught with increased danger of theft, but it is time-consuming and inefficient. Any issues which cinemas have regarding the encryption have to be resolved via call centre, again not always the most efficient solution.

 “There is a way in which keys can be better integrated at an operational level.” explains Brown.

The Deluxe Technicolor Portal is an online platform which enables exhibitors to raise and resolve key generation and delivery issues as well as gain access to critical technical and operational information associated with content playback. From the portal an exhibitor can review device information at a theatre level as well as download active keys and supplemental feature version files. 

“This is about improving operational procedure and not about standing in the way of any commercial relationship exhibitors have with content owners,” says Brown.  “It will reduce the number of errors and queries through increased automation, reduce the need for manual email correspondence and free up the support team to deliver a more defined and detailed support.”

The portal lays the foundation for further connectivity and automation with the exhibitor. The industry must move to a more automated approach with repect to all operations with all content and keys being delivered direct to exhibitor Theatre Management System (TMS) and projectors. 

“Integrated systems will ultimately enable full operational visibility of all distribution delivery to the exhibitor and real time management and fault resolution”.