NSA Middleware & Apps

CatDV Archiving Products & Services

CatDV AWS S3 & Glacier Archive Application

Archive your media to the Amazon cloud with our AWS archiving application. Send assets & metadata from the Worker Node to S3 and/or Glacier for secure off-site storage.

North Shore provides the consulting and software to quickly and easily create your own cloud archive inexpensively. Get up to date status on storage class and other AWS metadata at a glance. When it’s time to retrieve assets, NSA manages the restore process. So whether clips are instantly available in your S3 Bucket, or staged for longer restore from the less-expensive Glacier, you can use CatDV Pro’s simple user interface to manage and control the whole process.

Feature List

• • Archive and restore to/from Amazon S3 and Glacier

    • Glacier restores are queued and monitored until complete

  • Multipart uploads

    • Multiple concurrent upload streams

    • Tuneable chunk size to maximize upload speed & efficiency

  • No dedicated S3 account needed

    • Extremely restricted access policy

    • Only requires restricted user on your amazon account

  • User selectable AWS Bucket

    • On asset by asset basis1

  • Standalone application

    • Triggered by Worker Node action

    • Not dependent on worker node process for archive operations

    • High-speed batch job submission

      • Single worker action can queue multiple files for archive in one operation

  • Uses CatDV REST API to ensure speed and reliability

  • Separate North Shore archive job queue, logging and reporting

1Single bucket per asset, multiple buckets for a single asset not supported at this time

CatDV to SGL Flashnet Archive Application

SGL Broadcast’s Flashnet archiving systems are well known & loved by broadcasters worldwide. North Shore has delivered the enterprise power of Flashnet to CatDV systems with our CatDV2Flashnet application. Combining the power of both Flashnet and CatDV Server’s powerful API’s, delivers feedback and speed unheard of in most other archive system integrations.

CatDV/EMC Isilon Archive Worker Plugin

Many clients want to implement spinning archives instead of utilizing tape. NSA has developed an archiving application that allows CatDV to control and manipulate files on an Isilon cluster via a REST API. This means that users may move files from one cluster to another (Tier-1 to Archive, for instance) internally on the Isilon, from CatDV, without ever mounting the volumes or using their own systems to copy/move the files. Protect your data and increase transfer speeds by leveraging Isilon’s powerful file manipulation capabilities.

XML Products & Services

XML Creation & Translation

Whether for CatDV, Telestream’s Vantage or any other product you might bring to the table, NSA can help you walk through defining and implementing an XML translation for inter-system communication.

Need to deliver to assets from your production MAM to a larger DAM or deliver files and metadata to a distribution outlet? NSA can assist with consulting and needs analysis and then deliver the programming needed to complete the workflow. You define the need, we’ll do the rest.

Our list of current pre-built connectors or services includes CatDV to:

• Brightcove

• Mark Logic/Quad GFX

• YouTube

• Daily Motion

• Comcast Xfinity

• Prism Publishing Spec

• Reuters (see Reuters Submission Workflow below)

• mRSS - (Used for many online distribution platforms) 

  • Amazon Video

  • MSN Video

  • Yahoo Video

Don’t see yours here? Custom formats are available upon request.

XSLT Creation - for simple translations

If you simply need to reformat XML data without any change to the field values, this can be accomplished using an XSLT file in CatDV Worker Node. NSA can provide an out of the box XSLT file that you simply plug into Worker Node and go, for a low flat fee. We walk you through delivering your XML schema, deliver test/example files and once they are approved, install the XSLT on your system.

XSLT Applets - for more advanced translations

These applets were created to add functions that may not exist in a standard xml translation, such as data validation, date format transformation or custom lookups from a data list. (Example: user types “NSA” into a field and the applet expands to “North Shore Automation” or change a date format from US to ISO format.) Additionally, these apps offer enhanced error logging, administrator notification options and other features not commonly available in custom solutions.

NSA currently offers pre-built, flat rate connectors from CatDV to most major content distribution outlets and many enterprise DAMs. Contact your rep for more information.

CatDV Update Via XML

In previous versions of CatDV Worker Node, the default behavior of CatDV was to create a new asset upon receipt of an XML file. This has changed in version 5. However some users may want to receive meta data updates via XML file delivery in a way that CatDV might not support through its stock workflow so NSA continues to provide this capability through our XML-Update product. Send an XML that matches an asset in the database and the selected fields in CatDV will be updated with the values from the XML. Great for file receipt confirmation and many other applications.

Upload Forms

CatDV Submission Form

Let users upload data to CatDV without using the CatDV interface and no manual data entry on your part. Great for keeping training time down and increasing data accuracy.

Example Workflow: A user fills out a web form and then selects a file to upload delivering a clip and metadata to CatDV. CatDV Worker Node can then notify a user of the file or job request.

There are many versions of this workflow available including options for File Catalyst and Aspera integration. Contact your rep for more information.

Manual Page for Upload Form

Reuters Advisory/Media Submission

This is for customers who regularly submit stories to the Reuters News Agency. Users use a simple web form branded with your company identity to notify Reuters of an upcoming submission. Once the story is ready, use our Reuters file submission connector to deliver the media assets to the agency.

Compression & Transcoding Products & Services

CatDV Episode Pro & Episode Engine CLI integration

Want to create proxy using Telestream’s Episode line and have it automatically delivered into the correct proxy path? Want to do custom transcode and deliver scripts using Episode and Aspera or ftp? NSA has pre-built solutions ready to deploy. Move beyond drop folders and add intelligence to your workflow. - EP

CatDV Compressor CLI integration

Want to create proxy using Apple Compressor and have it delivered into the correct proxy path? We have a documented workflow and scripting that will have you up and running with no hassles. - CM

CatDV ffmpeg CLI integration

Want to create proxy using ffmpeg and have it delivered into the correct proxy path? We have a documented workflow and scripting that will have you up and running with no hassles. - FF

NSA Deadline Proxy Plugin

Want to leverage the power of open source transcoding for your proxy creation? NSA can help you build a transcoding farm with our Job Manager package that leverages your existing hardware to crunch through the largest proxy creation jobs. (Note also available for RED proxy generation.

CatDV Stills Proxy Script

Still Image Proxy enhancement for CatDV Worker Node. Faster and with more format options than available in the stock options.

CatDV/MAM Scripting Products & Services

Also known as CatDV “Glue,” the following scripts and applications plug small gaps in CatDV workflows.

CSV2CatDV

CatDV Pro has powerful XML import features but often users may not be able to create compliant XML files without assistance.

The CSV2CatDV application allows users to take a standard csv file and create CatDV XML from it for ingest. Field key pairs are matched by editing a simple config file telling the system which csv field maps to which CatDV field.

The advanced version allows for parsing of a csv file and updating an existing CatDV record via the API. This is useful for situations where media was ingested without metadata and metadata was logged in an external system. CatDV2CSV can read a csv record, look up the asset in CatDV by your chosen identifier and then publish the csv metadata to that record in CatDV using update or overwrite.

CatDV Automated Database Backup

CatDV Server includes an easy, manual process for exporting the MYSQL database for backup, but automation of this process is not easily configured by most users. Because this generally requires some sysadmin skills beyond the scope of most video engineers/editors, many CatDV systems have no direct database backup. NSA provides this simple script, with installation, to rectify this situation. Protect your data today.

Checksum & Checksum Verify

CatDV Pro can create an md5 checksum and write it to their database. The NSA Checksum Verify script can read the original checksum, create a new one, and compare the two to verify the files integrity. This is typically done after a file restore or other type of file transfer to guarantee file integrity.

Project Commencement/Ingest

Custom scripting to create a predefined folder/directory structure upon commencement of a project based on project metadata or input from a web interface. This scripting, combined with CatDV Worker Node actions to deliver assets into this structure automatically, can help enforce good data management practices.

Metadata Injector

Allows CatDV Worker Node to inject selected metadata into the media file wrapper. Ex: Meta Data fields can be written to the Title, Artist, Album & Comments fields in .mov and .mp4 files. This data is viewable in QT Player 7, X and iTunes 11 as well as in the “get info” display in OS X and “Properties” in Windows systems.

Email from Variable/Field

The CatDV Worker Node can send email to a pre-defined administrator or user. This script allows a user to enter an email address in a metadata field and then generate email notifications to that address from CatDV Worker Node without access to the Worker Node config.

CatDV Transfer Scripts

FTP

Custom Scripting and Documentation for FTP Delivery via Worker Node Automation

Aspera

Custom Scripting and Documentation for Aspera Delivery via Worker Node Automation

File Catalyst

Custom Scripting and Documentation for File Catalyst Delivery via Worker Node Automation

Consulting & Technical Services

Workflow Consulting, Training & Documentation

Deploying a MAM is often done in reverse where the project is outlined after a product is purchased and deployed. We refer to this as the, “We have it here, now what?” syndrome. Let our team of expert asset management consultants help you define your project requirements and goals either pre or post-purchase. Additionally, once the system is deployed, let us assist in documenting your workflow and system so that support and employee turnovers are more manageable.

Data Migration/Liberation

If you have data in an existing database that you’d like to deliver into your new MAM/DAM, NSA offers data migration and import services. We have completed projects ranging from a simple “flat” Filemaker db export for a local production company, all the way to a MySQL extraction for a major  medical school which involved pulling images and metadata from a decommissioned system containing over 107 tables with no little to no documentation.

For more information on getting a migration bid, check this page.

MAM Meta Data Extraction & Cleanup

NSA offers database grooming for existing MAM databases for situations where the existing metadata was either tagged incorrectly or the underlying schema has changed. For example: Data in a field was gathered as a multi-select initially when the system was deployed,as in field07-Keywords=”Cars; People; Traffic; Chicago”. The client wants the values extracted into separate fields i.e. field01=Cars, field02=People, field03=Traffic and so on. Don’t waste man hours on cleanup, automate.

StorageDNA Catalog Migration

If you have owned a StorageDNA Evolution LTO Archiving system for a while and now want to add CatDV to your workflow, NSA can deliver the asset records from your SDNA system directly into CatDV. This enables search and retrieval of your archived assets from CatDV without a labor intensive restore and catalog process.

Whatever You Can Conceive...

NSA welcomes custom scripting and programming projects. We’ve served some of the largest clients in the media & entertainment, corporate and educational spaces. Let us provide the know how to bring your ideas into your workflow.

Find out more at http://northshoreautomation.com