Arts Alliance Media (AAM), the global leader in digital cinema software and services, today announces that it has signed a new direct agreement with Shanghai SFC Film & Television Technology Development Co. Ltd (SFC Technology Co.) to deliver its Lifeguard system monitoring software.
Lifeguard provides centralised equipment monitoring and support ticketing capabilities, enabling a comprehensive maintenance service to be provided to cinemas. The deal will see 5,000 cinema screens covered by AAM’s Lifeguard, enhancing the capabilities of SFC’s Network Operations Centre (NOC) as it serves both SFC screens and those of its external exhibitor customers.
SFC Technology Co. is a subsidiary of Shanghai Film Corporation (SFC), which has been one of the leading companies in China’s film industry . In 2014, SFC became the first Chinese exhibitor to use AAM’s Lifeguard software to power a NOC. Initially, the NOC serviced around 500 digital cinema screens across the country. The new 10-year agreement will increase the number of screens monitored by SFC Technology Co. and also see the company become an exclusive Lifeguard reseller in China (P.R.C.)
SFC Technology Co. will adopt AAM’s Lifeguard in its NOC alongside selected modules of AAM’s Producer and Screenwriter Plus solutions to also monitor content at each screen, providing early alerts to any problems such as missing KDMs or the scheduled content not being on the right server. The Log Collection module of Producer will also enable SFC to automatically collect comprehensive data on all playouts on every single screen.
“AAM has proven to be a truly valuable partner - its Lifeguard software has allowed us to recognise our ambition to become one of the biggest NOC service providers in China,” said Ben Lu, GM of SFC Technology Co. “The continued deployment and extension of Lifeguard will enhance our service offerings and enables us to better monitor and manage cinema screen performance, from hardware through to content. We have been so impressed with AAM’s software solutions that we have decided also to take on some modules of its Screenwriter and Producer solutions, in order to better monitor our cinemas and power our NOC moving forward. We’re looking forward to continuing our work with AAM and delivering outstanding cinema experiences to audiences across China.”
With the continued support of AAM’s Lifeguard product, SFC’s NOC now has the technology to service an ever increasing number of screens in the rapidly growing Chinese digital cinema market. Lifeguard enables SFC to centralise all of its hardware monitoring within one NOC service, with features such as real-time monitoring with device status updates from entire cinema circuits showing immediately where there are any problems. Lifeguard also includes ticketing capabilities to ensure that support is being provided efficiently to the highest-priority issues.
“Our continued partnership with SFC is proof of AAM’s ongoing and expanding footprint in China, and we are excited to be continuing our partnership with one of China’s leading exhibitors,” said John Aalbers, Chief Executive Officer of Arts Alliance Media. “Working with a company with such rich history within the Chinese cinema industry is a privilege. Our continued involvement with SFC showcases the standard of our software and our forward thinking approach. We’re looking forward to what the future holds and strengthening our partnership.”
