Re: FCP Server and Workflows

*Can we output from FC Xserve to all these different formats at one time?
Yes.

Make sure the server is very well spec'd and let the server do most of the hard work.

I recommend you install Episode Pro from telestream. You can then export the assets directly from the server to all the formats you mentioned including FLV with a few clicks or via automation.

Episode pro can be setup to pipe directly from compressor. So you set all the presets in episode for your mp4's and flv's and then you setup episode settings in compressor, basically they are just link files that point the server straight to the corrsponding episode settings. Then you setup transcode settings in final cut server to point to the compressor links.

So then for example you would right click the assets in final cut server, click export, select the Client1flv compressor setting and the destination folder and away it goes to the batch queue.

In reality what it's doing is coming out of the server through compressor, through episode and then out to the destination folder which sounds convoluted but when it's setup correctly it runs very smoothly.

So then you just queue up all the jobs. Select clips 1-10 export to the client_1_flv folder using client1flv compressor settings. Then clips 1-10 in mp4 and so on. How long it takes to process the queue is how fast the server is. If you use a well spec'd new xserve it will churn through h.264's without much of a problem. To get more power just add more machines to a qmaster compressor cluster. They don't even have to be more xserves you can use mac pro's or g5's as part of the cluster.