Welcome – It's the New Age of Quality Assurance
Can an Art be duplicated by a machine? For certainly, a technician making judgements about the audio and picture quality of a theater auditorium is an Art as well as a Science.
Can a machine duplicate the pattern recognition capabilities of an interested and intelligent human being walking through a room, with or even without, a sound and light meter?
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How the Guardian Locates Incorrect Routing of Audio Channels
One of our favorite questions is:
Can the DxG system detect an incorrect routing of an audio channel? For example, if the center (dialog) channel were routed to the left surround channel instead, will the system report an error.
If so:
– What will the data look like?
– How will a typical tech identify the problem?
This issue was part of the original design criteria of the Digital eXperience Guardian (DXG) project. It is the reason for the 4 microphones around the edge of the case, and the physics-of-sound distance separating them – which in turn determines the size of the case (and which also leaves room for our option cards.) Position Detection is one more reason for hanging the audio portion of the system in the sound field of the auditorium.
Feature Rich/Future Rich, and simple, Audio and Picture Monitoring Tool
If the original concept was to make a simple and inexpensive tool for technicians to get consistent and quality informaiton about the room, we think we have done it. There are two piece of gear, one a colorimeter that looks at a large swath of the screen and reports back the scenario, and one a set of microphones that sit in the soundfield to do much the same...but with sound.
Here are the steps to get going:
Post-Installation Cinema Test Tools; USL LSS-100 and DTT Digital eXperience Guardian
Post-Installation Quality Control for the Cinema Auditorium is finally getting some tools fit for the modern digital age. Two companies are putting network products into the sector which, up until now, was only filled with multi-thousand dollar test rigs or hand held units. (No smear intended on the new Meyer Sound X12 and Harkness Screen test devices released in the last 6 months – both are nice hand held units and fit for their purpose.)
First, the USL LSS-100 Light & Sound Sensor measures sound pressure level, luminance and chromaticity from its mounted position on the back wall of the theater auditorium. The 2 degree spot measurement is transmitted to the user as XYZ and x, y points and CCT, with great precision. The audio section measures C weighted pink noise, giving the level in the room in tenths of a dB.
Digital eXperience Guardian