Avid Integration

This paper is intended to provide technical information on the integration between ETERE and AVID systems, describing how the solution proposed by ETERE is able to provide the integration operations requested by VTV.

INTRODUCTION
ETERE is able to integrate all aspects of the news production workflow, seamlessly moving media and information between archive and production all the way through to air servers:

This paper is intended to provide technical information on the integration between ETERE and AVID systems, describing how the solution proposed by ETERE is able to provide the integration operations requested by VTV including:
■ NewsCutter integration: Preview archived assets and trigger workflow-based transfers
■ Ingest: Acquire media into AVID ISIS and register them through AVID Interplay
■ Archive and Restore: Archive media into Etere and restore it when required

NEWSCUTTER INTEGRATION
Etere is able to fully integrate Avid NewsCutter, enabling operators to easily archive and restore sequences without exiting the Avid environment.

Archive
From Avid NewsCutter, the user use the “Check In To Interplay “ function to add/update all sequence’s media into the Avid Interplay database:

Etere ActiveSync will continuously monitor the Avid Interplay storage, detecting new sequences and master clips:

Etere ActiveSync will create one asset for the sequence and one for each master clip

Etere ActiveSync will automatically launch a workflow to archive the sequence’s media and generate a proxy file

The asset will hold the archived media and the generated proxy:

Access to Archive
Etere NCRS OCX is the ActiveX browser that allows users to search and preview archived media and transfer files to any destination (NLE servers, playout servers, etc.) from the Newsroom interface. Etere’s MOS integration allows users to search for archived assets from within Avid INews and NewsCutter, listing all assets matching a given keyword:

The Search Asset module provides a robust search engine to look for assets stored in the archive. Making right-click on an asset and selecting the “open” option allows loading it in the Media Library:

Restore
Restoring sequence’s media into Avid is possible thanks to the tight integration with Etere Workflow, users will only need to follow the steps described below:

1. Search for an asset and right-click on it and trigger any available workflow (e.g. retrieve media in News Cutter):

2. The restore workflow will be executed to make the sequence’s media available on AVID: It’s worth mentioning that the status of launched workflows can be monitored in real-time.

3. All sequence’s media will be automatically restored into their original location within Avid Interplay, being available from use from NewsCutter.

Preview
Previewing archived media can be done from the Media Library, which also allows viewing and modifying asset’s metadata:

INGEST
Etere allows ingesting files and registering them through AVID Interplay as detailed below. Material managed in the Etere MAM system can be either acquired from scratch or synchronized from Avid.

Acquisition
The acquisition of new material is performed through the Etere Multi-file Import:
■ Content can be imported from different sources (e.g. Sony SxS cards, Canon CF cards , EVS
servers)
■ Ingest is performed in Etere MAM, including metadata related to imported assets
Note: Each ISIS system has one input and one output workgroup, workgroups are represented within ETERE
as import/export metadevices (WG1, WG2, WG3) with limited space; when limit is reached a workflow is triggered to automatically clean metadevices by deleting older files (already archived).

Post-ingest workflow
After ingest, a workflow will allow to transfer a copy of ingested content to the correct workgroup of ISIS using ISIS client:
■ The ingested hires file is moved to the correct ISIS folder (along with metadata)
■ At the same time, a lowres file is also created
■ The hires file is moved to the archive

Synchronization
Material already existing in AVID is synchronized in MAM system by Etere ActiveSync:

ActiveSync access the AVID Interplay WS to get all available objects:

ActiveSync automatically synchronizes all master clips and sequences found in the AVID workgroups, recreating them in the Etere system as assets:

ActiveSync automatically synchronizes all master clips and sequences found in the AVID workgroups according to the following cases:
■ The Sequence/MasterClip exist in AVID but not in ETERE - A new asset is created in ETERE
■ The Sequence/MasterClip exist in AVID and ETERE - No asset is updated on ETERE
■ The Sequence/MasterClip exists in ETERE but not in AVID - The asset is deleted from ETERE (if not linked to media)

Post-sync Workflow
A workflow is triggered for all synchronized assets to retrieve sequences (raw material) and finished
material (master clip) along with related metadata

A workflow action is executed to perform the SendToPlayback, to move the file into a location known (configured in AVID and mapped in ETERE)

The workflow action is based on the Etere.WF.Avid.exe executable, which requires the following parameters:

Etere automatically copies metadata from the source project into the new asset (using the “copy
asset” function).

ARCHIVE AND RESTORE
ETERE is able to integrate AVID ISIS systems interfacing the Interplay Web Service:
■ Archive and restore raw materials (sequences) and finished video (master clips)
■ Archive/restore material either ingested from Etere
■ Archive/restore material along with their related AVID metadata

Archive
In Etere’s desktop or web GUI, the user searches for “sequences” (AVSQ) or “master clips”
(AVMC) stored in a certain metadevice

The user launches a workflow to archive the selected file from its workgroup (e.g. WG1). AVID will receive a command to send the file to the Etere WG and AVID WS to provide all metadata.

Restore
In Etere’s desktop or web GUI, the user searches for “sequences” (AVSQ) or “master clips” (AVMC) stored in a certain metadevice (e.g. Avid WG1).

The user launches a workflow to restore the selected file into its workgroup (e.g. WG1). AVID will receive a command to send the file to the Etere WG and AVID WS to provide all metadata.

Settings
The parameters needed to be configured in ETERE are following listed:
■ ASSET TYPES: AVID master clips (AVMC) and sequences (AVSQ) types are automatically created in Etere
■ METADEVICES: An AVID INTERPLAY miscellaneous resource is created with the following parameters