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Changing the Way Tom Cruise, Ben Affleck, LA’s Elite Watch Home Movies
Tom Cruise, Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Sylvester Stallone, Steven Spielberg and other affluent members of the Bel Air Circuit may soon be watching first-run Hollywood movies in their home theaters totally differently using Quantum Media Systems' $10,000 Digital Cinema Servers.
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Ken Hoffman, CEO of Quantum Media Systems, showed off the Q3000 and Q2000 media servers at CEDIA Expo 2014. The units not only handle traditional media server functions, but also play Integrated Media Blocks (IMBs) identical to what movie theater receive.
By Jason Knott, September 19, 2014
How would you like to have a client list that includes Tom Cruise, Ben Affleck, Sharon Stone, Sylvester Stallone, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Lionel Richie, Rupert Murdoch, Barry Manilow, Prince Saud al-Faisal and about 400 other super-wealthy individuals?
Very soon, Quantum Media Systems might be able to tout that as its client list. The company, which makes high-end media servers, is working with a third-party entity that serves the semi-secretive “Bel Air Circuit,” an exclusive club of about 400 super-wealthy individuals in the Los Angeles area who are able to watch first-run Hollywood movies in the comfort of their own home theaters. Cruise and the others are reportedly members.
As part of this service, Hollywood movie studios literally send a projectionist to the member’s home. He screens the movie using the member’s home theater, then packs up and heads back to the studio. It’s an expensive undertaking for the studios, but one that has been in existence for more than 50 years.
Several years ago, the Bel Air Circuit changed from being a free service supplied by the studios to a money-making enterprise available to anyone with deep enough pockets. The Bel Air Digital Circuit, as it is now reportedly known, reportedly requires a $100,000 initiation fee and $4,000 monthly expense.
Quantum Media Systems is looking to alter the way movies are screened. The Irvine, Calif.-based manufacturer is working with an unnamed third-party entity for its “Day and Date Service” to install its new Q3000 Digital Cinema Servers in the homes of Bel Air Circuit members starting in Q2 2015.
The Q3000, which has a $10,000 price point, plays an Integrated Media Block (IMB) that is identical to the ones provided by the movie studios to theaters nationwide for their digital projectors. The IMB is an encoded hard drive a little bit bigger than an old 8-track cartridge. It cannot be copied. The IMB sends a coded signal “key” to the projector that allows the uncompressed movie to play. The Q3000 has eight IMB bays.
Each member of the Bel Air Circuit, which is named for an uber-affluent enclave in L.A. and was originally established by movie moguls Louis B. Mayer and Daryl Zanuck, has an encryption key just like the movie theater get that gives them access to the movie for a certain time period.
Ken Hoffman, CEO of Quantum, showed off the 32TB server at the CEDIA Expo 2014 in a demo in the Stewart Filmscreen booth using a top-of-the-line Christie digital projector. The demo included incredible detail in scenes from “Avatar” and other clips.
“This is a different level of 4K,” he notes. “It’s not the content being compressed at 125Mbps that Sony, Samsung and other manufacturers want the masses to see. We are moving 50,000 to 75,000 bit rates and up to JPEG2000.”
Among the attributes of the 3U rack space Q3000 system are its ability to reproduce Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) P3 color space, 12-bit color depth and High Dynamic Range (HDR) using enhanced video processing, 4K image optimization, precision playback, and image color and brightness calibration. The unit handles 4K, Ultra HD and HD live-stream concerts, special events and post-produced video content.
As a traditional media server, other features include:
Simultaneous recording and time shifting via DVR functionality
JPEG2000 (DCI and on-DCI), low- and high-bit rate High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) and Advanced Video Coding (AVC) encoding
Internal solid state drive and RAID 5 content backup
2Gigabit Ethernet, quad HDMI 2.0, dual display port.
There is also a corresponding Q2000 server at a 2U rack space size with a 16TB drive with 4 IMB bays.
Tom Cruise, Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Sylvester Stallone, Steven Spielberg and other affluent members of the Bel Air Circuit may soon be watching first-run Hollywood movies in their home theaters totally differently using Quantum Media Systems' $10,000 Digital Cinema Servers.
image
Ken Hoffman, CEO of Quantum Media Systems, showed off the Q3000 and Q2000 media servers at CEDIA Expo 2014. The units not only handle traditional media server functions, but also play Integrated Media Blocks (IMBs) identical to what movie theater receive.
By Jason Knott, September 19, 2014
How would you like to have a client list that includes Tom Cruise, Ben Affleck, Sharon Stone, Sylvester Stallone, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Lionel Richie, Rupert Murdoch, Barry Manilow, Prince Saud al-Faisal and about 400 other super-wealthy individuals?
Very soon, Quantum Media Systems might be able to tout that as its client list. The company, which makes high-end media servers, is working with a third-party entity that serves the semi-secretive “Bel Air Circuit,” an exclusive club of about 400 super-wealthy individuals in the Los Angeles area who are able to watch first-run Hollywood movies in the comfort of their own home theaters. Cruise and the others are reportedly members.
As part of this service, Hollywood movie studios literally send a projectionist to the member’s home. He screens the movie using the member’s home theater, then packs up and heads back to the studio. It’s an expensive undertaking for the studios, but one that has been in existence for more than 50 years.
Several years ago, the Bel Air Circuit changed from being a free service supplied by the studios to a money-making enterprise available to anyone with deep enough pockets. The Bel Air Digital Circuit, as it is now reportedly known, reportedly requires a $100,000 initiation fee and $4,000 monthly expense.
Quantum Media Systems is looking to alter the way movies are screened. The Irvine, Calif.-based manufacturer is working with an unnamed third-party entity for its “Day and Date Service” to install its new Q3000 Digital Cinema Servers in the homes of Bel Air Circuit members starting in Q2 2015.
The Q3000, which has a $10,000 price point, plays an Integrated Media Block (IMB) that is identical to the ones provided by the movie studios to theaters nationwide for their digital projectors. The IMB is an encoded hard drive a little bit bigger than an old 8-track cartridge. It cannot be copied. The IMB sends a coded signal “key” to the projector that allows the uncompressed movie to play. The Q3000 has eight IMB bays.
Each member of the Bel Air Circuit, which is named for an uber-affluent enclave in L.A. and was originally established by movie moguls Louis B. Mayer and Daryl Zanuck, has an encryption key just like the movie theater get that gives them access to the movie for a certain time period.
Ken Hoffman, CEO of Quantum, showed off the 32TB server at the CEDIA Expo 2014 in a demo in the Stewart Filmscreen booth using a top-of-the-line Christie digital projector. The demo included incredible detail in scenes from “Avatar” and other clips.
“This is a different level of 4K,” he notes. “It’s not the content being compressed at 125Mbps that Sony, Samsung and other manufacturers want the masses to see. We are moving 50,000 to 75,000 bit rates and up to JPEG2000.”
Among the attributes of the 3U rack space Q3000 system are its ability to reproduce Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) P3 color space, 12-bit color depth and High Dynamic Range (HDR) using enhanced video processing, 4K image optimization, precision playback, and image color and brightness calibration. The unit handles 4K, Ultra HD and HD live-stream concerts, special events and post-produced video content.
As a traditional media server, other features include:
Simultaneous recording and time shifting via DVR functionality
JPEG2000 (DCI and on-DCI), low- and high-bit rate High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) and Advanced Video Coding (AVC) encoding
Internal solid state drive and RAID 5 content backup
2Gigabit Ethernet, quad HDMI 2.0, dual display port.
There is also a corresponding Q2000 server at a 2U rack space size with a 16TB drive with 4 IMB bays.