Digital cinema automation innovator,
INTEG Process Group, Inc. has introduced a theatre monitoring system that
provides real-time exhibition status reporting and remote command initiation
from any location within a theatre complex from any device running a web
browser.
The system, called Event ManagerTM, utilizes a theatre complex's Ethernet/WiFi network to transmit the real-time
status of up to 25 auditoriums simultaneously.
The new system is enabled by the introduction of INTEG's
new JNIORTM 410 cinema automation controller, which is a
high-performance upgrade of the company's JNIOR 310 controller. The JNIOR models
310 and 312 are in use in more than one-third (over 35,000) of the digital
cinema auditoriums in the world.
When coupled with INTEG's Event Manager software, a
single JNIOR 410 is capable of receiving management-specified data from up to
25 JNIOR controllers, each of which controls the projection, sound, lighting
and other components for a single auditorium.
As the JNIOR 410 continuously collects, compiles and
sorts data from an array of JNIORs, the information is posted in real-time to a
spreadsheet style web page via the theatre managed Ethernet or WiFi network,
and sent to any authorized display device within a theatre complex. The spreadsheet view, which is easily configured
by users, has horizontal rows for each auditorium and vertical columns
representing different pieces of equipment or functionality within the
auditorium. The web page can be displayed on any web-compatible device, from a
PC monitor, to a wall-mounted flat-screen, to a laptop display, tablet, or a
cell phone.
Event Manager’s real-time status reporting allows any
authorized user, from the theatre manager to the concession stand attendant, to
see, on screen, the sequence of events and status for every auditorium in a
cinema complex – not just a log of what has already happened, but an interactive
representation of what is actually happening in all theatres at any moment.
If any action or sequence in the movie presentation
malfunctions, Event Manager’s remote control feature can be called upon to
remedy the problem in short order.
Remote control is enabled by ‘clicking’ on an auditorium name in the
Event Manager display to bring up a list of ‘commands’, available to that
auditorium’s JNIOR controller. The commands,
known as ‘macros’ to computer technicians, can control individual pieces of
equipment and start and stop digital cinema exhibition processes.
An auditorium's assigned macros can be
allowed to run automatically on the JNIOR 310/312 as part of the normal digital
cinema presentation or they can be over-ridden remotely via Event Manager to
refresh, adjust, extend or halt a process or change the operation of a piece of
equipment. Macros include commands
like: Dim lights; Lights full; Switch
sound to digital audio; Run 2D flat start set-up; Change the masking; Run the projector 3D feature set-up macro (a
case of one macro telling another macro what to do) or; Extend intermission by
3 minutes.
Event Manager allows theatre operators to have a
flexible, easy to use tool to manage multiple auditoriums remotely. Users can know where each presentation stands
at any moment in real-time and detect technical malfunctions when they
occur. Even more powerful, Event Manger
enables theatre staff to fix problems remotely with the click of a mouse or the
touch of a screen, without having to walk to each auditorium to check or touch
every knob, switch, bulb and lamp in the building.
