Qube Cinema has introduced the WireTAP Air theatre appliance, a small-form factor device that connects theatres to Qube Wire’s global cloud delivery platform via 5G or 4G mobile networks and allows for the seamless delivery of trailers and advertising DCPs. The company says these options provide an ideal way to connect exhibitors at a significantly lower cost than was previously possible.
Qube has deployed the WireTAP Air across the nearly 2,000 locations that make up the Qube advertising network in India. The use of 4G connectivity instead of satellite has given Qube an 85 percent operating cost reduction, the company says, while greatly increasing flexibility.
Qube Wire’s senior vice president Mark Waterston said, “I’m excited for more advertising networks and studio marketing groups to experience the benefits of delivering content via Qube Wire. This new solution is significantly faster, easy to deploy, and costs far less to operate when compared to traditional satellite models and existing theatre devices.”
The WireTAP Air measures 4-inches by 4-inches by 16-inches. It includes storage of 128 GB (expandable to 2 TB), a built-in firewall, and a Gigabit Ethernet port to connect to the theatre network. It connects to Qube Wire with an internal 4G modem (upgradeable to 5G based on regional availability) or a standard broadband connection.
“Our experience in the industry helped us identify a very specific need that exhibitors have during the pandemic — one that we were keen to address by crafting a cost-effective, future-proofed device that is also incredibly easy to deploy,” said Qube Cinema CTO Rajesh Ramachandran.
The WireTAP Air includes many of the features that current WireTAP equipped theatres enjoy. These include fully automated storage management, intelligent KDM routing and delivery, real-time delivery status monitoring via the Qube Wire portal and fail-safe automatic firmware updates. Content and key management is integrated across most TMS and server combinations. Installation is simple; just plug and play.
The original Qube WireTAP is installed at more than 700 locations across Brazil, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Canada, and the United States. More than 1,500 movies have been delivered using Qube Wire across these regions.
Qube Wire www.qubewire.com