System and method for remotely monitoring, diagnosing, intervening with and reporting problems with cinematic equipment

• US 7,379,850 B2
• Filed: 09/11/2006
• Issued: 05/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CineCast LLC
• Original Assignee: CineCast LLC
• Inventors: Sprogis, David H., Zehme, Dan U.
• Primary Examiner(s): Barlow, Jr., John E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, John H
• Application Number:
  US11/530,598
• Publication Number:
  US 20070005305A1
• Time in Patent Office: 624 Days
• Field of Search: 702179-182, 702187-188, 725/8, 725/34, 725/36, 725/66, 725/67, 725/80, 725/82, 725/95, 725/196, 705/10, 705/14, 705/15, 709/207, 352/133
• US Class Current: 702/188
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2223/06 Remote monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0264 Control of logging system, e.g. decision on which data to store; time-stamping measurements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0775 Content or structure details of the error report, e.g. specific table structure, specific error fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A method is disclosed for determining equipment status based upon data representative of movie theater equipment state changes. The method includes the step of retrieving and storing data representative of theater equipment status in a central computer storage unit that includes known status data representative of a plurality of state change patterns representing known status. The method also includes the steps of receiving status data representative of a status of each of a plurality of items of theater equipment at each of a plurality of remote theater screen assemblies over a plurality of instances during a period of time, comparing a first state change pattern representative of equipment state changes in state of a theater audio processing unit to the known status data in the central computer storage unit, providing comparison data, providing alert condition data responsive to the comparison data, and receiving the comparison data and storing the comparison data.

Claims

1. A method of determining equipment status based upon data representative of movie theatre equipment state changes, said method comprising the steps of:

retrieving and storing data representative of theatre equipment status in a central computer storage unit that includes known status data representative of a plurality of state change patterns representing known status;

receiving status data representative of a status of each of a plurality of items of theatre equipment at each of a plurality of remote theatre screen assemblies over a plurality of instances during a period of time;

comparing a first state change pattern representative of equipment state changes in state of a theatre audio processing unit to said known status data in said central computer storage unit providing comparison data, said first state change pattern being a timing chart pattern of at least two units of equipment for a period of time during which at least one of the units of equipment completes a cycle of operation, at least one of said two units of equipment being the theatre audio processing unit;

providing alert condition data responsive to said comparison data; and

receiving said comparison data and storing said comparison data.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first state change pattern is further representative of changes in state of a theatre projection unit.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first state change pattern is further representative of changes in state of a theatre power source.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first state change pattern is further representative of changes in state of a plurality of a theatre projection unit, a theatre audio processing unit and a theatre power source for a period of time.

5. A method of determining equipment status based upon data representative of movie theatre equipment state changes, said method comprising the steps of:

retrieving and storing data representative of theatre equipment status in a central computer storage unit that includes known status data representative of a plurality of state change patterns representing known status for each of a plurality of remote theatre screen assemblies;

comparing a first state change pattern of a first theatre screen assembly representative of equipment state changes in state of a theatre audio processing unit in said first screen assembly to said known status data in said central computer storage unit, said first state change pattern being a timing chart pattern of at least two units of equipment for a period of time during which at least one of the units of equipment completes a cycle of operation, at least one of said two units of equipment being the theatre audio processing unit;

providing first screen assembly comparison data;

comparing a second state change pattern of a second theatre screen assembly representative of equipment state changes in said second screen assembly to said known status data in said central computer storage unit;

providing second screen assembly comparison data;

providing alert condition data responsive to at least one of said first and second screen assembly comparison data; and

receiving and storing said first screen assembly comparison data and said second screen assembly comparison data.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein said first state change pattern is further representative of changes in state of a theatre projection unit.

7. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein said first state change pattern is further representative of changes in state of a theatre power source.

8. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein said first state change pattern is further representative of changes in state of a plurality of a theatre projection unit, a theatre audio processing unit and a theatre power source for a period of time.

9. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein said method further includes the step of providing alert condition data response to said first screen assembly comparison data and said second screen assembly comparison data.

10. A method of determining equipment status based upon data representative of movie theatre equipment state changes, said method comprising the steps of:

retrieving and storing data representative of theatre equipment status in a central computer storage unit that includes known status data representative of a plurality of state change patterns representing known status for each of a plurality of remote theatre sites;

comparing a first state change pattern of a first theatre site representative of equipment state changes in said first theatre site to said known status data in said central computer storage unit and providing first theatre site comparison data, wherein said first state change pattern is a timing chart pattern representative of changes in state of a plurality of a theatre projection unit, a theatre audio processing unit and a theatre power source for a period of time during which at least one of the theatre projection unit, the theatre audio processing unit and the theatre power source completes a cycle of operation;

providing alert condition data responsive to said first theatre site comparison data; and

receiving said first theatre site comparison data and storing said first theatre site comparison data.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein said first theatre site includes a plurality of theatre screen assemblies.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein each said theatre screen assembly provides to the associated theatre site data representative of the status of equipment at the theatre screen assembly.

13. A method of determining equipment status based upon data representative of movie theatre equipment state changes, said method comprising the steps of:

retrieving and storing in a central computer storage unit data representative of theatre equipment status, the central computer storage unit also including known status data representative of a plurality of state change patterns representing known status;

comparing a first state change pattern representative of equipment state changes to the known status data in the central computer storage unit and for providing comparison data, said first state change pattern being a timing chart pattern of at least two units of equipment for a period of time during which at least one of the units of equipment completes a cycle of operation;

providing alert condition data responsive to said comparison data; and

receiving said comparison data and for storing said comparison data.

14. A method of determining equipment status based upon data representative of movie theatre equipment state changes, said method comprising the steps of:

retrieving and storing in a central computer storage unit data representative of theatre equipment status, said central computer storage unit including known status data representative of a plurality of state change patterns representing known status for each of a plurality of remote theatre screen assemblies;

comparing a first state change pattern of a first theatre screen assembly representative of equipment state changes in said first screen assembly to said known status data in the central computer storage unit, wherein said first state change pattern is a timing chart pattern of at least two units of equipment for a period of time during which at least one of the units of equipment completes a cycle of operation;

providing first screen assembly comparison data;

comparing a second state change pattern of a second theatre screen assembly representative of equipment state changes in said second screen assembly to said known status data in the central computer storage unit, wherein said second state change pattern is a timing chart pattern of at least two units of equipment for a period of time during which at least one of the units of equipment completes a cycle of operation;

providing second screen assembly comparison data; and

receiving and storing said first screen assembly comparison data and said second screen assembly comparison data.