Kodak to unveil first “universal” and fully integrated digital system
"Kodak will unveil and demonstrate its comprehensive digital cinema solution, the Kodak Theatre Management System (TMS), to exhibition and distribution managers at the 2007 ShoWest Convention and Trade Show in Las Vegas next week.
Kodak also announced that in April it will begin installing prototypes of the Kodak Theatre Management System at multiple sites throughout the United States. The Kodak TMS will be the exhibition industry’s first ever ‘universal’ digital system designed to manage all content from all suppliers and bring new workflow efficiencies to the cinema.
The Kodak Theatre Management System includes a server driven by unique and proprietary Kodak-written software connected to the cinema’s ticketing system. Directed by the theatre’s ticketing system, the fully integrated TMS will automatically load all content from multiple suppliers via hard drive or satellite and distribute it to targeted screens over the in-cinema network. Decryption keys are also loaded, migrated and managed over the network.
The Kodak TMS is at the heart of the fully-integrated Kodak solution, which includes all networked content players and feature projectors, as well as Kodak service and support.
Kodak intends to support the solution with an innovative Business Plan. “Our plan is aimed at exhibitors intending to convert at least half the screens in their complex,” Mayson says, “because we believe a commitment of that scope is necessary for them to experience the benefits of a network solution – and to have the same ‘print movement’ flexibility they now enjoy with analog.”
The term of payback for TMS is expected to be seven years, after which the exhibitor will own the system.
Mayson emphasizes that there are no hidden obligations in the Kodak Plan. “There are no requirements that customers buy lamps from Kodak, no hidden usage charges for exhibitors, and there is no limitation on their sources of content. Those choices are up to the exhibitor; we respect the ways they need to run their business.”
