Grass Valley SmartBins User Manual

Number: 510057.001

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SmartBins

Digital News Production

Instruction Guide

SOFTWARE VERSION 5.0

07183700
OCTOBER 2004

Copyright

Copyright © 2004 Thomson Broadcast and Media Solutions, Inc. All rights
reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

This document may not be copied in whole or in part, or otherwise reproduced
except as specifically permitted under U.S. copyright law, without the prior written
consent of Thomson Broadcast and Media Solutions, Inc., P.O. Box 59900,
Nevada City, California 95959-7900

Trademarks

Disclaimer

U.S. Government
Restricted Rights
Legend

Revision Status

FeedClip, Grass Valley, NewsEdit, and Profile are either registered trademarks or
trademarks of Thomson Broadcast and Media Solutions, Inc. in the United States
and/or other countries. Other trademarks used in this document are either
registered trademarks or trademarks of the manufacturers or vendors of the
associated products. Thomson Broadcast and Media Solutions, Inc. products are
covered by U.S. and foreign patents, issued and pending. Additional information
regarding Thomson Broadcast and Media Solution, Inc.’s trademarks and other
proprietary rights may be found at www.thomsongrassvalleygroup.com.

Product options and specifications subject to change without notice. The
information in this manual is furnished for informational use only, is subject to
change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Thomson
Broadcast and Media Solutions, Inc. Thomson Broadcast and Media Solutions,
Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may
appear in this publication.

Use, duplication, or disclosure by the United States Government is subject to
restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data
and Computer Software clause at DFARS 252.277-7013 or in subparagraph c(1)
and (2) of the Commercial Computer Software Restricted Rights clause at FAR

52.227-19, as applicable. Manufacturer is Thomson Broadcast and Media
Solutions, Inc., P.O. Box 59900, Nevada City, California 95959-7900 U.S.A.

Rev Date Description

October 18, 2004 Initial release of part number 071-8370-00

Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Chapter 1 Introducing SmartBins

SmartBins on an Open SAN System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

SmartBin Folder Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Updating the Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Updates to the Profile Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Updates to the NewsEdit Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Limitations of Open SAN SmartBins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

SmartBins on a NAS System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Chapter 2 Installing the Software

Installing the Profile Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Installing the SmartBin Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Obtaining a Software License Number. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Chapter 3 Configuring SmartBin Service on a NAS System. . . . . . . . . 17

Chapter 4 Creating SmartBins in NewsEdit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

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Contents

4

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Grass Valley Product Support

To get technical assistance, check on the status of problems, or report new
problems, contact Grass Valley Product Support via e-mail, the Web, or by
phone or fax.

Web Technical Support

To access support information on the Web, visit the product support Web page
on the Grass Valley Web site. You can download software or find solutions to
problems by searching our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) database.

Grass Valley Product Support

World Wide Web:
Technical Support E-mail Address:

http://www.thomsongrassvalley.com/support/

[e-mail].

Phone Support

Use the following information to contact product support by phone during
business hours. Afterhours phone support is available for warranty and contract
customers.

United States [phone] (Toll Free) France [phone]

Latin America [phone] (Toll Free) Germany [phone]

Eastern Europe [phone] Greece [phone]

Southern Europe [phone] Hong Kong [phone]

Middle East [phone] Italy [phone]

Australia [phone] Netherlands [phone]

Belgium [phone] Poland [phone]

Brazil [phone] Russia [phone]

Canada [phone] (Toll Free) Singapore [phone]

China [phone] Spain + 34 91 512 03 50

Denmark [phone] Sweden [phone]

Dubai + 971 4 299 64 40 Switzerland [phone]

Finland [phone] UK [phone]

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Preface

Authorized Support Representative

A local authorized support representative may be available in your country. To
locate the support representative for your country, visit the product support
Web page on the Grass Valley Web site.

Profile Users Group

You can connect with other Profile XP Media Platform users to ask questions
or share advice, tips, and hints. Send e-mail to profi[e-mail] to
join the community and benefit from the experience of others.

6

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Chapter

1

Introducing SmartBins

SmartBins provide a way to automatically keep the contents of a NewsEdit bin
synchronized with the contents of a Media Server bin—either a Profile Media
Server on an Open SAN system or an M-Series iVDR on a NAS system.

SmartBins work differently depending on the shared storage system you are
using—Open SAN or NAS.

SmartBins on an Open SAN System

The computer running the Smart Bin SAN service must have a Fibre Channel­SCSI connection to the Open SAN and a CVFS license.

Open SAN SmartBins provide an automatic way to map specific folders in the
NewsEdit tree view of Bins to a specific bin in the Profile view. Media is not
moved—instead, automatic mapping of media into two different directory
structures occurs that previously required manual mapping file by file using
Content Share Explorer or Media Manager. These bin structures are different
views into the shared media file database. Some file types like NewsEdit
sequences can not be used by Profile directly, and therefore, are not allowed in
SmartBins.

SmartBins provide automatic “mirroring” of NewsEdit bins and Profile bins on
the Open SAN system. When you create a bin in NewsEdit, you have the option
of associating that bin with a Profile bin. Once that association has been made,
the SmartBin Service automatically keeps the bins synchronized. New material
on the Profile database always finds its way to the NewsEdit database, but the
reverse is not true without user interaction in some cases. For example,
FeedClip recorded clips are not SmartBin monitored and synchronized to the
Profile database because they have a subdirectory under the master bin.

There can be no other bins under a SmartBin, so the SmartBin is the end of the
branch in the directory structure. You can have bins next to Smart Bins.
Sequences can not live in SmartBins, only flattened simple movie (Profile
compatible) files.

You can only map a NewsEdit bin to a Profile bin when you are creating the bin
for the first time in NewsEdit. See Chapter 4, “Creating SmartBins in
NewsEdit” for instructions on creating SmartBins.

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Chapter 1 Introducing SmartBins

SmartBin Folder Synchronization

When the SmartBin Service starts running, it looks at all of the NewsEdit bins
and determines which bins are associated with Profile bins. It then queries the
Profile database for the movies in each associated Profile bin. Any movies in
the Profile bins that are not in the associated NewsEdit bin are registered to the
NewsEdit database. No files are moved—a mapping of the folders between the
flat and tree views takes place. On initialization, there is no check made to see
if NewsEdit clips are on the Profile database. This means that this initial
synchronization is one way—Profile to NewsEdit only.

Bin ONE Bin SEVENBin SIXBin FIVEBin FOURBin THREEBin TWO

V: Open SAN

Profile

V: Open SAN

NewsShare

Bin ONE

Updating the Databases

The SmartBin Service constantly monitors both the NewsEdit and Profile
databases. Examples of updates to the database are listed below.

Updates to the Profile Database

• Renaming Clips—When a movie is renamed on the Profile, the SmartBin
Service automatically renames the corresponding clip on the NewsEdit
database. If there is a renaming conflict, and the NewsEdit clip is unable to
be renamed, the databases will be out of sync.

8

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Bin THREEBin TWO

Bin FOUR

Bin FIVE

Bin SIX Bin SEVEN

Bin EIGHT

Limitations of Open SAN SmartBins

• Deleting Clips—When a movie is deleted on the Profile, the SmartBin
Service deletes the corresponding clip on the NewsEdit database. If the clip
is being used in NewsEdit at the time the Profile movie is deleted, the
NewsEdit clip will not be deleted and the databases will be out of sync.

• Deleting Bins—When a bin is deleted on the Profile, all movies in the bin on
the Profile database will be deleted, and the bin on the NewsEdit database
will also be deleted. The deletions can only occur if clips are not being used
in NewsEdit.

• Adding a Movie—When a movie is added to the Profile database, the
SmartBin Service automatically registers that clip in the NewsEdit database.
Complex movies, however, are not registered to the database because
SmartBins don’t support sequences. In this case, the databases will be out of
sync.

Updates to the NewsEdit Database

• Renaming Clips—When a clip is renamed in NewsEdit, an attempt is made
to rename the corresponding movie in the Profile database. If the Profile
movie cannot be successfully renamed, the NewsEdit rename fails.

• Deleting Clips—When a clip is deleted in NewsEdit, an attempt is made to
delete the corresponding movie in the Profile database. If the Profile movie
cannot be successfully deleted, the NewsEdit delete fails.

• Deleting Bins—When a bin is deleted in NewsEdit, SmartBin monitoring is
automatically turned off on the specified bin before deleting all of the
material in the bin. This is done to prevent accidental deletion of material on
the Profile database.

• Creating Master Clips—While recording to the SmartBin in NewsEdit, a
master clip is created in the NewsEdit database. When the master clip is
created, the SmartBin Service automatically registers that clip to the Profile
database once the record has completed.

Limitations of Open SAN SmartBins

No sub-folders, sequences or sub-clips are allowed in SmartBins. The
SmartBin option and Profile mapping association dialog is only available when
creating a bin for the first time. No SmartBin dialog is presented for existing
bins.

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Chapter 1 Introducing SmartBins

SmartBins on a NAS System

SmartBins for a NewsShare NAS System, known as GXF-SBINs, work in a
similar way as the Open SAN System—but actually transfer media via GXF
from an M-Series iVDR to the NAS and register with the NewsShare database,
automating the import function of NewsEdit. GXF-SBIN needs an external
XRE Server or DSM to act as a monitor for media transfer. Publishing back to
an M-Series iVDR is via a traditional GXF transfer in NewsEdit.

SmartBins provide an automated process that monitors and transfers files from
the flat M-Series iVDR bin structure to the tree-based NewsEdit directory
structure on shared NAS storage. SmartBins use a static directory mapping so
all files in a particular M-Series iVDR bin are monitored and automatically
transferred as they arrive to a selected NewsEdit NAS Bin, and then deleted
from M-Series iVDR. This function is uni-directional so that files put into the
selected iVDR directory automatically arrive and are available for editing in the
targeted NewsEdit directory. Files on the M-Series iVDR can then be manually
deleted (locally on the M-Series iVDR) or automatically deleted by the
SmartBin Service, with a specified delay after file creation and copy.

V: Open SAN

Profile

10

Bin ONE Bin SEVENBin SIXBin FIVEBin FOURBin THREEBin TWO

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Bin THREEBin TWO

Bin FOUR

V: Open SAN

NewsShare

Bin ONE

Bin FIVE

Bin SIX Bin SEVEN

Bin EIGHT

SmartBins on a NAS System

Using GXF-SBINs on an M-Series iVDR effectively creates a buffered
recording—so that material is protected and redundantly saved (both on M­Series and on NAS) while still making the file available for shared editing or
immediate playout on the M-Series. The buffering process takes some time, so
there is a 40 second delay between the start of the record to media being
available on NewsEdit.

From NewsEdit, files can be sent to an M-Series with the existing Send feature
that sends a GXF stream to M-Series (or Profile) for playout. This GXF-SBIN
service runs on a dedicated platform or DSM and is available as an option to
NewsShare NAS systems.

With the GXF-SBIN service in place, new files are monitored and transferred
from the M-Series to selected NewsShare NAS resident folders. Playout
channels remain independent from the recording channels. Material availability
on the NAS is about 40 seconds from the beginning of ingest on M-Series.
While the buffered transfer is taking place, users can see and edit the growing
file the same as if the media were recorded on NewsEdit.

Sending clips back to M-Series is done via GXF send dialogs in NewsEdit and
M-Series playout is controllable via NewsQ Pro. There is no automatic
publishing to an M-Series iVDR from NAS since finished stories need to be
linked to playout.

SmartBin Service on a DSM or XRE Server provides the folder monitoring and
transfer services to the NAS system. System sizing rules determine how many
M-Series iVDR record streams can be supported. A DSM can support up to 4
record streams (2 M-Series chassis). Beyond four streams, dedicated XRE
Servers should be used as necessary, budgeting 6 streams per XRE Server.

Currently, an M-Series iVDR user cannot send a file to a NewsEdit directly,
only to other M-Series iVDRs or to Profile Media Servers.

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Chapter 1 Introducing SmartBins

12

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Chapter

2

Installing the Software

In order to use SmartBins, you need to install Profile software, install the
SmartBin Service and obtain a license for the software for use in your
newsroom. You install the software on the XRE that is part of your system. It
can be hosted by itself or share an XRE with a DSM or Windows Domain
Controller.

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Chapter 2 Installing the Software

Installing the Profile Software

You need to install the Profile software regardless of which kind of shared
storage you are using—Open SAN or NAS.

To install the Profile software:

1. Insert the NewsroomSuite CD into your CD drive.

2. Navigate to

Software Installs | Profile

3. Double-click on

Setup.exe

.

version

4. Install the software following these instructions:

On this screen... Do this...

Welcome Click

License Agreement Read and accept, then click

Setup Type For an Open SAN system. select

system, select

Ready to Install Click

Next

Install

.

XP PC

.

. Click

| XP

.

Next

Open SAN PC

Next

.

.

; for a NAS

14

Installation Complete Click

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. The computer prompts you to reboot so the new

Finish

settings take effect.

Installing the SmartBin Service

To install the SmartBin Service:

1. Insert the NewsroomSuite CD into your CD drive and navigate to

SmartBin Service.

Installing the SmartBin Service

2. Double-click on

SetupSmartBinService.exe

.

3. Install the software following these instructions:

On this screen... Do this...

Welcome Click

Select Destination Directory Leave set at the default location and click

Select Type of Shared Database 1. Select your media server type:

Specify the Servers for the Shared
Database

Specify the shared drive(s) in use
with this system

Ready to Install Click

Installation Complete Click OK to close the installation program. The

Next

.

Open SAN

2. If you want to use security on your shared
database, check

3. Click

Enter the names of the primary and secondary (if
applicable) File System Managers for Open SAN
(Database System Managers for NAS) and click

Leave set at the default location and click

computer prompts you to reboot so the new settings take
effect.

Next

Next

to begin the installation.

Enable Security

.

.

Next

or

.

NAS

.

.

Next

Next

.

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Chapter 2 Installing the Software

Obtaining a Software License Number

Once you’ve installed the SmartBin Service software, you need to get a License
Number from Grass Valley.

To obtain a License Number:

1. Open Windows Explorer and browse to

Utilities.

2. Double-click the file

License.exe

The Software License Utility opens:

System
Identification
Number

Your System Identification Number appears in the bottom field of the
window.

C: | Program Files | Vibrint 5.0 |

to open it.

16

3. Call Grass Valley Product Support at 1-800-547-8949 and provide the
customer service representative with your System Identification Number, as
well as the software version and the original order number for the system.

4. Enter the License Number provided to you by Grass Valley Product Support

.

and click

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OK

Chapter

3

Configuring SmartBin Service on a NAS
System

If you are using SmartBins on a NAS system, you need to configure your
M-Series iVDR(s) to use SmartBins. If you are using SmartBins on an Open
SAN system, you can skip this step.

To configure the SmartBin Service on a NAS system:

1. Go to

2. Select the

Start | Programs | Vibrint 5.0 | SmartBins Setup Tool

The SmartBins Setup Tool opens.

Total Maximum Transfers

The Total Maximum Transfers is the total amount of streams for this particular
instance of the SmartBin Service. Select
on the DSM and select

NOTE: Increasing the number of Total Maximum Transfers affects
the bandwidth on the NAS system.

6

if the SmartBin Service is installed on a standalone PC.

from the drop-down list.

if the SmartBin Service is installed

4

.

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Chapter 3 Configuring SmartBin Service on a NAS System

3. Click

Add

.

The Edit Server Settings window appears:

4. Enter the name of the M-Series iVDR you are using.

5. Select the number of

Maximum Transfers

per M-Series server from the

drop-down list.

For a DSM on a NAS network, you usually set 2 for the maximum number of
transfers.

6. Check

Delete movies after __ hours

, and enter the number of hours after a
transfer is complete for media to remain in the database before being
automatically removed.

7. Click OK to close the setup tool.

18

The SmartBin Service restarts.

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Chapter

4

Creating SmartBins in NewsEdit

Once you’ve installed the SmartBin Service, you can create SmartBins in
NewsEdit which get automatically monitored and updated. A SmartBin
monitors the server folder you specify and updates the content of the SmartBin
automatically when new clips or updated feeds appear. You don’t need to go
into the server bin and copy the media into your NewsEdit bin in order to use it
in a sequence.

To create a SmartBin:

1. Open NewsEdit on any client workstation.

2. Click the

3. Click

Browse to the right of the Server Path field.

New Bin

button on the Bin toolbar.

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Chapter 4 Creating SmartBins in NewsEdit

The Select Server Bin window appears:

4. If you are using a Network Attached Storage server, enter the name of the
server and hit
grayed out.

NOTE: You only need to enter the name of the server the first time
you connect; the server connects automatically once you’ve set it up.

Connect; if you are using a Profile server, the Server field is

5. Select the bin to monitor and click

The Server Path fills in with the selected Bin and the Enable SmartBin
checkbox gets checked.

6. Click

OK to create the SmartBin.

NewsEdit now monitors the Media Server folder and adds new media to this bin
automatically.

20 Digital News Production

OK.