[hphase]

All,


I was introduced to this forum via the BCS in 3D topic, but I thought this would be a good place to get opinions on the Met Opera cinema-casts. While hardly a new development, what has the experience been in the theatres you frequent? Delivery and technical details would be appreciated, as well.


Thanks.

 

[R Johnson]

Please see http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=770384

 

[evathomas]

Lakeland owes an extraordinary debt to Lakeside Cobb Theatres for installing the satellite equipment neededto bring live performances of the Metropolitan Opera to residents of this area.


The Met, as it is affectionately called is, with LaScala in Milan, one ofthe world's most renowned, respected and loved opera theatres in theworld.

 

[R Johnson]



Quote:
Originally Posted by hphase /forum/post/15524108


I was introduced to this forum via the BCS in 3D topic, but I thought this would be a good place to get opinions on the Met Opera cinema-casts. While hardly a new development, what has the experience been in the theatres you frequent? Delivery and technical details would be appreciated, as well.

A fundamental problem: This is the "D-cinema Equipment and Theaters" sub-forum. However few theaters in the USA appear to be using "D-cinema Equipment" for the Metropolitan Opera. I'm not aware of any in the Chicago area, including a complex that has 16 "digital auditoriums". They're generally using LCD pre-show projectors.


It would interesting to learn of theaters actually using DCI grade projectors for the Met.

 

[invadergir]

Well i work at a theater as a projectionist and we also show the MET Opera events. We use a Bell HD satellite, Component cables to Christie LW40 Digital Projectors (pre-show) Running an Optical cable from the Bell receiver to a Yamaha receiver to our Dolby CP-500 processor for the Dolby 5.1 sound. We have yet to receive a DLP for the films but from what i was hearing a few months ago from our Technical Support guy was that they (Cineplex Head Office) wanted to run the Bell Satellite through the Christie DLP for the presentations. Sadly i have yet to find out officially if they doing so or not but i think i overheard someone say that they are. From the looks of the pic above it does look like a DLP and not a pre-show digital projector being used for the presentation. Much cleaner, brighter and crisper picture quality.

 

[R Johnson]



Quote:
Originally Posted by invadergir /forum/post/15876160


Well i work at a theater as a projectionist and we also show the MET Opera events. We use a Bell HD satellite, Component cables to Christie LW40 Digital Projectors (pre-show) .

Thanks for the input. The Cinemark where I saw the first Met HD transmission also used the LW40.


I've heard that one of reasons that theaters with many DLP Cinema projectors don't use them for the Met is that the servers and such were designed for DCI sources, and don't process sources like 1080i from a satellite.

 

[CINERAMAX]



Quote:
Originally Posted by invadergir /forum/post/15876160


Well i work at a theater as a projectionist and we also show the MET Opera events. We use a Bell HD satellite,

Invadegir can you get me a refrence number for the model you use? How about the encryption? How is it handled?


Thanks

 

[invadergir]



Quote:
Originally Posted by CINERAMAX /forum/post/15961948


Invadegir can you get me a refrence number for the model you use? How about the encryption? How is it handled?


Thanks

We use the BELL EXPRESSVU 6100 HDTV RECEIVER (M-PEG 2) I believe they (Bell) and Cineplex (theater company) made a deal a while ago for these special events to take place. We use the same channel for our WWE and other occasional random HD events like concerts (although concerts are now being done 90% on Blu-ray) They have these up in the Pay-Per-View channel listings but open them up on Wednesday nights for testing out the event signal strength and audio output. (Thursday nights for WWE where they will leave a password up for confirmation) They will do this for maybe 6-9 hours that day only (12-9pm) We report any problems to head office and pass it on to Bell, but haven't ran into any problems yet. Then on the day of the event they will either run a slide show for the MET or leave and ExpressVu message saying we are authorized and the event will be starting soon.


Should of asked my Technician guy last week if they are doing the shows with the DLP's

 

[CINERAMAX]



Quote:
Originally Posted by invadergir /forum/post/16045779


We use the BELL EXPRESSVU 6100 HDTV RECEIVER (M-PEG 2) I believe they (Bell) and Cineplex (theater company) made a deal a while ago for these special events to take place. We use the same channel for our WWE and other occasional random HD events like concerts (although concerts are now being done 90% on Blu-ray) They have these up in the Pay-Per-View channel listings but open them up on Wednesday nights for testing out the event signal strength and audio output. (Thursday nights for WWE where they will leave a password up for confirmation) They will do this for maybe 6-9 hours that day only (12-9pm) We report any problems to head office and pass it on to Bell, but haven't ran into any problems yet. Then on the day of the event they will either run a slide show for the MET or leave and ExpressVu message saying we are authorized and the event will be starting soon.


Should of asked my Technician guy last week if they are doing the shows with the DLP's

Thanks,


Look what I found in the Met website:


THE MET: LIVE IN HD

PROJECTOR STANDARDS


The Met's criterion is HDTV. That means no less than 1280x720 native in a 16:9 aspect ratio (prefer 1920x1080). The scaling engine should be able to scale 1920x1080 interlaced to whatever the projector uses.


The more contrast capability, the better.


The projector should be able to deal with a gamma of approximately 2.5 (anything between 2.2 and 2.8 should be okay).


Prefer white-area screen brightness of no less than 16 ft-lamberts. To calculate ft.-lamberts, divide the projector output in lumens by the screen area in square feet and multiply by the screen gain (a flat white wall has a gain of 1).


Please note that the Met signal is 16x9 1080-line interlaced.

 

[donaldk]

FYI, from Mark Schubin:


I've received many requests for the presentation I did after the HPA Technology Retreat on the Metropolitan Opera's "Live in HD" cinema-transmission project.


A link to the slides may be found on the main HPA web page:
http://www.hpaonline.com/mc/page.do

It's a large pdf file.


You can also see and hear me giving a very similar presentation to the Toronto SMPTE section in December here:

http://venus.rcc.ryerson.ca/xs/bfort...eamulator.html


Thanks for your interest.

 

[invadergir]

Just as a quick update. My technician guy was in for a quick visit and he did confirm that yes we are running the shows at some theaters using the Christie 2K DLP. He didn't say how they are connecting to it but he did say that the ScotiaBank Theater in Toronto was running their shows this way for a few months now.

 

[CINERAMAX]

Christie would be DVI with HDCP.

 

[R Johnson]

 http://www.metoperafamily.org/metope...l.aspx?id=8786

...

Sales for the Peabody Award-winning The Met: Live in HD series saw an even more dramatic increase this season, its third year. With the final transmission of Rossini's La Cenerentola to come tomorrow, more than 1.6 million tickets have been sold to date for the 11-opera series (as compared to the previous season's 8 transmissions, which sold approximately 935,000 tickets). This sharp rise in sales is due in part to the increased number of venues screening the live transmissions in an ever-larger number of countries around the world. The Met: Live in HD is now shown in 868 venues in 36 countries, up from 632 venues in 19 countries in the previous season. These numbers include both the live and subsequent "encore" showings in some venues. ...

----

It's good to read that the Met transmissions are doing well at the box office. At about $20 a ticket, that's $32,000,000, or about $3,000,000 per opera.

 

[donaldk]

Well last year in the other thread, I did check local pricing and it was considerably higher than in the US. Here in Amsterdam it was something like the equivalent of 65 USD. Pathe was showing these shows using DP-100s, in I believe three cities or just the two Amsterdam/the Hague, don't remember. Only 'encore' showing on Sunday, early, no live showings scheduled due to the 6 hour time difference.

 

[ktotheb]

Just got back from my first experience with Met Live HD. After 40 minutes we demanded our money back. The video was being projected from the same projector they use for the ads before movies. I'm not sure of the words to use to explain the problem, but the whites were over exposed and the blacks were under exposed. That's not really contrast ratio is it? Whatever it was, it was horrible for anyone who knows anything about how an image on a screen should look.

 

[ktotheb]

Just got back from my first experience with Met Live HD. After 40 minutes we demanded our money back. The video was being projected from the same projector they use for the ads before movies. I'm not sure of the words to use to explain the problem, but the whites were over exposed and the blacks were under exposed. That's not really contrast ratio is it? Whatever it was, it was horrible for anyone who knows anything about how an image on a screen should look.

 

[donaldk]

Yup running on the pre-show network. Mark did manage to get many to fix the audio (higher db level, as this is the show not the preshow;-)). The brightness and white/blacklevels are often set-up wrong as these are to show promo's and ads while the lights are on:-(.

 

[R Johnson]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ktotheb /forum/post/18390655


Just got back from my first experience with Met Live HD. After 40 minutes we demanded our money back. The video was being projected from the same projector they use for the ads before movies. ....

Welcome to the club. Note that even with this poor quality, many shows/theaters are completely sold out.


The PBS broadcasts in the USA would look and sound better on our home systems -- assuming one's local PBS affiliate deigns to show the Met.


Many of the Met shows are coming out on disc -- DVD that is, with only a couple of Blu-rays.


Very frustrating...

 

[J.D.R.]

Not having yet seen a Met: Live in HD presentation, I'm trying to choose a venue for the May 1 performance in a large metropolitan area (Chicago) with some trepidation, in the light of posts like #16. But posts here and on the old thread which comment on this don't identify the theaters, which would help a lot. Any reason? Would the AVSForum be liable for complaints aired here if the venues were named?


My other burning issue of the moment that I haven't found much on is whether the Met's transmissions make any money, or whether they require subsidy? The February 2009 New York Times article by Daniel Wakin says they made a little on that season, but does anyone know a fuller account? The Met's page for the project lists three income sources, implying to me there's a deficit to make up.


(Thanks to Ron Johnson for his informative posts.)

 

[R Johnson]

J.D.R.,

I've usually not mentioned specific theaters as it would be irrelevant to most readers. Apart from a occasional goof up, most theaters I've attended are rather similar. None have been as good as I think they should be. I've most often attended the River East 21. Others: Yorktown 17, Evanston 18, Chicago City North, Woodridge 17.


Several theaters are sold out for May 1, so just pick one that has tickets available and order online. Get there at least 30 minutes in advance to get a seat near the center and rather far back. And enjoy the opera!


The Met hasn't released detailed financial data on Live in HD, but given its popularity and robust ticket sales, I think it's well above break-even.