IPCheck Assures Security in Cinemas And Theatres

Company Profile

Classic Cinemas, based outside of Chicago, Illinois, is a family owned theatre chain. It was started in 1978 with the operation of the Tivoli Theatre in Downers Grove, Ill. The company has added nearly a theatre a year and today operates 12 theatres in 11 communities. Classic Cinemas has restored various older urban theatres, modernized existing theatres and built contemporary theatres such as the Elk Grove in Elk Grove Village and its most recent project -- the 18-screen Charlestowne 18.

Challenge

The network monitoring solution Classic Cinemas used to monitor the DSL lines for its satellite management offices couldn't monitor equipment behind the firewall. Most notably, the chain's solution couldn't alert the theatre's technical staff at its corporate headquarters when its various security-camera computers crashed or were, for whatever reason, off line.

The company's previous solution was an inexpensive program that pinged the various DSL lines and notified staff members if the lines were down. If, for instance, the DSL line at the chain's headquarters went down, the program would trigger an alarm at each satellite location. The chain's staff, then, had to manually check equipment to verify the nature of the outage.

The theatre chain's two-person IT department operates in an environment whereby both its headquarters near Chicago and satellite management offices throughout Northern Illinois each have DSL lines – none of which are connected by a VPN. It is critical, therefore, for the chain to centrally monitor its various DSL circuits and the equipment behind its routers to quickly react to outages.

Steven Margison, the chain's IT Manager, said that, fundamentally, Classic Cinemas needed a program that would give it remote network control, administration and monitoring capabilities and help it achieve optimum operational efficiencies with “minimum resources.”

Solution

Classic Cinemas had been using Paessler’s PRTG Traffic Grapher to monitor its corporate DSL usage for years and was familiar with the “reliability and value of the Paessler product line.”

Margison researched Paessler's IPCheck Server Monitor online and found that it would, in fact, allow the chain to monitor each of its stand-alone DSL lines and the various security-camera computers at its satellite offices. IPCheck's price and overall value were also “attractive” selling points as Classic Cinemas doesn't “budget a great deal” for network-monitoring systems.

Margison began using IPCheck on a trial basis, which affirmed that it was, indeed, the network-monitoring solution he needed. He then installed IPCheck onto a dedicated PC in his office and set up audible alerts to immediately notify him of any network-related problems.

Benefits

With IPCheck, Classic Cinemas can now monitor its security-camera computers and is promptly alerted when one of them crashes or goes off line for any reason.

IPCheck has “drastically” reduced the time it takes Mr. Margison to respond to field-related problems. The chain, for instance, uses IPCheck's sensor-dependency feature to eliminate false alarms when its corporate DSL goes down, allowing Margison to quickly identify the outage's true cause and location. Mr. Margison has also found using Paessler's IPCheck to be a “great learning experience.”

He added that IPCheck's ability to monitor disparate pieces of hardware has been the “frosting on the cake” and that he would recommend the tool “without reservation” to his colleagues and friends.

“Paessler’s products have helped us to achieve a degree of monitoring that allows us to be more quickly responsive to problems in the field,” he said.

About Paessler IPCheck Server Monitor

IPCheck Server Monitor is a Windows-based network uptime and downtime monitoring software. IPCheck Server Monitor makes it easy and affordable to detect network and website failures early, minimizing downtime and avoiding economic impact.

Steve Margison decided to use both PRTG Traffic Grapher and IPCheck Server Monitor to establish a proven and reliable monitoring solution for Classic Cinemas.