Apple - Final Cut Server - Multiformat Delivery

When your projects are ready for delivery, let Final Cut Server do the work for you. Final Cut Server automates Compressor to execute a variety of encoding, resizing, and retiming tasks simultaneously — all at pristine quality.

Pristine encoding and frame conversions

Compressor, Apple’s encoding application, is included with Final Cut Server. It uses optical flow technology to analyse media frame by frame and algorithmically produce conversions at astonishing quality. You can access Compressor settings directly from Final Cut Server to automate format conversions; retiming; scaling, cropping and padding; video filters, including animated overlays; and metadata integration.

Industry-standard encoding

Final Cut Server uses the Compressor engine to encode MPEG-2 and H.264 files, as well as various QuickTime formats — including the Apple ProRes 422 codec family and formats for iPod and Apple TV. For even more options, you can add the Episode Pro plug-in from Telestream to encode to VC-1, WMV, GXF and FLV formats, along with High Profile H.264 and a number of third-party proprietary broadcast server formats.

Batch processing

The automation tools in Final Cut Server allow you to simultaneously encode multiple formats from the same source file or even from multiple source files. For example, when a project’s status is changed to “Publish”, Final Cut Server can launch encoding for web delivery and broadcast formats at the same time.

Time-saving templates

You can use Compressor to configure sequences of encoding and conversion steps, then save the sequences as Final Cut Server templates with easy-to-understand names such as “Web Delivery”. By representing complicated format conversions as a single menu item, templates make it easier to offload operational work to nontechnical users.

Distributed encoding

The Apple Qmaster distributed encoding application included in Compressor allows you to use multiple computers and even multiple cores in each computer to optimise the use of computing resources during encoding. Use the QuickCluster feature in Apple Qmaster to instantly define clusters, then use Final Cut Server to direct specific jobs to the cluster or clusters you select. You can also schedule processing-intensive work to occur during off-hours and even direct jobs to cores in individual workstations on an opt-in basis.

Delivery to external systems

Use scripted responses in Final Cut Server to automate delivery to external systems, such as web servers, broadcast servers or archive systems. You can easily export metadata to meet the requirements of special-purpose workflows such as broadcast traffic systems.