Play Now: screening movies at the very last minute

Digital cinema has made the job of cinema owners vastly easier. But occasionally they will still want to re-program a movie at the last minute due to a surge in ticket sales or having to move a screening from one theater to another.

This is entirely possible in digital; they simply have to re-ingest the movie and hit 'play', right? But ingesting a movie can take longer than the waiting time you have. So what can they do if this really is a last-minute thing?

Barco to the rescue

The new software version 1.3.1 of the Barco ICMP comes to the rescue. Introduced in 2014 and with more than 10,000 units installed, this module combines the power of an Integrated Cinema Processor (ICP) and media server onto one board, increasing simplicity and reliability.

With the latest update, operators can also benefit from Barco's unique 'Play Now' feature - an on-the-fly tool that means operators can play back a DCP directly from a connected storage. This is reassuring if you have a crowd of eager movie fans queuing in the lobby (and good news for the movie fans too)!