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Following-on from my earlier post, Mobile Video Editing Hardware: Thoughts, Ideas & Dreams, where I considered an eventual migration from my laptop to a luggable PC, my thoughts veered (possibly having spotted cash-icebergs among them) towards an alternative solution:

• Use the laptop for lightweight editing & compositing.
• Use the desktop as a number-crunching RADI-attached server.

The two could be linked by:

• Remote access / remote sessions (some of which via smartphone)
• DropBox, e.g. have an active folder where I can drop Adobe Premiere XML and have it processed remotely by Adobe apps installed there.

Some links:

• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/11/virtualisation_at_home_part_2/
  • (There’s no equivalent “_part_1″ page.  I guess it’s just “Part 2″ of that guy’s story).
  • DIY virtual machines: Rigging up at home, by Trevor Pott, 11th January 2012 14:33 GMT
  • Personal Virtual Machine (PVM) (in use) for about seven years with retail boxed version of Windows XP.
  • VM has been moved from virtualization platform to virtualization platform over the years … the most recent incarnation … inside Hyper-V.
  • …nothing beats Windows Server 2008 R2. It comes with a top-notch virtualisation platform (Hyper-V), and added RemoteFX support with Service Pack 1. You can still use the desktop operating system for all your HTPC needs, and a single Server 2008 R2 Standard license allows you to run both a host copy and a single virtual instance of Server 2008 R2.
  • In my case, the host instance does little more than play movies on the projector via VLC. The virtual instance of Server runs my Plex media server, and aggregates my many storage devices into a single share using DFS.
    • Presumably “DFS” refers to Microsoft’s Distributed File System.
• Shuttle Inc (Taiwan)
  • (MBR’s suggestion)
  • http://uk.shuttle.com/products/productsDetail?productId=1477
    • Small, quiet, hardware-configurable systems.
    • May be a sensible basis for a modular luggable?
  • http://www.okobe.co.uk/ws/product/Shuttle+SH67H3+Barebones+Personal+Computer+FH67+Socket+1155+Intel+H67+Black/1000065737?ref=1q4bs
    • Shuttle SH67H3 Barebones Personal Computer (FH67 Socket 1155 Intel H67) (Black)

Want a mobile “suitcase” editing system, something more (and more expandable) than a laptop but not too expensive.  Primarily to be used for Adobe CS5.5 for media enhancement / editing / compositing etc.

Nearest I found was NextDimension’s range around $7000 I think (but just guesswork - could be way off - would need to get a quote).   That would (if true) be around £4500 at current rates.  Plus import…  NextDimension call such machines “flextops” (Maybe they coined the term? Google searches on it mostly come up with them.)

Apart from the (mil/broadcast-lite but me-heavy) price, it might possibly be undesirably heavy to lug around much.   If so (just guessing, not assuming), it would make more sense to go for a modular quick-setup system.  So, starting to “think different” in this direction:

• Standard tower, capable of taking new CUDA etc. graphics cards etc. as they emerge, but no need for more than say a couple of disks, maybe if SSD could even get away with just a single disk? (For system and media - inadvisable for traditional disks of course, what about for SSD’s?  I have much to learn about SSD’s though).
• “Laptop-Lite” to talk to it.  With robust shuttered-stereoscopic HD monitor.
• Gigabit network to NAS fast storage (SSD and/or RAID ?).

Maybe in that case it would be far more logical/affordable to use an existing laptop as a client working together with a luggable tower server, sufficiently light and robust for frequent dis/re -connection and travel.  And remote access of course (no heavy data to be exchanged, assume that’s already sync’d).  And some means to easily swap/sync applications and projects (data) between laptop and tower, giving the option to use just the (old) laptop on its own if needed.  All such options are handy for the travelling dude (working on train, social visits etc.) who also occasionally has to do heavy processing.  Then would just need a protective suitcase for the tower, plus another one for a decent monitor for grading etc.

I certainly won’t be spending anything just yet, but it’s good to have at least some kind of “radar”.

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Tips from Stu Maschwitz (Magic Bullet, DV Rebel’s Guide,…)

• http://prolost.com/blog/2009/12/7/use-dropbox-to-remotely-monitor-after-effects-renders.html
  • “Use Dropbox to Remotely Monitor After Effects Renders” (MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2009 AT 9:36PM)
• http://prolost.com/blog/2011/6/10/dropbox-etiquette.html
  • “Dropbox Etiquette” (FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2011 AT 12:04AM)

I attended, working on one of the camera units.  Had a great time, learnt lots, at all sorts of levels.  Even how to make good use of the Movie Slate application on my iPhone!  Link: http://www.fstopacademy.com/

• As mentioned in an earlier post, there are explanatory and instructional tutorial videos on Cineform’s FirstLight:
  • vimeo.com/13021420, a rapid 10-minute presentation by David Newman.
  • vimeo.com/27220198, a slower (30 minutes) and more thoughtful presentation by a grading expert.
• Additionally there is a great write-up, the First Light User Manual v1.2, at:
  • http://www.cineform.com/pdfs/First_Light_3D_User_Manual_v1.2.pdf

Conclusions:

• The main principle is great - the decoder part of the Cineform Neo codec has to do levels-mapping work etc. anyway as part of its normal function, and so getting it to do the grading at the same time just means altering its scaling factors etc., which in principle means using less CPU as compared to the grading being done in the NLE (post-decode).   Also fewer successive quantizations (hence better overall visual quality).  You can specify different sets of factors (hence grades) for different video files. There are also some “Movie Looks” presets.
• Additionally it gives the ability to split the grading process off to another person (as the tutorial videos show) - a great extra bonus. By using DropBox (say) the two (or more) of you can work in parallel at remote locations, grading-updates appear automatically on the remote NLE. Essentially only a tiny shared grading project file is saved in DropBox, no need to exchange actual video files.

I’m currently trying it out on a client project (non-critical) in Sony Vegas.  I will post my experiences from this separately.

Sorenson 360 is a cloud-web-based video content and distribution management system.  Superficially looks much like YouTube or Vimeo, but has multiple professional/enterprise “added value” features as well as integration with Sorenson Squeeze (naturally), WordPress and Drupal.  The cheapest price plan is “Small Business”, at $99/month, which at time of writing equates to £61/month. There is a 30-day free trial featuring 1GB bandwidth (sic) and 1GB storage.

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MetaFuze’s primary, if not only purpose is to prep files for Media Composer use - an “outboard importer”.  Though bundled with Media Composer, it is also available free, from www.avid.com/metafuze (which redirects to http://www.avid.com/US/industries/workflow/MetaFuze).  That means for example that preprocessing work (e.g. generation of burnt-timecode proxies and online files) can be generated (e.g. in DNxHD from an arbitrary source) by anyone whether or not they have an Avid system (apart from this app, and the free Avid codecs.  Potentially then a great option for breaking up work into collaborative / parallel workflows.

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Links:

• http://lifehacker.com/315747/tech-support-and-document-collaboration-gets-easy-with-ichat
• http://lifehacker.com/5088083/five-best-video-chat-applications

Geographically separated team members of a Final Cut project can collaborate via iTheatre.   Suppose an editor is discussing with a client via Apple’s iChat.  Then the editor can play out of FCP straight into the iChat session.   It’s in FCP: View > iChat Theatre Preview.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RACPO0N4Hc4

There are some reputable video people covering this topic:

• http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/non-linear-editing-mac/353369-ichat-theatre-preview.html
• http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_ichat_theater_stone.html

But iChat is only available for Macs.  What if the client doesn’t have a Mac?  I did some googling:

• iChat is an Instant Messenger.
• It is only available for Macs but it is compatible with AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), which is available for Windows.
  • ” iChat is only available on OS X” [http://lifehacker.com/5088083/five-best-video-chat-applications]
• .mac accounts are just AIM accounts. Enter your .mac username with @mac.com at the end while configuring an AIM account. [http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=458194]
• Whatever is playing in your Viewer or Canvas window is sent via iChat to your remote viewer. [http://digitalcontentproducer.com/videoedsys/revfeat/apple_ichat_theater_preview_0827/index1.html]
• But can the iChat Theatre option be used with Windows users?
  • This person believes it is not possible to interact with Windows users (I wonder if they know of the AIM option or whether it handles iTheatre) [http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1065470]
  • “If your collaborators are on Windows and don’t have access to a Mac, you’re out of luck.” [http://digitalcontentproducer.com/videoedsys/revfeat/apple_ichat_theater_preview_0827/index1.html]
• “for iChat Theater Preview to work, both the host and remote computers much be running Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard or later. Both computers must have iChat accounts and the remote user’s account must be added to the host computer’s buddy list (more detail from Apple here). ” [http://digitalcontentproducer.com/videoedsys/revfeat/apple_ichat_theater_preview_0827/index1.html]
• [http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Talk/thread?tid=3669a2bf94155d06&hl=en]
  • “… is it possible to make videoconference between a PC using google video and a MAC using ichat ?”,
    • “No, it is not possible.  Video chat is only between Gmail chat users.” and furthermore “You need … the Newer Version interface of Gmail”
• It has screen sharing, so both parties can observe and control a single desktop

Some links about iChat itself:

• iChat itself:
  • http://www.timsblog.net/2008/06/07/ichat-for-windows-maybe
    • Overview and context wrt other Instant Messengers (IMs).
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IChat
    • Has great list of add-on tools e.g. encryption.
  • http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/ichat.html
• How to converse with Windows users
  • [http://screencastsonline.com/forums/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1216452140/0]
    • “I wish MSN Messenger was supported natively as hardly anyone I know in the UK uses AIM. I’ve only got 10 AIM buddies. I have to go through a Jabber server with an MSN transport to use it”
    • “I am same as the others. I use Adium as I have MSN and Google Talk friends mostly and very few on AIM.   Sure I can use iChat fo Google Talk”
    • “It seems most of us are using Adium because iChat doesn’t connect to MSN and/or Yahoo Messenger.”
    • “Skype doesn’t intereact with any other software as far as I know but for internet-based phone video calls, it is the best because so many people use it and it is on Windows as well as Mac.”
  • [http://digg.com/apple/Adium_2_0_Coming_With_video_audio_support]
    • Adium is what Pidgin should be.
    • Adium is based on Pidgin’s libpurple (libgaim), which is already used in Pidgin on all three platforms.
    • Adium is the Cocoa client of libpurple. Pidgin is the GTK client, finch is the CLI client, etc… Same IM backend, multiple GUIs.
  • http://pressf1.pcworld.co.nz/showthread.php?t=86311
    • “AIM [http://products.aim.com] is about as close to iChat as you’re gonna get on Windows. That said, a better option would be to go with something more flexible like Pidgin. [http://www.pidgin.im]”
• AIM
  • http://products.aim.com/
  • [http://digg.com/apple/Adium_2_0_Coming_With_video_audio_support]
    • If you’re using the AIM service, make sure you have port 5190 open on your router, NAT, firewall, cable modem, or DSL modem. You’ll need it open for incoming connections to send and outgoing connections to receive (yes, that is the right way round: the recipient connects to the sender).
• Pidgin
  • Is open-source, has sometimes debatable deadlines and capabilities.  Many consider Adium better, and it has been stated that they are both front-ends onto the same core.
  • (formerly GAIM) [http://www.tuaw.com/2007/10/28/adium-offers-first-look-at-video-integration]
  • [http://www.pidgin.im/about] “Pidgin is a chat program which lets you log in to accounts on multiple chat networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on MSN, talking to a friend on Google Talk, and sitting in a Yahoo chat room all at the same time.  Pidgin runs on Windows, Linux, and other UNIX operating systems”
  • There are third-party plugins for other protocols such as Skype and Twitter.
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