What credibility does THX have as a brand when the chain of cinemas have their own THX certified technician employed?

The reason for me asking this is that I think that THX has lost it credibility when no independent person is controlling the quality on a regular basis.
It seems as though when getting a cinema THX certified, the quest to withhold and increase the quality of the cinema is brought to a standstill by the owner.

How do you feel about the system with THX certifiers employed at the chain of cinemas?
Wouldn’t it be preferable if an independent person from THX together with the local technician would check the quality of the set-up and come to an agreement with the management how to update and maintain the system to be able to keep the THX certification. This to prevent an internal conflict between the management and the local technician.

Even if a cinema is well equipped it all comes down to the projectionist to keep the presentation at the promised level of quality. It is important to maintain a high and good standard of the projectionist considering that he or she becomes more and more of a technical engineer for the cinema.

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Steve

Windows 2000 (Full 32-bit version, not just DOS)
Mac OS 9
Mac OS X
Be OS
Linux
Solaris
NeXTstep
Windows CE
and of course Apple ][e

Although, it would be cool to do it from a Palm Pilot, or maybe a Commodore 64.

Adam, I think we have been trusting Microsoft with our THX systems since the begginning. DOS is a microsoft product, thats how they started in buisness. Almost all large light boards run on DOS as well. Microsoft however did not develop it, they bought the system. You can run an R-2 from a pocket HP computer. Gord and I both carry one as backup to our main laptops. When you travel great distances it pays to ahve it available.
Mark @ GTS

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Sure, THX theater are, at least, well equipped since the project of the theater is checked by THX engeneers.
However, I went to few THX theaters in Italy and all were not so good.
A theater of my chain is THX certified. Since 3 years and half, we NEVER had a THX tech to check something. So why have to pay the certification fee?
I think (At least in Italy) that a good theater can be done without any THX logo.

If THX will continue with this way of business, THX theater will soon became just "normal" theater and THX logo will soon loose any value.
I'm sorry, because I will always remember my first THX experience: was my first real "Theater" experience.

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However the annual 'inspection', IMHO, is more a marketing exercise than a serious attempt to enforce standards. In the one inspection process I ever witnessed, the inspector was purely concerned with the sound setup and didn't even look at a picture on the screen at any point during the inspection! I was told by front-of-house staff that he did sit in on the last reel of the last film of the evening before he started on the inspection, but even so he would only have seen one projector working in one ratio. I know of other venues where annual reinspections have been late, not happened at all or have been undertaken by a company's own engineer. This could well be because of the logistical problems of getting inspectors over from the US, but I think it would be fair to say that as a general rule, 'THX' guarantees a well-designed auditorium but not picture or sound quality.

In terms of what it actually assesses, Kodak Screencheck strikes me as being a far more rounded set of tests to actually determine the overall quality of presentation, though I was not given confidence when I once got sent an advertising brochure for this programme which included a photo of an inspector gazing into an open lamphouse without wearing a safety visor.