Hollywood—Oct 8, 2007
Kodak to Showcase Its ‘Evolving’ Theatre Management System at ShowEast Systems are driving full feature schedules on two continents in working cinemas
Kodak will demonstrate its comprehensive and commercialized Kodak Theatre Management System (TMS), to exhibition and distribution managers at the 2007 ShowEast convention and trade show in Orlando next week. These demonstrations come just seven months after the company showed prototypes at ShoWest and subsequently installed first systems in busy working cinemas.
The Kodak TMS is the heart, brains, and traffic cop of the in-theatre system of the future. It’s designed to manage all content from all suppliers and bring new workflow efficiencies to the cinema.
“We’ve been working aggressively behind the scenes and collaboratively with our partners in the US and the UK since installing first systems some months ago,” said Bob Mayson, general manager of Kodak Digital Motion Imaging. “We’ve made great progress -- and our customers who’ve used the system tell us that we’re on the right path to bring new functionality and confidence to their future.”
The TMS is at the heart of the fully-integrated Kodak solution, which includes a central server, central storage capability, content players and feature projectors – all driven by Kodak software and connected through Kodak’s secure networking infrastructure to each other and to the cinema’s ticketing system.
Once content and keys are loaded, the TMS takes its direction from the ticketing system. Pre-show advertising and keys move automatically to the correct screen and play as scheduled. Software in development will automatically migrate feature content as well.
While the system is designed to run without operator involvement, Kodak showed how easy it is for the operator to interrupt the programmed content, to make changes. “The user interface screen has intuitive controls,” Mayson said. “For all the automation the Kodak TMS provides, exhibitors still want to be in control of their business.”
The upgraded version of the TMS delivers on a promise made when the company first showed the product in rough form last year. At that point, Kodak indicated that the TMS would be in constant evolution, adding features and upgrading functionality, based on listening to customers and responding.
“In the past few months, we’ve made a number of advancements, to increase the robustness of the centralized loading and migrating functions, to handle key delivery messages (KDMs) electronically, to connect to additional ticketing systems, and to support the single track 3D file format the industry is adopting,” Mayson said.
The Kodak solution comes with full Kodak service and support, as well the availability of a business plan that offers peace of mind.
“Whether we’re talking business or technology, our customers want ‘no surprises’,” said Mayson. “They need to know what they’re getting, be sure that everyone has a stake in the game, and be able to rely completely and confidently on their solution partner. We offer that assurance from Kodak.”
At ShowEast, Kodak will co-host several major events, continuing a tradition of being an involved member of the industry. “ShowEast enables us to reach our customers in a very effective way,” Mayson said, “to thank them for working with us in the past and to discuss how we might best meet their continuing needs in the future. It’s clear that the transition to digital cinema is accelerating -- and we’re in this for the long term.”
