eMAM Panel for Avid Media Composer (MC) 

User Guide

eMAM Version 5.5.2

Notice

The content in this document represents the current view of EMAM, Inc. as of the date of publication. As EMAM responds continually to the changing market conditions, this document should not be interpreted as a commitment on the part of EMAM.  EMAM, Inc. cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.

EMAM is a US registered trademark of Empress Media Asset Management and is used by permission. eMAM logos are US registered trademarks of EMAM, Inc.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.

Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction

Introduction

The eMAM Panel for Avid Media Composer offers editors a seamless way to access, manage, and share media from within eMAM. Using eMAM panel for Media Composer, editors can work with media stored across multiple on-premise or cloud storage and archive systems.

This integration empowers editors to efficiently share media and timeline sequences with eMAM for review and approval, edit content through the eMAM web interface, and deliver finished projects to broadcast and newsroom systems. Additionally, editors can share links, package media for distribution, and archive projects, all within a streamlined workflow.

The combined capabilities of eMAM and Avid Media Composer create a powerful solution that bridges the gap between editors and non-technical users, enabling organizations from various industries to collaborate effectively through a comprehensive media infrastructure. 

Purpose and Scope

The purpose of this document is to describe the installation of the eMAM Panel for Avid Media Composer and explain the overview of its functions, features and the supported import and export workflows in the eMAM system.

System requirements

The system requirements for Avid Media Composer depend on the version and whether you're using a Windows or Mac system. Refer Media Composer for system requirement details.

Pre-Requisites

2. eMAM should be on minimum version 5.5.2 to support panel for Avid Media Composer.
3. eFeeder (logged in with the same user and same unit) should be running on the local machine.

Chapter 2: Getting Started

This chapter explains how to launch eFeeder and open eMAM Panel in the Avid Media Composer.

Open eFeeder

1. Login to the eMAM Director interface and go to My Account page. Under Apps tab, click on eFeeder, and then Register.

Figure 1- My Account page, Apps>eFeeder> Register.

2. If eFeeder is already installed, click on Open eFeeder. Else install eFeeder by clicking on Windows or MAC depending upon the type of your machine.

Figure 2- Click on Open eFeeder

3. 
   eFeeder window opens up.

Figure 3- eFeeder window

Note: eFeeder must be running on your machine to use the eMAM panel in Avid Media Composer.

Open the eMAM Panel in Avid Media Composer

Once you have successfully installed eMAM panel in the Avid Media Composer, follow the steps below to open eMAM Panel in the Avid Media Composer:

1. Launch and open the Avid Media Composer installed on your machine.

Figure 4- Launch Avid Media Composer

2. Create a new project or open a new project.

Figure 5- Open new or existing project

3. From the Media Composer top menu panel, go to Tools and click on eMAM to open eMAM Panel.

Figure 6- Go to Tools>> eMAM to open eMAM Panel

4. The eMAM Panel opens up and asks you to login to the eMAM Panel, using eMAM login credentials provided by your eMAM unit administrator and click on GO. 

Figure 7: eMAM Panel login

5. If your eMAM user account is associated with multiple units, choose a unit for login.

Figure 8- Choose Unit you wish to login

6. The eMAM Panel opens up in the Avid Media Composer as shown below. By default, Assets tab is displayed.

Figure 9: eMAM Panel window open in Avid Media Composer

Note:

1. If the eFeeder is not running on your machine, you will get the error below.

Figure 10- Error displayed when eFeeder is not running on your machine

2. If the eFeeder is logged in with a different account other than the one used to login to eMAM panel for Avid Media Composer, the error below will be displayed.

Figure 11- Error displayed when eFeeder is logged in with a different account

Chapter 3: Overview of eMAM Panel for Avid Media Composer

This chapter describes the overview of the eMAM Panel for Avid Media Composer including its various buttons, tabs, functions and features.

The eMAM Panel for Avid Media Composer

Shown below is a snapshot of the eMAM Panel for Avid Media Composer. Various tabs, functions and buttons are explained in detail below.

Figure 12: eMAM Panel for Avid Media Composer overview

1. 
   Assets tab

The Assets tab displays all the assets managed by eMAM which can be imported to Avid Media Composer. All the assets are displayed with details like asset name, ingested-on date, size and extension of assets. The archived assets (which exist only in the archived location) are displayed with a red line underneath the thumbnail of the asset.

Figure 13: Assets tab

Options available under the Assets tab are:

1. Search filter: Search filter displays list of all Saved filters from eMAM Director interface which can be used to search for assets in MC Panel.

Figure 14- Search filter

2. Sort options: You can sort the assets displayed based on various criteria like most recent, size, name, rating, description, category, ingested on and ingested by.

Figure 15- Sort

4. Order by : Click on Order by to sort the assets in ascending and descending order.
5. Type: Filter the assets based on asset type (images, videos, audios and other files). By default, all image files are displayed in the MC Panel.

Figure 16- Asset type

5. Asset per page: You can use this option to change the no. of assets (10, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250) displayed per page.

Figure 17- Asset per page

6. Page navigation : This displays the current page no. and the next/previous buttons to navigate between the pages. 

2. Categories tab

The Categories tab in the eMAM panel displays all the categories created in the eMAM system that you can import using the Media Composer Panel. 

Figure 18: Categories tab

3. Media Composer Project tab

This tab shows the name of the currently open Avid Media Composer project.  You can drop the sequences here for export to eMAM. 

                                                                      

Figure 13: Media Composer Project tab

4. Search 

Search bar can be used to search for categories and assets under respective tabs.

Figure 19- Search box

Just key in your search word or phrase, click on the Go button and results are displayed. Based on the words entered in the search bar, eMAM will auto populate and display the matching items for you to choose from. Click on icon next to the search phrase to clear the search results.

Figure 20: Search results

5. Link

Link option allows users to import media files without transcoding or copying them into the Avid environment. It will only link to the original media. Select the asset(s) or categories and click on Link button. If eMAM has access to storage, it will directly link to the UNC path, else it will do a http download or S3 localization.

Figure 21- Select assets and click on Link

Figure 22- Select Category for Link

6. Settings

  Click on the Settings button, to define the local path for assets and export.

Figure 23: Settings window

2. Local path for assets: Enter a path to store assets when linked. During linking, when assets are not available in the network storage, it gets downloaded from the eMAM storage.
3. Local path for export: Enter a path to store encoded sequence assets.

7. Refresh

In a multi-user environment, users can work simultaneously on the same project. The Refresh button updates the extension Panel with the latest information in the eMAM.

Figure 24: Refresh icon

8. List view

Click on  icon to view items under Assets and Categories tab in list view.

Figure 25- Assets tab in List view

Figure 26

Figure 27- Categories tab in List view

9. Thumbnail view

Click on  icon to view items under Assets and Categories tab in Thumbnail view.

Figure 28- Assets tab in Thumbnail view

Figure 29- Categories tab in Thumbnail view

10. Logout

Displays logged in username. Click on  icon to logout from your account.

Figure 30- Logged username with logout icon

11. Asset Options window

Double click on any asset under the Assets tab or Categories tab to open Asset Options window. Asset Options window displays details of the asset such as the Title, its location status (online/nearline), thumbnail and various tabs to update metadata, review the history of the asset, review comments added to an asset, send approval requests, and File versions.

Figure 31: Asset Options window

1. Preview tab: By default, Preview tab appears. You can preview any asset individually and view its properties like name, status etc.

Figure 32: Asset Options window- Preview tab

2. Metadata tab: You can see all the metadata details of the asset like Info, Embedded metadata, Custom metadata, and tags under different fields. You also have the option to edit and update metadata details of the asset as needed. Under Custom metadata, metadata values can be multi selected.

Figure 33: Asset Options window- Metadata tab

7. Info: Displays details of the asset title (editable field), description (editable field), author (editable field), uploaded on, uploaded by, Metadata set (editable field), projects, categories. Editable fields can be updated using Update button.

Figure 34: Asset Options window- Metadata tab>Info tab

8. Embedded Metadata: Embedded metadata is extracted by the system at ingest and is non-editable. These are technical and camera information about an asset, including file name, format, and size, bit rate, format information etc.

Figure 35:Asset Options window- Metadata tab>Embedded Metadata tab

9. Custom Metadata: Custom metadata fields are the custom metadata fields created by the users. You can make changes and update the changes using Update button.

Figure 36: Asset Options window- Metadata tab>Custom Metadata tab

10. Tags: This tab displays keywords attached to the asset which can be used for searching the asset.

Figure 37: Asset Options window- Metadata tab>Tags

3. History tab: History tab displays asset details and entire history of functions performed on the asset. It displays Date of Actions, Action Performed, Username and id of the user who performed the action. 

Figure 38: Asset Options window- History tab

4. Comments tab: Comments tab allows you to view and add comments. Displays username, comment written by the user and date when the comment was written. Comments written on different interfaces (assets, approval, eBIN) are displayed here. You can also add comments by entering comments and clicking on the Add Comment button.

Figure 39: Asset Options window- Comments tab

5. Approval: Users may be required to send the asset for approval to another person, internal or external to the organization. An asset can be sent for approval to another eMAM user (internal approval) or externally as a link to someone who has no access to eMAM (external approval). 

1. Send to internal user: Choose the name of the internal user from the drop-down list and click on Send for Approval button.

Figure 40: Asset Options window- Approval tab>Internal approval

2. Send to client for approval: To send to the external client for approval, enter email address of the client, username, password and choose the expiry date for the link.

Figure 41: Asset Options window- Approval tab>External approval

6. File Versions: File Versions displays the list of all the different versions created and available for the same asset. To import a particular version of an asset, set it as Face version before import.

Figure 42: Asset Options window- File Versions tab

Chapter 4: Link and Export Workflow

To link assets from the eMAM system to the Avid Media Composer using eMAM Panel, follow the steps below:

Link

1. Select the desired asset(s) from the eMAM panel and click on Link.

Figure 43: Select assets under the Assets tab and click on Link

2. In the Link Options window, choose the project bin (auto created while creating a project)

Figure 44-Progress of assets getting localized

3. Click on Link.

Figure 45-Select target bin & click on Link.

   Note: When a category is linked, a bin with same name gets auto created during import.

Figure 46-Select target bin for category & click on Link.

4. The Linking or Localization process starts. 

Note: If the media is not found in the storage, it will be downloaded from eMAM. If eMAM has access to storage, it will directly link to the UNC path, else it will do a http download or S3 localization.

Figure 47-Progress of assets getting linked or localized

5. After successful import, the files appear in the Avid Media Composer. Make desired edits.

Figure 48-Files are now displayed in the Avid Media Composer

Export

6. To export the files to eMAM, create a sequence and add the files to this sequence.

Figure 49-Righ click and create sequence and add files to sequence

7. Drag and drop the sequence to the eMAM Panel.

Figure 50- Drag and drop the sequence to the eMAM Panel

8. Fill in the details before export:

11. Select Export Settings: Choose the format you wish to export the file

12. Export folder path: Select export folder path.

13. File Name: Edit file name.

9. Click on Export.

10. The files are now handed over to eFeeder

Figure 51-File handed to eFeeder for upload

11. In the Asset Metadata window, fill in the below details:

Figure 52-Asset Metadata Window

14. Asset Details: 

2. Description: Add description the ingested assets.
3. Author: Username of the author who ingested the assets (editable field).

Figure 53-Asset Metadata Window_Asset Details

15. Ingest profile: Select from the list of ingest profiles displayed. Unlike Java Feeder which only supported FTP, File Catalyst and Network delivery, eFeeder supports FileCatalyst ingest, direct S3 transfer acceleration, network (SMB/CIFS/NFS), http upload, FTP etc.

Figure 54-Asset Metadata Window_Ingest profile

16. MD5 Checksum: Enable MD5 checksum if required.

Figure 55-Asset Metadata Window_MD5 Checksum

17. Projects: Associate the added assets to different Projects or collections. You can also search for desired projects.

Figure 56-Asset Metadata Window_Projects

18. Categories: Associate the added assets to different categories. You can also search for desired categories.

Figure 57-Asset Metadata Window_Categories

19. Tags: Choose from the existing tags or create new tags by clicking on Add button.

Figure 58-Asset Metadata Window_Tags

20. Custom Metadata: Fill in the custom metadata details. 

Figure 59-Asset Metadata Window_Custom Metadata

12. Click on Save to save the changes, Clear to clear the changes made.
13. All the added files are now displayed in the file display area with status as Queued and its description.

Figure 60-eFeeder Files in Upload queue

14. Click on Upload to upload the files in the eFeeder queue.

Figure 61- Click on Upload to upload the files to eMAM

15. After successful export, the exported sequence gets displayed under the Browse widget in the eMAM system.

Figure 62- Exported sequence gets displayed under the Browse widget

Chapter 6: Get Help

For any more information, please contact eMAM support at support@emamsolutions.com

Chapter 7: Table of Figures