Expert Connections : Training

Deko & Clip AutoUpdate Utility: Importing Clips Automatically

Shirley Oxendine — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:46:00 GMT

ClipAutoUpdate is a free Avid Deko utility that monitors a specified clip folder on the E drive for new clips that are added to the folder and automatically transcodes any new clips added to the folder to use in Deko and imports the clips automatically to the designated clips database. ClipAutoUpdate.exe is an executable program and is located in the C:\Dekoxxxx\Utilities folder.

For ClipAutoUpdate to operate it must be launched and configured to actively watch a folder for any changes to the folder. If it is launched after files have already been added to the folder, it will not import those already existing files.

To start ClipAutoUpdate.exe launch it from the Utilities folder and configure it to monitor a clip folder and update a specified clip database with changes to the folder. (Navigate to C:\Dekoxxxx\Utilities and double-click ClipAutoUpdate.exe to launch the program.)

Deko supports two types of clip databases: Standard clips and Power Clips. Standard clips are full screen, or full resolution, clips. Power Clips (Deko3000 only) are smaller-sized clips, such as ‘moving headshots.’ Power Clips are contained in a database separate from the Standard clip database (Select View > Clip Editor > Context > Type. Both types of databases can be monitored with ClipAutoUpdate. AutoClipWatch can be configured to watch separate folders for Standard Clips and Power Clips (both must be housed on the E drive) and will update separate databases with changes to each of the folders. It can also be configured to monitor for additions of specific file formats (i.e. *.dv, *.mov, etc.) and import to the appropriate database only if these file formats are encountered.

Power Clips Note: PowerClips retain the *.mov file format and are not transcoded into *.mxf files.

ClipAutoUpdate automatically adds a clip to the Deko clip database using the filename’s base as the database item name. Since Deko uses separate files for video fill and video key, a suffix is added to the basename as ‘_v’ for video fill and as ‘_k’ for key (i.e. matte, fill). For example, a blue.mov file that has an embedded key will import into Deko as blue_v.mxf and blue_k.mxf.

Note: Since ClipAutoUpdate uses the base filename for the database entry, two clips with the same name cannot be inserted into the database (i.e. Filename.dv and Filename.mov do not import as two distinct files).

Avid Workflow Expertise - an all round experience

balonso — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:47:00 GMT

Through my several years working at Avid as a workflow consultant, I have shared experiences with a huge variety of Avid users, from diverse backgrounds, with different goals and ambitions and with varying levels of Avid product knowledge.

To my surprise, one of the questions that I get invariably asked is: "in your experience, how have you helped others (other broadcasters, other production facilities, other users) go about addressing this challenge?" In other words, when it comes to implementing new technology, new products, new ways of working, users want to know how it is done elsewhere, how did we, Avid Consultants, go about working out similar conundrums.

It makes perfect sense that upgrading or changing technology should be taken up as an opportunity to re-evaluate the production processes, the way “things are done around here”, and to humbly re-assess what needs improving and what needs to be preserved in the new world. And this often happens in close collaboration with Avid Professional Services team: our project delivery team, trainers and workflow consultants.

Hence, an unexpected "bonus" that comes with being an Avid Workflow and Training consultant is that we are exposed to all sorts of practical situations both in broadcast and post-production environments. Either for news production, programme-making, high-end editing, material ingest, play out... you name it, we have probably been asked about it! It is a great satisfaction to work together with our users through the technological and workflow challenges that they may find, and agree on and implement a solution that makes everyone (or most!) happy. Not only that, but we know that workflows are organic and they evolve with time and as production needs change, so we are always prepared to review workflows and tweak them if needed.

As more and more users quizzed me about my recommendations based on “how others did it”, I gradually realised that such exposure was of huge value. Most end users do not get the chance to walk into another production or broadcast facility and spend time observing how they work, analysing their workflows and optimising them for efficiency. Avid Workflow consultants do! We gradually collect an invaluable set of tools, tips and tricks, which we can then pull out and apply at the relevant moment with whoever we work with next.

For example, whilst working at a start-up news channel in India, the library department had never worked with non-linear, digital archive systems. We spent a considerable amount of time exploring what their goals were, and agreeing strategies with the super users, to ensure that they had a reliable and effective archive workflow. This resulted in the creation of several custom metadata fields to their Interplay database (editable via Assist or Access), setting up of daily workflows to sub clip rushes with Assist, consolidate them with NewsCutter and then placing these archive compilations on an auto-archive folder which takes care of the actual archiving process.

I have also found that, during workflow discussions and workshops, my customers appreciate a session on “user cases” that describes how we helped broadcaster A, or post facility B tackle a particular workflow challenge. Or simply, to learn about alternative ways of ingesting, transcoding, editing, approving, sound mixing, archiving, etc. Obviously, we are extremely sensitive about how we share such information, and we will always discuss user cases as fully anonymous. The idea here is to learn about the processes and workflows, and not to share any “trade secrets”!

As another illustration, I recently worked with a large broadcaster in Central Europe, which produces programmes and promos for their national TV channels. Coming from an Avid MediaManager environment and upgrading to Interplay, they wanted a solution that allowed them to easily distinguish Interplay folders from checked-in MediaComposer projects within the Interplay database. This was easily achieved with a combination of folder colours and pre-fixing folders with special characters. A simple, but very elegant solution that suited all!

As you can see, Avid Workflow Consultants cannot only help our users understand more about Avid products and the processes that use those products, but we can also add that “all-round” experience that is so valuable in today’s content production industry. Ask us a workflow question: we have probably answered a similar one before… but, if not, rest assured we will reach out to the rest of the Avid Worldwide Consultancy team to offer you a variety of solutions. It’s in our inquisitive nature!

Bea Alonso-Martinez

Avid Senior Professional Services Consultant

The Avid GPS/SatNav

JGalui — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:12:00 GMT

I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in Odense, Denmark whilst visiting the TV news station, TV2 Fyn. Yesterday I was in Holstebro, Denmark to visit TV2 Midt Vest and the day before in Munich for Creation Club, Germany. 9 days, 3 customers, 3 flights, 3 hotels, 1 hire car and thankfully a GPS to find my way around. Last month I spent a great deal of time in Dubai at MBC, where again, thank goodness, the car I was being transported in was fitted with a GPS/SatNav system as well. For those of you who have ever visited, or read about Dubai, you will know it is a constantly changing and developing landscape, whereas Denmark has a long established infrastructure.

So, are there any similarities? Well, yes… all four of these customers produce news, sport, trailers, commercials and features. They shoot, edit, produce, transmit and archive video and audio, albeit in different formats and resolutions. They all strive to be the best they can be and to serve their audiences across multiple platforms. And, best of all, they all use Avid products to create, publish and archive their content.

All of these customers also made a move from a familiar landscape of Media Manager on Unity to ISIS with Interplay. Not as big a ‘leap’ as they initially made from tape to Avid, but nonetheless they were moving into new territory, and needed a guide who had been there before: enter the Avid Workflow Consultant, or the ‘Avid GPS/SatNav’.

‘At the next junction remember to delete unchecked-in avid assets folder contents. These will quickly fill with rendered effects not used in checked-in final sequences’

As you can hear, the GPS system keeps reminding me of what to do/say along the way…

Instinct features heavily in the MBC newsroom workflow, voice over is done at the desktop and the majority of the editing is done by the journalists, who in the past would have used Media Browse to prepare edits, which would be finalised by an editor using Avid NewsCutter.

‘In 1 mile, keep left and remember to duplicate an Instinct sequence in the NewsCutter bin before finishing it off’

Occasionally, Instinct edits are finished off by NewsCutter operators if effects are required, duplicating the sequence in the NewsCutter will break the link with the original iNews story and means that if the journalist were to open their original story from inside Instinct again, that they will not overwrite anything the editor has checked-in.

Yesterday, I had an editor capturing video at a central ingest point to a NewsCutter bin. They, of course had to wait until the 30 minute capture was finished until they could begin to edit. They have 2 x NewsCutter Nitris DX systems that they use as capture devices.

‘At the next junction, pin a folder in Interplay, and you can capture directly to that folder and return to your NewsCutter and frame chase edit’

Pinning the folder and capturing to it, allowed the editor to begin cutting from the ingested tape, as they would from an AirSpeed ingest, frame chase editing. They finished the story earlier than expected because of this and this allowed the news gallery a little more time for a rehearsal before they went live with their new programme using an Interplay workflow.

‘Turn right and you have arrived at your destination’

Last night TV2 Fyn went on air with their news programme using a full Interplay workflow. In a day or two we will be deleting media from the ISIS that is no longer needed for news using Interplay Access, so deletion and protection rules are very important. What if a master clip that was captured yesterday is going to be used again tomorrow? What are the rules, and who will protect the media? These decisions need to be made by the customer, with the guidance of a Workflow Consultant from Avid.

A joint decision was taken to permanently reserve all projects that get checked-in to Interplay. Deletion is then done on a project by project basis…

‘When clicking delete at the next turn, you should never override a reservation, as this will override all reservations for that clip’

If a newsroom journalist user creates a new NewsCutter project and bin from the NRCS tool and drags a master clip in to the bin from a project that is about to be deleted, and checks that bin in, it will be automatically permanently reserve the master clip again. Why? Well, the workflow for TV2 Fyn is that we have created a site setting for each machine that ‘points’ every new project created into a subfolder of ‘Projects’ called ‘Projekter’ (Danish for Projects). ‘Projekter’ is permanently reserved, which means they have a similar workflow to the one they had with Media Manager, in that association with a project protects the media, until the project is deleted.

We have also created a folder in Interplay called ‘Trash’. When a NewsCutter project has been checked-in and is no longer needed, the deletion cycle is 3 days here at TV2, then the project is cut and pasted into the trash folder, where the reservation is removed from the folder and the project folders and associated media is deleted.

Summing up, there are many considerations when designing a workflow with a customer, and for me workflow is not just about how the media gets from camera to screen to archive, that’s what I would call ‘media flow’. Workflow is about people; journalists, editors, designers, anchors, camera operators, librarians, viewers and advertisers. There are always two sides to every project; is this a technology project that involves people, or a people project that involves technology? My view is the latter. Technology may drive the change, but managing that change involves a symbiotic effort between the customer and Avid, this is why having been a customer and operator of Avid products (as well as ‘other’ providers), the Professional Services Workflow Teams can approach and work with customers and understand their needs from a real-life newsroom perspective.

Article by Richard Bentley, Avid Professional Services Consultant, EMEA.

One Avid Workflow and Training

JGalui — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:06:00 GMT

Pro Tools and Video work in tandem to deliver customer success at Channel 4 UK

Located at Channel 4’s offices in Westminster, London, the Red Bee Media Production centre provide post production facilities to the Channel.   Red Bee have a mixture of Media Composers, Symphony Nitris, Digital Tape suites and 2 Pro Tools suites, one housing a D-Command and the other a Command/8.

Although the significant change ahead for Channel 4 and Red Bee Media Production was the migration of playout from in-house facilities to an offsite facility – a more local challenge was to upgrade their current Avid installation to include an Interplay database and extend the viewing and logging application to production areas located elsewhere in the building.

The team were also adopting a new audio workflow – moving sequences seamlessly between the final picture edit and the final audio mix – and back again, with numerous versions to contend with.   All using Interplay with a Video Satellite in the dubbing theatre.   This required careful workflow planning with their senior operational stakeholders and entailed subsequent user training.

For the first time Avid presented a united workflow and training offering with Claire Humphries (EMEA, Training and PSG) providing workflow and training for all things video and Interplay and Andy Baker (formerly of Digidesign) providing workflow and training for Pro Tools 8.0, Media Composer Video Satellite and the Pro Tools/Interplay workflow.

Claire and Andy presented a united workflow session to the team which enabled a clear, transparent and efficient workflow to be designed across both departments. Editing stakeholders were encouraged to attend, and vice versa; the dubbing mixers had a say in the final edit preparation of the video workflow.

Not only did this engage both craft departments, ensuring that all technical and creative requirements were represented, but the customer was delighted to see Avid working as a team.    Formerly, customers saw Digidesign support and training as a totally separate offering to Video workflow consultancy and training. Now the customer sees a One Avid approach helping them to achieve success in their programme making.

What is Avid’s ACSR Certification Program?

Avid Community Team — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:51:00 GMT

Avid Certified Support Representative (ACSR) Program participants are trained and certified by Avid with the knowledge and skills necessary to perform installations, upgrades, diagnostics, troubleshooting and support in the post, workgroup production or broadcast environment. This multi-certification program is designed to ensure the highest level of technical proficiency with Avid products.

The first tier of the ACSR program covers our editing systems. As an Avid Certified Editing Support Representative you will thoroughly understand the technical and operational aspects of Avid Media Composer and Avid Symphony on both the Windows and Macintosh platforms. This certification also offers access to Avid's Senior Escalation Team and connects you directly to the community of certified ACSR Support Representatives worldwide.

The second tier of the ACSR program covers our storage systems. As an Avid Certified Storage Support Representative you will thoroughly understand how to install and maintain the technical, operational, and administrative aspects of either or both of Avid's Unity MediaNetwork and Unity ISIS shared storage systems.

The third tier of the ACSR program covers our Interplay management system. Once you have achieved this level of certification you are recognized as an Elite member of the Certified Support Representatives. As an Avid Certified Elite Support Representatives you will thoroughly understand how to install and maintain technical, operational, and administrative aspects of Avid's editing systems, storage systems and the Avid Interplay management system.

What follows is a diagram outlining the ACSR paths and some of the main course pre-requisites.

If you’d like to learn more please visit: http://www.avid.com/training/acsr.asp
Or e-mail any questions to Avid Global Training at: ACSR_Certification@avid.com