Arts Alliance Media (AAM) recently announced the release of new features and integrations to the world’s most widely used Theatre Management System (TMS), Screenwriter. The latest version of the state-of-the-art TMS provides AAM’s exhibitor customers with advanced automation options and support for the newest projectors and technology in digital cinema.”AAM actively develop and improve Screenwriter to ensure it continues to streamline essential operational services for cinemas, while also providing them with a platform for further innovation.” noted Mark Kamiyama, Head of Global Sales at AAM parent company Luxin-Rio International. “We are proud to provide a robust, user-friendly system that allows our customers all around the world to continually drive efficiency and innovation.” Screenwriter is the most powerful, flexible, and widely deployed TMS in the world, and manages millions of screenings per year on over 45,000 cinema screens. It enables cinema staff to schedule features, trailers, and advertisements, monitor screens, and control playback all from one intuitive interface. Additional features and functionality available from the latest release include: Screenwriter can now automatically shut off the projector lamp for shows where no tickets have been sold. Through Screenwriter’s existing integrations with all major Point of Sale (POS) systems, it can access a feed of real-time ticket sales, and send instructions to the projector at a pre-configured time to shut the lamp off if no tickets have been sold. This represents a significant energy saving for exhibitors, as projectors can be run for hundreds of hours to empty auditoriums every year.

The latest version of Screenwriter benefits from intelligent automations that keep shows running on schedule, and help cinemas provide their audiences with great experiences at every screen. The TMS can now dynamically remove content from the beginning of the pre-show in order to prevent any scheduled shows from overlapping, and minimise disruption to the audience. Screenwriter has added support for dual KDM (Key Delivery Message) ingestion, which is sometimes necessary for premium screenings. Certain object based audio formats, for example, are encrypted separately from the DCP (Digital Cinema Package) and require a second KDM to unlock the audio on an Outboard Media Block (OMB) for use. To afford exhibitors with the greatest flexibility when making hardware decisions, AAM maintain Screenwriter’s compatibility with all the latest cinema hardware, and have recently added support for Barco Series 4 projectors and GDC SR1000 server.