Tag Archives: manufacturer

Get Your HI Tracks On

After a decade of hopes and promises, several large theater chains, entire countries like Australia and major studios have broken the technology and chicken-and-egg barriers to implementing complete access for this part of society who have asserted their right to be included. That the digital caption and listening technology caught up in a flurry in the last year is no coincidence to these moves, but it has taken a lot of work and rigorous testing “plug fests” for years to get to this point.

Regal Cinemas has thrown the latest and greatest gauntlet – all screenings, in all their auditoriums, will be “Accessible” by the end of the year.

There are more than a few challenges ahead for them. They have chosen the Sony glasses and sound systems [See:Previous Story], which are just becoming available. They have the largest number of screens to accommodate, nearly 7,000, which means a lot of people to train and a lot of expectant customers.

But the hardest moment is when the customer puts on the glasses to see the closed captions or the headsets to hear the sound…and nothing happens. Everyone can identify with that sinking feeling. Why? Will they fix themselves? I was promised~!

Oops!!! It was only the trailers that didn’t have the tracks for the hearing impaired (HI). Whoa…I sure wish that wouldn’t happen.


The ISDCF, a association of technical staff from many exhibitor and distributor and manufacturing groups have put out a request from via their chair:

Open letter to Content Providers,

ISDCF has discussed problems in delivery of the HI track (hearing impaired) for digital releases, in particular trailers. In the “old” days the HI track was generated by the “B” chain through the cinema processor – and this worked pretty well. 

Today the delivered DCP movies sometimes contain a studio-mixed HI track and this dedicated channel is used to feed the HI system in the theater. When a product does not have a HI track, in particular trailers, the theater HI system is silent. This is unacceptable. 

The best solution is for every delivered DCP movie or trailer to include an HI track. This could be an HI track created in a studio mixing room or one using a formula like the one used by “B” chain cinema processor systems. 

I would like to ask the help of ISDCF members to get the message out and help encourage release of HI tracks for all digital releases.

Best,

Jerry Pierce
Chairman ISDCF

Get Your HI Tracks On

After a decade of hopes and promises, several large theater chains, entire countries like Australia and major studios have broken the technology and chicken-and-egg barriers to implementing complete access for this part of society who have asserted their right to be included. That the digital caption and listening technology caught up in a flurry in the last year is no coincidence to these moves, but it has taken a lot of work and rigorous testing “plug fests” for years to get to this point.

Regal Cinemas has thrown the latest and greatest gauntlet – all screenings, in all their auditoriums, will be “Accessible” by the end of the year.

There are more than a few challenges ahead for them. They have chosen the Sony glasses and sound systems [See:Previous Story], which are just becoming available. They have the largest number of screens to accommodate, nearly 7,000, which means a lot of people to train and a lot of expectant customers.

But the hardest moment is when the customer puts on the glasses to see the closed captions or the headsets to hear the sound…and nothing happens. Everyone can identify with that sinking feeling. Why? Will they fix themselves? I was promised~!

Oops!!! It was only the trailers that didn’t have the tracks for the hearing impaired (HI). Whoa…I sure wish that wouldn’t happen.


The ISDCF, a association of technical staff from many exhibitor and distributor and manufacturing groups have put out a request from via their chair:

Open letter to Content Providers,

ISDCF has discussed problems in delivery of the HI track (hearing impaired) for digital releases, in particular trailers. In the “old” days the HI track was generated by the “B” chain through the cinema processor – and this worked pretty well. 

Today the delivered DCP movies sometimes contain a studio-mixed HI track and this dedicated channel is used to feed the HI system in the theater. When a product does not have a HI track, in particular trailers, the theater HI system is silent. This is unacceptable. 

The best solution is for every delivered DCP movie or trailer to include an HI track. This could be an HI track created in a studio mixing room or one using a formula like the one used by “B” chain cinema processor systems. 

I would like to ask the help of ISDCF members to get the message out and help encourage release of HI tracks for all digital releases.

Best,

Jerry Pierce
Chairman ISDCF

Red’s EPIC/Scarlett Problems {Update}

July 6 Update: A new Jannard post says the EPIC bug has been found and demented (and insinuates that it was the same bug that was holding back the Scarlet) and insists that they are back on the road of building the most best great and ultimate. A hint that the manufacturer is found, by saying that it will be built in the US, though that is not explicitly stated. The delivery dates are not hinted at, though some versions will definitely be in 2011 since the 28K sensor won’t be available since then. 


 

Jim Jannard continued his excellent client experiment by filling everyone in on further bug and manufacturing delays in a 14 June reduser.com post;

 

… we have a bug. It has held us up now for two months. We have working cameras, as you know. But we aren’t going to release anything until the cameras are done and bug free. And we have stumbled on an issue that has caused us considerable grief. It is unexpected and it has us baffled.

The fix could be tomorrow. Or not.

We have been a “lucky” company up to this point. The moon and stars lined up for us for the RED ONE (since we didn’t have a clue what we were doing in the beginning) and the RED ONE did all we asked. The M-X sensor is incredible… as you know. Our new ASICs for the EPIC and Scarlet are complicate times a million. And they work. Another miracle. Everything was late but on track. Then we hit a snag.

We have an army working on this. 24/7. Trust me when I tell you that we have been humbled. I have questioned our aggressive goals every day.

So what does this mean? Obviously another delay. To compound matters, the company that was to make Scarlet has made an incredible announcement recently and has significant issues. You can probably figure out who this is. This will force us to find a new manufacturing partner for that product. When we 1st got wind of this, we decided to make EPIC in the US, hoping that the company would find a solution in time for Scarlet production. That now seems unlikely so we are now scrambling for a new partner.

The manufacturing problem that is mentioned is presumed to be tied to Foxconn in China who is undergoing some major restructuring. It has to have several manufacturers scrabbling. For example, Apple has long made iPhone and other products with this group.

The EPIC and Scarlet camera are meant to bridge the original RED ONE, the Scarlet with 3K resolution and 5K or better for the EPIC. As recently as April, the EPIC was slatted for shipping in July, the Scarlet in August. 

Richard Lackey’s http://dcinema.wordpress.com/ has a great synopsis.