Remote service in Digital Cinema

Transcription

1 Barco Remote service in Digital Cinema Author Tom Bert Product Marketing Manager Barco Vincent Detourbe Product Manager Barco Page 1 of 15

2 INTRODUCTION Remote service is a term that covers many contexts. Depending on which features are added or omitted, the terms NOC (Network Operating Center) or RAM (Remote Asset Management) are also used. What it comes down to is enabling users to connect to devices that are out in the field. The devices reside at the exhibitor s site(s) and, normally, they are only connected to when something goes wrong and a service engineer has to travel to the device to repair it. Remote service, on the other hand, makes this connection: Remote: the user can collect device data from anywhere and at any time. Not only when standing next to the device, but also from a remote helpdesk or even while travelling (via a simple internet connection). Automatic: you don t have to send a service engineer to get the information the device can initiate a transfer of information itself. Real-time: you have access to up-to-date information on device performance, status, etc. With the growth of the internet and the number of devices connected to the network, remote service activity has grown significantly worldwide. The concept originated in the IT-world, where traffic (switches, routers, ) and devices (CPU-load, temperature, ) have been monitored through the (local) network for years now. More recently, remote service has found its way into other demanding markets such as healthcare, government and banking as well. Remote service gives you access to a new source of (real-time and accurate) data. In the past, remote access was regarded simply as a tool for troubleshooting problems on products deployed at customer sites. However, manufacturers and service providers are now realizing that remotely managing and servicing assets can drive innovations to business processes. Generating data directly from monitored products, without manual intervention, results in a high level of data integrity and real-time communication. All applications sharing in this data benefit, while what is actually done with the data is virtually unlimited. We will discuss this in greater detail later in this document. This document is intended for everyone involved with service in the Digital Cinema context. This can be an exhibitor or manufacturer whose equipment is being serviced remotely, or a service provider using remote service to perform his tasks. The Barco CineCare Web remote service platform has been built to be technologically secure but open with regard to use (since no VPN is needed). The intended audience described above can benefit from the features CineCare Web brings. We will elaborate on these benefits and features in this white paper. Page 2 of 15

3 What you should remember: remote service means that you don t have to be in your theater to know it s running well. Best practices What do other industries and companies achieve from implementing remote functionality? Some facts are provided in the figure below [1]: We see that best-in-class implementations yield: a 13% reduction in MTTR 1 an 11% reduction in service response time a 27% improvement in first call resolution rate a 23% improvement in asset uptime That gives you an indication of what you can expect. When considering stepping into remote service (as an operator or as a user), it s important to understand that implementing remote service is not an objective in itself. It s a tool for resolving existing issues, for improving the way you work today, and for developing new opportunities. Examine your current business (exhibition, maintenance, installation, integration, ) and identify the top 5 issues that you are faced with. As you read through this document, look for the ways that remote service can help you resolve them. At the same time, do understand that remote service can do much more than solve existing problems. It is an enabler for truly new ways of running your business. It can even change the very business you are in. We will highlight some of these 1 Mean time to repair (MTTR) represents the average time required to repair a failed component or device. Page 3 of 15

4 opportunities in this white paper. Be sure to challenge your remote service provider on them during discussions! WHAT S IN IT FOR ME? Some of the benefits described below are available from multiple suppliers, out of the box. Others are only accessible on selected systems, and still others are for the future and are added here to create awareness on the opportunities of remote service. As mentioned above, many people have a narrow definition of remote service: watching green and red traffic lights on a dashboard, or logging in remotely to reboot. But a well-designed remote service tool goes far beyond that to bring opportunities for dramatically changing the way you go about your business. Some examples are included below. For exhibitors Ease of mind: some end-users regard their projection equipment as a black box that shows their movies, and they re not familiar with the technology under the hood. By assuring them that their equipment is being looked after carefully 24x7, they are more confident in the investment they are making. But this monitoring shouldn t be passive: remote functionality provides the opportunity to optimize system performance dynamically, based on actual usage needs and requirements. System uptime: by preventing failures and being able to react quicker (e.g. remotely, no need to travel or ship) the system s total uptime increases. This is also facilitated by the faster problem resolution: the customer (and the service team) needs to spend less time on the phone. This setup also speeds the replenishment of consumables: so, you keep less stock on-site and you access the correct spare parts more quickly. OPEX 2 /TCO 3 : Fewer on-site personnel are needed thanks to remote service. By this we mean the personnel that the exhibitor employs to manage and/or maintain his theater setup. The gain from outsourcing this service to a remote and centralized site is obvious. 2 Operating expense (OPEX) is an ongoing cost for running a product, business, or system. For example, the annual costs for paper, toner, power and maintenance are a photocopier s OPEX. For larger systems, OPEX may also include the cost of workers and facility expenses. 3 Total cost of ownership (TCO) is a financial estimate to help consumers and enterprise managers determining the direct and indirect costs of a product or system. Page 4 of 15

5 Accuracy of maintenance and licenses: maintenance typically has a periodic nature a service engineer is sent every 3, 6 or 12 months. There are several reasons why this system is sub-optimal: the maintenance is often too late (failure before maintenance) or too early (device not used heavily). Furthermore, it s hard to keep the regular periodicity (e.g. during maintenance, a new error is detected, which has to be solved in a return visit, which is sooner than the next scheduled maintenance). By performing maintenance more in line with actual usage, the customer knows that the equipment is being kept in optimal condition. Guaranteed software updates: checks can be made remotely (without intervention by the end-user) to make sure that the equipment is running the latest version of the software. Specialized reporting: the user can generate the data he needs for discussions within his organization (e.g. the data can be used to calculate investments required for the coming year(s)). In addition, this data is sometimes required by auditors. General ergonomics: Based on our customers organizations and needs, our remote service application is organized like a theater or like a network (Network > Theaters > Screens > Devices per screen). For integrators and service providers Pro-active maintenance: Maintenance and service becomes pro-active instead of reactive. Remote service enables you to find a problem before the end-user does. By monitoring signals from the devices and applying correlation analysis as necessary, you can predict component failures and do preventive maintenance. By preventing errors or finding the root cause very easily, the MTTR drops significantly which improves uptime and availability to the customer. Higher number of first-time fixes: The number of first-time fixes increases by enabling the service engineer to diagnose the problem remotely. Even if he finds that he needs some additional software upon arrival at the customer site, he can download it through the system. Service efficiency: It s hard to achieve perfectly efficient service: diagnosis and repair cannot always be done in the same intervention, the diagnosis is not always right the first time, etc. Remote service can help improve service efficiency by making new tools (remote diagnosis, diagnostic companion, ) and functionalities (configuration management, ) available, and the service organization can perform new tasks and speed up existing ones. As Page 5 of 15

6 described above, faster service leads to higher device and system uptime. Service revenue opportunities: By being able to bill service on the time, resources and equipment actually consumed, everyone will always receive a correct price. Exhibitors will always pay the correct price based on accurate usage reports, which will assure them of fair pricing. Furthermore, because of the new opportunities that are developed, new types of service revenue (non-existent today) are generated: for example, consider a pay-as-you-grow model, where the usage is logged and billed through the remote connection. Visibility into asset performance: By having accurate info on the as-is situation (and its history) at the customer s site, you are better prepared when you meet with the exhibitor. He will now have all the necessary data available to respond to questions and serve the customer better. Prove SLA 4 compliance: you can present hard data to existing as well as to new users to prove that SLA compliance has been achieved. In turn, the exhibitors can also verify this data through their own interface. This will enhance the renewal of existing contracts as well as the generation of new opportunities. Inventory management: keeping track of where all systems, devices and their components are (worldwide) can help reduce working capital and create value for customers. Life cycle management: logging and updating the actions a device or system goes through during its lifetime, starting from the earliest stages (installation) and continuing until EOL. By enabling this, you gain access to a centralized source of data on the device which can be used for correlation or warranty. Software and firmware patching and upgrades: an important aspect of service is keeping the systems up-todate. Remote service allows updates to be made almost instantly on a worldwide scale. 4 A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is the part of a service contract where the level of service is formally defined. In practice, the term SLA is sometimes used to refer to the contracted delivery time, or performance, of the service. As an example, internet service providers will commonly include SLAs within the terms of their contracts with customers to define the level(s) of service being sold in plain language terms. Page 6 of 15

7 HOW DOES A REMOTE SERVICE SYSTEM WORK? Now that we have covered why (or why not) you should look into remote service ( What are my top 5 issues today? ) and what improvements remote service can bring, it s time to dig deeper into how such a system is set up. Where does it come from? The convergence of four technology trends has enabled the development and wide adoption of remote services: Trend 1: The proliferation of increasingly intelligent assets. The decreasing cost of processing power has allowed manufacturers to build products with increasingly sophisticated software applications, network connectivity, user interfaces, and software system controls. For example, Barco Digital Cinema projectors present more than 600 parameters to the outside world. With more and more complex systems in the field, the organizations responsible for maintaining these systems have a growing challenge on their hands. Trend 2: The pervasive Internet. The declining cost and increasing coverage of the Internet allows companies to leverage public networks as a backbone for business use: for internal, B2B 5, and, ultimately, machine-to-machine communications. Trend 3: The ongoing integration of business systems. Policies prescribing standards for computing platforms, protocols, databases, and IT tools have made it easier for service providers to align various business processes from multiple functional areas. Trend 4: The growing acceptance of the SaaS6 (software as a service) model. SaaS is quickly becoming the preferred method for organizations to adopt and consume enterprise software. With this on-demand delivery model, organizations avoid the initial investment in software licenses and IT infrastructure, the tedious process of installing and integrating the software, as well as maintenance, upgrade and patch installations, troubleshooting, and capacity planning. As a result of these trends, more companies have begun to realize that there is a broader vision for product connectivity, 5 Business-to-business (B2B) denotes commercial transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer. 6 Software as a service (SaaS), sometimes referred to as on-demand software, is a software delivery model in which software and associated data are centrally hosted on the cloud. SaaS is typically accessed by users using a thin client via a web browser. Page 7 of 15

8 one that goes beyond basic remote access tools and even beyond the service organization. Remote Service is that missing link handling connectivity and data collection so that you can focus on driving your core business. Design features As not all suppliers use the same configuration, we are using the Barco CineCare Web configuration as a reference in this document. CineCare Web has been designed based on the following key features: Secure: data security has been critical since Day 1 of cinema digitization. Even though the data flowing across the remote service network is not the feature film content, the business-critical info that is transferred must be 100% secured. A remote service system transfers data and interaction (with both the helpdesk and the equipment), and all of this traffic needs to be encrypted, traced and protected. You don t want secure information regarding your cinema to fall into the wrong hands; and you certainly don t want those wrong hands to hack into your network. CineCare Web achieves this security in multiple ways (as explained below). Scalable: while connecting to 1 cinema or even 10 is feasible, it can be challenging to connect to 20. Typical remote service setups run over VPN (Virtual Private Network) connections. In the cinema environment, the remote user s computer is added to the local theater network, which enables him to work as if he were local. But this has 2 drawbacks: for the cinema owner, it s impossible to distinguish between the remote user and the local users, which makes it hard to trace who is doing what in your network; for the service provider, maintaining multiple VPN connections is logistically cumbersome (this requires managing different logins, passwords, security tokens Barco s CineCare Web remote service platform does not use VPN. All connections are initiated from the equipment outbound. This means that when you want to add a new device, all you need to do is hook it up to the network: it will find its way to the server, identify itself and be added to your managed assets. This also means that all data transfer and interaction are initiated by, and linked to, the devices. The theater owner can easily trace which user performed which action on which device. Furthermore, all activity and visibility on the network is limited to those devices. Page 8 of 15

9 Easy-to-use and open: as mentioned above, remote service has its origin in the IT world. Historically, the type of data that is accessed and the way it is presented to the user has been geared toward people with a technical IT profile. The cinema industry is different: we care about different things, we operate at different times, and we need something attuned to our sector. Not all remote service providers succeed in offering this, and so the use of their tool is limited to a specialized in-house team. CineCare Web, on the other hand, has been built especially for the cinema industry and its specific needs. Intelligent: collecting massive amounts of data is useless if you don t create value from that information. One of CineCare Web s core components is a business intelligence aggregation layer, which allows you to look at data across multiple dimensions (a historical overview, an overview across multiple sites, ). With intelligent filtering on both the device and the server levels, it applies cinema intelligence to cinema information. Terminology Some terms are common in remote service. We introduce them here and explain how they are implemented in the CineCare Web setup. Agent: software that is installed per theater to translate the device-specific (projector, server, ) data to a protocol that is ready to be safely sent over a network connection. The agent continuously monitors important data, using business rules to determine what data should be sent and what constitutes an important event or alert. Agents optimize the use of communication bandwidth and allow the system to operate even if the internet connection is temporarily not available. The type of data processed by the agent can be simple and standardized (data values, notifications, ), but it can also be more complex (business rules). From a maintenance viewpoint, the agent is just one of the software components in the system. It can be updated with new versions remotely, without the need to reboot or re-configure the system. Gateway: the level of aggregation above the devices, the gateway collects information from all the monitored assets in the theater and sends it from the customer s networks onto the internet using certified security protocols. The gateway uses the agent (which is installed on the gateway PC) to set up a secure connection, monitor and maintain the security level, and give the exhibitor insight into the connection. Page 9 of 15

10 Service Center: the central data- and hosting-center where all the remote device data is captured. Built for maximum security and uptime, the service center stores data securely and also hosts a number of applications that permit interfacing to this data. Barco s application hosting has 1000 unique users logging in every week and 2,000,000 remote access minutes per month. Over the first 12 months, it achieved an uptime of %. Based on cloud computing principles, the hosting center is perfectly scalable to manage the growing number of connected assets and users. Connection: the network connection between the remote site (and its gateway and assets) and the Service Center. Data is sent securely over the Internet using HTTPS with SSL or AES encryption. This is the same protocol used to surf to secure websites (e.g. online banking). To achieve the necessary level of connectivity and security, this connection is bi-directional (send and receive) but can only be agent-initiated. The agent always initiates a connection ( Is there a message for me on the server? ), followed by an acknowledgement (e.g. Yes, we have a software update ready ). All inbound communication is blocked except for the specific responses to the agent triggers, so that no special ports are left open on the network, ensuring that the enduser s site cannot be penetrated by hackers or other unwanted visitors. Layout The illustration below shows how the CineCare Web system is set up and how the components are interconnected to enable fast and reliable remote service. Page 10 of 15

11 The upper half of the illustration shows the centralized equipment; a potential exhibitor site is shown at the bottom left; and the internet ( the cloud ) and the connected users (worldwide) are shown in the center and at the bottom right. The agent and the gateway PC have a so-called heartbeat frequency : that is, they do not send out data continually; instead, they use the available network capacity intelligently. Critical data is sent out very often to give you access to up-todate status information. Data that doesn t change doesn t require bandwidth consumption and is polled less often. Furthermore, intelligent rules are added that tune the outbound connectivity to the actual device status (e.g. certain data fields are updated only when their values change). The data and applications in the hosting center are accessible to users worldwide. All they need to start using the applications is an internet connection and a browser. Remote service stack Below, we depict how the different parts of the systems interact in a layered approach: Page 11 of 15

12 Many companies are active in Machine-to-Machine (M2M 7 ) communication, which is located at the bottom layer of our stack. They are typically less experienced in adding value to the raw data through business intelligence. Many companies are active in networking and network-connected devices. They are typically experienced in the middle layers of our stack, but have no solutions for the bottom and top layers. The Barco CineCare Web platform has been built to work on all layers. From our product expertise, to secure network connectivity, up to the intelligent reporting tools, CineCare Web brings everything needed to enable remote service for your Digital Cinema equipment. Security CineCare Web meets the most stringent security requirements, so that you feel confident that connections are secure and private and remote service can be performed effectively and routinely. CineCare Web is based on the only remote service solution to receive security certification from VeriSign. CineCare Web provides two-way communication based on Web Services standards including Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and extensible Markup Language (XML). 7 Machine-to-machine (M2M) refers to technologies that allow both wireless and wired systems to communicate with other devices of the same ability. M2M uses a device (such as a sensor or meter) to capture an event (such as temperature, inventory level, etc.), which is relayed through a network (wireless, wired or hybrid) to an application (software program), that translates the captured event into meaningful information (for example, items that need to be restocked). Such communication was originally accomplished by having a remote network of machines relay information back to a central hub for analysis, which would then be rerouted into a system like a personal computer. Page 12 of 15

13 No changes to the end-customer s IT security infrastructure are required to support remote monitoring and diagnostics. In addition, all communication between the service center and the theater is encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) up to 168 bits. The agent initiates all communications in compliance with the secure computing environment at the device site. The only requirement is an Internet connection. (There is no need to set up expensive VPNs to implement CineCare Web or to compromise security by using dial-up communications.) Much of the information that travels across the public Internet uses plain text encapsulated within standard HTTP messages. Hackers can gain access to the network at a point close to the source or destination of the message and then capture and view the text of these HTTP messages with readily available tools. In contrast, CineCare Web supports the same standard SSL encryption that banks use for online transactions. SSL supports key length up to 168 bits and mutual authentication using certificates. It can also enable secret key AES 256-bit message encryption, which may be used with SSL to encrypt data beyond the DMZ 8. 8 In computer security, a DMZ (Data Management Zone) is a physical or logical sub-network that contains and exposes an organization's external services to a larger unsecured network, usually the Internet. The purpose of a DMZ is to add an additional layer of security to an organization's local area network (LAN), so that an external attacker has access only to equipment in the DMZ. Page 13 of 15

14 CONCLUSION We hope that this white paper demonstrates how broad the scope of remote service in cinema can be: the problems it solves, the processes it impacts, the functionality it provides, the value it adds, and the opportunities it brings. Remote Service is not a goal in itself but a means to an end. When considering stepping into remote services, carefully consider the goals you have set for your company and select a partner that helps you reach them. CineCare Web is the industry s most open and easy-to-use remote service product. It has been built with the cinema in mind to support every business. Page 14 of 15

15 REFERENCES [1] Aberdeen Group study: The Evolution of Remote Product Service and the Emergence of Smart Services, April Page 15 of 15