Pinnacle Systems Unity MediaManager User’s Guide

Avid Unity™ MediaManager

User’s Guide

Release 1.0

for the Windows NT® Operating System

a

tools for storytellers™

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Image Independence, Marquee, Media Composer, Media Recorder, NewsCutter, OMF,
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Avid Unity MediaManager User’s Guide • Part 0130-04412-01 Rev. A • December 1999

Contents

Using This Guide

Who Should Use This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

About This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

If You Need Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Related Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

If You Have Documentation Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii

How to Order Documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii

Chapter 1 Getting Started

MediaManager Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2

Open Media Management (OMM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2

Supported Media Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3

Adding Media Objects to MediaManager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3

Finding Media Objects — Searching and Browsing . . . . . . . . . . 1-4

Viewing and Using Media Objects Found in MediaManager. . 1-4

Configuring Avid Systems to Work with MediaManager . . . . . . . . 1-5

OMM Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5

Import and Export Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7

Accessing and Logging in to MediaManager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7

Starting Internet Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7

Configuring Internet Explorer to Work with MediaManager (First

Time Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-8

Opening MediaManager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10

Logging In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-11

vi

User Interface Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-12

Avid Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-13

Mode Selector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-14

Control Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-15

Results Frame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-16

Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-17

Logging Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-17

Chapter 2 Adding Media Objects to MediaManager

Checking In Objects from an Avid System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2

Using the Drag-and-Drop Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2

Using the Export Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3

Checking In Objects from a Remote MediaManager. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5

Chapter 3 Finding Media Objects

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2

Searching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2

Browsing Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3

Browsing Catalogs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3

Simple Searches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-4

Extended Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-6

Specifying Attributes, Operators, and Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-7

Performing an Extended Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-10

Viewing, Running, and Managing Saved Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-13

Browsing Projects and Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-14

Browsing, Creating, and Editing Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-15

Deleting Media Objects from MediaManager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-16

Using Catalogs to Obtain Obj ects from a Remote MediaManager .

3-16

Chapter 4 Viewing and Using Your Search Results

Using the Results Frame Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2

Display Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3

Sorting Media Objects in the Results Frame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3

Selecting Media Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4

Obtaining More Information About Media Objects . . . . . . . . . . 4-4

Checking Out Media Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-7

Placing Media Objects into Catalogs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8

Removing Objects from Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8

Deleting Media Objects from MediaManager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9

Appendix A Administration Mode

Editing Your User Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-2

Index

vii

viii

Using This Guide

Congratulations on your purchase of Avid Unity™ MediaManager
Release 1.0, a powerful tool for mana ging media in an Avid Unity
MediaNet shared storage environment.

Who Should Use This Guide

This guide is intended for all MediaManager users. Before reading this
book, you should have read the documentation for and be familiar
with the operation of your Avid system in the Avid Unity MediaNet
environment.

About This Guide

This guide includes all the information necessary for Avid system
operators to use MediaManager to help find and obtain access to
master clips, sequences, and other media objects in the Avid Unity
MediaNet environment.

x

The Contents lists all topics included in the book. They are presented
with the following overall s tructu re:

•The Getting Started chapter helps you get oriented with beginning
concepts, configuration steps, general work flow, and the user
interface.

• The main body of the guide follows the natural flow of your work,
with clear and comprehensive step-by-step procedures.

• Appendix A describes how to use Administration mode to edit
your user profile.

Symbols and Conventions

The Avid Unity MediaManager documentation uses the following
special symbols and conventions:

1. Numbered lists, when the order of the items is important.

Look here in the margin
for tips.

n

c

Using This Guide

a. Alphabetical lists, when the order of secondary items is

important.

• Bulleted lists, when the order of the items is unimportant.

- Indented dashed lists, when the order of secondary items is

unimportant.

In the margin, you will find tips that help you perform tasks more
easily and efficiently.

A note provides important related information, reminders, recommendations,
and strong suggestions.

A caution means that a specific action you take could cause harm to
your computer or cause you to lose data.

If You Need Help

If you are having trouble using Avid Unity MediaManager, you
should:

1. Retry the action, carefully following the instructions given for that
task in this guide.

2. Check the documentation that came with your hardware for
maintenance or hardware-related issues.

3. Check the Customer Service and News + Publications sections of
the Avid Web site at www.avid.com for the latest FAQs, Tips &
Techniques, Film + Television Update, and other Avid online
offerings.

4. Check the Avid Bulletin Board, “Avid Online,” for information on

product and user conferences. If you do not find the solution to
your problem, you can exchange information with other Avid
customers and Avid Customer Support representatives.

xi

5. Contact your local Avid Reseller; in North America, you may
contact Avid Customer Support at 800-800-AVID (2843).

n

For general information, call your local Avid Reseller; in North America, call
the Avid Customer Relations Desk at 800-894-565 4.

Related Information

The following documents provide more information about Avid Unity
MediaManager:

• Avid Unity MediaManager Administration Guide

• Avid Unity MediaManager Release 1.0 Release Notes

• Avid Products Collaboration Guide, which provides step-by-step
instructions for transferring project files, audio files, and graphics
and effects files between various Avid products

If You Need Help

xii

The most recent update of the Avid Products Collaboration Guide is
available in the Documentation section of the Avid Customer Service
Knowledge Center. To access the Avid Customer Service Knowledge
Center, click the Avid Customer Service link at www.avid.com and
select Knowledge Center.

If You Have Documentation Comments

Avid Technology continuously seeks to improve its documentation.
We value your comments about this guide a nd other Avid-supplied
documentation.

Simply e-mail your documentatio n comments to Avid Technology at

[e-mail]

Please include the title of the document, its part number, revision, and
the specific section you are commenting on in all correspondence.

How to Order Documentation

To order additional copies of this documentation from within the
United States, call Avid Telesales at 800-949-AVID (2843). If you are
placing an order from outside the United States, contact your local
Avid representative.

Using This Guide

CHAPTER 1

Getting Started

Avid Unity MediaManager is an Open Media Management (OMM™)
compliant media database that allows you to search the large number
of media objects (master clips, sequences, effects, and any other type of
object that references digital media) in the Avid Unity MediaNet
shared storage environment.

This chapter discusses the following topics:

• MediaManager Overview

• Configuring Avid Systems to Work with MediaManager

• Accessing and Logging in to MediaManager

• User Interface Overview

• Getting Help

• Logging Out

1-2

MediaManager Overview

MediaManager provides comprehensive facilities for finding media
objects stored in the Avid Unity MediaNet file system. You can also
use MediaManager to manage sequences and other media objects
whose media is no longer online. Y ou can then sear ch for these objects,
view information about them such as the source tape name, obtain the
source footage, and redigitize it.

MediaManager is very easy to access and use. Its user interface opens
in a standard Web browser and allows you to quickly search or browse
its contents for objects of interest. Drag-and-drop support allows you
to add media objects to and obtain media objects from its database by
dragging them from and to Avid system bins.

Open Media Management (OMM)

Open Media Management (OMM) is an Avid initiative to create a stan­dard programming interface for integrating asset management sys­tems with A vid editing systems. A vid has partnered with leading asset
management companies to implement the OMM standard and also
has created Avid Unity MediaManager to meet the specific needs of
the Avid Unity MediaNet environment. The OMM standard is incor­porated as a feature in the latest Avid Unity MediaNet compliant A vid
systems for Windows NT and allows direct, networked integration
with MediaManager and other asset management systems and
Web-based media resources.

Getting Started

n

®

OMM uses the OMF
not express the data as a file. Instead, OMM simplifies workflow by
using standard Internet protocols to create a rich, network-based col­laboration facility.

For more information about OMM, see the Avid Web site at

http://www.avid.com/3rdparty/OMM.html.

(Open Media Framework) data model but does

Supported Media Types

You can add the following media objects to MediaManager:

• Master clip

• Sub clip

•Sequence

•Effect

• Motion effect

• Rendered effect

•Group

Adding Media Objects to MediaManager

Records representing clips, sequences, and other media objects are not
automatically added to the MediaManager database as they are
created in the MediaNet file system. Only objects that you or other
client users specifically check in to the MediaManager are added to its
database. This action prevents access to object metadata that you don't
want to share with others and prevents the database from becoming
cluttered with unnecessary objects.

1-3

You check objects into MediaManager from Avid system bins using
either the OMM drag-and-drop method or by performing an OMM
export operation.

For more information, see Chapter 2.

MediaManager Overview

1-4

Finding Media Objects — Searching and Browsing

You can use MediaManager to perform simple text-based or extended
searches. You typically base Med iaManag er sear che s for media o bjects
on their associated attributes. For example, you can search for all

media objects that have the word “promo” in their names, all media
objects on a particular source tape, or all files on a particular tape that
have the word “promo” in their names.

You can also browse MediaManager’s contents in two ways:

• By project — Browse records according to the Avid system

projects and bins in which they physically reside in the MediaNet
file system

• By catalog — Browse records according to optional catalogs into

which you can place your media objects.

For more information, see Chapter 3.

Viewing and Using Media Objects Found in MediaManager

Once you have found media objects that meet your search or browsing
criteria, MediaManager offers multiple bin-type views of your results
and allows you to obtain detailed information about their attributes,
including media relatives.

When you are sure that you have found the media objects you want,
you can obtain (or check out) selected media objects by dragging them
from MediaManager to an Avid system bin.

For more information, see Chapter 4.

Getting Started

Configuring Avid Systems to Work with MediaManager

You need to configure your Avid system before you can use OMM to
interact with MediaManager. You do this by creating the following set­tings:

• OMM settings

• Import settings

• Export settings

After you create these settings, you can check clips into and out of the
MediaManager using the drag-and-drop method. To check clips in,
you can also use the Export command (see “Using the Export Com­mand” on page 2-3).

OMM Settings

1-5

For complete
information on using
settings, see the editing
guide or Help for your
Avid system.

You must specify the MediaManager locat ion to let your Avid system
know where to look for it on the network. You specify the MediaMan­ager in the OMM Settings dialog box, which you open from the Set­tings scroll list of the Project window.

If you have access to more than one MediaManager or other OMM
asset manager, you can create and name a setting for each location in
the same way that you create other duplicate settings.

To specify your MediaManager location:

1. Click the Settings button in th e Project window.
The Settings scroll list appears.

2. Click OMM.
The OMM Settings dialog box appears.

Configuring Avid Systems to Work with MediaManager

1-6

3. In the Preferred Asset Manager text box, type the Universal
Resource Locator (URL) of your MediaManager hostinfo file (you
can obtain the URL from your Avid Unity administrator):

n:

http://

Make sure you use the correct location and type the information
exactly as designated.

4. Select Login to Asset Manager at launch if you want to log in to
MediaManager automatically when you open yo ur project.

5. Click OK.
The MediaManager location setting is created and marked as the

default.

6. Establish the connection to MediaManager by clicking the OK and
Login button.

The connection defined in your OMM settings identifies the MediaManager
to which you will be checking in media objects. You can checkout object s from
a different MediaManager by dragging and dropping clips from that
MediaManager to a bin without changing the OMM settings. In this
instance you don’t need to log in to a different MediaManager from the Avid
system - your login information will be provided with the object dragged from
the MediaManager.

MediaManagerlocation

/xml/

hostinfo

.xml

Getting Started

Import and Export Settings

1-7

You can create multiple
Import and Export
settings and name them
whatever you want,

such as “UMM” for
Unity MediaManager

You create Import and Export settings for OMM in the same way that
you create any Import or Export setting. See your Avid system docu­mentation for more details.

In the Import Settings or Export Settings dialog box, select the OMM
Clips option, but do not select the Use Video Media or Use Audio
Media OMM option. MediaManager does not support allow you to
check in media.

Accessing and Logging in to MediaManager

The MediaManager user interface is implemented as a dynamic Web
page that you open in Internet Explorer 5.0, an industry-standard Web
browser. This interface implementation allows easy access without the
need for you to install and run special software on your Avid system.

For an overview of the user interface, see “User Interface Overview”
on page 1- 12.

This section describes how to start Internet Explorer, open the
MediaManager Web page, and then log in.

Starting Internet Explorer

To start Internet Explorer, click the Start button and then click Internet
Explorer. Internet Explorer starts and opens your default home page.

Accessing and Logging in to MediaManager

1-8

Configuring Internet Explorer to Work with MediaManager (First Time Only)

The first time that you want to access MediaManager you will need to
configure Internet Explorer appropriately first.

To configure Internet Explorer for MediaManager access:

1. Choose Internet Options from the Tools menu. The Internet
Options dialog box appears.

2. Click the Security tab. The Security tab opens, providing access to
the Internet Explorer security options.

Getting Started

3. Select the Local Intranet Web content zone (by clicking the
appropriate icon.