During this unprecedented time, Dolby® is working hard to support the cinema industry in a variety of ways. One of those ways is to help ensure our partners and the industry at large are set up for success as they prepare to reopen after the prolonged cinema closures.
Our Cinema Support team created industry guidelines for bringing cinema equipment back online after a long-term shutdown. Although these guidelines were originally developed for Dolby customers that may be in various phases of reopening, we wanted to make them available to all exhibitors as they can be used as a general framework no matter what type of equipment is installed. They can be accessed here and you will find instructions under the “Returning to Operation” section.
To address testing of secure playback servers and media blocks, we created the Dolby Encrypted Content Tester, an encrypted trailer. We have also generated and hosted keys for all Dolby Media Blocks online for this content allowing users to test at their convenience. The content is 2D and the image track is compressed to keep the delivery file size low. This content has Dolby Atmos® and Dolby Surround 7.1 audio tracks and can be played with any cinema audio processor. More information on the other types of maintenance and technical support can be found on the Dolby Customer Portal, including a robust collection of over 400 training and maintenance videos.
We understand how difficult this time has been for everyone in the industry and hope that the information and tools provided will be useful and help exhibitors get their equipment up and running quickly.