As mentioned during the event, we’re going to be continuing these meetups every 3 months or so, along with our partner, StudioSysAdmins. This social network for techs in the entertainment industry is an amazing resource for information, news, and a high-level of technical dialog via its email list, website, and forum.

If any of our customers or partners are interested in presenting at a future event about recent projects that the community would be interested in, please let us know. Thanks all, and stay tuned for more info on future events!

Some pics of the event below:

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Since then, Apple has released Final Cut Server 1.5, but Charlie still has plenty of insight on digital asset management solutions. So does Drew Tucker of Apple, the author of the latest book in the Apple Pro Training Series on this very topic.

• How has the landscape changed in the 24 months since version 1.1?
• How can Final Cut Server be integrated with third party and home-grown systems to accomplish transcoding, approval, and distribution workflows?
• Is Final Cut Server the right solution for your asset management needs?

Both Drew and Charlie will weigh in on these questions — and much more in the digital asset management arena — at the Advanced Asset Management Integration with Final Cut Server event on September 22 at 6:30 at Control Group’s headquarters (233 Broadway, 21st Floor).

We’ll also have plenty of food and drink on hand!

Reserve your spot by emailing RSVP@controlgroup.com.

We look forward to seeing you!

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Advanced Asset Management Integration with Final Cut Server
Wednesday, September 22, 2010, 6:30–8:00pm
Control Group, 233 Broadway, 21st Floor (corner of Park Place)

Join Control Group and StudioSysAdmins as we present Drew Tucker, author of the latest title in the Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Server 1.5.

We will be discussing the catalyst events and changes to production workflow that can create a need for asset management, archiving, and centralized transcoding. We’ll also talk about Final Cut Server integrations like publishing video to online distribution platforms, passing assets to third party transcoding engines, and dealing with advanced review and approval workflow.

The event will take place in Control Group’s newly expanded offices in the historic Woolworth Building. Drew will remain on hand afterward to answer all of your Final Cut Server questions, and we’ll have plenty of local, seasonal beers to celebrate the autumn solstice!!!

For more information or to RSVP, please email rsvp@controlgroup.com.

Control Group: Technology for Big Ideas.

Control Group is a technology services firm that provides insightful business analysis and integrated technology solutions including infrastructure, architecture, software, engineering and support for some of the most innovative companies in media and entertainment, like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, IMG/Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, World Wrestling Entertainment, Walker Digital Gaming and Studio Daniel Libeskind. Our whole-business perspective results in solutions that not only make our clients more efficient, but also creates true competitive advantage, while increasing bottom line and improving shareholder value.

About StudioSysAdmins

StudioSysAdmins is a social networking community dedicated to improving infrastructure, workflows and support across the Entertainment Industry. It’s an expanding community with one common site that joins Systems Administrators, Technical Directors, Pipeline Developers, Consultants, Hardware/Software Support Engineers and Hardware/Software Vendors and Resellers (VARs) that currently work in and/or support production studios in the areas of animation, visualization, visual-fx, film, and games.

Our goal is to enable the sharing of all non-proprietary information among all of our Members and to maintain open discussions between Studios, Vendors and VARs to determine standards in order to help improve support for the installation, implementation, monitoring and maintenance of hardware, software and operating systems.

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Other panelists included Jess Hartmann, CEO of media technology company ProMAX Systems; Gina James, Director of Content Management at NBC Universal; Stephen Beres, Technology Architect at HBO; Chris Duffy, StorNext Product Marketing Manager for Quantum; and Rob Brambila, Director of Technology for ProMAX.

The overall discussion covered content storage, best practices and recent technology changes.

In particular, Charlie talked about the struggle that growing companies have with asset management as well as problems with access, accountability and infrastructure.

Listen to Charlie’s comments in full here in Createasphere’s free archive.

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First, a quick discussion of semantics:

When you ingest a media file into Final Cut Server, it creates an asset. This asset is actually a collection of files, including the original media file, or primary representation. If the file being uploaded is a graphics or video file, Final Cut Server creates additional representations: a poster frame and a thumbnail. These are used to represent the asset’s media within Final Cut Server. If the file being uploaded is a video asset, a clip proxy representation is also generated, used for viewing the file within Final Cut Server.  This representation is created by transcoding the primary representation file to a lower-resolution codec.

Asset Representations in Final Cut Server

So a video asset is actually a container that’s made up of a bunch of files. This is pretty cool, and it’s mostly transparent to the end-user in Final Cut Server. However, while these representations are customizable (codecs, quality, etc), they all generated on ingest. Final Cut Server doesn’t currently support a way to create a new representation of an asset on-the-fly and have that representation become part of the asset container.

I’m struggling with this limitation as I explore Final Cut Server/Episode Engine integration. It would be ideal if I could setup Episode integration via a Final Cut Server copy response to an Episode watch folder, and have the resulting transcoded file copied back into Final Cut Server and made a representation of the original asset. Right now there’s no way to do this, so instead we are only able to re-ingest the new transcoded file as a new asset. And there is no relationship between this new asset and the original asset from which it was created.

Frustrating, but we’re thinking about ways around this. More to come as our tests and thinking solidifies. More info on Episode Engine/Final Cut Server integration in this pdf from Telestream’s website.

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Final Cut Server client

Apple markets Final Cut Server as a tool primarily for Final Cut Pro users. Apple’s focus is on enabling users to manage their FCP projects and related files, providing them with automations to save time, and giving production teams a centralized system for collaboration. Beyond Apple’s sales pitch, we think Final Cut Server has real potential to play a central role in a production and distribution platform made up of a framework of connected systems.

Here’s an example of a typical broadcast infrastructure:

• Storage area network (SAN) for storage
• Media asset management system (MAM) for organizing and versioning
• Editor/artist workstations
• Producer workstations
• A transcode system for delivery

Now here’s an example of how those pieces might fit together in a broadcast workflow:

1. Content from tape or tapeless media is ingested through the MAM. Metadata is added at ingest – both technical metadata (shot, tape, take, etc) and possibly contextual metadata (actor, object brands, locations).
2. Data is saved to the SAN, where it is cut and crafted by editors and artists. As the content comes together, project files and new assets are saved to the SAN by editors and artists, and reviewed by producers.
3. As content is completed, it is transcoded for delivery to television, tape, and the web. Web distribution might include delivery in a custom player, and/or Hulu, YouTube, Vimeo.
4. Once content is in the wild, content owners need analytics tools to understand who is watching what and where.

Beyond its out-of-the box capabilities, Final Cut Server can be customized to play a key role in workflows like these. While it doesn’t include an API, developers can leverage custom responses in Final Cut Server to read and write XML and run external scripts. On its developer website, Apple provides an example of Final Cut Server integration with an external Rails application that enables the viewing and commenting of movie clips in a web browser. An example like this serves as a useful starting place when exploring building the middleware to connect Final Cut Server to other applications or platforms in a workflow.

Episode Engine Admin

For example, Final Cut Server leverages Compressor for all of its out-of-the-box transcoding. However many existing infrastructures exist using established transcoding systems, such as Telestream’s Episode Engine. By combining metadata subscriptions and watch folders in Final Cut Server with custom responses that leverage external scripts, Episode can easily be integrated as the transcode delivery component for a Final Cut Server workflow. Similarly, the ability to read and write XML to assets in Final Cut Server makes possible the development of web applications that interact with assets, and can even store information in their own disparate databases, populating Final Cut Server when appropriate.

What excites us about this are the many Final Cut Server integration possibilities that are not currently being talked about. And since Control Group marries Apple video integration expertise with a team of developers under the same roof, we’re excited to continue to innovate in this area. Give us a shout if you’d like to open up a dialog on how Final Cut Server might fit into your broadcast or production workflow.

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