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jamiegau / cinema-catcher-app

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Catcher server, free productivity tools for cinema exhibitors

Screen shot of Player-Status screen

What is a catcher server?

As cinemas transition to an ever more IT-centric way of operation, many aspects of running a cinema can be automated. Catcher is a free-to-use tool that automates many aspects of running a cinema reducing running costs.

This tool is focused on smaller cinema exhibitors that may not be using a TMS due to costs. For larger Exhibitors or chains who want a free backup solution, independent of the TMS. There are many features in the software that do not exist in TMS vendor software. This is software written by a cinema owner and the problems they have, and not vendor-driven software with a set agenda.

Documentation on suitable equipment and the installation process is below.

Current Status

This tool is still under development and should be considered Beta Status. Although some aspects of the tools are finished, major changes are in the works to implement some of the new advanced features. Many tools in this software should be considered projection ready. However, with the numerous combinations of software possible, it would be great if some advanced users could try out the development versions and contribute to bugs and potential improvements and suggestions for future developments.

Ready for Production

The following features are ready for production. The goal of the system is a set-and-forget solution that should only need updating if a problem or change in equipment occurs. Its focus is to reduce labor in dealing with technical aspects of running a cinema as much as possible. The system operates completely independently of any TMS, and as such can be used to back up any TMS functions or operate to address the specific operation functions it automates. It is designed to be used on a site-by-site basis, or as a global tool looking after numerous sites and hundreds of screens.

The features of the catcher application are also independent and the user can use one or more of the tools it comes with depending on their needs. It is not all or none. Its ala carte. Only utilise the tools that best suit you.

Feature Description Status
LMS (Library Management System) This feature includes the ability to ingest content from physical disks and USBs or from FTP servers, local or remote. Devices can be set to periodically scan and ingest any DCP found. ClairMeta is then used to Quality-Check the DCP. Finally, Email reports can be generated automatically. Oldest Assets are automatically deleted as needed. Assets can be marked to never delete. As a LMS, all content is then made available via FTP server, for Screen-DCI-Player to ingest any content in the Library.

New Feture, FTP upload DCP into LMS capability

Online Video Overview: https://youtu.be/G0GvkAnYvt0		 Production
Status Monitor This tool allows you to monitor all screen configured into the system. Ths can be used to monitor local or numerous remote screens Production limited functionality
Status Monitor device Control Under development and extending the status Monitor, you can take control of any DCI-Player, Sound-processor, Projector, IO-Device directly to override or manually control a screen if required Development
Schedule Monitor This screen monitors screens on a Schedule level showing a timeline for each screen and what sessions are playing at what time and when they finish/start Not Started
AutoKDM Is a tool that can monitor an IMAP access to an Email account. It will transparently read your Email, and only download Emails that contain KDMs, mark them as read, or even move them into another folder (Only if a KDM is discovered). It is best to have a dedicated Email for KDMs however, the tool can deal with utilising an Email that is also used by humans for general Email activity. The tool will download all KDMs into a data base for checking, tracking and finally ingesting into the target player. Based on configured target players, AutoKDM will ingest KDMs automatically to all target screens automatically. Reports on activity can be emailed to the Admin if required. The system incorporates KDM INFO Emails for users can easily track back to the KDM creator if problems occur.

Online Video Overview: https://youtu.be/zjN9h2T82js		 Production
KDM Alert This tool generates daily reports sent to the Staff that inform of any scheduled session that do not yet have a KDM to allow them to play. This tool ensures a cinema knowns days in advance if a KDM has failed to arrive, giving them time to react to the error.

Online Video Overview: https://youtu.be/1WV9WR4vVxM		 Production
Auto Discovery Based on the open source tool cinema-nmap-scripts (https://github.com/jamiegau/cinema-nmap-scripts). It will automatically detect well known devices on the Projection network, pulling Version numbers when possible. The tool can then be used to audit your projection equipment and can automatically detect the change in any version of DCI-equipment sending/Emailing a Report when changes occur. Plans to incorporate this with an FLM tool has been discussed.)

Tool Overview: https://youtu.be/7JnhEDdOobo
NMAP tool: https://youtu.be/1ZUCCIH4OYA		 Production, but limited by devices supported in the cinema-nmap-scripts project
Player Audit This tool periodically downloads playout logs from the DCI-Players. This allows the creation of reports to analyise the activity on a player. This can be used to send playout reports for Advertisers or for engineers to get a detailed indication of the activity on a player. For example, you can detect if shows are playing outside of open hours, or if manual control is occurring and how often. This can be done by either an Email report containing a CSV-file, or automatically sending playout reports to a specified WEB End-point (Internet Web Address) that the data is pushed to periodically.

Tool Overview: https://youtu.be/7ZEj2FhvOis		 Production

Feature development status

Dolby GDC Qube Barco
Player Status Monitor Done Done Started Started
Player Status Control Partial Started Partial Future
Status Vendors
Player Status Sound-Processors Future JSD100/60
Barco NEC Christie
Player Status Projector Future Future long term Future
JNIOR RLY8 KMTronic
Player Status IO Box Futrue Future Future
Dolby GDC Qube Barco
Schedule Status Monitor Future Future Future Future
Media Asset Solution Features Progress
Ingest Local Devices Done
Ingest from FileSystem Done
Ingest from FTP share Done
Auto Ingest on discovery Done
Auto Quality Cheap (Clairmeta) Done
Auto Delete Older content Done
Protect from Auto Delete Done
FTP access to all Ingested Done
AutoKDM and Alert-KDM Features Progress (Dolby, GDC, Qube, Barco)
Creation of Screen data interface Done
Auto pull Cert from Player Done
Creation screen to input IMAP sources Done
Auto download Emails from IMAP source Done
Auto scan and push found KDMS Done
Real time email endpoint ingest Done
Ingest KDM into Players Done
Real time Email to KDM ingest Possible but needs extra infrastructure
Schedule inspect Done
Schedule to Session/CPL matching Done
Schedule/Session/CPL to KDM matching Done
Report generation and Email Done
Report setup, history and manual control Done

Documentation

Detailed documentation is built into the tool and typically can be found in the menus section of the toolset your are using.

It is recommended you create an account on GitHub and then monitor this project for updates as so you are informed when new features are made available.
Plus to report bugs or suggestions, please use your Github account to leave reports on the "Issues" page for this GitHub project.

"Transfer" application

This tool is a part of a content distribution solutions that was prototyped into the catcher applications. It is part of the https://admin.d-cine.net online toolset targeting exhibitors and distributors. Based on automated booking system (see overview: https://youtu.be/a8fPI5D-gbU), the solution will route content automatically to exhibition locations.

It also performs detailed online QC of DCPs. (Biterate, AutoLevels, Clairmeta certification, online preview.)

This is a proof of concept toolset and has been mostly completed and in production for a small cinema chain. However, it can be expanded to small regions. Contact the developer if interested in leveraging this implementation for DCP distribution solutions for cinema chains, advertising agents or a smaller community of DCP content distribution (i.e. small country adoptions etc.) Developed to use open standard protocols for security, speed and ease of scaling up as needed. Contact The developer if you are interested in investigating this tool set.

Who made the product and why?

The Catcher application was made by a small Australia company (https://www.digitall.net.au) that develops IP for operating autonomous cinema locations. Due to the COVID crisis and the change in industry norms, such as "Streaming First" initiatives by the major exhibitors and a reduction in windows from 90 to 45 days, the result will be a reduction in attendance for cinemas as consumers change behaviour and take advantage of these offerings. The objective for making part of the IP available under a free to use model is to ensure the culture of cinemas can metabolize these changes. For example, if a small cinema loses 10-20% of attendance, but also drops its running costs by 10-20% by becoming more productive in operating the cinema, there is an overall 0 net loss. Ensuring cinemas are more likely to survive the changes occuring.

digitAll hopes this tool ensures many smaller cinemas can survive and thrive in these difficult times.

Supported Cinema Equipment

The following equipment are slated for integration into this toolset.

This equipment supported is limited to that of which the developers have access to. If you would like your specific equipment supported, please contact the developer to discuss. Typically access to the equipment will be needed. Remote access is generally all that is needed.

Reporting bugs and errors

Please utilise the github page and its issue tracker to report issues you may find.

System Requirements

The recommended hardware and software requirements for Catcher are as follows.

Hardware

Catcher is a server applications that performs many processes simultaneously and as such needs a modern computer that runs Ubuntu-server (LINUX). A CPU with 4+ cores with Hyperthreading is recommended. 8Gig of Ram or better. The computer can have the GUI activated but it is recommended that no GUI is used. A dedicated computer/server is recommended. The user accesses the system via a Web browser and so can be used from any computer terminal with a web browser. If GUI is to be used 16 gig ram is recommended.

If using the LMS feature the system will be storing a large amount of data. The server needs to either have a large amount of disk, or be in a position to mount a large amount of disk from a storage server. I recommend the following when it comes to disks for the system.

IF you just want to get started, I recommend utilising a single 10gig disk and install the operating system on that disk, and use its extra space for storage. This avoids the need to implement RAID, however, may be quite slow at some processes due to the lack of IO of a single disk.

Software

The application is based on docker that containerised the application and all the services it needs. Due to this, you can typically run the application on any docker capable server or instance, however, the ability to ingest PHYSICAL disks and USBs is based on ubuntu server. Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS is the target operating system to run the catcher application. However, there is no reason you could not run it virtualized and use a satellite PC that ftp/exports the mounted CRU-Disks/USB-sticks for ingesting.

The installation process has gone though a significant update due to Ubuntu's implementation change for docker from LTS 22.04


Typically, when installing a system to run catcher on, you install be base ubuntu-server 20.04 onto a computer. Install docker-compose, then follow the install procedure below.

Who is expected to install this for cinema owners?

This is a difficult question. Cinema owners are businessmen and not IT professionals. However, I know a lot of cinema owners who learn the toolset of running a small cinema, such as minimal maintenance of projectors etc, as to keep costs down. Or utilise local IT skills (local computer support companies) The same approach can be taken here.

Integrators and support agents that service cinemas are also more inclined to offer expensive tools that come with 25% yearly maintenance costs they prefer to push as a source of income and stickiness to the client. Many smaller cinemas cannot afford this and I would recommend cinema owners encourage agents to be more ambidextrous and embrace certain free tools when suitable. Charging for labour only when needed.

The platform for catcher is based on common open source technologies that cinemas should be able to source reasonable local know how to implement. The local IT shop, or university student level is the target level of expertise. I know many cinema owners that would be able to figure this out themselves and enjoy the challenge of doing so.

The install path is: Get suitable hardware, install "minimal" Ubuntu Server LTS, follow these install instructions below.

How to install Catcher

Ready your server

Before you continue, the server needs a number of items.

Mounting storage disk

You must make the following directories and mount your storage disk onto the directory.

$ sudo mkdir /opt/catcher
$ sudo mkdir /opt/catcher/storage

This is where some LINUX knowhow comes in handy as the storage disk, be it a Hardware RAID, software RAID under linux, other mounted from a storage server, must be mounted on the /opt/catcher/storage directory. I recomend you google how this is done based on your requirements.

If you are just taking the simple path and installed the Ubuntu-server onto a large disk, just make the directories. If nothing is mounted on the storage directory, the files will be stored on the '/' or root filesystem same as the opertating system in installed upon.

Setup your network interfaces

It is recommended that the server has two physical Network interfaces. One on the typical Internet connected network, and the second on the Projection network. Many cinemas keep the Projection network on a physically isiloted network so it cannot reach into the internet. As the catcher needs to talk to the projection network devices and is also likely to pull content from the internet or send mail reports, it will need two seperate interfaces connections, one for each. NOTE: some smaller cinemas, keep this all on the same physical network. This is simpler for them, and if it works. It works, and is easier to manage. But in general, seperate physical networks are recommended.

The projection network requires a STATIC IP address as it needs to be refered to in the docker-compose.yml file.

Installing the software

As of Ubuntu 22.04 it is not recommend to use Docker that comes with Ubuntu as it has been converted to a SNAP based install that does not allow suitable permissions for the docker containers to work with the software.

It is recommend you follow the docker install from the docker website itself. Found at https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/ Install docker using the apt repositor method.

Please read the docker documentation is linked above, however, for an example, see below.

NOTE: You will be asked for your password whenever you use sudo, or SuperUser DO which runs the command as the root/super user.

jamieg@catcher-dev:~$ sudo apt-get update
Hit:1 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease
.
.
.
Reading package lists... Done
jamieg@catcher-dev:~$ sudo apt-get install \
    ca-certificates \
    curl \
    gnupg \
    lsb-release
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
lsb-release is already the newest version (11.1.0ubuntu4).
lsb-release set to manually installed.
ca-certificates is already the newest version (20211016ubuntu0.22.04.1).
ca-certificates set to manually installed.
curl is already the newest version (7.81.0-1ubuntu1.7).
curl set to manually installed.
gnupg is already the newest version (2.2.27-3ubuntu2.1).
gnupg set to manually installed.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
jamieg@catcher-dev:~$ sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
jamieg@catcher-dev:~$ curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
jamieg@catcher-dev:~$ echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
jamieg@catcher-dev:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list
deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu   jammy stable
jamieg@catcher-dev:~$ sudo apt-get update
Hit:1 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease
.
.
.
Reading package lists... Done
jamieg@catcher-dev:~$ sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin
.
.
.
jamieg@catcher-dev:~$

You now have the lastes docker installed, and can be checked with the command:

sudo docker --version
Docker version 20.10.22, build 3a2c30b

You should have the above version or greater. docker-compose is now installed as part of docker and is no longer an extra install requirement.

Other required tools

sudo apt install git

Now lets download the base docker-compose.yml file what describes to docker how to download and run the software. We do this by cloning the files down from Github.

cd /opt
sudo git clone https://github.com/jamiegau/cinema-catcher-app.git

This will download the example yml config file and other files into a directory called cinema-catcher-app into your current directory that should be /opt. In this directory you control the docker containers and bring up the application and all its services. But before that can occur, you must setup some local variables.

Create the configuration file.

Create a file called .env file is in the directory /opt/cinema-catcher-app.

cd /opt/cinema-catcher-app
sudo nano .env

nano is a basic text editor, but vi or whatever text editor you are comfortable with can be used.

Copy the following into the file:

LOCAL_TIMEZONE_NAME=Australia/Brisbane
CATCHER_HOSTNAME=catcher-location-name
EXPOSED_IP_PROJECTION_NETWORK=x.x.x.x
IN_PRODUCTION=True

Update these three variables as described by their names. EXPOSED_IP_PROJECTION_NETWORK is the static IP address you assigned to the network interface on the projection network.

IN_PRODUCTION can be set to False, to enable debug logging in the application containers. (See the docker-compose.yml file for more detail.)

Set the TIMEZONE_NAME environment variable. This should be set to, for example Melbourne/Australia or the suitable name for your location. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones for a list of names.)

Make sure the following files are executable with this command

sudo chmod 755 local.env.sh TAIL.sh update.sh start.sh

It is recommended that you start a ROOT bash shell when doing these commands.

sudo bash
root@catcher-dev:/opt/cinema-catcher-app#

You can see you now have root in the prompt and a hash # at the end, indicating you are now running as a root user. (Be careful)

Download the software

Once you have created the local config file. Its time to pull down all the software from the docker-hub. To do this type:

root@catcher-dev:/opt/cinema-catcher-app# docker compose pull

This will take some as neat 2GB of applications will be downloaded. Get a coffee..

Once this has completed, type the next command to initialise the install (ie, the database etc.)

root@catcher-dev:/opt/cinema-catcher-app# docker compose run backend python3 ./manage.py migrate
root@catcher-dev:/opt/cinema-catcher-app# docker compose run backend python3 ./manage.py catcher_setup

And finally, start the server.

root@catcher-dev:/opt/cinema-catcher-app# docker compose up -d

You can now type the IP address of the Catcher Server into a browser and continue with the setup of the software. If you reboot the server, the docker service should shutdown and restart the catcher docker containers automatically.

Default Login

Once the system is running, you can go to the USER-INTERFACE by using your browser and typing the IP address of the server you installed the cinema-catcher-app on to. This will brig up a LOGIN-PROMPT. The default username and password is:

Username: admin
Password: admin

Once you login you can change the password and/or create users from the Admin -> Users menu on the left of the interface.

Other useful commands

root@catcher-dev:/opt/cinema-catcher-app# docker compose ps

To get the status of the containers.

In the same folder at the config file you will find the command TAIL.sh (make sure you chmod 755 TAIL.sh, so you can execute it as a command first), use this command to monitor the debug output of all (done supply any docker container name) of a specific container by giving it the container name. i.e.

sudo TAIL.sh backend

Shutdown the catcher server.

sudo docker-compose down

Update the server to latest version of the containers by using the update.sh script (make sure you chmod 755 update.sh, so you can execute it as a command first). It will shutdown, pull latest containers, update the database if required, bring the catcher containers back up and delete any older container file left behind. All in one command.

sudo update.sh

Setting up the Software

In the near future a Video tutorial will be created. For not, please refer to these other Manuals

General Catcher Manual Click to Read

AutoKDM Manual Click to Read, Note, a more complete manual is written into the application in the menu system.