[John Ward]

Thanks, Matthew. I have a little bit of experience using XML in different situations and I’m a bit embarrassed this didn’t occur to me. I think that, based on this, we will definitely be able to get what we need between CatDV and Softron.

Much appreciated.

Sinerely,

John Ward

Owner,
Yellow Lotus Productions
john.ward@yellowlotusprods.com
315.877.5161

[John Ward]

I suppose a better way to phrase my question would be: For those who have both CatDV and Softron scheduling software, how much metadata from CatDV is available to you directly in Softron’s scheduling software?

For instance, there is a playout solution from Tightrope Systems that can do scheduling across multiple units and can pull files from elsewhere on the LAN, etc. but cannot migrate data from a database or other software easily. One of their only solutions involves a PEG access-oriented scheduling program called Facil and migrating some small amount of data via CSV files. If you don’t have Facil or if you need metadata that their solution doesn’t bring over, you’re out of luck. We did a trial with the Tightrope playout server but since we did not have Facil, we wound up having to do data entry into Tightrope’s unit despite having done it once when the files were originally transcoded.

The big deal for my client is that they use a lot of metadata about producers, copyright terms, series status, etc. in generating their schedule. So even if the technical end of playing files out is easier, if the metadata doesn’t make it into the scheduling software it takes longer.

Does that make sense or I have I just clouded it more?

John Ward

Owner,
Yellow Lotus Productions
john.ward@yellowlotusprods.com
315.877.5161

[John Ward]

Hi, Scott – thanks for the reply. My understanding of Softron’s scheduling software is that it pulls from what it considers ‘watch folders.’ So, for some playout devices we would have to move data into the device to schedule with it but with Softron what I was hoping to do was to pull directly from a ‘current’ folder on our shared playout storage server. Does my explanation make sense?

John Ward

Owner,
Yellow Lotus Productions
john.ward@yellowlotusprods.com
315.877.5161

[John Ward]

Thank you so much. I tried explaining it to them just as you did but they were still skittish. Have a great day as well.

John Ward

Editor / Animator,
Synergetic Productions
locomation@yahoo.com
https://www.synergeticproductions.com
315.437.7533

[John Ward]

Got it now. Or at least I believe so. Thanks for the reply.

John Ward

Editor / Animator,
Synergetic Productions
locomation@yahoo.com
https://www.synergeticproductions.com
315.437.7533

[John Ward]

Thanks, Todd. Guess I didn’t understand it as well as I thought I did but, ultimately, that’s much better news for me in the short term. I appreciate your help.

John Ward

Editor / Animator,
Synergetic Productions
locomation@yahoo.com
https://www.synergeticproductions.com
315.437.7533

[John Ward]

Sorry, I meant 2,1 hardware update, not 1,2. Been a while.

John Ward

Editor / Animator,
Synergetic Productions
locomation@yahoo.com
https://www.synergeticproductions.com
315.437.7533

[John Ward]

I couldn’t tell you exactly where I read but at one point I thought I had tracked down that the 1,1 hardware version of the Mac Pro was incapable of any 64-bit processing … that it wasn’t until the 1,2 hardware that it was introduced. My understanding was that the CS5.5 apps needed 64-bit hardware support. In my ‘System Profiler’ there is actually a section which says ’64-bit kernel and extensions not supported’.

All that said, I am no stranger to humble pie and would love to know if I’ve just misunderstood things.

Thanks for your time.

John Ward

Editor / Animator,
Synergetic Productions
locomation@yahoo.com
https://www.synergeticproductions.com
315.437.7533

[John Ward]

Hmmm … couldn’t tell you for sure. That was their response and it definitely doesn’t play through on my system right now.

John Ward

Editor / Animator,
Synergetic Productions
locomation@yahoo.com
john.ward@synergeticproductions.com
https://www.synergeticproductions.com
315.437.7533

[John Ward]

Okay, so the deal has to do with the trial version and the Blackmagic drivers. Not a deal-breaker for us because there are still so many aspects of fitting Premiere into our workflow that we CAN test. Would have been good to see it, even watermarked, rather than take on faith that it’s all going to be all right but we can still evaluate. Here was the response from Blackmagic:

Thank you for contacting us. Currently you need a full version of Adobe CS
5.5 in order for our driver to work with your system.

Braeden Burns
Support Representative
Black Magic Design Inc. USA

Anyway, thanks to everyone who chimed in and it looks as if we may be joining the Premiere ranks pretty soon.

Thanks,

John Ward

Editor / Animator,
Synergetic Productions
locomation@yahoo.com
john.ward@synergeticproductions.com
https://www.synergeticproductions.com
315.437.7533