Can an Art be duplicated by a machine? For certainly, a technician making judgements about the audio and picture quality of a theater auditorium is an Art as well as a Science.

Can a machine duplicate the pattern recognition capabilities of an interested and intelligent human being walking through a room, with or even without, a sound and light meter?

One of our favorite questions is:

Can the DxG system detect an incorrect routing of an audio channel? For example, if the center (dialog) channel were routed to the left surround channel instead, will the system report an error.
If so:
– What will the data look like?
– How will a typical tech identify the problem?

This issue was part of the original design criteria of the Digital eXperience Guardian (DXG) project. It is the reason for the 4 microphones around the edge of the case, and the physics-of-sound distance separating them – which in turn determines the size of the case (and which also leaves room for our option cards.) Position Detection is one more reason for hanging the audio portion of the system in the sound field of the auditorium.

If the original concept was to make a simple and inexpensive tool for technicians to get consistent and quality informaiton about the room, we think we have done it. There are two piece of gear, one a colorimeter that looks at a large swath of the screen and reports back the scenario, and one a set of microphones that sit in the soundfield to do much the same...but with sound.

Here are the steps to get going:

The Digital eXperience Guardian (DXG) began as a tool for technicians – and the audience who appreciates the nuance of quality in a movie's presentation. We hope it becomes part of every cinema's Quality and Security Assurance Program.

The DXG is a network device that measures the relative condition of an auditorium's basic audio and video performance, such as color/luminance and audio levels. The DCPs that run on off-hours develop other test results such as white point and audio phase. The roadmap includes optional cards for verifying forensic systems, network security and the functioning of other tools such as assisted listening and captioning transmitters for the glasses, headsets and other access equipment for the deaf, blind, hard of hearing and sight impaired audience members.