Sena, Iceland’s premier entertainment company, has outfitted one of its state-of-the-art digital cinema facilities with LYNX Technik yellobriks for the remote monitoring and distribution of digital content in its network of theater systems and screens. Sena currently operates three cinemas with 12 screens. The installation of LYNX Technik yellobriks only furthers Sena’s technology-advanced digital cinema exhibition infrastructure.
Valued LYNX Technik partner and distributor for the Icelandic market, Kukl ehf. was responsible for supplying, installing and servicing the remote monitoring distribution over fiber solutions for Sena.
Sena, Iceland‘s largest entertainment company runs three digital cinemas in Iceland that are outfitted to meet the digital sound & image quality demands of cinema today. In addition to exhibiting the latest 3D and digital cinema feature releases, Sena projects LIVE satellite broadcasts in HD / 3D. Sena’s challenge was to find a way to connect two of the digital cinemas in order to remotely view and control the content at the theatres, from a single location. Remote monitoring enables Sena to maintain real-time awareness of the digital content that is being projected in its various theaters.
In partnership with Kukl ehf., Sena installed several surveillance cameras for off-side monitoring, for a fully automated digital cinema. The goal was to set-up an infrastructure that would give a single operator the ability to view and run all theater content as well as track media flow within the entire digital cinema network from a single control room location.
The LYNX Technik yellobrik fiber multiplexing and transceiver solutions played a prominent role in Sena’s challenge to find a centralized solution for its cinema circuit. The fiber yellobriks offered Sena a solution to interface and connect all servers and internet connections so as to visually monitor the content from a single location. In addition, the fiber yellobriks provided a way for Sena to distribute content over fiber throughout Sena’s network. Sena installed its fiber optic infrastructure (cabling and repeaters) and gigabyte transformers with a key goal in mind to get the very most use out of the fiber.
Sena installed an HD-SDI yellobrik optical multiplexer / demultiplexer system of OCM 1891 9-channel CWDM fiber yellobriks that accepts, combines, transmits and receives up to nine fiber optic signals over a single link. Therefore, several signals can share a single fiber optic link. A single unit can perform multiplexer as well as demultiplexer functions. These CWDM yellobriks use passive optical technology to multiplex or demultiplex a number of optical carrier signals onto a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths of laser light. This technique also facilitates bidirectional communications over a single strand of fiber. These yellobriks feature an optical UPG port which facilitates cascading this module with the OCM 1892, which expands the total capability to 18 channels in a single fiber link. These modules can be used either as standalone or installed in a compact half RU rack frame designed for system installations.
Sena also installed several yellobrik OET 1540 Ethernet to Fiber Transceivers, which are CWDM compatible Ethernet 3 port switches designed to extend the reach of electrical Ethernet signals over long distances using a constant (fixed) high speed 1 Gbit optical transceiver speed. Essentially Sena only purchased one access line into a Gbit internet system and then used the yellobriks to distribute the digital cinema content to its other digital cinema. When paired with another OET 1540 at the receiving end (using two fiber links) Sena gained a cost effective Ethernet extender system for distances up to 40km, providing a stable, high speed 1Gbit error free optical connection between locations.
All together, the LYNX Technik yellobrik transceiver and multiplexer modules provided Sena with the tools to create a system that provides all the signal processing and digital content remote monitoring functions for their entire integrated digital cinema network.
"We´ve been using yellobrik fiber solutions since we first saw them on the LYNX Technik stand at IBC 2009," comments Thorvardur (Vardi) Bjorgulfsson, CEO of Kukl ehf. "When we saw yellobrik´s CWDM multiplexed fiber solutions at IBC 2011 we knew that such a unique feature set could address this digital cinema project thoroughly. When we started testing the yellobrik solutions, everything that was promised worked perfectly, saving our client Sena vast amounts of money and man power."
“Our complete chain of cinemas has been converted to digital, and we wanted to take the next step toward remotely monitoring and distributing the content from a single control room in our network of theatres throughout Reykjavik.,” comments Atli Mar Sigurjonsson, Manager of Cinema Projection with Sena. “The LYNX Technik yellobriks allowed us to do so much more with our fiber infrastructure investment, and has provided us with expanded reach of multiple signals across our cinemas. We can now remotely connect to our theatres, which saves us greatly on our capital expenditures.”
