Tag Archives: Digital Experience Guardian

The Future Holds...

Digital Test Tools Introduces The New Age of Quality Assurance

Leave a comment

guardian logo

We are pleased to say that after years of design, programming and testing that it is indeed possible…and where it isn’t, it is possible to greatly assist the responsible tech to make a more refined judgement, more quickly. With a combination of facts – THD high and the indication that an array speaker is not on, or bulb flicker high and contrast low – the first tech visit can be a prepared visit instead of an expensive exporatory visit. Or even better, the emergency never happens because predictive information led to a scheduled maintenance visit.

Were the cables plugged in backwards? As we developed and showed the monitoring system to professional movie mixers, nearly every one spoke of the horror of sitting through a movie that they had been part of with the dialog coming from a side channel ! Not that the average customer’s complaint about loudness isn’t an issue, but really? dialog in a side channel?

Report Showing Swapped Inputs, showing change of degrees on a polar coordinate view. Swapped Inputs in Red, with Baseline and Results in degrees on the polar coordinate system, and the change from the baseline shown in degrees from the baseline’s reading.

Thank you for your interest in this new approach to an engineer’s and artist’s goal. We hesitate to brag, but the ability to judge a speaker on a polar coordinate like the above also allows us to help pinpoint which LFE speaker cabinet isn’t responding because the amp is off or the speaker is missing. Only because we place our microphones in the sound field and not at the nodal dead zone of rear wall can we arm the tech with more information and better judgement more quickly.

Boring Black Box of Microphones and Microprocessors with Dreawing
Drawing showing placement of system pieces – BTW, the RS-232 connectors are replaced with RJ-45 in current models.

Sure. It is more difficult to place our 5 microphone system in the sound field of the room – it takes 15 or 20 minutes to put up and take down all that scaffolding – but the advantages are similar to having a person in the room. A person who can test each speaker at several frequencies in 5 minutes as well as point a 16-bit digital colorimeter at the screen, then calculate u’/v’ and luminance from 33 shades of grey (do you need 50?) and 4 intensities of each 6 primary and secondary color. …or design your own tests – do you need to test for 12.5 Hz? Do you need to sweep an array of speakers to determine if one or two aren’t really making sounds?

Enough about saving the tech support budget. How about proving something substantial to your customers. It might take some training-as-marketing, but you really think that your customers are worth it and you have the skills to speak to the math inclined. Years after the Digital Cinema adventure began, years after the complications of multiple light levels and bulbs for 3D movies, you can tell the responsible customer what they should expect and to know how well you are performing for them.

In Theater Auditorium QA Report
Easily convert the Guardian’s xml reports into HTML for In-Lobby displays.

We thank you for your interest and hope to have the opportunity to discuss how we can assist your Quality Assurance goals and purposes. There is power and room in the microphone saucer section for many more electronics. We look forward to your helping us define their parameters.

Digital Test Tools, LLC

Helping the Quality Active Deliver Their Customer’s Needs.

The Future Holds...

Digital Test Tools Introduces The New Age of Quality Assurance

Leave a comment

guardian logo

We are pleased to say that after years of design, programming and testing that it is indeed possible…and where it isn’t, it is possible to greatly assist the responsible tech to make a more refined judgement, more quickly. With a combination of facts – THD high and the indication that an array speaker is not on, or bulb flicker high and contrast low – the first tech visit can be a prepared visit instead of an expensive exporatory visit. Or even better, the emergency never happens because predictive information led to a scheduled maintenance visit.

Were the cables plugged in backwards? As we developed and showed the monitoring system to professional movie mixers, nearly every one spoke of the horror of sitting through a movie that they had been part of with the dialog coming from a side channel ! Not that the average customer’s complaint about loudness isn’t an issue, but really? dialog in a side channel?

Report Showing Swapped Inputs, showing change of degrees on a polar coordinate view. Swapped Inputs in Red, with Baseline and Results in degrees on the polar coordinate system, and the change from the baseline shown in degrees from the baseline’s reading.

Thank you for your interest in this new approach to an engineer’s and artist’s goal. We hesitate to brag, but the ability to judge a speaker on a polar coordinate like the above also allows us to help pinpoint which LFE speaker cabinet isn’t responding because the amp is off or the speaker is missing. Only because we place our microphones in the sound field and not at the nodal dead zone of rear wall can we arm the tech with more information and better judgement more quickly.

Boring Black Box of Microphones and Microprocessors with Dreawing
Drawing showing placement of system pieces – BTW, the RS-232 connectors are replaced with RJ-45 in current models.

Sure. It is more difficult to place our 5 microphone system in the sound field of the room – it takes 15 or 20 minutes to put up and take down all that scaffolding – but the advantages are similar to having a person in the room. A person who can test each speaker at several frequencies in 5 minutes as well as point a 16-bit digital colorimeter at the screen, then calculate u’/v’ and luminance from 33 shades of grey (do you need 50?) and 4 intensities of each 6 primary and secondary color. …or design your own tests – do you need to test for 12.5 Hz? Do you need to sweep an array of speakers to determine if one or two aren’t really making sounds?

Enough about saving the tech support budget. How about proving something substantial to your customers. It might take some training-as-marketing, but you really think that your customers are worth it and you have the skills to speak to the math inclined. Years after the Digital Cinema adventure began, years after the complications of multiple light levels and bulbs for 3D movies, you can tell the responsible customer what they should expect and to know how well you are performing for them.

In Theater Auditorium QA Report
Easily convert the Guardian’s xml reports into HTML for In-Lobby displays.

We thank you for your interest and hope to have the opportunity to discuss how we can assist your Quality Assurance goals and purposes. There is power and room in the microphone saucer section for many more electronics. We look forward to your helping us define their parameters.

Digital Test Tools, LLC

Helping the Quality Active Deliver Their Customer’s Needs.

Integrator News

Post-Installation Cinema Test Tools; USL LSS-100 and DTT Digital eXperience Guardian

Leave a comment

The unit plugs into the cinema facility’s IP network so these readings can be taken by anyone with access through the firewall.

The unit is small and unobtrusive, with only the power and ethernet cables going through the wall, connecting the system into the booth and then to the IP network.

This is how the setup page looks, and following that is a shot of the unit itself and a version of the report it creates.

USL LSS-100 Setup Sheet

 

USL LSS-100 Network A/V Monitoring Device

 

USL LSS-100 Report Page

Another network device is the DXG – Digital eXperiance Guardian from Digital Test Tools, LLC. This new company is filled with industry veterans and this is their first product in this collaboration.

The DXG setup is more complex since both its microphone section and its colorimeter remote suspend from the ceiling. In one sense it is easier, since it uses Power Over Ethernet, which puts power, control and data on one ethernet cable.

The design uses 5 microphones to discern levels at many frequencies, as well as phase and the direction of THD problems. Pulsed sounds at various frequencies avoids the buildup problems that pink noise creates. With all this, if a new rattle or hum occurs, a technician can be sent by the NOC to look for something in a particular direction that reacts to a particular frequency, decreasing the time to find whatever got loose or was inserted into or taken from the audio system.

Like the USL system, the DXG’s value comes from giving the user “changes from a baseline” measurements. Both systems would be used after a picture and audio room tuning to establish that baseline. Since the DXG captures much more data (levels and THD at different frequecies from individual speakers, and phase information from pairs of speakers at multiple frequencies, for example) the output is put into an xml file and an SQL database so that reports can be generated. These standard tools allow the client to easily integrate the data and reports into their monitoring systems.

There is also a parameters list which the customer sets up to monitor “warning” and “critical” points that can trigger notification through Web 2.0 interfaces. And, critically, the system uses ‘percentage of variation from the baseline’ since it is easier to keep track of trends this way instead of using baseline numbers that might vary from room to room. Knowing that the data point has gone beyond a 5% threshold, for example, is easier to notice than figuring whether the new x,y matrix numbers are within MacAdam’s Just Noticable Difference oval.

In addition to the “variation from the baseline” concept the DXG colorimeter also includes a pull-down in the auditorium set-up page to mark date and serial number changes of bulbs, both for 2D==>3D changes and for EOL changes. Plus, instead of one 2 degree spot – the SMPTE/ISO spec for calibration – the DXG colorimeter measures a broad section of the screen.

The system includes audio and picture DCPs that run through the projection system. The test system and projection system run asynchronously, meaning that there is no connection or feedback to or from the system under test. A playlist is created with automation instructions to shut down the lights, put the masking in the proper position, put the sound processor at the proper level, make a warning annoucement in the room, then play the DCPs in the proper sequence. Since audio contamination from adjoining rooms would throw off the audio tests, care must be taken when setting up the daily or weekly process.

The DigitalTestTools literature states that there is plenty of space for growth with the DXG, with options for forensic marking tests and IP network tests coming in the near future, as well as an option to test the signals from the various equipment that broadcasts data and sound to personal closed caption and enhanced listening systems for the deaf, blind, hard of hearing and partially sighted patrons.

Following are some screen shots from the Digital eXperiance Guardian. There is a features movie at Digital eXperiance Guardian Movie.

Now that over 80% of North American screens have made the digital conversion with the EU and UK not far behind, it is great to see that the industry has matured to deal with this last lingering problem of screens drifting out of spec. Consumers complain about it, exhibitors have paid enormous sums to get equipment that can be impeccably tuned. Now there are two methods to montor the actual room.

Finally, it should be pointed out and noticed that your author/editor, Charles ‘C J’ Flynn of dcinematools.com is also Charles ‘C J’ Flynn, a founding partner of digitaltesttools.com – he is also a long term admirer of USL and the excellent equipment that they produce. So while this article is somewhat an infomercial, it is written as a scientist and disseminator of valuable information…and presuming that it is just a launching point for further research. C J Flynn has also been a long time advocate of Post-Installation Cinema Compliance, writing and presenting at IBC on the topic as far back as 2006 (after retiring from the labors of setting up cinema servers and training their users since before Star Wars II.

Digital eXperience Guardian – the DXG Multiroom Network Setup

 

Digital eXperience Guardian – The DXG Rear Panel showing Power Over Ethernet Interface

DXG Report – One Speaker – With Errors

Integrator News

Post-Installation Cinema Test Tools; USL LSS-100 and DTT Digital eXperience Guardian

Leave a comment

The unit plugs into the cinema facility’s IP network so these readings can be taken by anyone with access through the firewall.

The unit is small and unobtrusive, with only the power and ethernet cables going through the wall, connecting the system into the booth and then to the IP network.

This is how the setup page looks, and following that is a shot of the unit itself and a version of the report it creates.

USL LSS-100 Setup Sheet

 

USL LSS-100 Network A/V Monitoring Device

 

USL LSS-100 Report Page

Another network device is the DXG – Digital eXperiance Guardian from Digital Test Tools, LLC. This new company is filled with industry veterans and this is their first product in this collaboration.

The DXG setup is more complex since both its microphone section and its colorimeter remote suspend from the ceiling. In one sense it is easier, since it uses Power Over Ethernet, which puts power, control and data on one ethernet cable.

The design uses 5 microphones to discern levels at many frequencies, as well as phase and the direction of THD problems. Pulsed sounds at various frequencies avoids the buildup problems that pink noise creates. With all this, if a new rattle or hum occurs, a technician can be sent by the NOC to look for something in a particular direction that reacts to a particular frequency, decreasing the time to find whatever got loose or was inserted into or taken from the audio system.

Like the USL system, the DXG’s value comes from giving the user “changes from a baseline” measurements. Both systems would be used after a picture and audio room tuning to establish that baseline. Since the DXG captures much more data (levels and THD at different frequecies from individual speakers, and phase information from pairs of speakers at multiple frequencies, for example) the output is put into an xml file and an SQL database so that reports can be generated. These standard tools allow the client to easily integrate the data and reports into their monitoring systems.

There is also a parameters list which the customer sets up to monitor “warning” and “critical” points that can trigger notification through Web 2.0 interfaces. And, critically, the system uses ‘percentage of variation from the baseline’ since it is easier to keep track of trends this way instead of using baseline numbers that might vary from room to room. Knowing that the data point has gone beyond a 5% threshold, for example, is easier to notice than figuring whether the new x,y matrix numbers are within MacAdam’s Just Noticable Difference oval.

In addition to the “variation from the baseline” concept the DXG colorimeter also includes a pull-down in the auditorium set-up page to mark date and serial number changes of bulbs, both for 2D==>3D changes and for EOL changes. Plus, instead of one 2 degree spot – the SMPTE/ISO spec for calibration – the DXG colorimeter measures a broad section of the screen.

The system includes audio and picture DCPs that run through the projection system. The test system and projection system run asynchronously, meaning that there is no connection or feedback to or from the system under test. A playlist is created with automation instructions to shut down the lights, put the masking in the proper position, put the sound processor at the proper level, make a warning annoucement in the room, then play the DCPs in the proper sequence. Since audio contamination from adjoining rooms would throw off the audio tests, care must be taken when setting up the daily or weekly process.

The DigitalTestTools literature states that there is plenty of space for growth with the DXG, with options for forensic marking tests and IP network tests coming in the near future, as well as an option to test the signals from the various equipment that broadcasts data and sound to personal closed caption and enhanced listening systems for the deaf, blind, hard of hearing and partially sighted patrons.

Following are some screen shots from the Digital eXperiance Guardian. There is a features movie at Digital eXperiance Guardian Movie.

Now that over 80% of North American screens have made the digital conversion with the EU and UK not far behind, it is great to see that the industry has matured to deal with this last lingering problem of screens drifting out of spec. Consumers complain about it, exhibitors have paid enormous sums to get equipment that can be impeccably tuned. Now there are two methods to montor the actual room.

Finally, it should be pointed out and noticed that your author/editor, Charles ‘C J’ Flynn of dcinematools.com is also Charles ‘C J’ Flynn, a founding partner of digitaltesttools.com – he is also a long term admirer of USL and the excellent equipment that they produce. So while this article is somewhat an infomercial, it is written as a scientist and disseminator of valuable information…and presuming that it is just a launching point for further research. C J Flynn has also been a long time advocate of Post-Installation Cinema Compliance, writing and presenting at IBC on the topic as far back as 2006 (after retiring from the labors of setting up cinema servers and training their users since before Star Wars II.

Digital eXperience Guardian – the DXG Multiroom Network Setup

 

Digital eXperience Guardian – The DXG Rear Panel showing Power Over Ethernet Interface

DXG Report – One Speaker – With Errors

The Future Holds...

More Quality Assurance From USL

Leave a comment

USL LSS-100 Test DeviceImportantly, it is also a networked device, making it possible for theater owners to monitor auditoriums continuously from a Network Operation Center (NOC) anywhere in the world, providing instantaneous monitoring of luminance, chromaticity, and SPL data.

“We decided to build on the success of our PSA light and PCA color meters to create an automated way to ensure excellent picture quality,” said Jack Cashin, USL’s founder, president and chief technical designer.

The release of these products show that the industry has matured beyond the one-time post-installation set-up. The idea that digital is everything, including stable and reliable, requires one thing that the cost of digital did away with: constant and consistent monitoring. The Projectionist has largely been replaced by the “booth attendant”, which who is not a substitute.

Not that there is anything wrong with the booth attendant, as long as they are able to use the tools given them to learn how to create a better environment for their audience. The advantage of the Meyer/NTi Cinema Audio Analyser, in conjunction with the Harkness Screen Checker is that it brings a pair of eyes and ears into the auditorium.

They can test the picture and the audio from several positions in the room and learn their environment. They can listen for rattles and new hum components. They may not pick it up at first, but just like the audience, they will be aware that something is wrong and seek to get it fixed before the audience decides that their home system is more pleasing.

They can, once a week, run the SMPTE DProVe DCP in every room to check whether things have changed.

SMPTE Digital Leader Demonstration – YouTube
DProVe | Digital Projector Verifier – DCinemaTools
Digital PROjection VErifier – SMPTE Store

They can walk around with a pair of Sony caption Glasses or USL headsets or Doremi OptiGrabs and check the HI/VI system.

“To some extent, this is the problem with a device like the Digital Test Tools Digital eXperience Guardian (DxG) and the USL LSS-100. They rely upon someone setting the parameters so that alarms go off at the right time, and get to the right people,” says Digital Test Tools evangelist (and DCinemaTools editor) C J Flynn.

“Sure, the DxG can let the NOC know that the THD of the left woofer has gone south, or a new rattle has appeared at the right front of the screen, or that the white point has shifted out of the SMPTE spec. But if the NOC is filled with generalists who don’t realize what that means for the picture, then it is little better than a booth assistant who sends an SMS to the Regional Tech Chief that says, “I got some reports that the audio sucks in Theater 6. What changed yesterday? I don’t know – these reports are from a couple weeks ago – when you left on vacation.

“But these tools used in their proper place would be as an adjunct to a constant and consistent Quality Assurance Plan, a procedure that involves everyone in the organization like ISO-9001 does – that would be optimum. That’s way we push Post-Installation Compliance concepts like what was presented to UNIC for CineEurope2012 Innovation Award. This is what we mean by having a feedback loop in the operation, which is the only way that digital can “take care of itself”.

“One has to beware of any press release that “ensures” anything, that says there is “no compromise”. Engineering is the Art of Compromise. There can only be so many seats in prime position, but the most astute owners can minimize the flaws when they pay attention to details and don’t get seduced by simple solutions that “ensure” success.”

For these and other reasons, DCinemaTools has begun the series called, The Art of Compromise: A Series of White Papers Explaining the Considerations and Choices Involved in Getting from There to Here.

[Was the editor really quoting himself? Yes, just to make sure it was clear that he was wearing a different hat as a manufacturer for that bit and not as the writer of this piece…weird but trying to be disclosing.]

The Future Holds...

More Quality Assurance From USL

Leave a comment

USL LSS-100 Test DeviceImportantly, it is also a networked device, making it possible for theater owners to monitor auditoriums continuously from a Network Operation Center (NOC) anywhere in the world, providing instantaneous monitoring of luminance, chromaticity, and SPL data.

“We decided to build on the success of our PSA light and PCA color meters to create an automated way to ensure excellent picture quality,” said Jack Cashin, USL’s founder, president and chief technical designer.

The release of these products show that the industry has matured beyond the one-time post-installation set-up. The idea that digital is everything, including stable and reliable, requires one thing that the cost of digital did away with: constant and consistent monitoring. The Projectionist has largely been replaced by the “booth attendant”, which who is not a substitute.

Not that there is anything wrong with the booth attendant, as long as they are able to use the tools given them to learn how to create a better environment for their audience. The advantage of the Meyer/NTi Cinema Audio Analyser, in conjunction with the Harkness Screen Checker is that it brings a pair of eyes and ears into the auditorium.

They can test the picture and the audio from several positions in the room and learn their environment. They can listen for rattles and new hum components. They may not pick it up at first, but just like the audience, they will be aware that something is wrong and seek to get it fixed before the audience decides that their home system is more pleasing.

They can, once a week, run the SMPTE DProVe DCP in every room to check whether things have changed.

SMPTE Digital Leader Demonstration – YouTube
DProVe | Digital Projector Verifier – DCinemaTools
Digital PROjection VErifier – SMPTE Store

They can walk around with a pair of Sony caption Glasses or USL headsets or Doremi OptiGrabs and check the HI/VI system.

“To some extent, this is the problem with a device like the Digital Test Tools Digital eXperience Guardian (DxG) and the USL LSS-100. They rely upon someone setting the parameters so that alarms go off at the right time, and get to the right people,” says Digital Test Tools evangelist (and DCinemaTools editor) C J Flynn.

“Sure, the DxG can let the NOC know that the THD of the left woofer has gone south, or a new rattle has appeared at the right front of the screen, or that the white point has shifted out of the SMPTE spec. But if the NOC is filled with generalists who don’t realize what that means for the picture, then it is little better than a booth assistant who sends an SMS to the Regional Tech Chief that says, “I got some reports that the audio sucks in Theater 6. What changed yesterday? I don’t know – these reports are from a couple weeks ago – when you left on vacation.

“But these tools used in their proper place would be as an adjunct to a constant and consistent Quality Assurance Plan, a procedure that involves everyone in the organization like ISO-9001 does – that would be optimum. That’s way we push Post-Installation Compliance concepts like what was presented to UNIC for CineEurope2012 Innovation Award. This is what we mean by having a feedback loop in the operation, which is the only way that digital can “take care of itself”.

“One has to beware of any press release that “ensures” anything, that says there is “no compromise”. Engineering is the Art of Compromise. There can only be so many seats in prime position, but the most astute owners can minimize the flaws when they pay attention to details and don’t get seduced by simple solutions that “ensure” success.”

For these and other reasons, DCinemaTools has begun the series called, The Art of Compromise: A Series of White Papers Explaining the Considerations and Choices Involved in Getting from There to Here.

[Was the editor really quoting himself? Yes, just to make sure it was clear that he was wearing a different hat as a manufacturer for that bit and not as the writer of this piece…weird but trying to be disclosing.]

The Future Holds...

More Quality Assurance From USL

Leave a comment

USL LSS-100 Test DeviceImportantly, it is also a networked device, making it possible for theater owners to monitor auditoriums continuously from a Network Operation Center (NOC) anywhere in the world, providing instantaneous monitoring of luminance, chromaticity, and SPL data.

“We decided to build on the success of our PSA light and PCA color meters to create an automated way to ensure excellent picture quality,” said Jack Cashin, USL’s founder, president and chief technical designer.

The release of these products show that the industry has matured beyond the one-time post-installation set-up. The idea that digital is everything, including stable and reliable, requires one thing that the cost of digital did away with: constant and consistent monitoring. The Projectionist has largely been replaced by the “booth attendant”, which who is not a substitute.

Not that there is anything wrong with the booth attendant, as long as they are able to use the tools given them to learn how to create a better environment for their audience. The advantage of the Meyer/NTi Cinema Audio Analyser, in conjunction with the Harkness Screen Checker is that it brings a pair of eyes and ears into the auditorium.

They can test the picture and the audio from several positions in the room and learn their environment. They can listen for rattles and new hum components. They may not pick it up at first, but just like the audience, they will be aware that something is wrong and seek to get it fixed before the audience decides that their home system is more pleasing.

They can, once a week, run the SMPTE DProVe DCP in every room to check whether things have changed.

SMPTE Digital Leader Demonstration – YouTube
DProVe | Digital Projector Verifier – DCinemaTools
Digital PROjection VErifier – SMPTE Store

They can walk around with a pair of Sony caption Glasses or USL headsets or Doremi OptiGrabs and check the HI/VI system.

“To some extent, this is the problem with a device like the Digital Test Tools Digital eXperience Guardian (DxG) and the USL LSS-100. They rely upon someone setting the parameters so that alarms go off at the right time, and get to the right people,” says Digital Test Tools evangelist (and DCinemaTools editor) C J Flynn.

“Sure, the DxG can let the NOC know that the THD of the left woofer has gone south, or a new rattle has appeared at the right front of the screen, or that the white point has shifted out of the SMPTE spec. But if the NOC is filled with generalists who don’t realize what that means for the picture, then it is little better than a booth assistant who sends an SMS to the Regional Tech Chief that says, “I got some reports that the audio sucks in Theater 6. What changed yesterday? I don’t know – these reports are from a couple weeks ago – when you left on vacation.

“But these tools used in their proper place would be as an adjunct to a constant and consistent Quality Assurance Plan, a procedure that involves everyone in the organization like ISO-9001 does – that would be optimum. That’s way we push Post-Installation Compliance concepts like what was presented to UNIC for CineEurope2012 Innovation Award. This is what we mean by having a feedback loop in the operation, which is the only way that digital can “take care of itself”.

“One has to beware of any press release that “ensures” anything, that says there is “no compromise”. Engineering is the Art of Compromise. There can only be so many seats in prime position, but the most astute owners can minimize the flaws when they pay attention to details and don’t get seduced by simple solutions that “ensure” success.”

For these and other reasons, DCinemaTools has begun the series called, The Art of Compromise: A Series of White Papers Explaining the Considerations and Choices Involved in Getting from There to Here.

[Was the editor really quoting himself? Yes, just to make sure it was clear that he was wearing a different hat as a manufacturer for that bit and not as the writer of this piece…weird but trying to be disclosing.]