Archive translation. Specifications, services and availability reflect the original publication date. Verify current compatibility before production use.
The digitisation of media delivery was expected to reach cinemas even while feature films continued to be projected from 35 mm prints. Advertising and short-form content could instead be shown digitally, with HDTV providing the image quality requested by advertising agencies.
DVC Digitalvideo Computing positioned OnairForce e-Cinema as a modular system for flexible cinema installations. Its web-based applications and tools covered three areas:
- Scheduling and organisation of content
- Transfer of video data over data connections or satellite
- Storage and HDTV playout in cinemas
As with DVC’s existing broadcast applications, MPEG-2 video could be managed in a customer-configurable SQL database through a web interface. External files from national marketing agencies could be imported, cinema locations stored in the database, and venues grouped into freely defined clusters for accounting.
Transfer and storage
Promotional schedules could be sent to cinemas by email. After encoding at 50 Mbit/s, spots were stored as MPEG-2 programme-stream or transport-stream files on transfer servers. A transfer module delivered the data to playout locations using either push or pull methods, selected according to the available broadband connection.
Only files that were not already present on the cinema server had to be transmitted. A cinema web database made the available content visible at any time, and the overall system was designed for automated operation.
HDTV presentation
Promotional spots were played through HDTV hardware. During early demonstrations DVC used a HiBOX3, which decoded 50 Mbit/s MPEG-2 transport streams and sent the output to a projector. Participants reportedly responded positively to the picture and sound quality. The concept joined database management, digital delivery and cinema playout.
