Web management interface

The top menu is the first port of call for management functions. The default home page gives you a list of all shots, ordered by the latest first. Each row in the list gives you a summary of each shot, shows you a selection of a few frames from the shot, along with info highlights for each shot; Shot name, Dialogue, Layer(plates, passes etc), frames taken, shot state (in frame times, progress, finished), Animator, Workstation etc.

Top Menu items:

Edit menu pulldown …

• 
  In Progress shots
  Lists all current ongoing shots.
  Finished shots
  Lists all finished shots.
  Finished shots NOT transferred
  Lists all finished shots that have yet to be sent to the edit machine.
  Persistent log
  Provides a report of the day’s action, shot by shot, with info of individual animator’s performance.
  Quicktimes report
  Show all recent movies made, with related shot info. Also shows any reasons why a movie has not been made for a finished shot. Provides links to movies made, shot directories, and reports on progress. Allows rendering to be paused for any shot in case server needs to prioritise another action

Reports menu pulldown …

• 
  Shots log
  Detailed information on each shot.. frames taken, times, real shot length and so on.
  Daily issues
  A forum for reporting any issues encountered with the system.
  Tot frames graph
  A couple of graphs showing shoot progress. Number of frames today, cumulatively throughout shoot, and individually.

  

  Server disk usage

  A rough and ready table for a quick glance at the storage status. Take particular attention to the last couple of lines. There will show the storage array use (how full), and when plugged in in the delivery drive use.

Delivery menu pulldown …

• Select Episodes
• Lists all Episodes that have not yet been registered as delivered to London.

Allows selection of episodes to add to the currently installed Delivery drive.

If a drive is not in the caddy, this page will show the following:
• 

If a drive is present, the following screen will appear:

Select Episodes to include by ticking the checkbox.

To see which shots are to be included in each episode, click the +/- next to the episode #

The projected cumulative sizes of the respective episodes is shown.

• Show today’s Scheduled Delivery
  Shows all the items that were ticked on the previous screen. Copying to the delivery drive will occur after hours, to be collected the following morning. Once copying has done, this list will be empty:

Shows all the items that have ever been copied to a delivery drive (and presumably therefore sent to London). Also allows reselection of Episodes to send to London in case of reshoots etc:

Depth of field calc …

• A handy utility for depth of field calculations. Uses feet/inches or m/cm 
• 
  

• Find a lens location. Relies on operator updating location per shot.

• Shows a popup page that updates with a list of the latest generated shots quicktimes

• Shows a popup page that updates with latest frame taken every few seconds

Backup tape info …

Table 1.
Summary of backups to date. Each line shows the date of the backup, and the size of files it put on the tape. The backup is not incremental. This is for data integrity reasons, so that no backup will ever run the risk of encroaching on the previous backup. This system has been developed over years of experience with tape drives and their idiosyncracies, and has long proved to be the most reliable backup method.

As a further check, the top left hand side of this page will show any anomalies between the tape contents and what the database thinks is on the tape. In this way any funny tape behaviour can be spotted and rectified immediately.

Each backup (done once a week on a Friday night) takes a copy of all the RAW files that have been added to the system since the current tape was installed. The final line shows a tally of what the next backup will add up to. Once it reaches 90% of the tape threshold this line will go red, prompting you to register and install a new tape in the system so that the current one doesn’t overflow.

This table will grow as the shoot progresses. It will divide into sections by tape number as new tapes are used.

Tape Actions 1. Buttons:
Status – this will query the tape backup machine and tell you if there’s a tape installed or not.

Rewind – as it says on the tin.

Ffwd past data – as above. Will wind the tape forwards to the end of the data. For custom use only.

Eject – pops the tape out. Only to be used when taking the tape off site, or replacing a fill tape with an empty one.

Register new tape -This tells the database that there is a new tape in. The size count is thus reset, and the database will start to register subsequent backups as being on the new tape. This sytem allows a search to be done for any shot or file, and find out which tape it is on. Registering and installing a new tape is essential when the existing tape is running out of space.

The final line on this page shows when the current tape was registered and installed.

Generally to be avoided, gives some admin related functions

Help …

Links to information about the software designers, and to this help page.