Ster-Kinekor

Theatre Management System (TMS) software is considered the core of technical operations, providing extensive data insights and resolution capabilities for the Technical Team. However, given the diverse array of functions and workflows supplied by the TMS solutions, what impact can supplemental software tools deliver and what are the tangible benefits exhibitors can expect?

Despite being a long-term user of Arts Alliance Media’s (AAM) Screenwriter Theatre Management System and implementing efficient content management processes, Ster-Kinekor faced challenges that resulted in frequent loss of shows, extensive delays in error resolution and high human resource costs.

After deploying AAM’s Lifeguard Hardware Management System across their entire organisation, Ster-Kinekor experienced immediate improvements. Optimising circuit monitoring capabilities and issue resolution procedures significantly reduced the number of lost shows, shortened their Service Level Agreement (SLA) duration and reduced allocated resources.

After the first six months across the whole organisation, Lifeguard:

• Saved 139 performances via the Xenon lamp auto-strike.
• Caught 1,254 show-stopping issues with an average repair time of 12 minutes.

Cine Prestige, Ster-Kinekor

Founded in 1896, Ster-Kinekor is South Africa's largest movie exhibitor, operating 352 screens across 41 local complexes and five international locations in Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Dedicated to providing 'crystal clear visuals' and sound that 'reverberates in your soul,' Ster-Kinekor invests heavily in state-of-the-art equipment and digital projection systems, leveraging premium cinematic technologies such as IMAX and D-BOX to deliver superior image and sound quality, along with motion-enhanced seating.

Ster-Kinekor continues to elevate the movie-going experience with their Cine Prestige sites, while the implementation of new self-service catering and ticket reservation systems reflects their ongoing commitment to refining their esteemed cinematic proposition.

At Ster-Kinekor, Thys Ackerman, a seasoned South African Field Manager, assumes full responsibility over the SKT Technical, Sound and Projection circuit.

”My role involves overseeing all elements related to projection and sound at both local and international sites. I ensure that we maintain sufficient stock levels of essential items such as projection and 3D parts, lamps, popcorn machine parts, IMAX components for Africa, D-BOX spares, and digital displays in cinemas. Additionally, I plan and identify the equipment needed for new projects and cinema upgrades, provide training to technical staff and end to end support to the teams in the field”.

Having dedicated his career to providing quality technical support, Thys has first-hand experience of the trials and tribulations inherent in exhibitor operations and acutely appreciates the significance of maintaining impeccable presentation standards.

“Achieving perfect presentation is very important to us at Ster-Kinekor. Achieving such high standards posed numerous challenges as it was predominantly “people dependent”, these challenges were effectively addressed through the implementation of Lifeguard, as it allows real-time monitoring, alarms and reporting”.

IMAX at Ster-Kinekor

Prior to Lifeguard, the cinema team will log a call if and when a fault was detected or reported, the call will then be assigned to the technical team to start with the resolution process. This resulted in numerous time delays and lost shows”.

For Thys, that frustration would later subside. An intuitive, cloud-based solution complete with a visual map of all global sites, Lifeguard enables users to quickly gain a bird's-eye view of their circuit’s locations, screens and devices, enabling immediate visibility when problems occur. Lifeguard will proactively notify its users through detailed alerts; a function which has been vital to Thys’ operational improvements. “With Lifeguard alerts, we get that notification immediately. The NOC Technician will remotely log in through Lifeguard and be in a position to detect and in most cases correct the error or without delay despatch a technician to attend to the fault, saving time, reducing lost shows and improving on guest experience”.

Lifeguard’s alert classification allows Ster-Kinekor’s NOC team to automatically prioritise and assign alerts to specific individuals, helping to prioritise urgent issues. Such alerts will detail the location, alert type, priority level, a description, and an expected time to resolution, boosting technicians’ response time and productivity.

Lifeguard's alert classification dashboard

Comprehensive reporting is the cornerstone of Lifeguard’s role within an organisation, seamlessly integrating with all major digital cinema systems and equipment to deliver detailed reports and a centralised view of all devices. Through extensive reporting and insightful business analytics, Lifeguard has become an essential component of Ster-Kinekor’s success, significantly enhancing the speed and accuracy of issue resolution and KDM management.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the global cinema industry faced a monumental recovery task. South Africa’s recovery rate did not continued on the same trajectory as international cinema chains due to several external factors.

Lobby at Ster-Kinekor

Despite the challenges that Ster-Kinekor face, Thys remains optimistic about the future, acknowledging that Lifeguard has been instrumental in managing down-times and resulted in a substantial reduction in operational costs.

“The capabilities within Lifeguard supported a “leaner” structure and reduction in resources, supporting our objectives during a recent company restructure – c50% reduction in Technical Resources.”

Lifeguard enabled Ster-Kinekor to improve on efficiencies by constructing a NOC with the required remote capabilities while assuring improved technical operations. With Lifeguard’s Recent Circuit Activity timeline providing a detailed, chronological account of alerts and technician updates, Thys and his team can maintain live monitoring of all sites, screens and devices within their circuit.

A summary of your circuit alerts in Lifeguard

In addition, the Circuit Alert Summary offers a snapshot of the number of live alerts and their priority levels, categorised as Showstopper, Critical, Warning or Snoozed. Alerts can also be filtered by complex and auditorium, enabling Thys to focus on specific issues at each site.

Despite the team’s commitment to cinematic excellence, frequent show cancellations became a prominent and systemic problem, primarily due to challenges in managing circuit-wide projector lamps. This had a major impact on the guest experience and resulted in financial losses.

Through the implementation of Lifeguard, Thys and his team gained access to a suite of tools that allowed them to easily manage, foresee and resolve lamp-related issues, effectively preventing further show cancellations.

“Lifeguard has saved a lot of shows because it’s got a built-in automated strike if a lamp fails to strike at the start of the show, further providing a full and relevant audit trail.” Lifeguard’s lamp auto-strike acts as a failsafe for incidents where the lamp has not switched on. To allow for any pre-arranged activities, the user can easily adjust the threshold, selecting how far into the start and before the end of the playlist an auto strike should take action. In an event where the lamp has not struck, Lifeguard will issue a signal to the projector agent to perform an auto-strike.

Setting the threshold on Lifeguard's lamp auto-strike

From automatically preparing replacement forecasts and programming purchasing campaigns, to tracking installations and calculating consumption, Lifeguard’s extensive lamp management functionality delivers the intelligence to prevent issues arising in the first place, resulting in a more pre-emptive mentality within the team.

“Lifeguard also provides pre-alerts on the lamps which give us enough time to go to the site, remove, inspect, or, if needed, replace the lamp. Lamp failures have reduced substantially”.

By understanding “lamps’ usage status”, learning their lifecycle, and receiving detailed information on their issues before arriving on site, Thys and his network of technicians can proactively predict replacements ahead of time and bring the exact replacement parts required, significantly decreasing resolution times and the cost of consumables. Armed with the ability to anticipate and prevent issues, and supported by a tool that automatically resolves critical problems, the performance of technicians has greatly improved. This enhancement has allowed for a reduction in their Service Level Agreement (SLA) duration, further contributing to the decrease in lost shows. Moviegoers attending a Ster-Kinekor theatre

With Ster-Kinekor now operating at maximum efficiency and reaping the benefits of implementing streamlined operational processes, Thys recalls the positive impact that Lifeguard has on the organisation.

“We are saving on operational costs, on projectors and lamps, and we are prioritising and solving calls with minimal downtime.”