EVS TUTORIALS XFILE 3 Table of Contents 1. XFILE 3... 2 2. HARDWARE AND CONNECTIONS... 2 3. OPERATING MODES INTRODUCTION... 2 4. AUTO ARCHIVE MODE... 3 4.1. AUTO ARCHIVE WINDOW OVERVIEW... 3 4.2. CREATE AN AUTOBACKUP RULE... 3 5. ARCHIVE MODE... 5 5.1. ARCHIVE WINDOW OVERVIEW... 5 5.2. CREATE ARCHIVE JOBS... 5 6. RESTORE MODE... 6 6.1. RESTORE WINDOW OVERVIEW... 6 6.2. CREATE RESTORE JOBS... 7 7. MONITORING... 8 8. TEMPLATE EDITOR... 9 1
1. Welcome to the tutorial. The aim of this tutorial is to present the software application and describe its main operations. The purpose of the is to archive selected content from EVS servers to external hard drives and enable restoring content from hard drives back to EVS servers. This offers the possibility to transport easily content from and to remote production facilities. Based on its intuitive user interface, can be used by LSM operators, producers, truck engineers without requiring hours of training. 2. Hardware and Connections The software requires only a Gigabit Ethernet connection with the EVS servers. There is no SDTI connectivity required as it was the case in the past with the former XFile application. Besides we also need a connection between all the server PC LAN ports and the Hardware so that its Software can check for the available servers on the IT network. A dedicated Hardware is also needed to run the application. 3. Operating Modes Introduction Double click on the icon on the desktop to start the application. The startup sequence will check the status of background Xsquare services and will discover the available EVS servers on the network. Different modes are available depending on the type of operations we need to perform. The Auto Archive mode, the Archive mode, the Restore mode, and finally the Monitoring mode. By default, when starting up the system, it's the Auto Archive Mode that is selected. 2
4. Auto Archive Mode 4.1. Auto Archive Window Overview The Auto Archive window is divided into 6 different zones. 1. The Sources zone is the area where all the detected servers are displayed with their clip structure, including pages and banks. 2. The Templates zone is the area that displays the available Xsquare templates. A template in the background running Xsquare application specifies a job process that needs to be applied to the media - for instance it defines the wrapper profile or if transcoding is involved or not. 3. The third area, which is the Destinations zone, displays all the destinations relative to the selected template. 4. The Filters zone displays all the options available to create autobackup rules. 5. A zone with the button to create the autobackup rule once our configuration is done. 6. And finally, at the bottom, the Job zone that displays all the autobackup rules created and the related job statuses. 4.2. Create an Autobackup Rule To create a rule, we will have to work with the different zones of the interface from left to right. This way of working will be the same for the different modes. Let's start by selecting: a source - for example "New York Trainer", a Page - number 4, and the bank number 1. This will define the location on the server for which the clips will be included in the autobackup rule. 3
We can note that the number between brackets represents each time the number of clips in the respective element. For the second step, we can pick one of the templates available in the interface, for example EVS MXF. In this case, the clips that will be backed up will be wrapped in an EVS MXF file without transcoding. Once we have selected a template we see a destination appearing in the next zone. Let's click on the dots, and browse to the location where we want to autobackup our files. And press OK to confirm. If needed, we can refine the filters to define more precisely the clips that have to be included in the autobackup rule. We can do this in the filter area by - for example: selecting a Preferred Camera, defining a period in time by entering a 'from' and a 'to' date, selecting a specific camera angle, defining a rating, selecting the archive flag, or even by selecting some keywords that were used during the production. The archive flag relates to the clips that have been flagged to be archived from the LSM remote. As we can see it is possible to combine different filters so that we have a precise selection of the clips that need to be backed up automatically. When the Source, Template, Destination and Filters have been defined, we can click on the Create autobackup rule button. The rule is activated and the will back up all the clips that match the criteria defined in the rule. We can now follow up all the transfers processed and related to the autobackup rule we created. Each rule will display its related transfers. It is possible to change the priority applied by the rule on the different clips. Let's right click on a clip of the cue and select "Process As Soon As Possible. This will give the clip a higher priority and it will initiate its transfer before the clips without priority. 4
5. Archive Mode 5.1. Archive Window Overview Clicking on the second button gives us access to the Archive mode. Unlike in the Autoarchive mode, in this mode the clips to back up need to be selected manually. Its window contains 5 zones, 1. The Sources zone contains the same elements as in the Autoarchive window but additionally it also contains an area where the respective clips are displayed. 2. The Templates zone displays the available Xsquare templates. 3. The third area displays all the destinations relative to the selected template. 4. The zone with the button to create the backup job once our configuration is done. 5. And finally, at the bottom, the Job zone that displays all the job statuses. 5.2. Create Archive Jobs In the same way as for the Auto Archive mode, we will work from left to right. Let's start by selecting a source, for example "New York User 1", Page 5, and bank 1, This will display all the clips from this specific bank. And we can select one. But we can also make a multi selection of several clips. 5
We can then select a template out of the list. For instance EVS MXF. And we can define the destination to which the clips have to be backed up. Click on the Create Job button to initialize the backup of the clips we selected. In the Job Zone, we can now follow up the transfers that are processed. The jobs have now all been processed. 6. Restore Mode 6.1. Restore Window Overview The third tab enables us to restore files from external hard drives to any EVS server on the network. We can underline that the detects the codec in which the server is running. This offers the advantage that it will transcode the file during the restore process if it s needed. The Restore main window contains 5 zones. 1. The Sources zone displays all the hard drives connected on one side and the respective files that they contain on the other side, together with their associated metadata. A quick search tool is available and helps to easily search for specific clips based on clip name or on keywords for instance. 2. The Destinations zone gives the list of EVS servers detected on the network with the usual Pages and Banks structure. In the right side area, we can find the available clip positions for the selected Page and Bank. 3. The Options zone offers a few settings to define the way that the selected content needs to be restored to the server. 4. The button to start the restore job. 5. And finally, at the bottom, the Job zone that displays all the job statuses. 6
6.2. Create Restore Jobs To restore some content, we first have to select the source in the zone on the left side of the window, for example "Back Up Disk", and select the EVS clip that we wish to restore. One or multiple clips can be selected at the same time. Select the destination. For example: New York User 2, Page 2, Bank 1, and position 212A As we have selected multiple clips, this position 212A will be the starting point from which the different clips will be restored based on the options that we will select now. The Options area gives us the opportunity to restore for example only to positions corresponding to the camera angle A, so every clip will get its own Clip Number. Or we can maintain the same topology as how the clips have been backed up before. Depending on our selection, more or less destinations will be shown. Once our selection is made, we can click on the Create Job button and the restore process will be initiated. The different jobs can be monitored in the Jobs zone at the bottom of the window. 7
7. Monitoring The Monitoring window is divided into 2 areas. 1. The Hard Disk zone, where all the detected hard drives are displayed. 2. And the Task zone, which displays all the tasks in archive or restore mode. From this window we have a good overview off all the transfers managed by the system. They can be filtered on their mode. Either Archive or Restore simply by clicking on the respective button. A more accurate search can even be performed by using the Quick Search tool in the different columns or by sorting on the columns themselves. From this window, we can also prioritize certain jobs by clicking on the Process As Soon As Possible button related to the job. At the end of a production, we can export a Storyboard related to a specific hard drive. This is a list of all the clips that have been backed up on the selected drive. Once this is done, we can click on the Eject button to properly disconnect the hard drive from our XFile hardware. 8
Two other functions are available in this Monitoring window: 1. The first one is for database maintenance purposes. It enables to delete all the jobs or only the obsolete ones, or to backup the database and logs if needed. 2. The second button is to clear all the finished jobs so that the list only displays the transfers still in process. 8. Template Editor Several templates are available by default in the application. But it is also possible to customize these templates if needed. For example, let's create a multi target template. This can be useful when we need to back up clips twice: once as a main clip and secondly as a backup clip, but towards a different hard drive. This function is only available in the Archive and Auto Archive modes. Select the template EVS MXF and click on the small pencil in the upper right zone of the template area. A new window will open. On the left side of the window, we can add a second destination by clicking on the plus icon and select Add File Destination. Let's select an Encoder/Wrapper profile from the list depending on the output profile that we need. We will now back up 2 times the clips as EVS MXF files which corresponds to a multi destination configuratio. It is also possible to select another type of file format. 9
For instance the first destination remains the same, but for the second one we will change it into OP1A because the customer is editing on an Avid station. We just have to select another Encoder/Wrapper profile. If we want to have even more destinations, we can click on the plus button again and select another profile. But we always have to keep in mind that the more transfers we will generate, the longer it will take to complete the backup process. Once the settings are entered, we can press Save As to give this template a custom name. Now the profile is ready to be used, the only thing that is left to define is the destination. For more information about the profiles and all the settings available, please refer to the Xsquare manual available on the EVS Website. 10