AAM Partners with Shanghai Film Company on Cinema Software Deployment

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Thu, 08/28/2014 - 11:16 -- Nick Dager

Arts Alliance Media has announced its partnership with Shanghai Film Company to supply SFC’s digital cinema network with AAM’s software. The deployment begins immediately.

SFC is a subsidiary of Shanghai Film Group, which has been one of the leading companies in China’s film industry for more than 100 years. SFC will become the first Chinese exhibitor to use AAM’s Lifeguard software to power a Network Operations Centre. Initially, the NOC will service around 2,000 digital cinema screens across the country. The NOC will grow over time to serve many more screens in the rapidly growing Chinese digital cinema market. Lifeguard provides centralised equipment monitoring and issue resolution capabilities, enabling a comprehensive maintenance service to be provided to cinemas.

In addition to the Lifeguard software, AAM’s Theatre Management System software will be deployed by SFC to manage and control all screens in the digital cinema network, providing content, scheduling and playlist management. Earlier this year, Arts Alliance Media and The Administration of Digital Film Content / The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of China (DMCC/SARFT) also signed a letter of intent for a technical partnership to allow AAM’S TMS to fully integrate with DMCC’s system for digital cinema programming in China.

Roger Zhu, general manager of Shanghai Film Company said, “We were impressed with Arts Alliance Media’s software solutions, and believe that the AAM TMS and Lifeguard are the best products to power cinemas and our NOC. We will be working closely with AAM to integrate the technology with the existing equipment across our estate. We look forward to accelerating the creation of our NOC team to support an increasing number of screens across China with a reliable service to eliminate missed shows.”

John Aalbers, chief executive officer of Arts Alliance Media added, “Partnering with a company of the calibre of SFC is a great way to mark Arts Alliance Media’s progression into China.  SFC is one of the most iconic film companies in China with a long and rich history dating back to the 1890s. It is an honour for us to partner with such a prestigious company and we are thrilled by the prospect of our software being used to support the exciting Chinese cinema industry.”

Arts Alliance Media has extensive experience in digital cinema NOC systems, having run a UK-based NOC for eight years. Currently the AAM NOC services many thousands of cinema screens around the world. Lifeguard was developed by AAM using this expertise and is now available to exhibitor and integrator partners globally. Lifeguard accurately maintains equipment records, centrally monitors all digital cinema hardware and alerts the user to any potential issues. Users can view data from all cinema equipment, no matter where the site is located, through a central web-based interface. The system provides a powerful incident management system allowing the NOC to quickly identify high priority issues that require addressing. At the core is a comprehensive knowledge base to ensure maximum efficiency.

Arts Alliance Media www.artsalliancemedia.com

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