Qube Cinema, a leading digital cinema
technology and solutions provider, announced the publication of a case study
highlighting the deployment of Qube Wire by Tugg, a pioneer in developing the Cinema On Demand model bridging the gap between
filmmakers and audiences.
The case study was published in conjunction with the Art House Convergence Conference which takes place between January 21
st -24
th in Midway, Utah. The case study can be downloaded from Qube
Cinema's website -
www.qubecinema.com. (PDF)
In 2011, Nicolas
Gonda and Pablo Gonzalez launched Tugg
as a platform that allows filmmakers, content owners, promoters and even
moviegoers, to program films to play in movie theatres and community venues
throughout the United States.
Tugg has the
ability to book titles into over 85% of commercial movie theatre screens in the
US, from the largest circuits to independent art houses. One noteworthy aspect of the Tugg platform is
that it also provides access to venues that potentially wouldn’t ordinarily
play a film, such as churches, museums and libraries.
Tugg could not identify a
cost-effective solutions provider that could meet their content service
requirements. Satellite distribution was
great at delivering to thousands of screens, but not just 10, and those
providers that could do a limited distribution were unable to accommodate a
larger one. In most instances Tugg was
forced to fulfill all aspects of physical distribution in-house; from the
electronic storage of film titles, to the replication of hard drives, to
shipment of those drives, to making certain the content arrived and could be
played back properly.
The operational logistics of
distributing content for its screenings and events were costly, time consuming
and onerous enough to prevent Tugg from expanding internationally.
What Tugg needed was a partner that
could cater to their flexible content service needs while meeting two critical
factors; low-cost and a wide distribution footprint. If outsourcing their content operations were
too costly, the number of screenings Tugg could successfully promote would
decline to a point where it would ultimately kill the business. While Tugg found a number of providers with
reasonable pricing, they were restricted in their distribution by either
geography or to theatre sites that had proprietary hardware installed.
With its Qube Wire solution, Qube
Cinema was able to accommodate both Tugg’s economic model and its broad
distribution spread no matter how big or small the release. A hybrid solution that utilizes physical,
electronic and satellite delivery, Qube Wire can distribute Tugg’s content to
both theatres with Qube’ s hardware installed as well as those outside of its
own network.
For a company running as lean as Tugg
does, handing over their entire logistical operation to a third party was not
an easy decision. They wanted to be
comfortable and make sure everything went smoothly when delegating a process as
integral to their company as content distribution. Now, nine months after
abandoning their internal logistics and distribution operations, Tugg has
programmed over 600 screenings through Qube Wire for 24 different titles.
Tugg’s adoption of Qube Wire and their
continued use of the system has been trouble free according to Pablo Gonzalez the company’s co-founder and
chief executive officer. “I can't
think of a single major hiccup because they brought more experience in film
delivery logistics than we had,” said Gonzalez in recounting the experience of
making the switch. “They really brought
a higher level of competence to something that we were doing internally very
well, but at great pain.”
The Qube Wire service is now available
across 134 countries. The territories where Qube Wire content delivery services
are now available includes all major regions of the world including developing
and mature markets, from Southeast Asia to Africa to Europe and the Americas.
Qube Wire can already deliver content to 95% of theatres worldwide outside of
mainland China.
About Qube Wire:
Qube Wire is
a web-based service for global theatrical distribution. With a simple but
comprehensive user interface, distributors can manage their digital cinema
assets, assign territorial rights for their content and have their Digital
Cinema Packages (DCPs) and keys (aka Key Delivery Messages or KDMs) delivered
to movie theatres throughout the world. Theatres can manage their own digital
cinema device details, provide KDM providers a standards-compliant FLMx data
feed and access their Universal Inbox on the Qube Wire service, all for free.
