NEWS: Support for Premiere Systems Going Forward

[cinelife]

There is a developing change with regard to support for current** Premiere owners. The new CEO has decided that K will support premiere systems as best they can going forward. This will include access to some parts, replacement components, and the sale of both new and remanufactured components when available. The details are specific to dealers, so I will not post here, but suffice to say this is a positive change for current Premiere owners. There will also be some incentive promotions to assist these owner with adding Strato/Terra to their Premiere systems. Although there is no stated end date for this Premiere support, it will not last forever, and owners are encouraged to start considering how best to transition away from Premiere at some future point. For additional details and pricing on these promos, please contact your dealer, or K Sales for assistance. (I'm also happy to help if you no longer have a dealer.)

**Current owners refers to those owning Premiere systems prior to the general end of sale date last year.

EDIT: SEE BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS IN LETTER FROM K's CEO.

Jim

 

[JohnJ]

Another positive sign from Kaleidescape! Thanks Jim.

John

 

[AlienW]

Is there any implication that someone who does not meet the definition of the 'current owner' asterisk** above will not be eligible for the same level of support? For example, if someone were to buy a used system from a current owner, would the same level of support be available to the new owner?

 

[cinelife]

Is there any implication that someone who does not meet the definition of the 'current owner' asterisk** above will not be eligible for the same level of support? For example, if someone were to buy a used system from a current owner, would the same level of support be available to the new owner?

Unfortunately no. The current owner is defined as an owner that had registered their Premiere system prior to that July 2020 Premiere sales end date.
Although I was not part of the discussions that ended with the noted limitation, based on comments I heard, and a letter to dealers, I suspect some of the reasoning is:

1. They would like to support owners that have been collecting for awhile, and that have content not currently available in the Store that would be lost without their Premiere components, and they would like to do this for as long as reasonably possible. Supporting recent and future owners would likely limit this ability. (In other words, given the limitations they have, they have prioritized their support.)

2. There are limits on parts and components, both new and remanufactured, that will be available, and it is not possible to keep this going forever, nor can they support all Premiere products still in the field, so focusing on the older systems better supports the reasoning in #1 above.

3. Given the announcements K made prior to the ending of Premiere sales, and indicating they would only be supporting in-warranty products after that date, this should have put subsequent buyers on notice that Premiere was ending and they were buying components with limited to no support.

If they could have supported all systems, I'm sure they would have, but it's just not possible based on what I know.

Jim

 

[baltz]

I’m curious to know how they track registered owners.

My understanding is that the dealer extranet tracks components differently than the store. Is it based on who the components were sold to or how they are registered in the store?

I bought most of my Premiere components used, so I’m not sure how they show up in the extranet. I *think* that they were assigned to me, but I don’t have access to that information.

 

[cinelife]

The date is determined by when you first registered your system with Kaleidescape. Every K owner is required to register with Kaleidescape in order to read and agree to the Service and Licensing Agreement (SLA). This registration also insures future software updates, access to the K Store, and system monitoring to send alerts to owners regarding their systems. Although this can be circumvented if someone buys a used system that has not been "deregistered" (because it will continue to work (minus access to the Store), that's not a good idea because it will continue to be identified with the prior owner.

The point is, K uses the registration info to identify the owner and date of ownership, and buying "used" has no effect on support, it is only date driven. If you've replaced a system (Server), or added a used system after the mentioned date, I'm sure K can verify your original date of registration.

Jim

 

[MikeG]

Thanks Jim. This is good news for me

 

[cinelife]

Following up on my post with more details, owner's should have received the following email from K's CEO:

Dear Kaleidescape Customer,

Kaleidescape understands that many of you have content on your Premiere systems that is not yet available in our movie store and cannot be loaded on our newer 4K Strato/Terra systems. Content could be personal home movies or unique commercial content. I maintain a Premiere system (M500s, 1U+s) for precisely this reason.

To provide better customer service, we will keep Premiere players, vaults, and servers available for purchase for the foreseeable future (available only to customers who owned Premiere systems before the general end of sale). These may be different models over time (M300 or M500, DV700 or M700, 1U or 3U), and maybe new or remanufactured.

Kaleidescape is interested in specific Premiere components for remanufacturing. If you have one that you would like to trade-in, and it is complete and in good cosmetic condition, we will send you a shipping box free, you pay the shipping to us, and if it is manufacturable, we will give you a movie store credit of $500-$1,500. Check with your dealer or support at +1 (650) 625-6160 for details.

To help you transition to digital, free up vault space, and get the highest resolution available, Kaleidescape will continue our most favorable disc-to-digital movie store pricing.

If you would like to add 4K capability to your Premiere system, through March 31st, we are offering movie store credit of 10% of MSRP on all Strato/Terra purchases. The program includes a free Co-Star for each Premiere player you own, plus a free preload of your purchased content (including disc-to-digital) on Terra servers. Also, through March 31st, there is attractive promotional pricing on Strato C players and Terra servers. Contact your dealer to find out more.

Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

H. Tayloe Stansbury
CEO

 

[SHOEMAN]

That's great news. I guess the short supply of the power source for the 1U servers are for the older ones? I'm assuming no supply issues for the newer 1U+ servers? Like many of us lots of older ones and dreading the day they die. ☹

 

[baltz]

This is great news. I appreciate the extra incentives to help ease the pain of moving to a Strato/Terra system.

 

[cinelife]

That's great news. I guess the short supply of the power source for the 1U servers are for the older ones? I'm assuming no supply issues for the newer 1U+ servers? Like many of us lots of older ones and dreading the day they die. ☹

Yes, PSU's are available for the 1U+ Servers.

Jim

 

[Transepoch]

Unfortunately no. The current owner is defined as an owner that had registered their Premiere system prior to that July 2020 Premiere sales end date.

Jim

Are existing-system owners (great-grandfathered?) simply covered (subject to availability) or are they covered only to the point of what they had at EOS? Basically, can we sell amongst ourselves and still be covered, because it was an existing component and both the new & old owners were covered? Would a new owner break that chain or are they disregarded (either always or if cured within a period of time?)

 

[cinelife]

Are existing-system owners (great-grandfathered?) simply covered (subject to availability) or are they covered only to the point of what they had at EOS? Basically, can we sell amongst ourselves and still be covered, because it was an existing component and both the new & old owners were covered? Would a new owner break that chain or are they disregarded (either always or if cured within a period of time?)

It's based on YOUR original Registration. My understanding is that although it's tied to a Server, as I posted above, K will be able to determine when your SLA was agreed to, so the components YOU have been adding over time (new or used) will be supported as being part of your system(s). If you read #1 in my post above (post 4), that is my understanding of K's main desire in trying to support Premier owners. Selling a used 3U to a "new" owner (new to K after that EOS date) would not be supportive of the desired goal. I understand the implications of such a limitation on resale values, but again I refer you to the reasoning in post 4 above.

One other point, I don't speak for K in any official capacity, so they are certainly free to modify their policy at any time, but what I stated is the current policy.

Jim

 

[gregams]

Are these incentives available to be applied to a 1st Generation Cinema One?

 

[David23]

Are these incentives available to be applied to a 1st Generation Cinema One?

Or a 2nd Generation Cinema One as well? Thanks.

 

[cinelife]

Sorry guys, those components are not listed. (But I'll seek additional clarification.)

Jim