Pinnacle Systems Media Director - 1.0.1 User’s Guide

Media | Director

User’s Guide

Version 1.0.1

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Footage

Eco Challenge Morocco — Courtesy of Discovery Communications, Inc. News material provided by WFTV Television Inc. Ice Island — Courtesy of Kurtis Productions, Ltd.

Avid Media | Director User’s Guide • Created 7/9/14 • This document is distributed by Avid in online (electronic) form only, and is not available for purchase in printed form.

Using This Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Avid Training Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Chapter 1 Media | Director Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Media | Director Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

The Media | Director Engine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

The Media | Director Drop Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Media | Director Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

File Based Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

About Media | Director Workflows and Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Media | Director Process Detail Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Chapter 2 Using the Media | Director Drop Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

The Drop Utility User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Typical Media | Director Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Accessing the Drop Utility Installers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Configuring the Drop Utility Application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Rearranging the Panes on the Drop Utility Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Viewing or Changing the Connection to the Media | Director Engine . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Using the Job Builder Pane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Using the Progress Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Using the Profile Builder Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Using a Watch Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Chapter 3 Working with Media | Director Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Profile Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Using the Profile Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Editing the Display Tab for a Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Editing the Rules Tab for a Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Entering Token Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Creating Folder Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Token Value Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Park and Register Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Defining the Interplay Folder Structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Defining the Parking Storage Folder Structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Defining the Clip Names in the Interplay Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Chapter 4 Modifying the Media | Director Engine Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Modifying the Interplay Production Configuration Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Modifying the Workflow Foundation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Modifying the Watch Folder Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Changing the Profile Associated with the Watch Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Using This Guide

Congratulations on your purchase of Media | Director, an optional service for Interplay Production that allows workgroups to capture field footage shot in various formats quickly by processing it against user-definable profiles.

This guide is intended for all users of Media | Director. For additional information, see “Typical

Media | Director Users” on page 25.

Revision date Comments

07/09/2014 Added description of GUID on Display tab. See

“Editing the Display Tab for a Profile” on page 46.

07/01/2014 Minor corrections and reformatting.

The documentation describes the features and hardware of all models. Therefore, your system

might not contain certain features and hardware that are covered in the documentation.

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Avid documentation uses the following symbols and conventions:

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A warning describes an action that could cause you physical harm. Follow the guidelines in this document or on the unit itself when handling electrical equipment.

order you select them. For example, File > Import means to open the File menu and then select the Import command.

Symbol or Convention Meaning or Action

This symbol indicates a single-step procedure. Multiple arrows in a list indicate that you perform one of the actions listed.

Avid Training Services

(Windows), (Windows only), (Macintosh), or (Macintosh only)

Bold font Bold font is primarily used in task instructions to identify user interface

Italic font Italic font is used to emphasize certain words and to indicate variables.

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items and keyboard sequences.

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mouse action. For example, Command+Option+C or Ctrl+drag.

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1 Media | Director Overview

Media | Director is an optional service for Interplay Production that allows workgroups to capture field footage shot in various formats quickly by processing it against user-definable profiles that orchestrate copy, naming and transcode processes via a powerful rules system.

With this option workgroups can dramatically reduce the time spent performing the following tasks:

• Capturing media from a wide variety of file based cameras

• Normalizing various formats to create an efficient production workflow

• Migrating multi-resolution media to make cost efficient use of tiered storage environments

• Making the material available quickly to multiple editors within the Interplay environment.

The following sections describe the benefits of using Media | Director.

Provide an efficient and consistent method for ingesting file-based material

Media | Director has a powerful template-based rules system that allows you to define the copy, transcode, and naming portions of the ingest workflow. You can use standard templates and define your own variations. This eliminates the need for remembering and repeating known ingest policies and ensures that ingest tasks are handled accurately across staff (for example, in-house vs. freelance, different training levels, different locations).

Media | Director provides a central server that can process ingest jobs. Individual jobs can be initiated from client machines with LAN access to the server. This frees up valuable editing systems and allows staff to use older client machines to initiate ingest jobs. Operators can prioritize jobs by reorganizing the job queue before submitting them to the server.

Protect camera originals and save storage space on the production ISIS

Camera originals represent a production investment (talent, travel, etc.) and long-term monetizing opportunities. Media | Director can be configured to automatically copy camera originals to a central parking storage such as an ISIS 2500. Media | Director allows you to transcode the camera source material to a low-bit-rate proxy format, such as 2Mb H.264 video and MPEG-1 Layer II audio. This allows you to work with the proxy version on the main Interplay Production ISIS and keep the camera sources on the parking ISIS. This saves storage on the production ISIS and reduces network bandwidth requirements. Later, when you identify

Media | Director Components

the material you want to work with, you can use a qualified version of an Avid editing application or Interplay Transcode service to consolidate from the camera sources to the production ISIS at full resolution.

You can also use the Media | Director to consolidate an entire volume of AMA material to your

production ISIS.

Provide support for post-production workflows

Some post-production work flows, such as reality TV, often capture a large ratio of raw footage compared to the size of the final show. Shooting ratios can be up to and in excess of 200:1. This creates a large amount of camera source material. Editors need access to the sources but you don’t want to copy them all onto your production ISIS system. The concepts of parking storage and dual res work flows works well in a post-production workflow. Your camera sources are stored in their unchanged/native form in a storage area that is easily searchable and you edit with the proxy versions. You can consolidate the material for the final sequences at full resolution to the production ISIS when it’s time to create final masters. This workflow keeps the camera sources in an area that is protected but still easily accessible by qualified users.

Many of today’s show formats are captured on a wide variety of cameras. Media | Director’s rules system provides the ability to match camera format properties with the project/production requirements of a show. For example, you can create a profile for a specific camera and modify the profile for use on different projects.

Media | Director Components

Media | Director consists of the following components:

• Media | Director Engine: provides workflow orchestration and media processing services. The Media | Director Engine hosts AMA plug-ins and provides the ability to ingest AMA material, register new clips with the Interplay database, and perform proxy transcode and full-resolution consolidate operations.

• Media | Director Drop Utility: provides the user interface for starting and configuring Media | Director Engine jobs and for building profiles.

Note that Media | Director relies on a new generation of AMA plugins that is compatible with the

latest versions of the Avid editing applications.

The Media | Director Engine

Media | Director supports Avid’s Media Access plug in technology (AMA) and provides flexible acquisition format support via qualified AMA plug ins.

The Media | Director Engine is a self-contained device based on Avid or customer provided standard hardware. In its first release, its main functions are to execute automatic workflows that register camera native media volumes as AMA assets in an Interplay Production; to create a choice of Avid Production native proxies for these assets from the source media, and to consolidate high resolution material to the Avid production storage.

The Media | Director Engine connects Avid’s storage and asset management solutions with external sources of media and metadata such as camera storage media or video servers, and offers a choice of automated workflows to move media from those sources into an Avid production environment in a highly automated way.

Media | Director Engine includes a workflow engine that drives a scalable number of media processing services with built-in proxy generation through a predefined set of workflows. It also contains adapters that can orchestrate Interplay Production operations such as checking files into Interplay. Built-in MediaCentral | UX technology provides status information through any HTML-5 capable web browser.

Media | Director Components

The Media | Director Drop Utility

Media | Director Engine ships with an OS-native client application for Windows and Mac OS X, the Media | Director Drop Utility. The Drop Utility displays a user interface based on the MediaCentral | UX interface.

The Drop Utility is the user interface for the Media | Director engine. Its main functions are as follows:

• Start Media | Director jobs based on a selectable profile and optional additional parameters

• Create and work with profiles

• Provide feedback about job status and progress

Media | Director Components

The Drop Utility application has two main sections, the Job Builder and the Profile Builder, as shown in the following illustration.

For a description of how different users interact with the interface, see “Typical Media | Director

Users” on page 25.

Media | Director Environment

Production ISIS

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The Media | Director Engine is part of an Avid Interplay Production environment as shown in the following illustration.

Media | Director Environment

The Media | Director Engines’ AMA registration and multi resolution capabilities require the following infrastructure to fully leverage the functionality:

• Interplay Production 3.1.x (Interplay Engine and Media Indexer with updated Avid editing applications) for full functionality.

• Interplay Production 3.0.x (Interplay Engine and Media Indexer with updated Avid editing applications) for full Direct Ingest.

• Direct ingest only functionality is available in pre-3.0 environments

• ISIS 7500 or 5500 production shared storage for Avid-native media and proxies

• ISIS 2000 storage for camera-native media (7500 and 5500 are also supported)

• Enterprise-class networking; fully Avid-qualified 10G infrastructure between Media | Director Engine and ISIS 7500/2500.

• Note that 10G client connectivity is optional.

File Based Workflow

ISIS 2000

Parking Storage

Avid ISIS 5500/7500

Interplay

Engine

AMA Register

Proxy Generation

HiRes Consolidate

Park

AMA Access

Proxy Playback

MediaCentral | UX

Media Composer

Interplay Access

Interplay Admin

The following illustration shows the basic AMA workflow.

File Based Workflow

The basic workflow for the Media | Director process named Park, Register and Transcode consists of the following steps:

1. Insert the camera formatted media such as backup disk with camera media, a P2 card, or XDCAM disk into a reader on the Media | Director client.

2. Drag the volume onto the Media | Director client and select a predefined Profile.

3. For workflows containing Park, Media | Director copies the media from the card or disk to a parking storage system such as an ISIS 2000 or other parking storage. This parking storage provides a single location where you can always find a copy of your original media. This allows AMA workflows to function reliably no matter what happens to the original carrier.

Support for non-ISIS parking storage is a licensable option.

4. For workflows that contain Register, Media | Director uses an AMA register process to create an AMA-linked asset in the Interplay database. These assets point to the media on the parking storage. Note that for pre-Interplay 3.0 workflows, AMA register can be turned off, producing “standard” assets.

About Media | Director Workflows and Processes

At this point the media is available for a limited number of users that can work directly with high res AMA material. For example, you can now edit the material on a Media Composer or NewsCutter system. This is represented by the “AMA Access” portion of the illustration.

5. Next (if the Park, Register and Transcode workflow is used), the Media | Director server uses its built in proxy generation to create a proxy.

Once the proxy is available, editors and other Interplay clients can relink to the proxy. This makes the material available to a much larger group of users such as MediaCentral | UX, Interplay Assist, and Media Composer | Cloud.

This finishes the Media | Director Park, Register and Transcode process.

Once the editors and producers create their sequences and other output based on the proxy, editors can use the Avid editing application or the Interplay Transcode service to initiate a transcode/consolidate operation to bring the desired high res material onto the ISIS 5500 system in the Interplay environment. This will copy the desired portions of the original AMA material from the parking storage onto the ISIS 5500 in the OP-ATOM format used by Avid applications.

You can also use the Media | Director Consolidate from Parking workflow to transcode or

rewrap all of the AMA material in a volume to the Interplay Production ISIS system.

About Media | Director Workflows and Processes

When a new job is submitted, the job profile defines which of the built-in processes are executed. Depending on the profile, the user may have the opportunity to supply additional detail information to the process such as the clip name or the name of an Interplay database folder to create to store the clip metadata.

About Media | Director Workflows and Processes

For every process built into the Media | Director Engine, there is a profile template in the Templates folder as shown in the following illustration:

From those templates, you can create profile “instances” or copies that are tailored to a specific purpose via a set of storage and naming rules. The profile instances start the process they link to with different rules and dynamic data. Even though profiles can be renamed, they remain linked to the original process template. The right column in the profile list shows the original process template that a template has been derived from.

About Media | Director Workflows and Processes

The following table lists the Media | Director built-in processes.

Process Name Process Description

Direct Ingest Directly rewraps volumes from the source carrier to Production Storage (ISIS)

without copying or registering the AMA clips first. The Transcode portion of the profile contains a “transparent pass-through” option. This option treats native codecs as follows:

• If the native codecs are supported in Interplay Production, they are preserved.

This process is compatible with pre-3.0 versions of Interplay Production back to Interplay 2.7.5. Backwards compatibility is possible because the process does not rely on AMA support in Interplay Production.

Direct Ingest via Cache This process is similar to Direct Ingest except that the AMA media is first

copied (cached) and then processed from the parking storage. This is intended for source carriers that cannot be efficiently processed by a Media | Director, for example because they that are too small, too fragmented, or cannot be read fast enough. Since the copy operation is carried out by the client, this process avoids inefficient use of the processing capabilities on the Media | Director server. Also, since the client accesses the source, no share or access permissions for Media | Director are necessary.

This process is also compatible with pre-3.0 versions of Interplay Production back to Interplay 2.7.5.

Hi-Res Conform from Parked Volume

Rewraps volumes on Parking Storage to Production Storage (ISIS) while preserving logging information on AMA clips and proxies. In The Transcode portion of the profile contains a “transparent pass-through” option. This option treats native codecs as follows:

• If the native codecs are supported in Interplay Production, they are preserved.

Park and Register Parks volumes on Parking Storage and registers them as AMA clips in

Interplay Production 3.0 and higher.

Media | Director Process Detail Descriptions

Process Name Process Description

Park, Register & Transcode Parks volumes on Parking Storage and registers them as AMA clips in

Interplay Production 3.0. Transcodes source material from parking storage to user-definable proxy format.

The following section describes the Processes in detail.

Media | Director Process Detail Descriptions

The Media | Director Direct Ingest Process

The Media Director Direct Ingest process is designed for customers who want to use a classic Avid workflow where all source material is transferred to the production ISIS storage and made available as native Avid assets in Interplay.

Under the Direct Ingest Process source media does not get parked; rather it is consolidated over to the production storage directly from the source. This assumes that the source media carrier/disk is large and fast enough to keep a Media Processor busy for the duration of the ingest. Depending on the target resolution setting in the profile, media will either be transcoded to one of the formats supported by Media | Director, or – if “transparent pass-through” is selected in the profile – will be converted (rewrapped) to native Avid media as lossless as possible. As always, sources are read through the matching AMA plugin. Since different AMA plugins provide a different level of support in the case of “transparent pass-through”, the ingest operation will be handled as one of the following two cases:

• If the source media contains essence that is natively supported in Interplay Production, the source media will simply be rewrapped to OP-Atom, placed onto the Production ISIS storage, and checked into Interplay according to the rules defined in the profile. This is the default behavior of the “transparent pass-through” option.

• Some AMA plugins provide only uncompressed frames for media like GoPro and some Quicktime files. As uncompressed frames cannot be consolidated, Media | Director automatically transcode these formats to XDCAM HD 50 instead. Alternatively, a specific ‘transcoding’ target resolution can be defined in a profile. Because a transcoding step is involved, these options will be slower than the pure rewrapping operation from the previous case.

For a list of supported AMA plugins, see the table of “Supported Volumes Types” in the Media | Director ReadMe.

Media | Director Process Detail Descriptions

The Media | Director Cached (Direct via Cache) Ingest Process

The Media Director Cached Ingest process is designed for customers who want to use a classic Avid workflow where all source material is transferred to the production ISIS storage and made available as native Avid assets in Interplay.

Under the Cached Ingest Process the source is first copied (cached) and then processed from the parking storage; this is intended for source carriers that are small or connected in a way where it does not make sense for one of Media | Director’s Media Processors to work on the media directly. The essence format can be preserved or transcoded. As always, sources are read through the matching AMA plugin; since different AMA plugins provide a different level of support the ingest operation will be handled as one of the following two cases:

• Some AMA plugins provide only uncompressed frames for media like GoPro and some Quicktime files. As uncompressed frames cannot be consolidated, Media | Director automatically transcodes theses formats to XDCAM HD 50 instead. Alternatively, a specific “transcoding” target resolution can be selected in a profile. When a transcoding step is involved, the operation will be slower than the pure rewrapping operation from the previous case.

The Media | Director Hi-Res Conform From Parked Volume Process

This process rewraps volumes on Parking Storage to Production Storage (ISIS) while preserving logging information on AMA clips and proxies. It preserves the native codec if supported in Interplay production. If the source formats are not natively supported it transcodes the sources to XDCAM HD 50.

The Media | Director Hi-Res Conform from Parked Volume process is designed for customers who want to add full resolution to existing AMA or proxy assets in Interplay production. This process will add the new resolution in a non-destructive way, meaning that markers or subclips created for the AMA or proxy resolutions will be unaffected.

A possible use case for this workflow would be to bring high resolution media online before finishing work starts on a project. Assistant editors could have created shot selections and marked areas of interest based on the AMA or proxy media, conserving space on the production ISIS. Editing and finishing would then be performed in Interplay Production, with full availability of all standard Avid workflow, archive and transfer options.

Media | Director Process Detail Descriptions

The Media | Director Park & Register Process

This process parks volumes on Parking Storage and registers them as AMA clips in Interplay Production

3.0 and higher.

The Media | Director Park & Register process is designed for applications where minimal latencies and maximum conservation of production resources is desired at the expense of ISIS bandwidth and interactivity. The process copies the source media to the Parking Storage and relies on the Avid AMA technology for playing back media from the Parking Storage.

This means that all streams will play back as full resolution; consequently the user experience will depend on the bandwidth available on the Parking Storage and may be sluggish some times.

This process is best suited for a small number of users who need the fastest possible access to media and are willing to accept that bandwidth is not guaranteed in order to conserve the maximum amount of production capacity.

The Media | Director Park, Register & Transcode Process

This process parks volumes on Parking Storage, registers them as AMA clips in Interplay Production 3.0, and transcodes the source material from parking storage to a user-definable proxy format.

The Media | Director Park, Register and Proxy process is designed for applications where a larger number of users want to work on a proxy copy of bandwidth-intensive source material. For example, this could include a department with a dozen employees that want to work with AVC-I 100 sources. The process is also suitable to projects that use high-bitrate media such as DNxHD 220 or better.

The Media | Director Park, Register & Transcode Process will copy the source media to the Parking Storage and then first make the media available through the Avid AMA technology to provide quick access to a subset of the departmental users. It will then proceed by creating a proxy copy of the source media for low latency, low storage footprint playback from the production ISIS.

Once editing on the proxy copy is complete, users have a variety of options for creating full resolution output:

• In scenarios where all participating system components fully support AMA workflows, no actual import of high res media is necessary. For example, full resolution output clips can be generated directly from the AMA linked media on the parking storage.

• For cases where production components do not yet fully support AMA workflows, full resolution media can be consolidated over from the parking storage. This can be done in two different ways; for clip-based consolidate or if transcoding to non-native high-res formats is

Media | Director Process Detail Descriptions

required, Interplay Transcode can be used. The Media | Director Engine in turn offers lossless high-speed rewrapping for high-res formats that are natively supported in Interplay Production.

Depending on the resolutions available, streams will play back either as full-res AMA stream from the parking storage or as proxy or full resolution from the Interplay Production storage, the same way as today in classic Interplay Production workflows.

Note that relinking to either available resolution requires a manual operation through the

Dynamic Relink function of the Avid editors.

2 Using the Media | Director Drop Utility

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The Media | Director Drop Utility features a MediaCentral | UX style interface with tabs and panes that are easy to customize. The following illustration shows the Drop Utility’s position in the Interplay environment. The application resides on a Media | Director client system. This can be one of a number of supported PC or Mac systems.

Typically a user performs the following tasks on the Media | Director client:

• Start the Drop Utility application

• Connect a drive, a share, or, insert media disks into an available media drive.

• Drag the associated volume from the media disk into the Drop Utility interface, select a profile, and initiate a job.

Administrators use the Drop Utility to create profiles that direct the jobs and simplify the operations for the users who are creating the jobs.

What is a Volume?

A volume is a folder containing the AMA source material. It can be a folder on local or shared storage. It can also be a folder or camera media structure on an external card reader or camera. The following list describes where volumes appear on different devices:

• For P2, navigate one level above the Contents folder

• For XDCAM disks, navigate to one level above the Clip folder

• For XDCAM EX, navigate to one level above the BPAV folder

• For QuickTime, navigate to the QuickTime folder that holds the QuickTime files

Note that Media | Director can recognize certain volume types and, by leveraging this capability, can traverse folder structures containing volumes. This means that there can be multiple volumes in a folder hierarchy, for example on a backup disk. Media | Director will create jobs for each of the source material folders. Also, Media | Director’s rules system can be used to extract metadata from the folder hierarchy. For example, this can be done if the folders are organized by date, shooting site and camera team.

You can use Media | Director’s volume auto detection capabilities as follows:

• If you want Media Director to perform automatic traversal of the volume hierarchy, hold the Shift key down while you drag the volume.

• If you do not press the Shift key while you drag the volume, Media | Director will process exactly the folder you selected, and automatic traversal will not occur. This allows you to use Media | Director with new AMA plugins that are not recognized automatically.

For additional information, see “Supported Volume Types” in the Media | Director ReadMe.

The Drop Utility User Interface

The following illustration shows the main portions of the Drop Utility interface. Depending on your needs, you can move the panes around. For example, if you are not creating profiles you can drag the entire Profile Builder pane behind the Job Builder pane.

The Drop Utility User Interface

The following section describes the different types of Media | Director users and how they interact with the user interface.

Typical Media | Director Users

Media | Director users can be divided into three categories. Different users will focus on different parts of the user interface.

Typical Media | Director Users

There is no user management for Media | Director v1.0. This means that there is no technical distinction between operators and administrators. It is possible for any user to edit or delete a profile.

Operators

Operators are staff members responsible for the actual ingest of camera media. They need to be able to process media quickly and in an efficient, simple-to-use manner. An operator may not necessarily be a subject expert on camera codecs, formats, or how the workgroup environment is set up. They may be handling many tasks at once throughout the work day. They may be less experienced staff or their focus may normally be in other parts of creative process.

An operator typically uses the Job Builder and Progress panes of the Media | Director interface.

Administrators

Administrators are often responsible for setting up and maintaining the workgroup environment. They may be responsible for directing or helping direct facility-wide asset management pipelines. An administrator needs easy-to-use, yet sophisticated tools to fine-tune the environment and make sure media is accurately processed. Administrators are often subject experts on camera codecs, formats, and how they line up against project needs.

An administrator uses the Profile Builder pane of the Media | Director interface.

Combined Operator and Administrator

Depending on the site, some staff members are responsible for both the actual ingest of camera media and maintaining the workgroup environment. They need to be able to process media quickly and in an efficient, simple-to-use manner. They are usually subject experts on camera codecs, formats, how they line up against project needs, and how the workgroup environment is set up. This individual typically handles many different tasks throughout the work day and must be able to efficiently handle the addition of new workflows.

The combined operator and administrator uses all three panes of the Media | Director interface.

Accessing the Drop Utility Installers

The following are available on the Media | Director web interface:

• The Installers link brings you to a page that contains the following:

- Drop Utility installers for Windows and Mac OS X

- A link to download supported AMA plug-ins on the Avid Knowledge Base

- A link to the Media | Director documentation on the Avid Knowledge Base

• The Administrator link brings you to the Media | Director Engine System Administrator. For additional information, see “Modifying the Media | Director Engine Configuration” on

page 68.

• The Job Status link displays the Progress tab of the Drop Utility application.

To access the Media | Director web interface:

1. Open a browser and navigate to following URL:

http://<engine name>

The following illustration shows the web interface.

Accessing the Drop Utility Installers

Configuring the Drop Utility Application

To access the Installers web page on Windows use Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Internet Explorer

v 9.0 or higher. On Mac OS X, use Mozilla Firefox.

The Media | Director Engine System Administrator interface is not supported on Mac OS X. It

requires Internet Explorer.

To install the Drop Utility:

1. Click the Installers link and then click Media | Director Drop Utility for Windows or Mac OS installers.

2. Download and start the installer.

3. Follow the system prompts to complete the installation.

4. Start the Drop Utility application and configure it as described in the following section.

Configuring the Drop Utility Application

The first time you start the Drop Utility application, you must configure the connection to the Media | Director Engine. The next time you open the application it automatically connects to the Engine. You can also switch between different Media | Director Engines. See “Viewing or

Changing the Connection to the Media | Director Engine” on page 33.

To configure the Drop Utility application:

1. Double-click the Media | Director application icon.

If the Drop Utility interface opens showing the Job Builder and Profile Builder tabs, it means that the application recalls the previous Media | Director Engine that it was connected to. In this case you can do one of the following:

- Add a volume to create a new job. See “Using the Job Builder Pane” on page 34.

- View details about the engine or change the connection to another Media | Director

Engine. See “Viewing or Changing the Connection to the Media | Director Engine” on

page 33.

Configuring the Drop Utility Application

If this is the first time you have started the application, the Login screen opens as shown in the following illustration.

Do the following:

a. Enter values as shown in the following table:

Option Description

Connection Name The name you want to use to identify the Media | Director

Engine.

Host name or IP The IP address or host name of the Media | Director Engine

Host port Usually port 8083

b. Click Save.

Configuring the Drop Utility Application

The Media | Director Drop Utility opens as shown in the following illustration.

Note that the Drop Utility may open with a different layout depending on the server you are connected to. The following procedure describes how to move the panes around to match the user interface used in the examples in this document.

Configuring the Drop Utility Application

Rearranging the Panes on the Drop Utility Interface

The panes on the Drop Utility may be in different locations depending on the server you connect to. This section describes the basic method for rearranging the panes. In this example we want to move the Progress pane so that it is only under the Job Builder pane.

To rearrange the panes on the interface:

1. Click the Progress tab and drag the tab to the left side of the window until it shows a yellow highlight as shown in the following illustration.

2. Release the tab. The Progress pane moves to the left of the window.

Configuring the Drop Utility Application

3. Click the Progress tab and drag it to the bottom of the Job Builder tab as shown in the following illustration.

Configuring the Drop Utility Application

4. Release the tab. Now the Progress pane is only below the Job Builder pane as shown in the following illustration. This is the format used in most of the examples in this guide.

Configuring the Drop Utility Application

Viewing or Changing the Connection to the Media | Director Engine

The Drop Utility automatically opens the connection to the last Media | Director Engine that was used. If you want to examine details about the engine or change the connection to another engine, use the following procedure.

To view or change the Media | Director Engine connection:

1. To check which Media | Director Engine that you are connected to, click the Device menu. The connected engine is highlighted.

2. To view details about the connection or connect to a different engine, select Device > Add/Edit Filebox Instance.

The Add/Edit window opens as shown in the following illustration.

3. Select a server and click the associated buttons to add, edit, or delete the connection to a Media | Director Engine.

Using the Job Builder Pane

This section describes how to drag a volume onto the Media | Director Job Builder pane and initiate a job. The following illustration shows the Job Builder pane and the Progress pane with two completed jobs and two failed jobs.

Using the Job Builder Pane

To start a new job:

1. Double-click the Drop Utility application icon to start the application.

2. Drag and drop a volume or folder onto the “Drop Volumes Here” area as shown in the following illustration. The system highlights the area as you drag a volume over it.

Using the Job Builder Pane

The Drop Utility expands and shows the first available Profile.

3. Click the Profile menu and select a Profile from the list of user defined profiles. For additional information on creating profiles, see “Working with Media | Director Profiles” on

page 42.

The system displays the job options for the profile as shown in the following illustration.

Using the Job Builder Pane

Note that sections of the job options that require input from the user are highlighted in red.

4. Fill in any fields as necessary. This example has a “Source” popup menu that allows you to identify the source format. This value will be used during the job to create a folder structure. The following illustration shows XDCAM selected.

5. Click the Add Job button. In this example, there is just one job to add.

The Add Job button is disabled if the profile specifies job options but no data has been entered. In

this case, the Add Job button is disabled until the fields contain data.

The system displays the job as ready to be processed. In this example, one job is ready to be processed. The black “badge” indicates the number of jobs.

6. Right-click the job under the profile name and select Start.

Using the Job Builder Pane

You can also edit the job parameters or delete the job by right-clicking on the job.

(Option) To start or delete all jobs under a specific profile, right-click the black badge that shows

the number of jobs for a specific profile, and choose to “Start all” or “Delete all” jobs.

The system removes the job from the Job Builder pane and adds it to the Progress pane. The following illustration shows the system initializing the job.

Using the Job Builder Pane

Media | Director displays status messages as it processes the job. The following illustration shows that two jobs completed successfully. The second job encountered two errors. Click the Details button to see additional information.

Using the Progress Pane

The following illustration shows the status pane after several jobs have been processed. Media | Director groups the jobs by profile.

Using the Progress Pane

Media | Director displays status messages as it processes the job. Click the Details button to see additional information about any errors that occurred while the job was processing.

You can use the progress pane to cancel a job. Click on the cross to the right of the progress bar to cancel a running job.

Note that you can clear and filter the displayed jobs by profile. To do this, click on the triangle in the upper right of the profile pane. Use the pop-up menu to select the profiles that you want to show progress for.

The “Clear jobs” option allows you to clear finished jobs from the display. If you do not clear jobs manually, they will be cleared from the list automatically after four hours.

Using the Profile Builder Pane

Media | Director includes a powerful profile builder that allows you to customize the way that operators interact with the Drop Utility. For more information, see “Working with

Media | Director Profiles” on page 42.

Using a Watch Folder

Media | Director 1.0.1 and higher supports Direct Ingest via a watch folder for volumes and files. A Watch Service allows monitoring of a configured folder. The service will start a Media | Director job whenever a new file or a new volume (folder) is added to the folder. The job will be submitted with a pre-configured Direct Ingest profile.

Note that not all AMA media is supported. See the Media | Director ReadMe for additional information.

The following defaults apply to the watch folder:

• Only files with the following suffixes will start a new job: .mov, .mp4, .mpeg, .mpg and .mxf

• All folders will start a new job. Folders are considered to be volumes

A UNC share is automatically created during installation that can be used as a drop folder. The default watch folder path is as follows:

\\<Media Director host name>\InterplayMAMData\WatchServiceWS1\WatchFolder

You can modify the Watch folder location and change the profile associated with the Watch folder. For additional information, see “Modifying the Watch Folder Parameters” on page 74.

Using a Watch Folder

In the Interplay Production system, the ingested media will be found in the following Interplay database folder:

Incoming Media\From MediaDirector <MD host name>\Direct Ingest\yyyy-mm-dd

The following illustration shows an example location.

Using a Watch Folder

To use the Watch Folder:

1. Drag and drop a volume onto the following folder:

\\<Media Director host name>\InterplayMAMData\WatchServiceWS1\WatchFolder

If the volume contains supported AMA media, the Direct Ingest will start at the next polling interval. The default polling interval is 5 seconds. You can modify the value as described in

“Modifying the Watch Folder Parameters” on page 74.

2. After the job completes, check the following folder in the Interplay database for the new clips:

Incoming Media\From MediaDirector <MD host name>\Direct Ingest\yyyy-mm-dd

3 Working with Media | Director Profiles

Media | Director includes a powerful profile builder that allows you to customize the way that operators interact with the Drop Utility. For details on the usefulness of this feature, see

“Media | Director Overview” on page 9. When the operator drags a volume to the Job Builder

and selects a profile, he or she is presented with the options for that particular profile. The following illustration shows an example using a custom profile named “Test Park and Register”. The User Values sections on the right of the illustration show how those options are defined in the profile.

Profile Options

The illustration shows the three options that are presented to the operator in this example:

• A drop down menu to select a Camera Crew. This could be any list of items that are relevant to the project such as the days of the week or a particular camera.

• A text field that prompts the operator for the location of the shoot.

• An optional comments section where the operator can add notes. These notes appear later in the Interplay Access Object Inspector in the Comments column for the clip.

In this example the Camera Crew and location are used to name the folder that is created in the Interplay database to hold the metadata for the newly created clips. The following illustration shows the folder.

Note that the top level folders, in this case Incoming Media/from Filebox MUN-MPIFBX01, are defined during the configuration of the Media | Director Engine and can be redefined by an administrator. Additional examples could include things like days of the week, opposing team, season number, episode numbers, and shoot date. See “Modifying the Interplay Production

Configuration Parameters” on page 69.

Profile Options

You can use profiles to customize the following aspects of a workflow:

• The overall process that will be used by the profile. For more information, see “About

Media | Director Workflows and Processes” on page 15.

• Interplay folder name for clip metadata

• Names of the clips that will be created as they appear in Interplay Access, in the Interplay Window, and in the Avid editing application.

• File locations on Parking storage and ISIS Production storage.

• Resolutions for creating proxies or transcodes for higher resolutions.

When you create a profile you can create folder names, clip names and path names by building together input from the user, constants that you add to the profile, and predefined tokens such as the source volume name, system date, and camera-assigned name of the volume or clips.

Using the Profile Builder

Media | Director ships with several pre-configured templates. Each template executes a predefined Media | Director process. You can use the Profile Builder to create custom versions of the templates to suit your own workflows. The new profile will execute the configured process with your own custom values. For a description of the processes, see “About Media | Director

Workflows and Processes” on page 15.

The following illustrations show a template selected and shows the Display and Rules tabs for the template. The Display tab is selected. You use the plus sign button to copy a template or an existing profile. Use the minus sign button to delete a profile. Note that the default templates cannot be deleted.

Using the Profile Builder

Creating a copy of an existing template:

1. Select the template that you want to copy and click the plus symbol at the top of the Profile Builder pane.

The system creates a copy of the profile and adds it to the Profile list. You can copy one of the default templates or make a copy of a working profile.

2. Scroll down the Profile list to select and edit the profile.

To delete a profile:

t Select the profile and click the minus button at the top right of the Profile Builder.

Note that you cannot delete the original set of templates.

For this release you cannot protect a profile from another user editing or deleting it.

Editing the Display Tab for a Profile

The following illustration shows a copy of the Park Register and Transcode profile selected with the Display tab visible.

Using the Profile Builder

The following table describes the items in the illustration.

Option Description

1 The selected profile

2 Display and Rules tabs. The Display tab is shown in this example.

Using the Profile Builder

Option Description

3 Profile name. Edit this field to add a useful profile name that matches your workflow.

The operator will select the name from the Profile list.

4 GUID. Each profile has a guaranteed unique identifier (GUID). The corresponding

GUID is displayed for each profile but for this release the GUID is only used with Direct Ingest profiles. The GUID is used to identify or change the profile associated with a Watch folder. See “Using a Watch Folder” on page 40.

5 and 6 User Value 1 and User Value 2. Allows you to create user interface elements such as

drop down menus, check boxes, or text fields. These elements are referred to as widgets. The resulting value is represented by {UI.Widget.1.Text} or (UI.Widget.2.Text} in the Rules tab.

Modify as follows:

• Select one of the following from the Show As menu:

- Drop Down: operators will be presented with a menu selection of items in the Value field.

- Text Field: operators can enter text in the value field. For example, this allows an operator to enter a folder name or clip name as directed.

- Check Box: If the operator selects the check box, the text associated with the Value text field will be used for {UI.Widget.1.Text} or (UI.Widget.2.Text}.

- None: item will not display

• Label: Enter a text string to identify the widget when it is presented to the user. This example uses the text string “Select Camera” for User Value 1 and “Rename clip to” for User Value 2.

• Value:

- For Drop Down menu, enter a comma separated list. This example uses the values “CameraA, CameraB, CameraC”.

- For Text Field, leave blank to allow the operator to enter a value.

- For Check Box, enter the text that you want to appear next to the Check box. The text string will be available as part of the widget if the operator selects the check box.

The text string supplied to Value will be available as {UI.Widget.1.Text} or (UI.Widget.2.Text} in the Rules tab.

The values from the original template or profile are copied into the new profile. Note that if you select Text or Check Box, the original values are greyed out because they are not used by Text or Check Box.

Using the Profile Builder

Option Description

7 Comments field. Use this widget to allow the operator to add comments about the job.

The comments will appear in Interplay Access in the Comments field of the Object Inspector. Text entered in the profile will appear as light colored text in the Profile. In the example, the light text will appear as “Enter Comment.” You can customize this text to prompt the operator for a certain task or information.

8 You can use this section to add your own online tool tip to provide instructions to the

operator on how to use the profile.

The following illustration shows the profile created for this example. The illustration on the left shows the profile after the operator selects it from the Profile menu. The illustration on the right shows the completed profile. In this case the operator selected CameraA from the drop down menu and entered the text “New Clip Name” in the text field.

Option Description

1 The selected profile

2 Drop down menu created by User Value 1 on Display tab

3 Text field input created by User Value 2 on Display tab.

4 Comment area.

Editing the Rules Tab for a Profile

You use the Rules tab to combine input collected from the operator with other predefined elements that you enter or select. This allows you to define the folder names, clip names, path names, and resolutions used by the profile. Rules are written in a token expansion format. The following illustration shows a custom profile selected with the Rules tab visible.

Using the Profile Builder

The following table describes the items in the illustration.

Option Description

1 The selected profile

2 Display and Rules tabs. Rules tab is shown in this example.

3 Profile Constants. You can type in constant values that can be inserted into the folder,

clip, and storage names using {Profile.Constant.1} and {Profile.Constant.2}.

4 Registration and Copy. Allows you to build names for the following:

• Interplay Folder Name: the name of the Interplay database folder that will be used or created for the clip metadata. This folder is visible in Access and is created under the base Interplay Folder name.

The base Interplay Folder name is defined during the installation and configuration of the Media | Director Engine. To change the base path, see the parameter PamDataBasePath in “Modifying the Media | Director Engine

Configuration” on page 68.

• Interplay Clip Name: allows you to build a clip name.

• Storage Path: the storage path on the Parking storage system. The folder is created under the default Parking Storage Path folder. To change the base path, see the parameter ParkingStorageBasePath in “Modifying the Media | Director Engine

Configuration” on page 68.

5 Transcode. Allows you to build names for the Interplay Production ISIS path and

select a transcode resolution.

• Transcode Storage Path: the storage path on the Interplay Production ISIS. The folder is created under the base Production ISIS folder. To change the default, see the parameter PamISISBasePath in “Modifying the Media | Director Engine

Configuration” on page 68.

• Resolution: select a proxy resolution from the menu.

Entering Token Values

You can build a rule for a Profile value by entering tokens. This allows you to dynamically create the name of the Interplay folder, the name of the captured clips or the UNC paths to a storage location. For example, the following illustration uses the values shown in the previous example. As mentioned earlier, these two tokens take their values from User Value 1 and User Value 2 on the Display tab. In this example, these values are used to create the Interplay folder name and clip name.

{UI.Widget.1.Text} and (UI.Widget.2.Text}

Using the Profile Builder

Two additional tokens are used in the above illustration. {Source.Filesystem.Volume.Name} is added to complete the Interplay folder name and {System.Clip.Increment} is added to complete the Clip Name and add a unique number to the name. For a description of the available token values, see “Token Value Reference” on page 55.

Using the Profile Builder

In this example, the operator entered “New Clip Name” for the corresponding user value. As a result, clips are named New Clip Name-0001, New Clip Name-0002, etc. The following illustration shows the new folder and clips in Access after the ingest operation. Notice the Interplay folder name and the clip names.

Using the Profile Builder

The Interplay folder name in the above illustration is “Camera A_” plus the name of the source volume. The clip names begin with “New Clip Name-” and have an incremented number added to the name.

To enter tokens on the Rules tab:

1. Do one of the following:

- Type in the text for the token.

- Type in the first curly brace for the token and use either the mouse or arrow keys to select the token value from a menu.

To use the mouse or arrow keys to select a token value:

1. Click in the token text field. The field changes to a lighter color to indicate that you can enter values.

2. Type in a left curly brace ( { ). The system displays a popup menu.

3. Use the mouse or the arrow keys to navigate through the menu.

4. When you navigate to the value you want, do the following:

- If using the mouse, click the value you want to select.

- If using the arrow keys, click the Tab key to select the value.

The system enters the token into the text field. When you click off the text field the system saves the value.

Note that if you use the mouse to navigate the menu and hover over the token value, the system displays a tool tip describing the value as shown in the following illustration.

Using the menu to select a token has the added benefit that the system will only present tokens that are valid for that text field. For example, clip name tokens are not valid in a path name.

Creating Folder Structures

The base paths defined when you install and configure Media | Director set the initial folder structures. For additional information, see “Modifying the Interplay Production Configuration

Parameters” on page 69.

You can define additional folder levels by adding back slashes on the Rules tab of the Profile Builder. The following illustration uses the Constant 1 and Constant 2 values to define folder levels that are used each time the profile is run. The third level folder name is entered by the operator. See User Value 2 on the Display tab.

Note that the ability to create folder structures is especially useful for creating structures on the parking storage that help you to organize your source media. For example, you could build a storage rule that organizes all media that gets parked for a specific production under a root folder named after this production. And you could create additional substructures using the “user value” parameters to reflect the shooting date. In combination with Media | Director’s automatic folder traversal, this would allow you to bring an additional resolution online for your entire production or a specific date by simply dropping the production or date folder.

Using the Profile Builder

Token Value Reference

The following table describes the tokens that are available in the Rules tab.

Token Name Description Example

System values

System.Volume.Date.Basic System date at job run time (in ISO 8601 basic

format).

System.Volume.Date.Extended System date at job runtime (in ISO 8601 extended

format).

System.Volume.Time System time at job runtime (in ISO 8601 basic

format).

System.Volume.GUID System generated GUID (Globally Unique

Identifier) for a volume.

System.Clip.GUID System generated GUID (Globally Unique

Identifier) for a clip.

System.Volume.TimeStamp A timestamp presented in

yyyyMMddHHmmssfff format. This format provides a compact timestamp containing milliseconds that can be used to create volume names that are unique on parking storage.

System.Volume.TimeStamp. UserFriendly

System.Volume.Date.Week The date tokens support storage organization and

A compact, formatted date/time string representation that is easier to read than the Volume.Timestamp format. A timestamp presented in yyyy-MM-ddTHH\hmm format.

workflows where incoming media is organized by day and week schemes. Using this type of organization in the proxy path allows you to limit the number of media files per folder on the proxy workspace. You can use these tokens together with System.Hostname.

This format displays the week in two-digit notation. For example, Nov 2nd, 2013 (week 49) would evaluate to '49'.

20140113

2014-06-11

134730

ff571ad1-9e5f-4796-a 9a7-e28e6a490fcb

20130113134730456

2014-04-05T14h30

The 49th week of the year would resolve simply to 49.

System.Volume.Date.DayOfWeek The day in two-digit notation. For example, Nov

2nd, 2013 (Saturday) would evaluate to '06'’.

Saturday, the 6th day of the week, would evaluate to ‘06’.

Using the Profile Builder

Token Name Description Example

System.Volume.Date.Month The month, in two-digit notation. For example,

Nov 2nd, 2013 would evaluate to '11’.

System.Hostname The hostname of the Media | Director server. This

token can be used to create proxy media paths containing the host name of the creating device. This is a standard operating procedure in Interplay.

System.Clip.Increment A number that will increment for every clip in a

volume. For example, OpeningDay0001, OpeningDay0002, etc.

Source values Source values are derived from the source volume.

Source.Filesystem.Volume.Name Name of the volume as it appears in the operating

system.

Source.Filesystem.Volume.Path <n> File system path segment number n, extracted

from the operating system volume path,

Source.Filesystem.Volume.Path.ex0 Explicit path to the volume as it appears in the

operating system, with the first segment removed. (The first segment is typically the drive letter.) This is useful for replicating source media file system hierarchies under a different target path.

Source.Filesystem.Volume.Parent Operating system path to the folder containing the

volume. If there is no parent folder, the token is empty.

The 11th month of the year would evaluate simply to ‘11’.

burl-md-01

OpeningDay0001

CONTENTS

textstring\volume1

CONTENTS

F:\textstring

Source.Metadata.Volume.Name Camera-assigned name of the volume as provided

by AMA (Avid Media Access) at job runtime. Available for Interplay folder names and clip names.

Source.Metadata.Clip.Name Camera-assigned name of a clip as provided by

AMA (Avid Media Access).

Profile values Profile values are derived from information

contained in the (XML) profile itself.

Profile.Name Name of the Profile used to process a volume(s) or

clip(s).

Profile.Constant.1 The first constant ('Constant 1') defined as a part of

a Profile.

XDCAMDISC

My Favorite Clip

Default profile

ProjectA

Park and Register Example

Token Name Description Example

Profile.Constant.2 The second constant ('Constant 2') defined as a

part of a Profile.

Droplet UI values User (operator) supplied values

UI.Widget.1.Text The first of two user-definable values ('User Value

1') entered at job submission if made available in the Profile Display settings.

UI.Widget.2.Text The second of two user-definable values ('User

Value 2') entered at job submission if made available in the Profile Display settings.

UI.User The name of the logged in user as it appears in the

OS (Operating System).

Park and Register Example

This example creates a profile that copies a selected volume to parking storage and registers the clips with the Interplay database.

Season2

MyClipName

Shooting1

amiller

Park and Register Example

The following illustration shows the source volume used in this example and the new clip and folder structures created by running the profile. In this example the source volume is a folder.

Option Description

1 The source volume used in this example.

2 The folder structure created in the Interplay database.

Park and Register Example

Option Description

3 Clip name in the Interplay database.

4 The folder structure created on the parking storage system.

Note that the source folder name is carried through to the final Interplay folder name and to the parking storage folder name. This shows one way to use profiles to organize your media.

To add the job to the Job Builder and select a profile:

1. Drag the source volume onto the Drop Volumes Here portion of the Job Builder tab.

2. Select the profile you want to use. In this case, Demo Park and Register.

Park and Register Example

The system displays the profile and also displays any text widgets associated with the profile. This example has a drop down menu to select a location (where the footage was recorded in this example) and a text entry box to enter a clip name.

To enter the requested values and start processing the job:

1. This profile asks you to select a location and to enter a clip name. Select the location from the drop down menu.

2. Enter a clip name in the text box and click the “Add 1 job” button. In this example the user enters “NewClipName.” The Add job button will have different numerical values depending on the number of jobs.

Park and Register Example

The job is added to the Job Builder queue.

3. Right-click the job and select Start. You can also right click the number and select Start All. If multiple jobs were queued you could start them all this way.

Media | Director begins processing the job.

The remainder of this section describes how Media | Director uses the values to create folder structures and clip names for the finished job.

Defining the Interplay Folder Structure

The following illustration shows the folder structure created in Access and the profile sections used to create the folder structure. Note that the {UI.Widget.1.Text} token is defined as “User Value 1” in the Display Window. In this case it is defined as a selection from a drop down menu.

Park and Register Example

Option Description

1 Final folder structure in the Interplay database.

2 The Interplay Folder Name value used in this example is defined as follows:

Structured Rule Demo\{UI.Widget.1.text}\Sources\{Source.Filesystem.Volume.Name} Compare this string to the Interplay folder structure to see how the profile values are used.

Park and Register Example

Option Description

3 The User Value 1 area of the profile defines the value for {UI.Widget.1.text}. In this

example, User Value 1 defines a drop down menu with the following choices: Munich, Burlington, and Other. The user selected Munich from the drop down menu.

In the above illustration you can see that the Interplay folder structure created by the profile starts at the following directory:

Incoming Media\from Filebox mun-mpifbx02

This value is defined when you install the Media | Director Engine and can be modified at a later time. See “Modifying the Media | Director Engine Configuration” on page 68.

Defining the Parking Storage Folder Structure

The following illustration shows the parking storage folder structure and the profile sections used to create the folder structure.

Park and Register Example

Option Description

1 Final folder structure on the parking storage system. Notice that the original source volume

name is used as the final folder name.

Park and Register Example

Option Description

2 The Storage Path value used in this example is defined as follows:

{UI.Widget.1.text}\{System.volume.Date.Basic}\{Source.Filesystem.Volume.Name} Values are defined as follows:

• The user selected Munich from a popup menu when he or she ran the job. That is the value used for {UI.Widget.1.text}.

• The system added the System date at run time. This value is 20140115.

• The system used the name of the source volume for the final level in the folder structure.

3 User Value 1 defines the value for {UI.Widget.1.text}. This is the same value used for the

Interplay Folder Name part of the profile in this example.

In the above illustration you can see that the parking storage folder structure created by the profile starts at the following directory:

\\muc_vtli2k\mpi_filebox_ama

This value is defined when you install the Media | Director Engine and can be modified at a later time. See “Modifying the Media | Director Engine Configuration” on page 68.

Defining the Clip Names in the Interplay Database

The following illustration shows the newly created clip displayed in Access and the profile sections used to create the name.

Park and Register Example

Notice in the above illustration that there are greyed-out values in the Value section for User Value 2. These values are carried over from the original profile and are not used by the Text Field element.

Option Description

1 Clip name in the Interplay database.

Park and Register Example

Option Description

2 The Interplay Clip Name value used in this example is defined as follows:

{UI.Widget.2.text}_{System.Clip.Increment}-{Source.Metadata.Clip.Name} The final name is created as follows:

• The user entered “NewClipName” and that was used for {UI.Wdige.2.text}

• The system added an increment to the name. This was the first clip so the value 0001 is assigned.

• The name of the source clip (ClipName1) was added as the final portion of the name. This is the camera-assigned name of the clip as provided by AMA.

3 User Value 2 defines the value for {UI.Widget.2.text}. In this example the user entered

“NewClipName.”

4 Modifying the Media | Director Engine

Configuration

A Media | Director Engine should normally be installed on a fresh operating system. During the installation, all required configuration parameters are entered in the installation wizard.

If a Media | Director Engine needs to be reconfigured, for example because it has been moved to a different system environment, or you want to change the parameters entered during installation, you can use the Media | Director Engine System Administrator. As the name suggests, the Media Director Administrator pages are intended for use by administrators. You need to log in with a user name and password.

Modifying the Interplay Production Configuration Parameters

Use the Workflow Foundation Administrator to modify the Media | Director configuration. Note that you must restart the TMA_PAMAdapter service after making these changes.

To modify the Media | Director configuration parameters:

1. Open an Internet Explorer browser and do one of the following:

t Navigate to the Media | Director web page:

http://<engine name>

and then click the Administrator link.

t Navigate to the following page to go directly to the Workflow Foundation

Administrator:

http://<engine name>:12400/mediadirectoradminsuite/Login.aspx

The following illustration shows the web log in window.

The default user name is “admin” and the default password is “nimda”.

Modifying the Interplay Production Configuration Parameters

The Media | Director Engine System Administrator requires Internet Explorer and therefore can

only be accessed from a Windows system.

The system opens the Media | Director Workflow Foundation Administration Overview screen as shown in the following illustration:

2. Click the “System Administrator” link to open the Administration screen.

3. Select MediaDirector from the “Select a profile” menu and click the PAM/AvidWorkgroup section. as shown in the following illustration.

Modifying the Interplay Production Configuration Parameters

4. Edit the parameters to match your Interplay Production system configuration as shown in the following table and then restart the TMA_PAMAdapter service.

Parameter Description Example

InterplayWebServiceUrl The URL of the Interplay Web

Services installation used by your Media | Director Engine. Will typically point to the Media | Director engine since Media | Director installs its own Interplay Web Services instance.

InterplayWebServiceWorkgroupName The name of your Interplay

Workgroup as displayed in the Server Hostname Settings view of the Interplay Administrator.

http://mun-mpifbx02:8082/ services

AvidWorkgroup

Modifying the Interplay Production Configuration Parameters

Parameter Description Example

PamDatabaseBasePath An administrative base path for

the Interplay Production database. All Media | Director profiles will create database entries under this path helping administrators to keep the AMA metadata in one portion of the Interplay database.

PamIsisBasePath An administrative base path for

the ISIS production storage. All Media | Director profiles will create proxy media under this path helping administrators to keep track of the AMA files on the production ISIS.

PamServiceAccountPassword The password used by Interplay

Web Services to access the target Interplay Production workgroup.

PamServiceAccountUser The user used by Interplay Web

Services to access the target Interplay Production workgroup.

ParkingStorageBasePath An administrative base path for

the parking storage. All Media | Director profiles will park source media under this path helping administrators to keep track of the AMA files on the parking storage.

Incoming Media/from MediaDirector mun-mpifbx02

\\mun-vtli2k\media_director

Administrator

\\mun-vtli2k\parked\ Avid MedilaFiles\MXF

Modifying the Workflow Foundation Parameters

Additional Media | Director configuration settings are available through the Workflow Foundation menu item.

You should not change these settings unless explicitly instructed by Avid Customer Support.

To modify the Workflow Foundation settings:

1. Select MediaDirector from the “Select a profile” menu.

2. Select Workflow Foundation from the “Sections for profile MediaDirector” area.

3. Change the Workflow Foundation settings as shown in the following table.

Parameter Description Example

AafTempDirectory The directory where temporary

AAF files are stored on Media | Director Engine

MaxConcurrentMr w

TranscodeJobs

The maximum number of Transcode processes that will be allowed to run in parallel on the Media | Director Engine. Allowed values are 1 to 10.

4. Restart the TMA_PAMAdapter service.

\\mun-mpifbx02\InterplayMAMData\MediaDir ector\AafTempDirectory

Modifying the Watch Folder Parameters

For additional information, see “Using a Watch Folder” on page 40.

Changing the Profile Associated with the Watch Folder

Media | Director v1.0.1 supports one Watch folder per installation. The Watch folder is associated with a Direct Ingest profile. This section describes how to change the profile associated with the Watch folder.

The following describes the association between the Watch folder and a Direct Ingest profile:

• Each profile has an associated GUID (guaranteed unique ID). The following illustration shows the GUID for an example Direct Ingest profile.

• You use the Workflow Foundation interface to associate the GUID of a Direct Ingest profile with the Watch folder. The Media | Director installer sets up the default association and you can change it when necessary.

To change the profile associated with the Watch folder:

1. Open the System Administrator web interface as described in Modifying the Interplay Production Configuration Parameters.

2. Select WatchServiceWS1 from the “Select a profile” menu.

Modifying the Watch Folder Parameters

3. Select Process/_Attributes from the “Sections for profile WatchServiceWS1” area.

The system displays the GUID associated with the Watch folder as shown in the following illustration

4. Open the Drop Utility application and select the Profile Builder.

5. Select the Direct Ingest profile that you want to associate with the Watch folder in the Profile builder. In this example the profile is called “(Profile Test) Direct Ingest.”

Modifying the Watch Folder Parameters

6. Open the Display tab in the Profile Builder and locate the GUID value.

7. Select and copy the entire GUID text string.

8. Return to the Workflow Foundation interface and paste the value into the “FILEBOX_PROCESS_PROFILE_ID” area. The following illustration shows the new value pasted in.

Modifying the Watch Folder Parameters

9. Restart the TMA_WatchServiceWS1 service.

The new profile is now associated with the Watch folder.

Changing Additional Parameters for the Watch Folder

To modify the Watch Folder settings:

1. Select WorkflowEngineWS1 from the “Select a profile” menu.

Modifying the Watch Folder Parameters

2. Change the settings as shown in the following table and then restart the TMA_WatchServiceWS1 service.

Modifying the Watch Folder Parameters

Section Parameter Description

Folders DirectoryPollingIntervalInSecondsThe polling interval to check for new files or

folders in the watch folder. Default: 5 seconds

Filemask High level matching for files. Default: *.*

FileRegularExpression A regular expression that defines which files to

track. By default this is a pipe-separated list of file extensions: .mov|.mp4|.mpeg|.mpg|.mxf

FolderRegularExpression A regular expression that defines which folders

to track. By default: empty

MaxDepth Don’t change the defaults.

Trigger Use this setting to define if you want to monitor

files, or folders only, or both. Possible settings are Files, Folders or FilesAndFolders. By default the WatchService monitors files and folders.

WatchFolder This is the folder that is being monitored. Please

note that this folder needs to be a UNC path and accessible by the user that runs the WatchService.

Handlers ConcurrentHandlers This setting configures the amount of jobs that

will be started at the same time.

Handlers / Cleanup FailureFolder If configured, media from failed operations will

be moved into this folder. This folder is generated during the installation process, but can be changed to any other UNC location that is accessible by the WatchService.

OnFailure Configures what to do on failed operations.

Possible settings are Move, Delete, NoAction.

SuccessFolder If configured, media that was successfully

processed will be moved into this folder. This folder is generated during the installation process, but can be changed to any other UNC location that is accessible by the WatchService.

OnSuccess Configures what to do on failed operations.

Possible settings are Move, Delete, NoAction.

Modifying the Watch Folder Parameters

Section Parameter Description

Process /_Attributes:

FILEBOX_PROCESS_PROFILE _ID

This setting specifies the profile that is used when submitting a job on a new file or folder. The ID listed here is the GUID of the profile. The GUID can be obtained from the Profile Builder UI of the Media | Director Drop Utility. You can change the profile assigned to the Watch folder by replacing the GUID with a GUID from a different Direct Ingest profile. See Changing the Profile Associated with the Watch Folder.

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Product Information

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Pinnacle Systems Media Director - 1.0.1 User’s Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Symbols and Conventions

Avid Training Services

1 Media | Director Overview

Media | Director Components

The Media | Director Engine

The Media | Director Drop Utility

Media | Director Environment

File Based Workflow

About Media | Director Workflows and Processes

Media | Director Process Detail Descriptions

2 Using the Media | Director Drop Utility

The Drop Utility User Interface

Typical Media | Director Users

Accessing the Drop Utility Installers

Configuring the Drop Utility Application

Rearranging the Panes on the Drop Utility Interface

Viewing or Changing the Connection to the Media | Director Engine

Using the Job Builder Pane

Using the Progress Pane

Using the Profile Builder Pane

Using a Watch Folder

3 Working with Media | Director Profiles

Profile Options

Using the Profile Builder

Editing the Display Tab for a Profile

Editing the Rules Tab for a Profile

Entering Token Values

Creating Folder Structures

Token Value Reference

Park and Register Example

Defining the Interplay Folder Structure

Defining the Parking Storage Folder Structure

Defining the Clip Names in the Interplay Database

Modifying the Interplay Production Configuration Parameters

Modifying the Workflow Foundation Parameters

Modifying the Watch Folder Parameters

Changing the Profile Associated with the Watch Folder

Changing Additional Parameters for the Watch Folder