Re: The Final Cut Server conundrum

Hi Jason,
So all the previous posts are helpful but let me throw in my comments.

First FCSvr is primarily a DAM (or MAM) system with powerful metadata tools. It also has very powerful automation tools to streamline the workflow process as much as possible . Things like automatic transcoding and email notifications are examples of this.

When media is uploaded into FCSvr it creates an asset in the FCSvr database (or catalog). These assets include a lo-res proxy for browsing over IP. The specific proxy settings can be customized to meet your needs. I just did an install where we built a custom Compressor preset just for this purpose.

Another feature FCSvr has is what is called "Edit Proxies" these are PreRes 422 versions of your assets used by editors when the original format is too large to handle over IP. While ProRes 422 is still a bit large it is NOT as large as uncompressed.

Finally, if a SAN is available FCSvr can be set up to use what is called "Edit in Place" this recognizes the SAN storage and the media in it as a Device for FCSvr and allows other SAN clients to access the full-res media asset without copying it to the local cache.

There is a lot more than that, but I hope this helped clear it up a bit. If you have more questions, feel free to contact me.

Jon R