Copy assets into another folder even if one or more assets are already in the folder.

In an Interplay Production database, if you select a group of clips and copy them to another folder, clips that already exist in the target folder are omitted from the copy process.

The Up button is to the right of the Back and Forward buttons

In the Assets pane tool bar, the Up button is now displayed to the right of the Back and Forward buttons. This matches the common operating system convention.

The Up button has also been moved to the same location in the Associations pane.

Watermarking (Technology Preview)

The Watermarking feature now includes a user name and date stamp on any watermarked assets.

For more information on Asset Watermarking as well as the definition of a Technology Preview, see the MediaCentral Platform Services Installation and Configuration Guide.

The Up button is to the right of the Back and Forward buttons

In the Associations pane tool bar, the Up button is now displayed to the right of the Back and Forward buttons. This matches the common operating system convention.

“Duration” added to timecode display

The Media viewer includes one large timecode display and three smaller timecode displays. Starting with MediaCentral UX v2.8, you can display the total duration of a loaded asset in the large timecode display. You can select to display duration in either Asset mode or Output mode. To display duration, click the menu button and select Duration.

The following illustration shows the display for an asset loaded in Asset mode. Note that if you select Duration, the Mark In and Mark Out displays show the master timecode.

The following illustration shows the display for a sequence loaded in Output mode. Note that the smaller display also shows the duration of the sequence.

“Clip” added to timecode display

Starting with MediaCentral UX v2.8, you can display the source timecode of a clip contained in a sequence that is loaded in Output mode. This feature is especially useful when logging sequences.

The following illustration shows the display for a sequence loaded in Output mode, with Clip selected.

You can also select Clip for a clip loaded in Asset mode, but this is less useful because in Asset mode the master timecode and the clip timecode are identical.

Preserve active asset when switching layouts

If you have loaded an asset in the Media player, and need to switch layouts (for example, to switch from Log layout to Cut layout), the asset remains loaded.

Zoom region moves to display the position indicator after an edit.

If you have zoomed in to a section of the Sequence Timeline, and you perform an edit that includes material beyond the zoom region, the zoom region moves to display the position indicator. The size of the zoom region does not change.

Controlling the iNEWS monitor server

MediaCentral UX v2.6.x and v2.7.x allowed users to turn the monitor server on and off but did not allow users to load the monitor server. Starting with MediaCentral UX v2.8, you have the option to load the monitor server, which then sends its playlist to a specified device automation system, such as iNEWS | Command.

For more information, see Controlling the iNEWS Monitor Server.

Changes to Sharded Mongo

The process to configure the sharded Mongo database has been updated. This includes new names for many of the scripts and an enhanced process for configuring the arbiter for a 2-node cluster configuration.

Additionally, the “Working with Sharded Mongo” section has been expanded and is now contained in a separate appendix.

For more information, see the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services Installation and Configuration Guide.

Configuring a Whitelist

External systems such as Interplay Production and Interplay MAM that have installed the Avid Connectivity Toolkit must be added to a configuration file on the MCS server. This configuration file builds a “whitelist” of systems allowed to connect to the MediaCentral BAL (Bus Access Layer) for enhanced security. Any system running the Avid Connectivity Toolkit that is not included in this file might encounter errors when connecting to the Bus.

For more information, see “Configuring Access for External Systems” in the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services Installation and Configuration Guide.

Avid Shared Storage Client

The process for upgrading and downgrading the Avid shared storage client have been updated.

For more information, see the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services Installation and Configuration Guide or the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services Upgrade Guide.

Changes NTP configuration

In certain configurations, Avid recommends adding a “prefer” option to the ntp.conf file to identify a primary NTP server.

For more information, see “Synchronizing the System Clock” in the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services Installation and Configuration Guide.

MAM Connector

The process of upgrading the MAM Connector can be found in the “MAM Connector” chapter of the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services Installation and Configuration Guide.

Virtualization

MediaCentral platform Services in Corosync/Pacemaker cluster configurations are now supported in a virtual environment.

For more information, see the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services Virtual Environment with VMware® Best Practices Guide.

Administrators can remove the Messaging feature from the MediaCentral UX user interface.

If a administrator wants to prevent users from using the Messaging feature, the administrator can make that change by editing the MediaCentral UX Configurator.

Features can be enabled or disabled through the Configurator tool at: /opt/avid/avid-interplay-central/configurator

If the Messaging option is deselected, the Messages pane is removed from the Panes menu. If the Messages pane is part of an existing user layout, the pane will be displayed, but it will be empty and include the following message:

“No View implementation found for type av-messaging”

Auto-populate the Video ID with the sequence name.

System administrators have the option to adjust a setting on the MCS servers to automatically populate the Video ID field in the Send To Playback window with the sequence name. Once populated, users can alter the Video ID field with a custom value if desired.

If the sequence has already been assigned a Video ID through the MediaCentral UX Metadata pane or through an external system such as Avid iNEWS, the ID does not change and the text area cannot be edited.

For instructions to enable this feature, see “Modifying application.properties” in the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services Installation and Configuration Guide.

Standardized system logs.

The naming convention for logs related to Avid services are now standardized. The logging format is as follows:.

For more information on system logs, see the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services Concepts and Clustering Guide.

General improvements

Media Index now supports large Interplay | MAM thesauruses, including groups of up to 5000 items.

Grouping of custom TBMD

When performing an Indexed search, custom TBMD (time-based metadata) is now grouped together for clarity.

For example if two indexed databases of the same type, such as an Interplay MAM system, both include a custom metadata field called “Sample Rate”, the custom metadata field only appears once in the search criteria menu. In prior releases the field would appear twice (one for each database).

Improved English language dictionary for Indexed searches

Previously, if a user searched for a non-English word such as an Asset ID that ended in a “e” or a “y”, the search engine might automatically convert the last letter to a different character. For example, a search for “MAAAAABU3Y” would be converted to “MAAAAABU3I”

A plug-in for the ElasticSearch database has been added which more intelligently analyzes the text and improves results when searching for non-dictionary values.

“Fields” option add to the MediaCentral UX System Settings for Media Index

The Fields System Setting enables system administrators to enable or disable options in the search criteria menus to limit search values to only those that apply to the local workflow.

For more information, see “Configuring Media Index Fields” in the “Media | Index Custom Configuration” chapter of the Avid Media | Index Configuration Guide.

Re-sharding an existing configuration

If the amount of data indexed by your system grows to a point where it becomes necessary to alter the original configuration, a script has been created to assist in the creation of additional ElasticSearch shards.

For more information, see “Re-Sharding a Media Index Database” in the Avid Media | Index Configuration Guide.

Users can create, modify and delete markers for IOS

You can create markers for clips and sequences in the MediaCentral UX mobile app for iOS devices. Entering edit mode allows you to modify markers. You can also delete markers.

Users can use presenter mode on Android tablets.

If you use an Android tablet with the MediaCentral UX mobile app, you can access presenter mode. This allows you to view a show's scripts in a page-by-page layout, similar to printed scripts used by news presenters.

Inclusion of a maintenance script for deleting media packages in the Media Distribute installer.

Media Distribute administrators can run a script, included with the Media Distribute installer, that deletes all packages from the Packages pane, including pages of the pane that are not visible.

Documents pane

MediaCentral UX v2.8 introduces the Documents pane, which lets you view proxies of PDF documents. If you have the appropriate user privileges, you can also download the document to your computer.

Process Dashboard pane

MediaCentral UX v2.8 introduces the Process Dashboard pane, which is used to monitor processes for a defined context. You can define and edit the context for the dashboard and save the dashboard to the Launch pane. In the Process Dashboard pane, you can monitor the processes of the selected type, apply filters to the processes displayed in the Process List, and modify the Process List layout. You can save and work with more than one process dashboard at the same time.

Users with non-MAM Base license have access to MAM orchestration features

Starting with MediaCentral UX v2.8, users that are assigned a Base non-MAM license (Interplay Production, iNEWS) have “orchestration-only access” to all connected Interplay MAM systems. These users have access to the Interplay MAM orchestration features (process creation and monitoring, user task editing) with the following limitations:

Documentation updates

The MediaCentral | UX User’s Guide and the Avid MediaCentral Platform Services Installation and Configuration Guide have been updated to include information regarding the Maestro UX plug-in for MediaCentral UX.

Port Usage Guide

The default port for the acs-gateway service has been changed from 9500 to 9900 (9966 secure). This is an important notification for any developer creating applications or plug-ins for MediaCentral Platform Services.