gv

EDIUS has a lot of tools / utility shipped with it. Utilities to import P2, XDCAM and others types of content.

One of these utility is called K2 CONNECT.

K2 Connect is a software interface to the Grass Valley Mediaclient or servers. and one of its functionality is to provide FTP access to the content of the server, so multiple EDIUS can download copies of the K2 content to the EDIUS local storage, edit them and send back the edited piece to the Server for playback.

this feature is extremely useful, when stand alone servers are used and that you don't want to use the disk bandwidth to edit in place on the Server and when multiple stand alone editors needs to access the content independently.

Here is how it works, I will talk about the setup at the end of this post.

First launch EDIUS and then in the TOOL menu open the K2 Connect utility:


If you have only one server connected to, just browse the content on the left hand side of the tool, otherwise select your server from the tree in the left window.
to import a clip locally, just double click on a clip. you can do that on multiple clip at the time:


once you double click on a clip the task list monitor window open and the clip start to pop up in your bin. you can then start editing the clip while they are being transferred to you:


once you are done with your editing you can then send back your work to the server for playback. for that you will use the Print to File command from EDIUS and select MXF Exporter form the list of exporters available:



Select your export format and then in the export dialog box type a name for your sequence.
the sequence will then be render on the fly on the destination Server and will be playable before the transfer is finished.



this is it. in just a few clips you have been able to find content on a K2 Server, edit it locally, and send back the sequence as a flat file for playback.

On the setup front, it is pretty straight forward as you will see.
The first time you launch K2 connect you need to setup the K2 Server settings as shown in that screen shot:

the name or the IP adress of the server is needed, the folder that you want to browse the content from, in my screen shot the /DEFAULT folder, and the FTP user name and password, defaulted to mxfmovie for both user name and password.

this is it for the import setup.

for the Export setup, it's very similar but this is done in the MXF exporter dialog box:

This is it. Very simple but very efficient.

When it comes to explain if it is possible to edit files that are generated by a Grass Valley Server in a stand alone or SAN environment, usually people start the explanation by a "it's a little complicated..." or just assume that it is not possible.

Let me try to make this simpler and show you what is possible and how you do it.

First off, we will need to understand the terminology behind the equipment involved and have some assumption.

What is following is true for latest software released version of Grass Valley Servers, called the K2-SD v3.3, K2-HD v3.3 and K2-Summit v7.0 Mediaclient.
The K2 Mediaclients are video servers capable of ingesting and playing out video from local drives, with our without local storage extension, this is called Stand alone OR from a K2-SAN this is called... a SAN or Shared environment

The K2 Mediaclients can record depending on which one you are using DV-25-50-100, HD MPEG2 long GOP, XDCA, IMX, XDCAM HD.

On top of recording all the above format, the K2 family of servers generate Quick time references files along the media, that can be accessed by the FCP users and edit without transferring the media to a local storage.

the FCP editor can then edit, and once the sequence is finished you want to make that new piece available for playback by the K2, you will need to export it back to a "hot bin folder", kind of incoming watch folder on K2s that manage all the file based import on K2.
The "plumbing" part of this how to differ if you are in Stand alone or SAN, but then the user workflow is the exact same.

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Plumbing part (how to connect to the media drive)

****STAND ALONE MODE**** no shared storage:

On a Stand alone configuration, the MAc os will use a simple ethernet connection (GigE) to connect physically to the K2 MediaClient and use the standart CIFS protocol to see the media drive.
First you need to mount the K2 Media drive volume on the Mac OS. in order to do that you first must share the K2 Media Drive volume known as the "V:/ drive":
Go to the K2 Mediaclient windows -->my computer --> right click on the V:/ drive --> sharing and permissions, share the volume and name it DEFAULT (this is important) -->advanced permissions-->everyone check all permissions (you can set permissions to only the admin user if you prefer)-->apply/ok
On the MAC -->finder -->Go menu --> connect to server --> type in the IP address of the MediaClient like this: smb://xx.xx.xx.xx/default --> click the little + sign to add it to your favorites --> connect
Now the default drive is available in the shared section of the finder. (for advanced users a simple apple script will allow you to do this mount operation easier, I will post it in another post)

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****K2 SAN Environment****shared storage:

On a K2 SAN environment, Grass valley support both ISCSI (2 Ethernet cables needed) or Fibre Channel connection mode (optical)

So first thing to do is to decide what type of connection you want to use. ISCSI is the most flexible and cheaper, therefore my favorite. But the configuration is the same in both cases.
so once you physically connected the cables and set basic temporary IP addresses you'll need to install some software on the MAC.

• XSAN client 2.1.1 from Apple (the GV K2 SAN work natively as a XSAN server Great!)
• FCP-GVCONNECT bundle from Grass Valley version 1.0 available end of May

First install the XSAN client on the Mac, then the Grass Valley bundle, once this is install everything will be done via the K2 Server side for the setup, very cool.
On the K2 Server, launch the K2-config application, add a client, select MAC client, choose ISCSI vs FC connection, Set the IP addresses you want your Mac to use (or keep current) Assign bandwidth limit to machine, apply and watch the magic happen.
Automatically the ISCIS or FC board on the MAC get configured, the XSCAN client get configured, and suddenly the Media Drive from the K2 SAN appears on the MAC desktop.
That’s it, you are done with the plumbing.

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Now that the "plumbing" is done you can start editing: two scenarios are possible. first and recommended one is to use the new FCP-GVCONNECT plug-in from Grass Valley (available end of May) or to do without it, but the process will be less seamless and would work only on stand alone.

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With the GV CONNECT plug-in:

-From FCP --> tool-->GV CONNECT --> import tab --> you see all the available content, import to the bin as many as needed --> close plug-in
-Edit
- when done editing --> tool --> GV CONNECT --> export tab --> select custom or quick export (TIP: Set the quick export to the hot bin then you can do a GV connect quick export directly from the tool menu) --> export and close.

Without the GV CONNECT plug-in (Stand alone ONLY)

-From FCP --> Right click on the bin --> import file --> using the browse button navigate to DEFAULT/ Asset (if K2 Classic) or Media (is K2 Summit)/navigate the bins to find content.
-Edit
-when done editing select your sequence to send back --> right click --> export --> Quick time movie, select the right format that match the K2 system setup --> browse destination: navigate to the default drive/ navigate to the hot bin --> export.

Note that by using the GV CONNECT plug-in this process is highly streamlined. But in both cases, you can edit media without moving them, from the local storage of the server

More to come, Apple scripts to auto-mount CIFS volumes and how to work on a SAN environment

Here we go, first entry in my cow blog.... let's make this one about a product that is gaining a lot of momentum in a lot of different places, different workflows...

I am going to talk about GV's EDIUS which is now shipping version 5.1.

EDIUS is not the most powerful editor in terms of editing feature set, although you will find the Multicamera, trimming, effects, color correction and so on like on a lot of good editors out there. it's a little bit like comparing MS's Excel with Apple's Numbers... Numbers is not as powerful as Excel but the average excel user uses only 15% of Excel features, and more advanced users always uses the same features. EDIUS is like that, it does not have all the features,but it has most of the commonly used and it grows rapidly.

But what is making EDIUS apart in this category is not that it is made is Japan, Kobe to be more precise, it's not that it's mother company name doesn't start by an A, it's the speed, efficiently and VERY VERY agile timeline.

For an internal project for NAB I had to use a lot of material coming from different sources, from J2K, AVC HD, DVCPro HD, HDV, photoshop files, PNGs, you name it, you can throw anything to EDIUS, it will Edit it, real time and let you export it in any other formats. I exported my piece of "fine art" in DV100 and AVC-intra and it all look great.

This makes EDIUS a great convenient tool when you don't manage what support and codec your media are going to come in as.
Due to it's very agile timeline and the P2 and XDCAM import tools, a lot of Broadcaster are now starting to use EDIUS as the alternative fast turnaround editing application.

Add to that the New EDIUS XRE Conform engine launch at NAB, you end up with a solution that can take anything out and deport the render/export to a final format for output on a Render farm so you are free to start on a new project before your current one is even finished to be render!

you can always download a free trial of EDIUS here: http://desktop.grassvalley.com/products/EDIUS/index.php go check it out and let me know what you think of it.