avid remote editing workflow...

Avid® Remote EditingWorkflow Guide

2

Legal NoticesProduct specifications are subject to change without notice and do not represent a commitment on the part of Avid Technology, Inc.

This product is subject to the terms and conditions of a software license agreement provided with the software. The product may only be used in accordance with the license agreement.

This product may be protected by one or more U.S. and non-U.S patents. Details are available at www.avid.com/patents.

Attn. Government User(s). Restricted Rights LegendU.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS. This Software and its documentation are “commercial computer software” or “commercial computer software documentation.” In the event that such Software or documentation is acquired by or on behalf of a unit or agency of the U.S. Government, all rights with respect to this Software and documentation are subject to the terms of the License Agreement, pursuant to FAR §12.212(a) and/or DFARS §227.7202-1(a), as applicable.

The following disclaimer is required by Apple Computer, Inc.:APPLE COMPUTER, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THIS PRODUCT, INCLUDING WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES IS NOT PERMITTED BY SOME STATES. THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS WARRANTY PROVIDES YOU WITH SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS. THERE MAY BE OTHER RIGHTS THAT YOU MAY HAVE WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO STATE.

The following disclaimer is required by Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics, Inc. for the use of their TIFF library:Copyright © 1988–1997 Sam Leffler Copyright © 1991–1997 Silicon Graphics, Inc.

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software [i.e., the TIFF library] and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that (i) the above copyright notices and this permission notice appear in all copies of the software and related documentation, and (ii) the names of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics may not be used in any advertising or publicity relating to the software without the specific, prior written permission of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS-IS” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

IN NO EVENT SHALL SAM LEFFLER OR SILICON GRAPHICS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

The following disclaimer is required by the Independent JPEG Group:This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.

This Software may contain components licensed under the following conditions:Copyright (c) 1989 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation, advertising materials, and other materials related to such distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed by the University of California, Berkeley. The name of the University may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 by Jef Poskanzer.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. This software is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

Copyright 1995, Trinity College Computing Center. Written by David Chappell.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. This software is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

http://www.avid.com/US/about-avid/legal-notices/patent-marking

Copyright 1996 Daniel Dardailler.

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of Daniel Dardailler not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. Daniel Dardailler makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

Modifications Copyright 1999 Matt Koss, under the same license as above.

Copyright (c) 1991 by AT&T.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any purpose without fee is hereby granted, provided that this entire notice is included in all copies of any software which is or includes a copy or modification of this software and in all copies of the supporting documentation for such software.

THIS SOFTWARE IS BEING PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY. IN PARTICULAR, NEITHER THE AUTHOR NOR AT&T MAKES ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE MERCHANTABILITY OF THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

This product includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.

The following disclaimer is required by Nexidia Inc.:© 2010 Nexidia Inc. All rights reserved, worldwide. Nexidia and the Nexidia logo are trademarks of Nexidia Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All Nexidia materials regardless of form, including without limitation, software applications, documentation and any other information relating to Nexidia Inc., and its products and services are the exclusive property of Nexidia Inc. or its licensors. The Nexidia products and services described in these materials may be covered by Nexidia's United States patents: 7,231,351; 7,263,484; 7,313,521; 7,324,939; 7,406,415, 7,475,065; 7,487,086 and/or other patents pending and may be manufactured under license from the Georgia Tech Research Corporation USA.

The following disclaimer is required by Paradigm Matrix:Portions of this software licensed from Paradigm Matrix.

The following disclaimer is required by Ray Sauers Associates, Inc.:“Install-It” is licensed from Ray Sauers Associates, Inc. End-User is prohibited from taking any action to derive a source code equivalent of “Install-It,” including by reverse assembly or reverse compilation, Ray Sauers Associates, Inc. shall in no event be liable for any damages resulting from reseller’s failure to perform reseller’s obligation; or any damages arising from use or operation of reseller’s products or the software; or any other damages, including but not limited to, incidental, direct, indirect, special or consequential Damages including lost profits, or damages resulting from loss of use or inability to use reseller’s products or the software for any reason including copyright or patent infringement, or lost data, even if Ray Sauers Associates has been advised, knew or should have known of the possibility of such damages.

The following disclaimer is required by Videomedia, Inc.:“Videomedia, Inc. makes no warranties whatsoever, either express or implied, regarding this product, including warranties with respect to its merchantability or its fitness for any particular purpose.”

“This software contains V-LAN ver. 3.0 Command Protocols which communicate with V-LAN ver. 3.0 products developed by Videomedia, Inc. and V-LAN ver. 3.0 compatible products developed by third parties under license from Videomedia, Inc. Use of this software will allow “frame accurate” editing control of applicable videotape recorder decks, videodisc recorders/players and the like.”

The following disclaimer is required by Altura Software, Inc. for the use of its Mac2Win software and Sample Source Code:©1993–1998 Altura Software, Inc.

The following disclaimer is required by Ultimatte Corporation:Certain real-time compositing capabilities are provided under a license of such technology from Ultimatte Corporation and are subject to copyright protection.

The following disclaimer is required by Interplay Entertainment Corp.:The “Interplay” name is used with the permission of Interplay Entertainment Corp., which bears no responsibility for Avid products.

This product includes portions of the Alloy Look & Feel software from Incors GmbH.

This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).

http://www.apache.org/

4

© DevelopMentor

This product may include the JCifs library, for which the following notice applies:JCifs © Copyright 2004, The JCIFS Project, is licensed under LGPL (http://jcifs.samba.org/). See the LGPL.txt file in the Third Party Software directory on the installation CD.

Avid Interplay contains components licensed from LavanTech. These components may only be used as part of and in connection with Avid Interplay.

Interplay Production Streaming Server includes Live555, which is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License. “Live555 is Copyright (c) 1996-2011, Live Networks, Inc. and is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, which is included with this product.”

This product includes software developed by Indiana University Extreme! Lab (http//:www.extreme.indiana.edu/)/

Portions © Copyright 2003-2007 of MOG Solutions.

Trademarks003, 192 Digital I/O, 192 I/O, 96 I/O, 96i I/O, Adrenaline, AirSpeed, ALEX, Alienbrain, AME, AniMatte, Archive, Archive II, Assistant Station, AudioPages, AudioStation, AutoLoop, AutoSync, Avid, Avid Active, Avid Advanced Response, Avid DNA, Avid DNxcel, Avid DNxHD, Avid DS Assist Station, Avid Ignite, Avid Liquid, Avid Media Engine, Avid Media Processor, Avid MEDIArray, Avid Mojo, Avid Remote Response, Avid Unity, Avid Unity ISIS, Avid VideoRAID, AvidRAID, AvidShare, AVIDstripe, AVX, Beat Detective, Beauty Without The Bandwidth, Beyond Reality, BF Essentials, Bomb Factory, Bruno, C|24, CaptureManager, ChromaCurve, ChromaWheel, Cineractive Engine, Cineractive Player, Cineractive Viewer, Color Conductor, Command|24, Command|8, Control|24, Cosmonaut Voice, CountDown, d2, d3, DAE, D-Command, D-Control, Deko, DekoCast, D-Fi, D-fx, Digi 002, Digi 003, DigiBase, Digidesign, Digidesign Audio Engine, Digidesign Development Partners, Digidesign Intelligent Noise Reduction, Digidesign TDM Bus, DigiLink, DigiMeter, DigiPanner, DigiProNet, DigiRack, DigiSerial, DigiSnake, DigiSystem, Digital Choreography, Digital Nonlinear Accelerator, DigiTest, DigiTranslator, DigiWear, DINR, DNxchange, Do More, DPP-1, D-Show, DSP Manager, DS-StorageCalc, DV Toolkit, DVD Complete, D-Verb, Eleven, EM, Euphonix, EUCON, EveryPhase, Expander, ExpertRender, Fader Pack, Fairchild, FastBreak, Fast Track, Film Cutter, FilmScribe, Flexevent, FluidMotion, Frame Chase, FXDeko, HD Core, HD Process, HDpack, Home-to-Hollywood, HYBRID, HyperSPACE, HyperSPACE HDCAM, iKnowledge, Image Independence, Impact, Improv, iNEWS, iNEWS Assign, iNEWS ControlAir, InGame, Instantwrite, Instinct, Intelligent Content Management, Intelligent Digital Actor Technology, IntelliRender, Intelli-Sat, Intelli-sat Broadcasting Recording Manager, InterFX, Interplay, inTONE, Intraframe, iS Expander, iS9, iS18, iS23, iS36, ISIS, IsoSync, LaunchPad, LeaderPlus, LFX, Lightning, Link & Sync, ListSync, LKT-200, Lo-Fi, MachineControl, Magic Mask, Make Anything Hollywood, make manage move | media, Marquee, MassivePack, Massive Pack Pro, Maxim, Mbox, Media Composer, MediaFlow, MediaLog, MediaMix, Media Reader, Media Recorder, MEDIArray, MediaServer, MediaShare, MetaFuze, MetaSync, MIDI I/O, Mix Rack, Moviestar, MultiShell, NaturalMatch, NewsCutter, NewsView, NewsVision, Nitris, NL3D, NLP, NSDOS, NSWIN, OMF, OMF Interchange, OMM, OnDVD, Open Media Framework, Open Media Management, Painterly Effects, Palladium, Personal Q, PET, Podcast Factory, PowerSwap, PRE, ProControl, ProEncode, Profiler, Pro Tools, Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools LE, Pro Tools M-Powered, Pro Transfer, QuickPunch, QuietDrive, Realtime Motion Synthesis, Recti-Fi, Reel Tape Delay, Reel Tape Flanger, Reel Tape Saturation, Reprise, Res Rocket Surfer, Reso, RetroLoop, Reverb One, ReVibe, Revolution, rS9, rS18, RTAS, Salesview, Sci-Fi, Scorch, ScriptSync, SecureProductionEnvironment, Serv|GT, Serv|LT, Shape-to-Shape, ShuttleCase, Sibelius, SimulPlay, SimulRecord, Slightly Rude Compressor, Smack!, Soft SampleCell, Soft-Clip Limiter, SoundReplacer, SPACE, SPACEShift, SpectraGraph, SpectraMatte, SteadyGlide, Streamfactory, Streamgenie, StreamRAID, SubCap, Sundance, Sundance Digital, SurroundScope, Symphony, SYNC HD, SYNC I/O, Synchronic, SynchroScope, Syntax, TDM FlexCable, TechFlix, Tel-Ray, Thunder, TimeLiner, Titansync, Titan, TL Aggro, TL AutoPan, TL Drum Rehab, TL Everyphase, TL Fauxlder, TL In Tune, TL MasterMeter, TL Metro, TL Space, TL Utilities, tools for storytellers, Transit, TransJammer, Trillium Lane Labs, TruTouch, UnityRAID, Vari-Fi, Video the Web Way, VideoRAID, VideoSPACE, VTEM, Work-N-Play, Xdeck, X-Form, Xmon and XPAND! are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

Adobe and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Apple and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Windows is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

FootageArri — Courtesy of Arri/Fauer — John Fauer, Inc.Bell South “Anticipation” — Courtesy of Two Headed Monster — Tucker/Wayne Atlanta/GMS.Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior.Eco Challenge British Columbia — Courtesy of Eco Challenge Lifestyles, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Eco Challenge Morocco — Courtesy of Discovery Communications, Inc.It’s Shuttletime — Courtesy of BCP & Canadian Airlines.

http://jcifs.samba.org/

Nestlé Coffee Crisp — Courtesy of MacLaren McCann Canada. Saturn “Calvin Egg” — Courtesy of Cossette Communications. “Tigers: Tracking a Legend” — Courtesy of www.wildlifeworlds.com, Carol Amore, Executive Producer."The Big Swell" — Courtesy of Swell Pictures, Inc.Windhorse — Courtesy of Paul Wagner Productions.

Arizona Images — KNTV Production — Courtesy of Granite Broadcasting, Inc., Editor/Producer Bryan Foote.Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior.Ice Island — Courtesy of Kurtis Productions, Ltd.Tornados + Belle Isle footage — Courtesy of KWTV News 9.WCAU Fire Story — Courtesy of NBC-10, Philadelphia, PA.Women in Sports – Paragliding — Courtesy of Legendary Entertainment, Inc.

News material provided by WFTV Television Inc.

The following disclaimer is required by Interplay Entertainment Corp.:The “Interplay” name is used with the permission of Interplay Entertainment Corp., which bears no responsibility for Avid products.

This product includes portions of the Alloy Look & Feel software from Incors GmbH.

This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).

© DevelopMentor

Avid Remote Editing Workflow Guide • March 2015 • This document is distributed by Avid in online (electronic) form only, and is not available for purchase in printed form.

http://www.apache.org/

http://www.wildlifeworlds.com

7

Contents

Chapter 1 Remote Editing with Avid Media Composer | Cloud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Setting up the Interplay Environment at the Main Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Checklist: Setting up the Interplay Server for Remote Editing Systems. . . . . . . 12

Checklist: Setting up the Editing Systems at the Main Facility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Setting up the Remote Editing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Checklist: Setting up the Media Composer | Cloud Remote Editing System . . . 14

Chapter 2 Editing Sequences from a Remote Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Checklist: Editing a Sequence from a Remote Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Ways of Ingesting Media into your Editing Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Capturing Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Importing Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Linking to Local Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Linking to Remote Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Object Icons in Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Chapter 3 Editing Sequences at the Main Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Checklist: Editing Sequences at the Main Facility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Using Dynamic Relink with Media Composer | Cloud Editing Systems . . . . . . . 26

Applying Working and Target Settings for Dynamic Relink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 4 Using Your Avid Editing Application with Media Composer | Cloud . . 29

Working with Remote Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Configuring Interplay Settings on the Remote Editing System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Interplay Settings for the Media Composer | Cloud User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Stopping and Starting Media Indexer on a Mac OS X System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Using Remote Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Using the Disk Cache to Manage Cached Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Setting Playback Quality for Remote Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Uploading Media Using the Remote Upload Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Limitations on Remote Upload and Remote Download . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Uploading Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Selecting the Upload Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

8

Syncing Sequences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Media Composer | Cloud and Dynamic Relink. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Upload/Download Queue Dialog Box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Using Remote Download . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Send-to-Playback and Media Composer | Cloud (Windows Only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Supported Project Types and Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

1 Remote Editing with Avid Media Composer | Cloud

Media Composer | Cloud (formerly Interplay Sphere) allows you to edit and collaborate on your sequences remotely for news, sports, and video production. Whether working on a news story across town or a feature film across the world, Media Composer | Cloud gives editors, reporters, and videographers the ability to ingest, edit, and move media fluidly between the story site and production facility from everywhere.

The diagram below shows an example of news production in the field that is centered on a "mobile unit" (such as an Outside Broadcast van) consisting of a journalist, a cameraman and a producer at the station. Since news vehicles typically cover important stories that need to be aired as quickly as possible, Avid Media Composer | Cloud allows journalists to edit video footage captured at the scene of breaking news and quickly share the news story production with other editing stations connected by Interplay.

Avid Media Composer | Cloud

Avid ISIS

MediaCentralPlaybackServices

Avid InterplayServers

Local Media Storage

OB VAN

TV STATION

Transfer low & high-res media

A

Stream low-res mediafor playback on

remote editing system

Edit sequenceswith uploaded media

Read requestedmedia from

storage

Browse media

AirSpeed 5000

with 4G VPN Connection

REMOTE EDITINGMedia Composer | Cloud

JPEGStream

MXF

REMOTE EDITING Media Composer | Cloud

with 4G VPN Connection

Stream JPEG media from Interplay database

Upload clips, sequencesand MXF media

Send to Playback

FIELD JOURNALIST

Playout to air


10

Journalists using Media Composer | Cloud can edit anywhere in the field, while simultaneously compressing and uploading media to a server at the station. The fully-automated upload process runs in the background so journalists can quickly upload low- or high-resolution proxies of the media for immediate use at the broadcast station.

In addition, a journalist who needs to use media on the server at the broadcast facility, can login to the Interplay server through a virtual private network (VPN) connection, and playback and edit streamed media (up to 2 video streams and 4 audio streams) without prior download.

In this manner, multiple crews working on a single story from different remote locations can share and edit assets. By connecting with Interplay tools at the main facility, reporters, video editors and producers can collaborate on projects and work with the combined assets to build sequences. As soon as the necessary sequences are assembled, they can be relinked to the best resolution media that is available in the Interplay database, and sent to air or exported to the final delivery format for distribution.

Setting up the Interplay Environment at the Main Facility

There are certain components that need to be installed and configured in the central Interplay environment in order to allow communication with the remote editing systems that can be located anywhere in the world.

There are many components required for this installation, and you need to refer to the checklist later in this section. Since not all setup details can be covered in this workflow guide, you will be referred to the associated product documentation when necessary.

Any remote editing workstations that need to communicate with the broadcast or post production facility rely on the Interplay Engine. At the main facility, the Interplay environment must be updated so that the services are the same as those installed for the remote editing clients. Also, any local client workstations on the network may need to be upgraded to a compatible version of Media Composer or Media Composer | Cloud.

The illustration below shows the components that are required at the main facility:

Setting up the Interplay Environment at the Main Facility

11

Interplay Server: All Interplay clients (both local and remote) connect to a workgroup on the server. Local editing systems will connect over the network and remote editing systems will login directly to the server via a VPN connection.

The Interplay environment must be updated with the latest version of Interplay that includes the cloud support.

MediaCentral Playback Service: This server will stream compressed media to remote clients that need to use media from the Interplay environment at the main facility.

The MCPS server must be installed in order to allow remote editing stations to play back media from the Interplay database.

Avid ISIS: The shared storage where all media is stored for the Interplay workgroup(s). The appropriate workspaces will need to be created for both local and remote clients.

Avid Media Composer clients: Any local Media Composer workstations that need to use proxy media created by remote Media Composer | Cloud clients will need to be updated with the latest Cloud client support.

n Not all versions of Media Composer are suported as Media Composer | Cloud clients. Refer to the Media Composer | Cloud Readme for the compatible versions.

Avid ISIS

MediaCentral Playback Service(MCPS)

Avid InterplayServer

AirSpeed 5000

Media Composer | Cloud

Interplay | ProductionInterplay | Delivery ReceiverInterplay | Media Indexer


12

Checklist: Setting up the Interplay Server for Remote Editing Systems

The following checklist contains the steps to install and configure the Interplay environment at the broadcast station or post production facility to support the remote editing systems.

This installation and configuration must be done by an Interplay administrator at your facility using the Interplay Server installer.

Checklist: Setting up the Editing Systems at the Main Facility

The following checklist contains the main steps to install and configure local Media Composer systems at the broadcast station or post production facility. These steps are required if these systems need to use media uploaded by the remote Media Composer | Cloud editing systems.

Each of the steps below has a reference to a more detailed procedure. Return to this checklist to continue with the steps in this workflow.

Step Refer to

Before you begin, refer to the Readme for a list of limitations and other late-breaking information.

Avid Media Composer | Cloud Readme

Install the necessary components listed below: Avid Media Composer | Cloud Installation and Configuration Guide

Perform the necessary install steps in the main Interplay environment that are required for communication with the remote editing systems.

“Overview” in Chapter 2: Setting up Systems in the Interplay Environment.

Update the Interplay environment with the version that supports Media Composer | Cloud.

“Update the Interplay Environment to be Compatible with the Remote Editing System”

Register the cloud services with Interplay Admin.

“Identifying the Media Composer | Cloud Components in the Interplay Admin Tool.”

Step Refer to

Install the latest Media Composer software that is supported as a client for Media Composer | Cloud. You will require a new license for this version of the software.


Setting up the Remote Editing System

13


There are some necessary Media Composer | Cloud components that need to be installed and configured on the remote editing system in order for it to connect to the server at the main facility.

Install the required client components on your editing system.

“Installing Media Composer | Cloud Support Software (Windows)” or, “Installing Media Composer | Cloud Support Software on Mac OS X” in the Avid Media Composer | Cloud Installation and Configuration Guide.

Verify that you have the necessary components on your editing system.

“Verifying the Installation (Windows)” in the Avid Media Composer | Cloud Installation and Configuration Guide.

Configure the necessary services and components for remote editing.

“Configuring the Media Composer | Cloud Remote Editor Components” in the Avid Media Composer | Cloud Installation and Configuration Guide.

You are now set up to share sequences and media with remote editing systems.

“Editing Sequences at the Main Facility” on page 25.

Step Refer to

Interplay Sphere Delivery SupportInterplay Sphere Delivery ReceiverInterplay Sphere Remote Upload ServiceInterplay Sphere TranscodeInterplay Sphere Media Services EnginePlayback SupportInterplay AccessInterplay Media Indexer

4G VPN Connection

Avid ISIS

MediaCentral Playback Service(MCPS)

Avid InterplayServer

AirSpeed 5000

Remote editing client runningMedia Composer | Cloud

Media Composer | Cloud


14

Any remote editing systems that need to upload sequences and media, or use existing media on the central Interplay database, must use the latest Media Composer editing application that is supported as a Cloud client. They will also need to install the client components for Media Composer | Cloud.

Checklist: Setting up the Media Composer | Cloud Remote Editing System

The following checklist contains the main steps to install the Media Composer | Cloud client components on the remote editing system running Media Composer | Cloud. Each of the steps below has a reference to a more detailed procedure. Return to this checklist to continue with the steps in this workflow.

Step Refer to

Refer to the Readme for a list of limitations and late-breaking information.


Install the necessary components listed below: Avid Media Composer | Cloud Installation and Configuration Guide

Before you begin the installation, make sure you have the necessary prerequisites.

“PreRequisites for a Media Composer | Cloud Installation”

Install the client components on the remote editing system.

Interplay Access will automatically be installed on your system. You can use this application to connect to the Interplay database, or you may use the Interplay Window in the Avid editing application.

“Installing Media Composer | Cloud Support Software (Windows)” or, “Installing Media Composer | Cloud Support Software on Mac OS X”

Make sure that you can establish a connection to the main facility.

“Establishing a Connection to your Interplay Environment”

Configure the necessary services and components for remote editing.

“Configuring the Media Composer | Cloud Remote Editor Components”

Install QuickTime. Obtain the latest QuickTime installer from the Apple web site.

If you are on a Windows workstation and would like to send your sequence directly to air, you need to configure the Send to Playback function.

“Overview” and “Check List for Installing and Configuring an Interplay | Transfer Engine and Client” in Chapter 3.

You are now properly set up for a remote editing session.

“Editing Sequences from a Remote Location” on page 17 of this guide.


15

If you experience playback issues, you may need to optimize your system.

“Maintenance and Troubleshooting” in the Avid Media Composer | Cloud Installation and Configuration Guide.

Step Refer to


16

2 Editing Sequences from a Remote Location

Using Media Composer | Cloud, you can edit from anywhere in the world. Simply start by capturing or importing your footage into the editing application; or linking by AMA to file-based media on a locally-connected drive or camera.

Additionally, if you need to use media on the server at the broadcast facility, you can login to the Interplay system through a Virtual Private Network (VPN) using either a WiFi or a wireless connection, and playback and edit streamed media (up to 2 video streams and 4 audio streams) without prior download.

During the editing process, you can select and upload the clips and/or sequences that are suitable for final delivery. Clips that have been designated for upload will automatically be transcoded to a predetermined proxy resolution, uploaded, and checked in to the Interplay system as a background process. This automation of the ingest process ensures error-free delivery. Media that is uploaded to the main facility is transcoded before being checked in to the central storage.

n The system will negotiate the best quality (permitted by the available bandwidth) to be uploaded in a reasonable amount of time. This is also based on the settings you have chosen.

While you continue to edit, the system will track changes to the bin contents, and changes to sequences contained in the bin upon save. Any additional frames for previously-uploaded clips will automatically be transferred to the Interplay system. You can monitor the transcode/transfer of assets in a queue while still editing a sequence marked for upload. As soon as you have completed editing your story, you can check in the final sequence to Interplay, while individual clips can continue to upload.

At the main facility, before the story is played out to air or exported to a final delivery file, any sequences linked to proxy resolution material can be set to dynamically relink to better quality media as it comes online. In addition, since rendered media is not uploaded, an editor at the facility will need to render any effects and titles added by the remote editor.


18

Checklist: Editing a Sequence from a Remote Location

The following checklist contains some quick steps on how to connect to a central broadcast or post production facility to transfer media and edited stories. Each of the steps below has a reference to a more detailed procedure. Return to this checklist to continue with the steps in this workflow.

Step Refer to

Learn about setting up projects in Interplay. “Creating Avid Editing Projects in an Interplay Environment” in the help for the Avid editing application.

Open a new project for your story. “Creating a New Project” in the help for the Avid editing application.

n Remote editing supports most project formats when transcoding local clips for remote upload.

Media Composer | Cloud ReadMe

Add your local storage to the media indexing service.

If you need to access the central storage at the main facility, you will need to connect to the necessary workspaces.

n Important: The remote editing feature does not require the Avid ISIS Client Manager to be installed on your system. If you do have the Client Manager installed, make sure that you do not mount any ISIS workspaces.

“Configuring the Media Indexer” in Avid Media Composer | Cloud Installation and Configuration Guide.

Define the resolution at which your media will be acquired and the place where it will be stored.

“Defining the Media Creation Settings” in the help for the Avid editing application.

In order to access remote media or upload clips to the main facility, you need to configure access to the Interplay applications and services.

“Working with Remote Editing” on page 30.

Set the size of the SphereCache folder where temporary files are kept for remote playback.

“Using the Disk Cache to Manage Cached Media” on page 35.

Checklist: Editing a Sequence from a Remote Location

19

There are a number of ways in which you can work with media. In addition to capturing or importing media directly to your locally-connected storage, you can link to media on a local or remote storage via AMA.

“Ways of Ingesting Media into your Editing Application” on page 20.

n The bin display will have specific icons to distinguish clips and sequences linked from local vs. remote storage locations.

“Object Icons in Bins” on page 22.

Uploading locally-acquired media to the main facility:

As soon as your media is acquired, you can login and begin uploads to the Interplay Server at the main facility.

“Uploading Media Using the Remote Upload Service” on page 37.

You can monitor the uploads and check on their progress.

“Upload/Download Queue Dialog Box” on page 47.

Using media from the main facility:

Make sure that you are logged in to Interplay at the main facility.

Use the Interplay window to browse through the Interplay database for media that you need.

“Editing with Avid Assets in the Interplay Window” in the help for the Avid editing application.

or

Use Interplay Access to browse through the Interplay database for media that you need.

See the help for Interplay Access.

Link to media at the main facility. “Using Remote Media” on page 34.

n Linked clips are streamed from the server so that you can preview and edit them. There may, however, be some exceptions.

Optimize your system for best playback performance of remote media.

“Setting Playback Quality for Remote Media” on page 37.

You can also download remote sequences, clips, or subclips to a local drive. This allows you to edit the remote media locally even when you do not have a connection to Interplay.

“Using Remote Download” on page 49, or

Step Refer to


20

Ways of Ingesting Media into your Editing Application

There are a number of ways in which you can ingest media with your Avid editing application. In addition to capturing or importing media directly to your locally-connected storage, you can link to media on a local or remote device via AMA. By creating links to media files, you can work with the media without having to capture it to your disk.

Capturing Media

Before capturing media, you must configure certain settings in your editing application. Configuration includes specifying the external device and the input signals coming from the external device, selecting the capture quality, and specifying the storage location for the captured media.

Enable dynamic relink so that you can view the best available media.

“Using Dynamic Relink with Media Composer | Cloud Editing Systems” on page 26 and

.“Media Composer | Cloud and Dynamic Relink” on page 46.

Editing and uploading your sequence:

Continue to edit your sequence and add the necessary titles and effects.

n Any effects and titles will need to be re-rendered at the main facility, as precomputes are not uploaded.

“Creating and Editing Sequences” in the Help for the Avid editing application.

You can set the Remote Upload Service to automatically update your clips/sequences checked in to Interplay every time you save your bin.

“Syncing Sequences” on page 44.

Check in your clips and sequences to the Interplay server.

If you have a Windows system, you can send your sequences directly to the video server for playout.

“Send-to-Playback and Media Composer | Cloud (Windows Only)” on page 51

Step Refer to

Ways of Ingesting Media into your Editing Application

21

There are many ways to capture media from a baseband device. Refer to “Capturing Media” in the Help for the Avid editing application, and choose the method that is appropriate for you.

Importing Media

Media that is already in digital format can be imported from file. These include files on storage devices or directly from the camera.

You can access files for import from any folder, disk, or drive source mounted on the desktop, such as a CD or DVD, fixed or removable device, or network server. You can import more than one file or types of files at a time.

When importing files from third-party applications, you may need to install specific codecs to convert these files into an Avid format.

Consider copying all similar files to a single folder before you import the files. Using this folder helps you manage files from multiple sources and streamlines the reimporting process because all files point to the same original path.

Refer to “Importing Media Files” or “File Based Media - AMA” in the help for the Avid editing application.

Linking to Local Media

With the Avid editing system, you can link to media from a third-party device (a camera, reader, or drive), from a CD or DVD, from a folder on your system, or from a virtual volume (a server connected to your system).

By creating links to media files, you can work with the media without having to capture it to your disk. You can manipulate and edit this media as you would any other clip. These linked files can reside on a local disk or anywhere on the network until you’re ready to output your sequence.

You can also transcode this media to a lower resolution for the editing process, and switch between the low-res and source media with the dynamic relink option.

Linking to Remote Media

Media Composer | Cloud allows remote Avid editing systems to link to media on a central Interplay server. If you are a journalist in the field, you can link to a database of existing media at the broadcast facility, and playback the clip on your system in real time. You do this by linking to media on a virtual volume (a remote server on Interplay).


22

When links are created to remote media files, they are streamed in a compressed format so that you can play them back on your system. If you enable dynamic relink on your system, then clips linked to the remote media will display in the appropriate color on the timeline to indicate when better resolution media is available at the broadcast facility. Note that you will still only see the compressed media in your viewer during playback.

When your sequence is uploaded to the Interplay server, the clips will refer to the associated media files that have been uploaded. With dynamic relink enabled at the main facility, these clips can be set to link to the best available uploaded media. The sequences can then be rendered with the necessary effects before being played to air.

n “Using Dynamic Relink with Media Composer | Cloud Editing Systems” on page 26 explains how dynamic relink works on the remote editing system as well as the editing system at the broadcast facility.

Object Icons in Bins

Bins use icons to identify clips, sequences, and other media objects that they display. The table describes all of the object icons that you might see in a bin display.

n By default, bins display all existing media objects except source clips and rendered effects.

Icon Object Type Description

Master Clips A clip that references audio and video media files formed from captured footage or imported files

Stereo Master Clips

A single clip generated from a left and right eye pair of master clips that were created when stereoscopic full frame material was captured or imported.

Shared Storage Master Clip

A master clip that references media files located on a shared storage system

In an Avid Interplay MultiRez environment, the icon displayed for a clip might change, depending on whether the clip is linked to shared storage or local storage. The Dynamic Relink settings determine how the clip is currently linked.

Local Storage Master Clip

A master clip that references media files located on local storage.

MultiRez Shared Storage Master Clip

In a MultiRez environment, clip media is partially available in current resolution.

Object Icons in Bins

23

Remote clip In a Media Composer | Cloud environment, a clip checked out of Interplay by a remote system appears with an arrow pointing down. The clip in the bin uses a proxy resolution.

Remote Sequence

In a Media Composer | Cloud environment, a local sequence that has been uploaded to or synced with a remote Interplay database appears as a sequence icon with an arrow pointing up.

In-progress Master Clips

A master clip that references media currently being captured that you can view and edit. For more information, see .

Subclips A clip that references a selected portion of a master clip

Shared Storage Subclips

A subclip that references media files on a shared storage system

Audio Clips A clip that references audio media files formed from captured audio or imported files

Shared Storage Audio Clips

An audio clip that references media files located on a shared storage system

In-progress Audio Clips

An audio clip that references media currently being captured that you can play and edit. For more information, see .

Sequences A clip that represents an edited program, partial or complete, that you create from other clips

Sources A clip that references the original videotape source footage for master clips

AMA linked video clip

Indicates a file based video clip that links directly into a bin through an AMA plug-in.

AMA linked audio clip

Indicates a file based audio clip that links directly into a bin through an AMA plug-in.

Effects A clip that references an unrendered effect that you create.

Motion Effects A file in the bin that references effect media files generated when you create motion effects

Rendered Effects

A clip that references an effect media file generated when you render an effect

Groups (For MultiCamera editing) Clips containing two or more grouped clips, strung together sequentially according to common timecodes

Icon Object Type Description (Continued)


24

3 Editing Sequences at the Main Facility

With Avid Interplay, professionals have a real-time solution to acquire, access, edit and finish stories from anywhere. Whether you are a reporter in the field, a video editor on location, or a producer at the broadcast or post production facility, you have the freedom to share sequences, media and other graphics on a centralized storage.

For example, reporters in the field can edit while simultaneously uploading field-captured material in a low-res broadcastable proxy resolution to allow for timely playout to air. (High-res media may be uploaded if time permits, and will be broadcasted as it comes online.)

In a news broadcast scenario, uploading the low-res proxies also allows multiple crews to collaborate on a single story more easily, as other field reporters and station editors can login to Interplay and edit with media that has already been uploaded to the broadcast facility. In addition, the news production manager can quickly edit and/or pull together the final sequences for playout to air.

An editing system in the Interplay workgroup can check out a clip uploaded by a Media Composer | Cloud client. The media will be viewable as soon as it is uploaded to the Interplay storage. Dynamic relink needs to be enabled on the editing system to view this media and also to select the quality of uploaded media to which to relink.

Checklist: Editing Sequences at the Main Facility

At the main facility, other editors and production managers can work with the clips and sequences uploaded by the remote clients. Each of the steps below has a reference to a more detailed procedure. Return to this checklist to continue with the steps in this workflow.

Step Refer to

Make sure that you are logged in to Interplay.

Dynamic relinking allows you to playback clips that were uploaded by remote editing systems.

“Using Dynamic Relink with Media Composer | Cloud Editing Systems” on page 26.


26

Using Dynamic Relink with Media Composer | Cloud Editing Systems

Dynamic relink should be enabled when you work with remote editing systems connected with Media Composer | Cloud. Refer to the appropriate section below depending on where your editing system is located in the Interplay realm.

On your editing system, enable dynamic relink for all sequences so that they automatically link to the best available media uploaded by remote clients.

“Applying Working and Target Settings for Dynamic Relink” on page 27.

Check out the sequences that you want to edit, or open a new sequence for the story you are creating.

For existing sequences, the bin will display all clips that have been created and uploaded.

If you are creating a new sequence, then load the clips you need into an open bin. (Clips uploaded by a remote client have a unique icon.)

Use the Interplay window to browse through the Interplay database for media that you need.

“Editing with Avid Assets in the Interplay Window” in the help for the Avid editing application.

or

Use Interplay Access to browse through the Interplay database for media that you need.

See the help for Interplay Access.

You will need to render all effects and titles in the sequence to create precomputes on the Interplay storage.

“Rendering Effects” in the help for the Avid editing application.

Save the sequences and check in all assets to the Interplay server so that the news production manager can create the necessary playlists for playout to air.

In a post production facility, the sequences will be combined and packaged in a format suitable for the final delivery.

Step Refer to

Checklist: Editing Sequences at the Main Facility

27

Remote Editing Systems

Generally, when editing a sequence n a remote editing system, it's best to keep the dynamic relinked enabled. This way, you will have access to a clip's media on a remote storage as soon as it comes online. In addition, any clips linked to local or remote storage will display in the appropriate color on the timeline to indicate availability of media corresponding to your dynamic relink settings—see “Using Clip Coloring to Show Available Resolutions” in the help for your editing application.

n For clips linked to media on the remote storage, you will still only see the compressed media in your viewer during playback.

For clips linked to media on your local storage, you will always see the media in its native resolution. This media is transcoded according to your upload settings when it is uploaded to the central Interplay server. However, your system will continue to display the originally-linked media.

Editing Systems at the Main Facility

In a Media Composer | Cloud workflow, editing systems at the broadcast station or post production facility need to enable dynamic relink so that they can relink to the media associated with AMA-linked clips uploaded by a remote Media Composer | Cloud client. In addition, they can also set the resolution of the uploaded media to which they want to relink—see ”Applying Working and Target Settings for Dynamic Relink” in the help for your editing application.

There are some differences in how dynamic relink functions with the clips uploaded from a remote editing system:

• Unlike typical dynamic relink operations, relinking with AMA media clips requires that you first load the clips associated with the AMA clip in a bin before you can relink.

• For some formats, AMA clips might not provide full media quality description. In this case, the Avid editing application relinks your clip to the available media that most closely matches the dynamic relink settings, ignoring any unspecified parameters.

• Dynamic relink always privileges managed media (Avid media that you have captured, consolidated, or transcoded) over linked AMA media because the quality of managed media is higher than linked AMA clips. Dynamic relink always selects managed media corresponding to an AMA clip if it is available and has been indexed by the media indexer.

Applying Working and Target Settings for Dynamic Relink

The Working Settings tab lets you specify the rules that determine the resolution you use when editing. For example, you might specify any low resolution or a specific single-field resolution because you are working on a 100Base-T connection and need to work with low-resolution material.


28

The Target Settings tab lets you specify the rules that determine the media that you use for your final output. For the target settings, you might want to select Relink to Offline if no match is found, because this setting provides a clearer warning if the desired resolution is not available.

To apply working and target settings:

1. Do one of the following:

t In the Settings list in the Project window, double-click Dynamic Relink.

t Right-click the MultiRez button at the bottom of the Timeline and select Dynamic Relink Settings.

2. Select Enable Dynamic Relink.

3. Click the Working Settings tab, and then select your working settings.

4. Click the Target Settings tab, and then select your target settings.

5. To apply the settings, do one of the following:

t Click Apply.

The dialog box remains open.

t Click OK.

The dialog box closes.

As long as Dynamic Relink is enabled, your Avid editing application uses the working settings to dynamically relink material while you edit. Applying the target settings, however, does not dynamically relink a sequence to the target settings. You need to take one of the actions described in ”Dynamically Relinking to the Target Settings” in the help for your Avid editing application.

n You can use the MultiRez button in the Timeline to instruct your Avid editing application to color any clips for which media is not available. This is especially important because it indicates if you can create the finished sequence in the target resolution. For more information, see ”Displaying Whether Media is Available for Dynamic Relinking” in the help for the Avid editing application.

4 Using Your Avid Editing Application with Media Composer | Cloud

When you use Media Composer Cloud, you can edit media either stored locally on your system or stored on an Interplay server back at your production facility or broadcast station. With Media Composer Cloud, you connect to your Interplay server by way of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) using either a Wi-Fi or a wireless connection. The ability to edit both local and remote media allows you to create and edit your sequence from a remote location, using all of the media captured from your camera locally as well as the media available in your Interplay database.

Using Media Composer Cloud for remote editing also provides for the quick uploading of your content from a remote location and checking it in to Interplay as you work. The transfer of media assets works automatically and in the background so that you can continue editing without having to spend your time creating separate output files, compressing sequences, uploading files to a server, and checking them in to Interplay.

n Media Composer | Cloud is not supported in Avid Unity MediaNetwork configurations.

The remote editing workflow consists of all or some of the following components, depending on your configuration and needs:

• Installation and configuration of an Avid editing remote applications on a local computer.

• Configuration of Interplay servers to support remote editing.

• Access to a remote broadcast or production facility network using a Wi-Fi or mobile connection and a VPN protocol.

• Access to an Interplay system using the Avid editing application installed on a local system.

• Ability to browse and use media stored on the Interplay system.

• Creation of remote Avid Media Access (AMA) clips. These clips use a configured MediaCentral Platform Services (MCS) server to stream media from the remote Interplay system to the local computer for editing.

• Edit both remote clips and local media in a single sequence.

• Background consolidate or transcode of the sequence prior to uploading remote clips to Interplay. This creates a sequence with locally-managed clips.

Working with Remote Editing

30

• Check in of consolidated sequence to Interplay. Clips are transferred to the Interplay system using a local transfer manager service that runs in the background without the need of additional configuration. The remote upload service can first upload clips at a proxy resolution, and then upload the full-resolution clips when time and bandwidth allow. The clips are automatically checked in to Interplay.

• Check out the uploaded clips at the broadcast or production facility. You need to use dynamic relink to link the uploaded clips to the uploaded media files now checked in to Interplay.

You can also download remote clips and then edit with Media Composer Cloud while your system is disconnected from Interplay Production. For information on downloading remote clips, see “Using Remote Download” on page 49.

The following workflows are not supported with Media Composer | Cloud while working as a remote client:

• Editing or playing in-progress clips (edit while capture media)

• Editing or playing multicamera media

• Performing a digital cut or exporting sequences that include remote media

Working with Remote EditingThere are several configuration steps you need to complete before you can access remote media or upload clips to Interplay using the Media Composer Cloud workflow with your Avid editing application. Before you start using remote editing features, you should have installed and configured your Interplay applications and services. These services must be running before you start the editing application.

n The remote editing feature does not require that the Avid Unity ISIS Client Manager is installed on your system. However, if you have installed Client Manager, you should not mount any ISIS workspaces.

Configuring Interplay Settings on the Remote Editing System

You need to specify three Interplay settings before you can view or use remote editing:

• Interplay Server — Use this setting to specify the computer name of the Interplay Server.

• Interplay User — Use this setting to specify the Interplay user account to use when logging into Interplay.


31

n The Interplay user must also be listed as an ISIS client with read/write privileges in order to use\ the remote upload functionality of Media Composer Cloud.

• Interplay Folder — Use this setting to specify where assets are checked into the Interplay database when you use remote upload function.

You need to log in to the Interplay database through the Interplay User setting before you can specify the Interplay Folder settings.

To configure Interplay settings:

1. Start your Avid editing application.

2. Click the Settings tab in the Project window.

3. Double-click Interplay Server.

The Interplay Server Settings dialog box opens.

4. In the Interplay Server Name text box, type the computer name or IP address of your Interplay server, and then click OK.

It is important to type the correct computer name or IP address. This is the location where the editing system looks to access the database and to check in and check out Avid assets.

5. In the Settings list, double-click Interplay User.

The Interplay User Settings dialog box opens.

6. In the User Name text box, type a user name.


32

This name must be a known user on your workgroup system.


7. Select “Automatic Login at Project Selection” if you want to log in to the Interplay database automatically every time you open a project.

If you do not select this option, you must open this dialog box when you want to access the database.

8. Click Login to establish the connection to the Interplay database.

The Interplay Login dialog box opens, with the server name you specified in the Interplay Server Settings as the Host Name.

9. In the Interplay Login dialog box, select Remote Client, and then type your password, and click OK.

When the blinking yellow light in the upper left of the dialog box turns green, you are connected to the Interplay database and the dialog box closes.

10. In the Project Settings, double-click Interplay Folder.

The Interplay Folder Settings dialog box opens.


33

11. Click the Set button, and a directory tree is displayed for the Interplay database that you logged in to.

12. Select a folder to use as the default Interplay Root Folder for your project and click OK.

The Interplay Folder setting defines where assets are checked into the Interplay database when you use the remote upload function. Interplay checks media in to a subfolder of the folder you specify in this dialog box. The subfolder is named after the bin whose assets you are checking in.

13. (Option) Select options to verify the directory path.

- On login: If this setting is selected, a message box asks you to confirm the directory path after you log in to Interplay. Select “for new projects only” if you want this message box displayed only after you create a new project.

- On first checkin: If this setting is selected, a message box asks you to confirm the directory path the first time you check in from a project. This message is displayed once each time you work in a project.

14. Click OK.

Interplay Settings for the Media Composer | Cloud User

For users to play back remote media from their Interplay | Production system, the Interplay administrator must set two matching user credentials, one in the Application Settings in the Interplay Administrator tool and the other in System Settings in MediaCentral | UX. The credentials must be identical and unique for Media Composer Cloud users. For more information, see your Interplay or MediaCentral administrator.



34

Stopping and Starting Media Indexer on a Mac OS X System

In an Interplay environment, if your Avid editing application cannot connect to the Media Indexer running on your system the application displays the following message when it starts: “Could not connect to the Media Indexer. Verify the health of the Media Indexer service.” Failure to connect to the Media Indexer prevents the application from finding the online media for your project. To correct this problem, you need to stop and then restart the Media Indexer service.

For Media Composer Cloud users, you need to restart the Media Indexer service when the IP address of your system changes — for example, when you switch from an Ethernet connection to a wireless (Wi-Fi or 4G) connection.

n You must be logged in to your Mac OS X system with an administrative account to stop and restart the Media Indexer service.

To stop and restart the Media Indexer service using the Terminal window:

1. Open a Terminal window by selecting Applications > Utilities > Terminal.

2. At the prompt, type the following and press Return:

cd /Applications/Avid\ Media\ Indexer/bin

3. The Terminal window might prompt you for your password. Type your administrative password and press Return.

4. To stop the service, type the following and press Return:

sudo ./mi.sh remove

The Media Indexer service stops.

5. To restart the Media Indexer service, type the following and press Return:

sudo ./mi.sh install

The Media Indexer service restarts. You might have to wait up to 30 seconds for the service to complete the restart operation.

Using Remote Media

Once you configure the Interplay settings on your Avid editing application, you can remotely view, play, and edit media checked in to Interplay. When you access Interplay assets remotely, audio and video master clips are streamed to your remote system using the MediaCentral Platform Services (MCS) server.

n Depending on your connection, it might take up to 30 seconds to connect to the Media Indexer when you first open your Avid editing application or when you first open the Interplay Window. If you experience a delay and a message box opens, you can choose to Cancel the operation or to Wait. If you select Wait, the connection to Media Indexer should complete after a few moments.

Using the Disk Cache to Manage Cached Media

35

Remote clips and subclips use icons different from the usual clip icons to differentiate them from local master clips and clips checked out of Interplay.

To access remote media clips:

1. In the Settings list, double-click Interplay User and log in to Interplay.

If you have not configured your Interplay settings, follow the procedure in “Configuring Interplay Settings on the Remote Editing System” on page 30.

2. Select Tools > Interplay Window.

The Interplay Window opens.

3. Open your Interplay project folder and drag a clip to your bin.

Remote master clips appear in bins with the remote clip icon.


When you remotely play back media from your Interplay environment, the Avid editing application caches media to enhance playback performance. The application stores the cached media in a folder on your local system called CloudCache so that each subsequent playback of the clip proceeds smoothly. The cache folder can fill up quickly with unneeded media files, so the editing application deletes the cached files periodically. You can control the size of the cache folder and you can clear the cache manually if needed.

Remote clip icon

Remote subclip icon

Remote sequence icon


36

You can also clear the cache both locally and on the MCS system that streams the remote media if you want to ensure that the media playing back reflects the most current version of your sequence.

To configure the Media Composer Cloud cache settings:


2. Double-click Cloud Playback.

The Cloud Playback Settings dialog box opens.

3. If you want to change the default folder for cached media files, click Browse and navigate to the appropriate folder on your system.

4. If you want to modify the maximum size of the cache folder, click the Disk Cache Size text box and enter a new number. The default size is 2 GB.

To clear the disk cache of cached media:




3. Click Clear Local Caches.

The Avid editing system deletes all files in the CloudCache folder. The folder is recreated the next time you play back remote media.

To refresh the remote media cache on your local disk and the MCS system, do one of the following:

t Right-click a clip or sequence in the bin, and then select Refresh Remote Media.

Setting Playback Quality for Remote Media

37

t Select Bin > Refresh Remote Media.

The Avid editing system deletes all files for the clip in the CloudCache folder and on the MCS system. The folder is recreated the next time you play back remote media.

Setting Playback Quality for Remote Media

You can choose to play back either low or high resolution remote media. The default setting is Low. You should only play back remote media at high quality when your connection to Interplay supports high resolution playback — for example, if you have an Ethernet connection to your Interplay system. If your connection appears slow, set the playback quality to Low

If you change your playback setting from Low to High, you must clear the media cache and reload your clip in the Source/Record monitor. For information on clearing the cache, see “Using the Disk Cache to Manage Cached Media” on page 35.

To set the playback quality for remote media:




3. Select either Low (the default setting) or High.

4. Click OK.

Uploading Media Using the Remote Upload ServiceYou can use Media Composer Cloud to upload clips and segments within sequences stored on your system and check them in to Interplay using a VPN connection. The upload operation automatically transcodes your media to the resolution specified in the Cloud Upload Settings dialog box and stores the transcoded media in a folder called Avid Transcode. When you upload a sequence, only the segments of clips used in your sequence are transcoded.

Uploading Media Using the Remote Upload Service

38

When you remotely upload sequences or clips, the Avid editing application creates a new subfolder in Interplay as a destination for the uploaded clips. The Upload folder is located in the Interplay folder named for your bin. All uploaded clips appear with an appended tag to indicate their upload status. For example, if you use a clip called ClipA in a sequence stored in Bin1, enable Remote Sync, and then save Bin1, ClipA is uploaded to the subfolder Bin1/Upload with the clip name ClipA,upload, n, where n is incremented each time Bin1 is saved and ClipA is uploaded during the Remote Sync operation. This prevents your bin folder in Interplay from filling up with multiple versions of your uploaded clip.

When you remotely upload a sequence, the following occurs:

• The clips in your sequence are uploaded and checked in to Interplay. The operation only uploads the frames from the segments used in the sequence.

• If your sequence uses multiple clips, each segment is transcoded separately. The upload service then creates one job for each transcoded clip, which are listed in the Upload/Download Queue window.

• The upload service checks to see if the clip being uploaded already exists in the Interplay database at the requested resolution. If it does, the job is marked as complete and the Upload/Download Queue window displays the message, “Clip Already Exists.” When the segment selected for upload composes part of a larger clip, the upload service checks to see if the clip that is already checked in to Interplay includes the selected frames in the clip you want to upload. If so, the service marks the upload as complete. You can click the Details button in the Upload/Download Queue window to view information about the completed upload.

• If you enable Start Remote Sync Sequence, you can automatically upload sequence content when you make a change to the sequence by adding a new clip or modifying the frames contained in a segment — for example, by trimming a clip. The sync operation starts when the bin containing the sequence is saved. Remote sync does not upload clips that have not changed, although they do appear in the Upload/Download Queue window as completed jobs since they already exist in the Interplay database. For more information on remote sync, see “Syncing Sequences” on page 44.

In the Avid editing application In Avid Interplay

Bin1

• ClipA

Bin1\Upload

• ClipA,upload,1

• ClipA,upload,2

• ClipA,upload,3


39

• When Remote Sync Sequence is first enabled for a sequence, the sequence begins uploading immediately. Subsequent changes to the sequence are uploaded when the bin containing the sequence is saved (either manually or automatically).

• Because the uploaded proxy clips still point to the source clips on your local system, you need to enable dynamic relink from the production facility and relink to the online resolution in order to view the media from systems other than your local system.

Limitations on Remote Upload and Remote Download

The following limitations apply to remote upload:

• You cannot upload or download effects and precomputes for rendered effects and titles.

- You must render all effects and sequences at the production facility that includes your Interplay environment or render the downloaded effects once the download completes.

- For imported graphics with alpha channels — for example, titles and matte effects — you must re-import any graphics that contain alpha channels. If you are working on a remote Media Composer Cloud system, a user at the station or broadcast facility might need to send you the graphics so you can re-import them into the sequence.

- If you have a sequence with title media, checking in the sequence to Interplay or downloading the sequence from Interplay does transfer metadata for the title with the sequence. Once the operation completes, you can either check out the sequence at the production facility or import the title media on your remote system, and then use the Re-create Title Media command to restore the title to your sequence. For information on how to generate title media, see “Re-creating Title Media” in the help for your Avid editing application.

- For Avid key effects — for example, ChromaKey, Animatte, and Spectramatte effects — you only need to render the effects once the download or upload completes.

• You cannot automatically transcode and upload sequences with mixed frame rates. You must first manually transcode clips with frame rates different from the project frame rate.

• You can only transcode and upload audio clips in the PCM (MXF) format. WAVE (OMF) and AIFF-C (OMF) audio files are not supported.

• Audio transcode defaults to an audio bit depth of 16 bits. If your audio clips uses a different bit rate you should select the Same As Source setting in the Cloud Upload settings dialog box.

• Audio transcode defaults to an audio sample rate of 48 kHz. If your audio clips uses a different sample rate you should select the Same As Source setting in the Cloud Upload Settings dialog box. You cannot transcode audio clips to a 44kHz sample rate.

• For more information on limitations on remote upload, see “Supported Project Types and Formats” on page 54 and the Avid Media Composer | Cloud ReadMe.


40

Uploading Media

You can upload clips and sequences at specified resolutions. The remote upload operation transcodes your media and uploads clips in the background so you can continue working on your project.

When you upload media from your remote system to your Interplay environment, you can select which workspace you want to use for your upload. If your Interplay administrator sets the workspace options in the Interplay Administrator window, you can select a workspace from a menu in the Cloud Upload Settings dialog box. If the workspace options have not been set, you can type the name of the workspace in the Workspace text box. For more information, see your Interplay administrator.

To upload a clip or sequence from a remote client and check it in to Avid Interplay:

1. Open a bin with a clip or sequence you want to upload.

2. Right-click the clip or sequence, and then select Remote Upload.

The Cloud Upload Settings dialog box opens.


41

3. Select the appropriate options for your upload, including the upload quality, the local volume used for creating the proxy media, and a priority for upload jobs. For a description of upload options, see “Cloud Upload Settings” in the help for your Avid editing application. For information on selecting the Interplay workspace for remote uploads, see “Selecting the Upload Workspace” on page 42.

4. .Do one of the following:

t Select a workspace from the Workspace menu.

t Type the name of your workspace in the Workspace text box.

5. Click OK.

The Remote Upload Service begins to upload your clip or sequence, and the Remote Sync Progress button changes to a revolving icon to indicate the remote upload is in progress.

6. To view the progress of the upload operation, select Tools > Upload/Download Queue.

The Upload/Download Queue window opens and displays all current jobs.

7. (Option) If you upload multiple clips and want to change the upload priority of one or more clips — for example, to upload the most important clips first — click the Priority menu and select one of the following:

t High Priority

t Normal Priority

t Low Priority


42

n You can change the priority of your upload at any time during the transcode and upload operation. Changing the priority does not affect an upload operation currently in progress.

Selecting the Upload Workspace

When you upload media from your remote system to your Interplay environment, you can select which workspace you want to use for your upload. If your Interplay administrator sets the workspace options in the Interplay Administrator window, you can select a workspace from a menu in the Cloud Upload Settings dialog box in your Avid editing application. If the workspace options have not been set, you can type the name of the workspace in the Workspace text box.

To set the available workspaces for remote upload:


t Click the Start button and then select All Programs > Avid > Avid Interplay Access Utilities > Avid Interplay Administrator.

t From Interplay Access, select Tools > Open Interplay Administrator.

The Interplay Administrator Server Login screen appears.

2. Type the name of the server that you want to log in to. You can also use an IP address.

3. Type a user name and password for an account with administration rights.

4. Click Connect.

The Interplay Administrator window opens.


43

5. In the Application Settings area of the Interplay Administrator window, click the Media Composer | Cloud Settings icon.

The Media Composer | Cloud Settings display in the Interplay Administrator window.

6. Select a workspace from the Add menu, and then click Add.

The workspace displays in the Active list.

Repeat this step for each workspace you want to add.

7. Click Apply Changes.

To select a workspace for remote upload:

1. In Media Composer, open a bin with a clip or sequence you want to upload.

2. Right-click the clip or sequence, and then select Remote Upload.



44

3. .Do one of the following:

t Select a workspace from the Workspace menu.

t Type the name of your workspace in the Workspace text box.

4. Click OK.

Syncing Sequences

You can set the sequence you work on to update the clips checked in to Interplay every time you save your bin. When you make a change in your sequence with remote sync turned on, your Avid editing application automatically initiates a new remote upload operation so that the clips checked in to Interplay match the clips used in your sequence. Syncing your sequence checks in the clips to Interplay, but it does not automatically check in the sequence. Sequences get checked in to Interplay only when you remotely upload the sequence itself.

When you upload and sync sequences, the sequence icon in the bin changes to a remote sequence icon.


45

To sync a sequence with Avid Interplay:


t Right-click the sequence in the bin, and then select Start Remote Sync Sequence.

t Click the Start Remote Sync Sequence button in the Timeline.


Media Composer | Cloud and Dynamic Relink

46

2. Select the appropriate options for your remote sync operation. For a description of upload options, see “Cloud Upload Settings” in the help for your Avid editing application.

3. Click OK.

The Remote Upload Service begins to sync your sequence with the clips already checked in to Interplay, and the Remote Sync Progress button changes to a revolving icon to indicate the sync is in progress.

4. To view the progress of the sync operation, select Tools > Upload/Download Queue.


To stop remote sync:


t Right-click the sequence in the bin, and then select Stop Remote Sync Sequence.

t Click the Stop Remote Sync Sequence button in the Timeline.

Media Composer | Cloud and Dynamic RelinkWhen you upload media to your Interplay environment at the broadcast station or production facility, you use dynamic relink to link the clips in your sequence to the high resolution uploaded media.

Upload/Download Queue Dialog Box

47

n To use dynamic relink, you need to transfer your remote media to your Interplay environment using a standard Ethernet connection.

Because the clips in your sequence initially link to the source clips’ original location and not to the uploaded media, they might display as offline when you open your sequence back at the station or production facility, or when you open the sequence from another remote system, unless you first enable dynamic relink. If you check the clips in Interplay Access, you might see the file paths for uploaded clips point to their original remote editing location, and the status of the media displays as offline or not available in the target resolution. You use dynamic relink to resolve the links between the sequence and clips checked in to Interplay and the uploaded media:

1. On a system at the station or production facility where you uploaded your media, enable dynamic relink in the Dynamic Relink Settings dialog box. Set the appropriate target and working settings for your project so that the clips used in your sequence correctly link to the online (uploaded) media.

2. Open your sequence in an Avid editing application.

3. Check in your sequence to Interplay.

4. To update the file paths in Interplay Access, you need to update your media by either right-clicking your clips in your bins and selecting Update from Interplay, or right-clicking your master clips in Access and selecting Update Status from Media Indexer.

For more information on dynamic relink, see ”Using MultiRez and Dynamic Relink” in the help for your Avid editing application.

There are some differences in how dynamic relink functions with the clips you upload remotely as opposed to with standard MXF media clips:

• Unlike typical dynamic relink operations, relinking with AMA media clips requires that you first load the clips associated with the AMA clip in a bin before you can relink.

• For some formats, AMA clips might not provide full media quality description. In this case, the Avid editing application relinks your clip to the available media that most closely matches the dynamic relink settings, ignoring any unspecified parameters.

• Dynamic relink always privileges managed media (Avid media that you have captured, consolidated, or transcoded) over linked AMA media because the quality of managed media is higher than linked AMA clips. Dynamic relink always selects managed media corresponding to an AMA clip if it is available and has been indexed by the media indexer.

Upload/Download Queue Dialog BoxThe Upload/Download Queue dialog box displays the status of all media selected for remote upload.

Upload/Download Queue Dialog Box

48

1

3

4

6

2

5

Element Description

1 Tool menu Provides options for the Upload/Download Queue window:

• Clear Inactive Jobs — clears the Upload/Download Queue window of all jobs not currently transcoding or uploading.

• Show Job Groups — allows you to display or hide specific job groups listed in the menu.

2 Clip or Sequence name Lists either the name of the uploaded sequence above the clips within the sequence or the name of the uploaded clip.

3 Cancel/Resume button Changes from a Cancel button (for upload operations) to a Resume button (for suspended uploads).

4 Completed icon Indicates that the upload operation has completed successfully.

5 Progress bar Displays the percentage of the transcode and upload processes that have completed.

6 Priority menu Sets or modifies the priority level assigned to an uploaded clip or sequence. Options are High Priority, Normal Priority (default), Low Priority. The priority level affects which clips get uploaded first.

Using Remote Download

49

Using Remote DownloadMedia Composer Cloud allows you to play media checked in to your Interplay Production system at the station or production facility. You can also download remote sequences, clips, or subclips to a local drive on your Media Composer Cloud client system using the remote download feature. This allows you to edit the remote media locally even when you do not have a connection to Interplay Production.

When you download a remote master clip, the whole clip is copied to your system. When you download subclips or sequences, only those parts of the source master clips used by the subclip or sequence are downloaded, along with the specified handles for your media.

When you download media from Interplay Production to your system, the resolution that downloads is the resolution that matches the dynamic relink settings specified in Media Composer. You cannot specify a different resolution for your download.

n You must have dynamic relink enabled to use the remote download feature.

After the job is finished and you reload the downloaded media in the Source/Record monitor, the remote clip icon in the bin changes to the standard clip icon to indicate that the media is now local, and Media Composer uses the relinked local media. Once you reload the clip in the monitor, you can disconnect from Interplay Production and use the local media that you downloaded.

To download remote media to your system:

1. Select a remote clip or sequence in your bin. Ctrl+click (Windows) or Cmd+click (Macintosh) multiple clips to add them to your selection.

Remote clips are identified in the bin by the remote clip icon.


t Select Bin > Remote Download.

t Right-click the clip or sequence and select Remote Download.

The Cloud Download Settings dialog box opens.

Using Remote Download

50

3. Set the appropriate options for your download:

- Local Volume — Select a local drive to store the downloaded media.

n An Avid ISIS system is not supported as local storage for Media Composer Cloud.

- Priority — You can select High, Normal, or Low for the download priority (the default is Normal). The priority level affects which clips get downloaded first.

- Handles — You can specify a handle for the clip in frames (the default is 30 frames).

4. Click OK.

Media Composer Cloud initiates a download of the media that includes all cuts (including handles) from the Interplay Production database at the station or production facility.

If you do not have dynamic relink enabled, an dialog box informs you that you cannot use the downloaded media. You can click Cancel, enable dynamic relink, and then start the download again.

5. To view the progress of the upload operation, select Tools > Upload/Download Queue.


6. (Option) If you have multiple download jobs and want to change the priority a job so that it downloads before other jobs, click the Priority menu and select one of the following:

t High Priority

t Normal Priority

t Low Priority

Priority applies to jobs. If your download job includes multiple clips, you cannot change the priority on individual clips.

Send-to-Playback and Media Composer | Cloud (Windows Only)

51

n You can change the priority of your download at any time during the download operation. Changing the priority does not affect a download operation currently in progress.

7. When the process completes, reload the media from your bin to the Source/Record monitor to use the local copy of your downloaded media.

n You must reload the downloaded clips or sequences in the monitor to relink it to the local media. If you disconnect from Interplay Production before you relink your clips, Media Composer cannot use the local media.


You can send media files on your Media Composer Cloud client system to a workgroup playback device or to a generic file transfer protocol (FTP) playback location. Before you can begin a send-to-playback operation, you must install the standalone Interplay Transfer client software and configure your settings in the Transfer Settings dialog box. For information on installing and configuring Interplay Transfer, see the Media Composer Cloud Installation and Configuration Guide.

n You must connect to your Interplay system before you can use remote send-to-playback.

The send-to-playback functionality has the following limitations when using Media Composer Cloud:

• To use the send-to-playback functionality from a Media Composer Cloud remote client, you must have sufficient bandwidth for the transfer. Depending on the stability and bandwidth of your connection, you might not experience the same performance you would with an installation of the standalone Transfer client in a typical, non-remote configuration.

• Using the STP Encode or Play While Transferring options is not supported.

• You cannot use remote send-to-playback for incoming transfers, ingest operations, or workgroup to workgroup transfers.

When you want to send a sequence on your Media Composer Cloud system to playback, you can use the standalone Interplay Transfer to send your media to playback directly from your remote client, using a basic Send to Playback command from Media Composer Cloud to a playback device or a general FTP site. However, if most of the media in your sequence is already available at your facility, it might be more practical to send the sequence to playback from your broadcast facility.

n The following procedure assumes you have installed the Interplay Transfer standalone client application and configured your transfer settings.


52

To send assets and media files for playback using Media Composer Cloud:

1. Make sure you are connected to your Interplay system.

2. In the Avid editing application, click the Settings tab in the Project window.

3. Double-click Transfer in the Settings list.

The Transfer Settings dialog box opens.

4. Click the TMClient.ini tab.

5. In the Other Workgroups area, click Add.

The Add Workgroup To List dialog box opens.


53

If you want to edit the names of any of the Interplay Transfer servers or workstations listed in the Other Workgroups area, select the name, click Edit, and make the changes.

6. In the Server text box, type the computer name of other workstation, and in the Workgroup text box, type the name you want to see in the Transfer menu.

7. Click OK.

The name you typed displays in the Other Workgroups list.

8. Click OK to close the Transfer Settings dialog box.

9. Select the sequence you want to send to a playback device or FTP location.

10. Select Transfer > Send To Playback, and select the profile for the server to which you want to send the sequence.

The Send to Playback dialog box opens.

11. Do the following:

t Type a tape ID name.

t (Option) Select Overwrite, to overwrite the tape ID name in the Interplay Transfer if the same name exists.

12. Click OK.

The system immediately starts the send to playback operation.

Supported Project Types and Formats

54

Supported Project Types and FormatsFor information on the supported Project types and Formats for Media Composer Cloud, see the Media Composer | Cloud ReadMe.

Avid75 Network DriveBurlington, MA 01803-2756 USA

Technical Support (USA)Visit the Online Support Center at www.avid.com/support

Product InformationFor company and product information, visit us on the web at www.avid.com

avid remote editing workflow...

Documents