It is beating a dead horse for this publication to spend a lot more time discussing the lack of common and open methods for security key management. Open methods would encourage competitive, third party solutions that benefit mid-size and smaller exhibitors. If media block manufacturers were to use standardized methods to share their security credentials, it would reduce tons of duplicative code writing that takes place among the several makers of Theatre Management Systems (TMS).
It appears that solving the problem is tantamount to that of reducing the size of government. The studios failed to consider the problem when writing their constitution, the DCI spec. And any American can tell you how difficult it is to change a constitution. The support industries have learned to make money from the inefficiencies, creating a fatter “government.” While all will pay lip service to improvement, there is no real incentive for service providers to reduce costs. If asked to solve the problem, the service providers are incentivized to create proprietary solutions so as not to share with a competitor. Not one company having a solution has thought to take it to a standards committee for the benefit of the industry. Business textbooks call such solutions “locking-in your customer.” This publication calls it nonsense.
There is a cost to inefficiency. Somewhere in the vicinity of