Dark Fiber

TMCnet Contributor

Barco, a global provider of digital cinema technology, has expanded its nationwide digital cinema NOC (News - Alert) (Network Operations Center) with enhanced remote services, diagnostics and monitoring.

 

NOC is a comprehensive set of monitoring tools and services available to all Barco digital cinema customers. This proactive service is designed to ensure the optimum performance of each customer's digital cinema network.

 

Following the enhancement, the Center now offers expanded monitoring capabilities for networked projectors, servers, theatre management systems, automation controllers, switches and UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) units.

 

Barco's NOC has been here for a while-2 years- and in its second year of operation, this service provides users (theatre owners, service providers and system integrators) with a common platform for monitoring, servicing and maintaining their projector fleet.

 

Since it was launched two years ago, this service has received an overwhelming response from the customers and now the service has been made even better through new additions such as expanded remote network analysis, new remote upgrade and configuration capabilities, 24/7/365 site schedule and content verification, plus enhanced real-time network snapshots.

 

Commenting on the service, Jim Wickenhiser, NOC and call center manager for Barco Digital Cinema, NA said that at any given customer site, the NOC provides its exhibitors with the confidence that their equipment, schedules, servers and switches are being monitored.

 

The service has also made them proactive and now they have knowledge of all these network devices, but also are able to reach out into the network, to diagnose and troubleshoot remotely.

 

“The great thing about the NOC is that it helps us anticipate our needs, before we actually encounter issues,” said Joel Davis, VP of operations for Premiere Cinemas. “Having that kind of backup is imperative. We have 12 locations where the NOC is monitoring over 160 Barco projectors for us. We know that when we walk into any one of our theatres running Barco equipment, we're going to have a perfect picture on the screen, all the time.”