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Topic: DTS D-Cinema Becomes DataSatDigital?

Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006

posted 05-24-2009 10:01 AM

I noticed earlier this month that DTS began printing
a new contact URL under the spindle-hole on their disks.
The old disks had "dtsdcinema.com" printed on them.
New disks have "datasatdigital.com" on them.

Also, the DTS logo has changed. In addition to a new
graphic, the new logo has the DataSatDigital name at
the top and includes the phrase:
"Formerly DTS Digital Cinema"

LOOK!

Searching the DTS (Datasat?) website, I was able to find
a press release dated earlier this month which says:

DTS Digital Cinema Acquired by Beaufort International Group

London, 13 May, 2008 - Beaufort International Group Plc
announced today that it has acquired the business and
assets of DTS Digital Cinema from DTS, Inc. for an
undisclosed sum.

Beaufort made the acquisition through its US subsidiary,
Beaufort California, Inc.

The full press release is pretty long but you can read it
> HERE <

Anybody else here know whatssup with DTS?

PS> All the e-mail contact info has changed too.
The "dtsdcinema" domain suffix is now "datasatdigial"

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 05-24-2009 10:55 AM

All of the e-mail addresses have changed, too. So if you know someone with an @dts.com e-mail, it is now @datastatdigital.com. Ooops I mean datasatdigital. That doesn't even make sense! And the logo... ugg. At least they are keeping the DTS name for the home stuff.

EDIT: I just saw that you beat me to the e-mail change

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 05-24-2009 11:16 AM

That press release is dated May 2008. I swear there's a thread around here somewhere on that topic but I can't find it right now.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 05-24-2009 11:51 AM

quote: Joe Redifer
At least they are keeping the DTS name for the home stuff.

I thought DTS spun off its cinema products company a couple of years ago. This "datasatdigital" outfit technically isn't part of the DTS company that's all but now strictly home theater oriented.

The DTS consumer electronics oriented company has its own website which is strictly oriented to consumer electronics, computing and car audio.

The other company, Datasat Digital Entertainment has its own website, but doesn't make much mention of consumer DTS applications, other than DTS XD10 and XD20 processors being able to play certain consumer DTS surround formats (but not DTS-HD).

I wonder how much longer DTS CD-ROMs will continue to be produced for 35mm prints (and certain 70mm prints). The latest DTS processor will play a variety of audio formats, including Dolby Digital, off the built in hard disc drive. But with a large capacity hard disc why even bother with any lossy compressed audio at all? Every d-cinema system uses uncompressed LPCM audio.

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Julio Roberto
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 938
From: Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Registered: Oct 2008

posted 05-24-2009 12:44 PM

quote: David Stambaugh
That press release is dated May 2008. I swear there's a thread around here somewhere on that topic but I can't find it right now.

We sidetracked the topic (as usual [Razz]

) a little bit and discussed the name change to datasat in pages 8 and 9 of this thread about a month ago:

http://www.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/f16/t000287/p9.html

There is a post by me around the middle of the page that mentions the press release with the name change.

Anyway, it looks like DTS will perhaps not be as prominent player in the DCinema industry as it was in the film-cinema one.

They offer Master Image 3D solution and Dcinema servers based on Qube hardware. And their sound equipment, now mostly unnecessary.

I'm afraid support for traditional DTS (discs, etc) will also suffer. Regardless, eventually everything will be uncompressed digital multichannel off the hard drives directly.

I also wonder how long before some Dcinema player has the balls to implement EQ/crossover and auxiliary inputs and a volumen knob, thus (optionally) bypassing entirely the need for an external sound processor of any sort for cheap installations.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 05-24-2009 08:39 PM

quote: Julio Roberto
solution

I HATE that term.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 05-24-2009 09:12 PM

quote: Julio Roberto
I also wonder how long before some Dcinema player has the balls to implement EQ/crossover and auxiliary inputs and a volumen knob, thus (optionally) bypassing entirely the need for an external sound processor of any sort for cheap installations.

Dolby is a very obvious candidate for delivering such a product. Their CP750 cinema processor is a step in the direction of a fully integrated D-cinema player and cinema processor. I don't know much about the CP750 other than it is a lower cost product streamlined specifically for d-cinema only operation.

At the same time, why integrate a d-cinema server and cinema processor into one unit?

Dolby's CP500 was a revolutionary item when it debuted in the mid 1990s. At the time it made sense to combine Dolby Digital sound processing into a full featured cinema processor. The product saved theaters a lot of money on equipping a new sound system with 5.1 digital surround sound.

Considering the parts that may have to be replaced over time, a d-cinema player would seem like a likely candidate to be swapped out every few years for newer, better RAID-based players. It would be a waste of money to swap out the cinema processing component as well. Dolby's CP750 may actually be a better solution in that it is a simplified yet separate piece of equipment.

Oops, I used that term [joe]

hates.

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Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006

posted 05-24-2009 09:28 PM

quote: David Stambaugh
That press release is dated May 2008

D'oh! Is my face red!
I know some people that will tell you that I spend so much
time in the booth that I actually don't knowwhat year it is,
but that's not what happened.

They just started printing the new URL on the disks and
publishing the new e-mail addresses and I didn't notice
when I looked up the press releases to find out why
they made the change, I didn't notice that although it
was dated "May", it was from May of last year.

It kinda reminds me of how someone rang my doorbell
late one night and was rather surprised to see me
standing there in sweatpants and a T-shirt.

"I thought you were having a party" they said as they
showed me an invitation that I'd sent out for a party
a year earlier and they'd just found in the back of
a drawer a few days earlier and decided to come.

Sorry for the confusion, guys!

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 05-24-2009 10:23 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
Dolby's CP500 was a revolutionary item when it debuted in the mid 1990s.

Not really. It had a lot of great ideas, but as a processor it is very "blah". I know of many places that removed their CP500s and replaced them with CP650s. I don't know of ANY place that removed their CP65 to replace it with a CP500.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 05-24-2009 11:32 PM

The Dolby CP650 still was based on the same kind of concept as the CP500 -Dolby Digital audio processing integrated into a full featured cinema processor. Both purposes combined together into one unit cut quite a bit of cost. That was ultimately the factor in why Dolby was eventually able to overtake DTS on installed screen counts for 5.1 systems.

I seem to remember hearing complaints about the CP650 as opposed to the CP500. Didn't the CP650 have a DSP simulated version of Dolby SR? The CP500 used the actual Dolby SR cards didn't it?

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Julio Roberto
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 938
From: Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Registered: Oct 2008

posted 05-25-2009 07:59 AM

Well, my point here is that a small digital installation doesn't (really) need a sound processor of any sort. Since the audio is already in the digital domain and the server has a processor that's more powerful than a 8086 8Mhz processor (lol), it can apply an EQ and even spit-out frequency separated outputs (crossover) if it wanted to.

Being Dcinema players like they are regular PC's (with a JPEG2K hardware decompressing board and a HD-SDI output board), they could just as well support a $100 audio board capable of 6 (or more) channel inputs in case it's ever needed (i.e. for alternate content, etc) and a 16 (or more) analog channel output for the equalized/crossovered sound output.

I mean, virtually all pc motherboards' today can do that for $80. And a multi-i/o sound board is no more than $100 for a wholelotta of channels.

Anyway, with a server you could even just drop-in the timeline a couple of .mp3 music files and not even need the input for non-sync ambience audio. Just play the music directly. Not even need for a music CD player anymore.

To me, if a Dcinema player offered the possibility of applying a fine EQ to the output, it could bypass the need of a processor in many circunstances for cheap intallations. I would even use an external crossover if needed for bi-amping etc.

And to a Dcinema player manufacturer, implementing a 1/3 octave EQ on the output is nothing but a day or two of pay to a software engineer.

Any1 knows if any of the current Dcinema players offer to EQ the sound output?

The DCinema player already outputs sound in analog (or digital if you wish) form, uncompressed (no need to "decode it") and separated (into 6 channels). Why would you want it to go through a (say) CP650?

The only reason is to use the (expensive) 650 as a simple equalizer/switcher (for occasional external sound sources like non-sync) and for the use the volumen level. All those functions can be easily and cheaply implemented "for free" in the player.

QSC has it right offering a "processor" w/o the unneccesary parts and with remote monitoring capabilities to help diagnose sound troubles.

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Daniel Schulz
Master Film Handler

Posts: 387
From: Los Angeles, CA USA
Registered: Sep 2003

posted 05-26-2009 07:33 PM

While it is reasonable to assume that at some future date compressed digital audio will be made obsolete by Digital Cinema, we expect to be delivering DTS Digital Sound tracks for 35mm film for several years to come. And for those exhibitors moving from film to digital we offer the DC20 server as well as a library server and a TMS, as well as future products and services now in development.

DTS' sale of their cinema business was indeed in 2008, but the re-branding is more recent:

quote:
LAS VEGAS, NV, April 1, 2009 – DTS Digital Cinema announced today that it will begin operating under
the trade name Datasat Digital Entertainment from April 1, 2009. The company is a market leader in
providing digital cinema technology to motion picture exhibitors and distributors. Founded in1993 the
company was the first to provide 5.1 digital surround sound to the film industry. The company will maintain
the DTS Digital Cinema brand name for all cinema related products and services.
In May of 2008 DTS Digital Cinema was purchased by the primary owner of Datasat Communications Ltd., a
satellite network solutions business based in the United Kingdom. The Company’s new trade name is derived
from its sister company and is being adopted to better suit the company as it begins offering expanded support
and distribution services in the entertainment market.
“Over the last 16 years DTS Digital Cinema has built itself into a company recognized around the world for
excellence in film exhibition technology,” said Chris Thomas, the Company’s President and CEO. “We
supply surround sound to over 30,000 screens in over 100 countries and have gained a solid reputation for
securely delivering digital content in a timely manner.”

Regards,

Dan

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