Boost your file-Based Workflows with AJA Diskover Media Edition
In 2021, Diskover Data partnered with AJA Video Systems to offer the AJA Diskover Media Edition, which version is exclusively sold and distributed by AJA Video Systems. In addition to Diskover’s core features, the AJA Diskover Media Edition offers distinctive features developed for the Media and Entertainment industry.
Both parties combined their extended expertise of the Media and Entertainment industry to develop and plan features, undoubtedly lacking, for efficient file-based production line, as well as asset monetization and preservation.
The AJA Diskover Media Edition offers key features and plugins to assist with granular searches, workflow automation, and seamless access to third-party platforms. There are several additional impressive features on the roadmap that you won’t want to miss!
Workflow Integrations with Third-Party Platforms
Platform Introduction Videos 🍿
Media Edition Overview
April 2022
Media Edition Introduction
October 2021
Interface Walkthrough
October 2021
Resolving Media Specific Challenges
Overview
With theatrical workflows, there is the need to protect content from piracy; facilities often build two completely independent networks 1) where users have access to the internet, and 2) a production network with no internet access and strict controls on personnel that have access to this network. However, in production workflows, Customer Service Representatives, Artists, Producers, and Operations often need to search the production network. The AJA Diskover Media Edition provides visibility to search for content, without providing access to the actual asset.
In addition to the regular daily challenges around data and file-based workflows, the AJA Diskover Media Edition pinpointed the major tribulations in the media industry as a starting point.
Dealing with shorter timeframes and heavier workloads is part of the M&E daily routine. In order to knock down these growing challenges, we are working very closely with major clients to make sure that we are addressing these industry specific issues.
Not a MAM, a DAM, Nor a Storage Solution
Diskover does not store/ingest your files, it simply indexes their metadata (file location, name, size, modified date, type, resolution, codec, invoice date, project status, etc.) Therefore, end-users have access to read-only index of files and not the files themselves, hence assuring the safety of your source assets and production network.
If we compare data storage to a tree, then we could say that Diskover can see the whole forest…without loosing a leaf.
Studio Portal Into Post-Houses Content
Are You a Production Studio with a Lack of Visibility Into Your Projects?
Diskover’s unique scanning architecture allows production studios to keep track of their projects/data sitting at different post-houses.
Architecture Diagram | Studio Portal
Solution Brief
Media Edition Plugins Overview
Media Info Harvest Plugin
Overview
Pushing the limits of searchability and results’ accuracy, the AJA Diskover Media Edition harvests extra metadata in the form of media info attributes (ex: file resolution, codec, pixel format, etc.) during indexing, and makes these attributes easily searchable and actionable.
If a file at the source doesn’t include media attributes, it goes without saying that those fields won’t be harvested and/or searchable within Diskover.
🖱️ Refer to the online AJA Diskover Media Edition User Guide for more details.
Media Attributes Summary in the Search Page
File Attributes with Detailed Media Info
CineViewer Player Plugin
Overview
Diskover Data is proud to introduce the CineViewer Player adding to the seamless integration plugins available with the AJA Diskover Media Edition.
The CineViewer Player is designed to securely view high resolution media from a remote browser, without giving users access to the source files.
Through the Diskover user interface, CineViewer allows for seamless validation of media assets, therefore increasing productivity, while safeguarding your production network.
↪ Click here for technical specs of the CineViewer Player developed by CineSys.io
🖱️ Refer to the online AJA Diskover Media Edition User Guide for more details.
Single Click Launch
Attributes
CineViewer Player User Interface
The CineViewer Player is developed by CineSys LLC, a major technological and channel partner working with both Diskover Data and AJA Video Systems.
For more information, support, or to purchase the CineViewer Player, please contact CineSys.io
Flow Production Tracking Plugin
Overview
The Flow Production Tracking (formerly ShotGrid) Plugin is designed to enhance basic metadata with detailed production status information, aligning data management with production schedules. The Diskover Flow Production Tracking Plugin harvests additional attributes from the Autodesk Flow Production Tracking platform for every shot directory located on storage. These attributes become properties of the shot directories and include status information such as finaled, out-of-picture, multiple project tracking dates, and many more, totaling around one hundred indexable fields. Note that users can opt to only index the fields that are relevant to their business.
These searchable business context attributes enable very precise data management decision-making via granular reporting, and can easily be engaged in workflows and file actions. A representative workflow might be to archive all shots directories 30 days after their status has been updated to finaled.
For each shot directory within Diskover, the Flow Production Tracking attributes basically become a property of that directory. All fields/metadata harvested become searchable, reportable, and actionable within Diskover.
🖱️ Learn more about the Autodesk Flow Production Tracking platform
🖱️ Refer to the online AJA Diskover Media Edition User Guide for more details.
Important | Diskover Software Still Using ShotGrid
Please note that Autodesk recently changed its product name from ShotGrid to Flow Production Tracking. Although our literature now refers to Flow Production Tracking, ShotGrid will still be used in Diskover’s user interface and backend post-index harvesting until further notice.
Flow Production Tracking Attributes in the Diskover User Interface
The Autodesk Flow Production Tracking platform has around one hundred indexable fields. Users can opt to index all or just the ones relevant to their business.
Examples of Analytics Using Autodesk Flow Production Tracking Business Context Attributes
Below are some examples of Diskover customizable Reports analytics using order status attributes harvested from the Autodesk Flow Production Tracking platform, which gives business context to regular data. Click here to read more about Diskover’s analytic tools.
After creating the desired queries, users can select the type of data to analyze, and the number of top results to show in the comprehensive overview.
Following an organization’s guidelines, a decision could easily be made to free a significant amount of storage space by moving finaled data to a cost-effective asset preservation storage platform or simply deleting it after delivery to the client. Please note that this process can be automated using Diskover’s integrated workflows.
By Status Code
By Sequence
By Creator
Xytech Asset Creation Plugin
Overview
Post facilities often have customers’ assets that have been archived and lack findability, visibility, searchability, and therefore the opaque nature of these assets make them difficult to reuse or repurpose. Companies, with years of such archived assets, have often stored these on tape media or removable hard drives which are frequently stored in a physical vault.
Assets were often stored on such “offline” media due to costs, however with the advent of cloud and object storage, the economics are now making it viable to store such vaulted assets on more “online media”. However, simply putting these assets onto online media does not necessarily make these assets findable in context or within the facility’s order management system.
The Xytech asset creation tool included in the AJA Diskover Media Edition is designed to find and index newly restored online assets from LTO tapes, removable hard drives, etc., making them available, findable, and searchable within the Xytech Media Operations Platform as well as within Diskover.
The plugin operates on the assumption that assets restored to online media are placed into a folder using a specific naming convention. The info is added to the asset within Xytech and the asset number is assigned as a field to the file within the Diskover Index.
🖱️ Learn more about the Xytech Media Operations Platform
🖱️ Refer to the online AJA Diskover Media Edition User Guide for more details.
Media Asset in Xytech
Diskover Search Page
Diskover Attributes
Xytech Order Status Plugin
Overview
The Xytech Media Operations Platform order status plugin is designed to automate the correlation of the order management system and the storage system, by harvesting key business context from Xytech and applying that context within the AJA Diskover Media Edition. In turn, this business context metadata can be used to automate workflows, curate data, monitor costs, create highly customized reports, and search granularly.
Facilities often manually correlate the order management system with the storage repositories. However, manual processes are subject to human errors and difficult to scale as the volume of media orders and data turnover increases constantly.
Therefore, the lack of integration for file-based workflows between the order management system and the underlying storage repositories, makes data management decisions difficult as they are solely based on attributes of files or objects on storage. Additional business context is needed from the order management system to increase precision and accuracy of data management decisions.
An instance of key information might be the invoice date for a work order. A status change for a work order can be aa key indicator for data management, for example, once a Xytech media order has been “invoiced”, then the data associated with that media order can be a candidate for archival.
🖱️ Learn more about the Xytech Media Operations Platform
🖱️ Refer to the online AJA Diskover Media Edition User Guide for more details.
Examples of Analytics Using Xytech Order Status Business Context
Diskover customized Reports using order status attributes harvested from Xytech, giving business context to regular data. Click here to read about Diskover’s other analytic tools.
After creating the desired queries, users can select the type of data to analyze, and the number of top results to show in the comprehensive overview.
Following an organization’s guidelines, a decision could easily be made to free a significant amount of storage space by moving “Completed” or “Invoiced” data to a cost-effective asset preservation storage platform or simply deleting it after delivery to the client. Please note that this process can also be automated using Diskover’s integrated workflows.
By Order Status
By Account Manager
Media Order in Xytech
Harvested Xytech Order Status Attributes
Example of order status attributes harvested from Xytech during Diskover indexing. Each field can be individually searched for granular results.
xytech.phase: Invoiced
xytech.account_manager: Al Findstuff
xytech.begin_date: 2022-07-19T17:00:00-07:00
xytech.due_date: 2022-07-19T21:00:00-07:00
xytech.invoice_id: 761934
xytech.invoice_date: 2022-07-21T10:08:00-07:00
Telestream GLIM Plugin
Overview
This plugin results in a seamless integration with GLIM, allowing end-users to safely view and validate media files, while safeguarding your source assets and production network. Diskover allows users to do advanced searches of media assets, and then launch GLIM in one click via our File Actions.
You need to have a GLIM account and be logged in previously to launching the GLIM preview plugin within Diskover.
🖱️ Learn more about the Telestream GLIM product
🖱️ Refer to the online AJA Diskover Media Edition User Guide for more details.
Single Click Launch
GLIM User Interface
Telestream Vantage Plugin
Overview
The Diskover Telestream Vantage Plugin allows end-users to submit files for transcoding directly from the Diskover user interface. The major benefits:
- The plugin eliminates many steps from going back and forth between the two softwares.
- Vantage offers several transcoding options which can be confusing to non-technical users > the plugin allows for limiting the number of options to only the ones relevant to the end-users.
- Creating a Vantage account for an end-user is intensive as it requires complex and time consuming configurations > end-users access Vantage from Diskover and then only need to access Job Status.
- End-users with a Vantage account also means that they have access to your production network > the plugin keeps your network secure as the end-users only have access to read-only information via Diskover.
- Files are very easy to find within Diskover’s global index compared to Vantage where one needs to know where to look.
- The learning curve is quick and easy for new end-users.
🖱️ Learn more about the Telestream Vantage product
🖱️ Refer to the online AJA Diskover Media Edition User Guide for more details.
Transcoding Job Selection Example
Transcoding Job Status Within Vantage
USE CASE | Vantage and GLIM Workflow Integration at Visual Data for Localization Services
The objective of this workflow is to enable the Media Services personnel to create deliverable transcoded files while reducing complexity, security exposures, and human errors.
Source content often resides on production storage which is air-gapped from both internet access and internal IT networks. Ideally, these file-based workflows operate in factory-like fashion with files constantly moving down the production line. Integrating Diskover and Telestream enables Media Services personnel to generate low resolution proxies, without the need to provide these individuals direct access to production content.
Diskover’s global index provides high-speed search to media production content without read/write access privileges, in order to find the desired source material; generally mov or mxf files. Once the desired files are located, the end-user can launch Telestream GLIM directly from the Diskover interface to preview/validate the asset, avoiding the need to switch applications and copy/paste file paths.
Once the assets are located and validated, the end-user can launch Vantage directly from the Diskover interface, in order to create proxies to be used by localization services. Upon job submission to Vantage, all low resolution mp4 files are generated and sent to known locations. The original source files is then moved to the S3 location. Since low resolution proxies are 100% recreatable, the generated proxies can be “autocleaned” via Diskover after an established amount of time. Should the Media Services individual need to regenerate the low resolution proxy at some future point, the material can easily be relocated on the S3 location via Diskover, and the above workflow repeated.
Customer Testimony
Diskover has the ability to work with other applications if they have an SDK available. In the case of Telestream’s Vantage transcoding workflow platform, we have found that a combination of Diskover search tools and Vantage makes a really good team.
To eliminate the need to give users access to production content, and the ability to search through thousands of files, the Diskover team built a Vantage submit tool that directly allows to search a file, select that specific file or multiple files, and submit them to the Vantage workflow of your choice.
It’s extremely versatile and communicates very quickly. This procedure is only in its first phase so expanding it to allow workflow status submission, and more advanced workflows like audio overlay and subtitle overlays is on the road map.
Randall Derchan
IT Manager, Visual Data Media Services
IMF Package Validator Plugin
Overview
The Oxagile IMF Package Validator Plugin, exclusively designed for the AJA Diskover Media Edition, allows content creators, distributors, and broadcasters to validate IMF packages before delivery from a remote platform, regardless of the location of the user and the IMF package data.
The main benefits are:
- The simplicity of the process
- An immense amount of man-hours savings.
- The cost of this plugin is a fraction of the price of other validators on the market.
- Seamless integration with Diskover allowing you to sustainably manage all your data.
IMF stands for Interoperable Master Format, which is a technical standard used in the Media and Entertainment industry for the exchange of digital content between different platforms and systems. The IMF format is used to deliver high-quality video content to a variety of devices, including TVs, mobile devices, and web browsers.
Netflix requires all its content to be delivered in IMF format, which undergoes rigorous validation to ensure compliance with industry standards. The validation process involves extensive testing of the content’s video, audio, and metadata to ensure that it meets the production studios’ technical specifications and can be delivered to viewers in the highest quality possible.
Once the content has been validated, it is then encoded into various formats, including 4K and HDR, and made available for streaming on various platforms. The IMF validation process is a critical step in the content delivery pipeline, ensuring that viewers receive high-quality content that meets industry standards and can be enjoyed on a variety of devices.
🖱️ Refer to the online AJA Diskover Media Edition User Guide for more details.
“We are excited to provide this much-needed service to AJA Diskover Media Edition customers, as it will help quickly cue more content creators and providers into when their content is ready to share with their distribution partner or client by meeting IMF packaging requirements. We’re confident this will save them both time and money compared to the processes currently required to validate content.”
Matt Pinckley, US Director of Business Development | Oxagile
The IMF Package Validator Plugin is developed by Oxagile, a major technological partner working with both Diskover Data and AJA Video Systems.
For more information, support, or to purchase the IMF Package Validator Plugin, please contact Oxagile.
Launch Validation via File Action
Validation Status via Tags
Successful Validation Report
Detailed Validation Status per Package
Failed Validation Report
Please Note
The current version limits verification capabilities to the latest version of the Netflix Photon tool. Cloud storage, archives, and DCP packages are currently not supported.
Find File Sequences
Overview
Always aiming for maximum efficiency, Diskover offers its users to find all files in a sequence via the File Action menu, with a single click, either the sequence is broken down or not.
🖱️ Refer to the online AJA Diskover Media Edition User Guide for more details.
Results Open in New Tab
Launch in One Click Via File Action
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