Re: [DCP-o-matic] Cloud-based KDM generation

Am 16.05.2014 um 14:15 schrieb Carl Hetherington: Yes. There are quite a few discussions now in various forums about creating encrypted DCPs for dedicated screens/servers. On some servers, it is quite easy to download a certificate and email it to anyone in need. On some systems, it is complicated. Not every cinema has skilled stuff, most would probably not even know what a 'certificate' is and how to obtain it. Some only know about equipment serial numbers. In germany we have received more and more inquiries from new DCP and KDM issuing companies during the last year. It becomes obvious that a properly maintained certificate database is a trade secret and an instrument to keep competition at distance, as all these companies are fighting for business with the distributors while prices for DCP and KDM generation are decreasing. A public database or automated system would change that completely. It is not clear, however, how things like FLMx or TKR will evolve in short term. I have been to the Motionpicturesolutions-Site recently and it seems they are also working on tools to change booking and key retrieval. What they are trying to do is offering a content catalog where cinemas can book content and retrieve keys automatically, upon confirmation through the license holder. While that will probably mean some manual intervention by the studios booking department in the beginning, it can easily be seen that at least for classic titles this will become a fully automated video-rental-shop-type system rather sooner than later. Other companies like Sony are working on similiar systems. The best thing of course would be if every cinema/equipment operator would have a certificate stored for easy access. You could even put it up on a website and simply mail the link to any interested party. But for now, the major issue is, if someone want's to issue an encrypted DCP, how does he actually get the certificate for the equipment intended for screening. Maybe this could also be something we could put up on the DCP-o-matic site as a help, like the list of tested equipment. E.G. the GUI of our Sony 515 allows to download the certificate to a connected computer through the web interface. I know it's the same for Christies IMB and Doremis IMS. Doremi has an online service and FTP site to retrieve certificates by serial number. I know Dolby has an FTP site as well, but I think it is not open. - Carsten