Transcription
Pro Tools Avid Unity ISIS Version 8.1
Legal NoticesThis guide is copyrighted 2010 by Avid Technology, Inc.,(hereafter “Avid”), with all rights reserved. Under copyrightlaws, this guide may not be duplicated in whole or in partwithout the written consent of Avid.003, 96 I/O, 96i I/O, 192 Digital I/O, 192 I/O, 888 24 I/O,882 20 I/O, 1622 I/O, 24-Bit ADAT Bridge I/O, AudioSuite,Avid, Avid DNA, Avid Mojo, Avid Unity, Avid Unity ISIS,Avid Xpress, AVoption, Axiom, Beat Detective, Bomb Factory,Bruno, C 24, Command 8, Control 24, D-Command, D-Control,D-Fi, D-fx, D-Show, D-Verb, DAE, Digi 002, DigiBase,DigiDelivery, Digidesign, Digidesign Audio Engine, DigidesignIntelligent Noise Reduction, Digidesign TDM Bus, DigiDrive,DigiRack, DigiTest, DigiTranslator, DINR, D-Show, DV Toolkit,EditPack, Eleven, HD Core, HD Process, Hybrid, Impact,Interplay, LoFi, M-Audio, MachineControl, Maxim, Mbox,MediaComposer, MIDI I/O, MIX, MultiShell, Nitris, OMF,OMF Interchange, PRE, ProControl, Pro Tools M-Powered,Pro Tools, Pro Tools HD, Pro Tools LE, QuickPunch, Recti-Fi,Reel Tape, Reso, Reverb One, ReVibe, RTAS, Sibelius,Smack!, SoundReplacer, Sound Designer II, Strike, Structure,SYNC HD, SYNC I/O, Synchronic, TL Aggro, TL AutoPan,TL Drum Rehab, TL Everyphase, TL Fauxlder, TL In Tune,TL MasterMeter, TL Metro, TL Space, TL Utilities, Transfuser,Trillium Lane Labs, Vari-Fi Velvet, X-Form, and XMON aretrademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc.Xpand! is Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.All other trademarks are the property of their respectiveowners.Product features, specifications, system requirements, andavailability are subject to change without notice.Guide Part Number 9329-62051-00 REV A 03/10Documentation FeedbackAt Avid, we are always looking for ways to improve ourdocumentation. If you have comments, corrections, orsuggestions regarding our documentation, email us attechpubs@avid.com.
contentsChapter 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Avid Unity ISIS Capabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1DigiTranslator 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Avid Interplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Overview of an ISIS System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2AAF, OMF, and MXF Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Embedded Media and Linked Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Frame-Rate Accurate Video Editing and Sample-Rate Accurate Audio Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7About Avid Unity ISIS Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Support for Avid Unity ISIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Conventions Used in This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8About www.avid.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Chapter 2. Configuring a Workstation as an ISIS Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Installation Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Workstation Configuration Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Installing Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Avid Unity ISIS Client and Zone Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Installing the ISIS Client Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Configuring the Windows XP Firewall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Installing Client Software for Zone 1 and Zone 2 Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Chapter 3. Using a Client in an ISIS System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19About Avid Unity ISIS Client Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Connecting to the Avid Unity ISIS System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Mounting and Unmounting Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Testing Your Avid Unity ISIS Connection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Adjusting Workspace Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Contentsiii
Protecting and Unprotecting Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Setting Bandwidth Reservations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Performing Administrative Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Configuring the Pro Tools HD Playback Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Configuring Pro Tools Session Settings for a New Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33ISIS Client Performance and Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Performance Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Sharing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Destructive Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Chapter 4. Avid Unity ISIS Workflows for Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Exporting Audio and Video from Media Composer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Checking In a Sequence to Interplay for Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Importing Audio and Video into Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Editing Audio in Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Exporting Audio from Pro Tools for Avid Editing Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Importing Audio into an Avid Application from Pro Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59Synchronizing Audio with an Avid Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Appendix A. Slot Configurations for Avid Video Peripherals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Summary of Recommended Windows Slot Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67HP Z800 Slot Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68HP xw8600 Slot Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71ivPro Tools Unity ISIS Guide
chapter 1IntroductionThis guide explains how to connect and configure a Pro Tools HD workstation as an ISIS clientwithin an Avid Unity ISIS system, as well how toexchange audio and video media sequences between Pro Tools and Avid video application clients attached to an ISIS system.This guide is written for Unity ISIS administrators, Pro Tools users, and Avid users.DigiTranslator 2.0Use DigiTranslator 2.0 to convert AAF sequencesinto Pro Tools session files. You can also use it toexport audio material from Pro Tools sessions toAAF sequences and files for import into othersystems.For more information, refer to theDigiTranslator 2.0 Guide.Avid Unity ISIS CapabilitiesAvid Unity ISIS is an Ethernet-based shared storage system that lets users of Pro Tools and Avidapplications share the same media as follows: Stream audio and video media in real time. Configure up to nine users on the same ISISsystem. Share AAF, OMF, and MXF audio and videosequences and media (DigiTranslator required).Avid InterplayAvid Interplay with the Pro Tools Avid Interplayoption lets users of Pro Tools and Avid video applications work within the same asset management system.For more information, refer to the Pro ToolsAvid Interplay Guide. Share AAF, OMF, and MXF sequences usingthe Avid Interplay asset management system(Avid Interplay system required).Chapter 1: Introduction1
Overview of an ISIS SystemThis guide describes how to configure and workwith a Pro Tools client within an Avid ISIS system. The ISIS installations addressed in thisguide typically comprise the following components:Clients One or more Avid or Pro Tools workstations configured to be able to exchange datawith other clients attached to the ISIS S System Entire set of components within anindividual ISIS installation.ISS/Ethernet Switch Each ISIS crate has twobuilt-in Ethernet connections known as ISSswitches. You can also add external switchesthat connect to the built-in switches.I S I SSystem Director One or more servers (includinga backup server) that functions as the heart ofthe Unity ISIS file system, by maintaining location information for media stored on drives.ISIS Crate Chassis that contains the drives thatstore the actual data.Avid Interplay Transcode and/or Avid DMS ProEncode (Optional) Engine that distributes processor-intensive tasks to network servers in order toallow ISIS clients (such as Avid and Pro Toolsworkstations) to proceed without interruption.Avid Interplay Access/Assist (Optional) Mediaasset management client application that enables facility-wide searching, sorting, cataloging, management, and retrieval of media.Avid Interplay Engine (Optional) Server that manages the metadata stored on the System Directorserver.2Pro Tools Unity ISIS GuideC R A T ESystemDirector rightleftAvid Unity Transfer Engine (Optional) Server thatlets Avid editing applications package elementsof an Avid sequence and transfer them to otherlocations. You can add this as an additional client, connected either directly or through aswitch.InterplayServerPro ToolsClientAvid Unity ISIS (Zone 1 system), with solid linesrepresent physical connections, while dotted linesrepresent connections through the switchInterplayServerPro WITC1 GBconnectionHSystemDirector10 GBuplink1 GB connectionleftright1 GB connectionISISAvid Unity ISIS (Zone 2 system), with solid linesrepresent physical connections, while dotted linesrepresent connections through the switch
AAF, OMF, and MXF BasicsAAF and OMF files are mechanisms for storingand retrieving media data and metadata so thatprojects can be freely exchanged between different applications and platforms (such as betweenPro Tools and Avid video editing applications).Media data and metadata enable an applicationthat receives AAF and OMF sequence files to automatically and quickly reassemble the composition. A simple metaphor for this approach isthat media data files are the pieces of a puzzleand metadata is the set of instructions for assembling the puzzle.In the simplest case, only an AAF or OMF sequence is exchanged. If this sequence points toexisting media files, the size of the sequence fileis relatively small and the export/import processis relatively fast.AAF and OMF sequences can also have mediadata embedded in them. This creates a single,larger file that is slower to export and import,but which may be easier to manage than thousands of files stored on different volumes.Pro Tools supports AAF and OMF sequences thatcontain embedded audio media.Pro Tools with DigiTranslator does not supportAAF or OMF sequences containing embeddedvideo media, except if you are importing suchsequences into a video satellite track. In suchcases, video metadata is imported into the track.MXFMXF is a media file format. There are MXF videofiles and MXF audio files, but there are no “MXFsequences.” An AAF sequence may refer to or include MXF media files, but OMF sequences cannot refer to or include MXF files.Avid Application Support for MXF MediaMedia Composer supports MXF media as follows: Create MXF media when capturing, transcoding, rendering, or using other methods to create media. Import of MXF media files created in otherAvid applications Export of MXF audio and video filesPro Tools Support for MXF MediaPro Tools supports MXF media as follows: Import of MXF video and audio media Export of MXF audio mediaPro Tools cannot export Avid video files of anytype.Video files digitized in Pro Tools are technicallyof the MXF format, but are intended only for usein Pro Tools and are not tested for compatibilitywith other applications.For the purposes of this user guide, AAF sequences are emphasized and referenced overthe older OMF sequence standard.Chapter 1: Introduction3
AAFOMFAAF sequences are the best way to exchangeprojects and maintain valuable metadata. AnAAF sequence can refer to OMF and/or MXF media files, or have OMF and MXF media files embedded within them. There is no such thing asan AAF audio or video media file.OMF is both a media file and sequence format.OMF media files can be audio or video.Avid Application Support for AAFSequencesMedia Composer supports AAF sequences as follows: Import and export of AAF sequences with embedded video files (MXF or OMF) and/or audio files (MXF, WAV, or AIFF). Import and export of AAF sequences that referto external (linked) video files (MXF or OMF)and/or audio files (MXF, WAV, or AIFF)Pro Tools Support for AAF SequencesWith DigiTranslator 2.0, Pro Tools supports AAFsequences as follows: Import and export of AAF sequences that contain embedded or refer to external (linked)MXF, WAV, or AIFF audio files Import of AAF sequences that refer to external(linked) MXF or OMF video files Video satellite systems only: Import of AAF sequences containing embedded video to a satellite track, in which case Pro Tools importsonly the metadata (cuts and clip names) andnot the videoPro Tools does not export video files, tracks ormetadata as part of AAF sequences.4Pro Tools Unity ISIS GuideAvid Application Support for OMF Mediaand SequencesMedia Composer supports OMF media and sequences as follows: Import and export of OMF sequences withembedded OMF video files and WAV or AIFFaudio files Import and export of OMF sequences that refer to external (linked) OMF video files andWAV or AIFF audio filesPro Tools Support for OMF Media andSequencesWith DigiTranslator 2.0, Pro Tools supportsOMF media and sequences as follows: Import of OMF video files created byMedia Composer or other Avid applications Export of OMF audio files Import and playback of OMF sequences thatrefer to external (linked) audio files or containembedded audio files Import and playback of OMF sequences thatrefer to external (linked) OMF video files Export of OMF sequences that refer to external (linked) audio files or contain embeddedaudio files Pro Tools does not export video files, tracks ormetadata as part of OMF sequences.
Embedded MediaExporting to OMF or AAF with embedded mediaresults in one large OMF or AAF file containingboth the metadata and all associated media files.However, it is important to note that file size islimited to 2 GB.This guide refers to the root folder name (AvidMediaFiles) whenever referencing this folder.OMF Media Data Locations On the volumes youhave designated, Media Composer stores allOMF media in the OMFI MediaFiles folder.MetadataMedia Data (Media Files)Media data represents raw audio or video material and is stored in individual media files. Everytime you record a piece of video or audio material into an application, you are creating a mediafile containing media data. Audio media data isstored as samples (such as 44,100 or 48,000 samples per second of recording) while video mediais typically stored as frames (24, 25, or 30 framesper second of recording).The size of each media file depends on howmuch audio or video material it contains. Forexample, if you record ten minutes of continuous video material at a high resolution, youmight end up with a video media file that is1.8 GB in size, whereas a one minute recordingat the same resolution might result in a 180 MBfile. Media files tend to be large, since high quality audio and video signals are data intensive.Video data generally requires considerably morestorage than audio data.MXF Media Data Locations On the volumes youhave designated for media storage,Media Composer stores all MXF media: When stored locally, MXF media is placed inthe Avid MediaFiles/MXF/1 folder.Media Composer can also read MXF media located at Avid MediaFiles/MXF/2, Avid MediaFiles/MXF/3, and so on. When stored in a shared environment, MXFmedia is placed in a folder calledAvid MediaFiles/MXF/client.1 (where client represents the name of the client computer).Metadata is used to describe: Information about each media file. Thismay include sample rate, bit depth, regionnames, the name of the videotape fromwhich the media file was captured, andeven time code values that specify where afile was used in a Pro Tools session. Information about Pro Tools sessions orother sequences, including what files areused, where they appear in a Timeline, andautomation. For AAF or OMF sequences, metadata alsoincludes information about unrenderedAudioSuite effects (such as real-time EQ) onAvid workstations. Pro Tools skips unrendered effects on import. Rendered effectsare media files, that can be imported orskipped on import into Pro Tools. For AAF or OMF sequences, informationabout automation (clip-based gain or keyframe gain).Embedded Media and LinkedMediaThere are two ways to handle media files whenexporting AAF or OMF files: Embedded media (in which the media files areembedded in an AAF or OMF sequence) Linked media (in which media files are referenced by an AAF or OMF sequence)Chapter 1: Introduction5
Pro Tools with DigiTranslator 2.0 lets you import AAF or OMF sequences containing embedded audio files. You can also import AAF or OMFsequences containing embedded video files, butonly if you are importing them to a video satellite track. In such a case, only the video metadata is imported.Frame-Rate Accurate VideoEditing and Sample-RateAccurate Audio EditingAvid applications edit with frame accuracy. Thismeans that in a 30-fps project, you can edit at 30different locations for every one second ofvideo. Pro Tools edits with sample rate accuracy.In a 48-kHz session, there are potentially 48000locations to edit for every second of audio.When Pro Tools exports an AAF compositiondestined for an Avid application, it must ensurethat the audio files line up on frame boundaries.To do this, it might have to split an existing au-dio region into three separate regions. For example, the following illustration shows a 5-framevideo clip and a corresponding audio region. InPro Tools, the audio regions might not line upon video frame boundaries.In order to export frame accurate audio regions,Pro Tools splits the audio media on frameboundaries and fills any gaps with silence. Thefollowing illustration shows the resulting audioregions that are exported to Avid.When you use Export Selected Tracks asOMF/
2 Pro Tools Unity ISIS Guide Overview of an ISIS System This guide describes how to configure and work with a Pro Tools client within an Avid ISIS sys-tem. The ISIS installations addressed in this guide typically comprise the following compo-nents: ISIS System Entire
