Final Cut Server Introducing Final Cut Server. Your assets’ greatest asset.

Your facility handles thousands of hours of footage, yet any shot you need is just a click or two away. Producers show you what they have in mind—instantly—whether they’re across the hall or across the country. Project files are routed, copied, archived, and output without intervention, while your team stays focused on creative work. Meet Final Cut Server, Apple’s powerful new media asset management and workflow automation . Final Cut Server takes the headache out of managing large collections of media files. It then extends to tracking job status, orchestrating reviews and approvals, and automating complex sequences of tasks—all with Apple’s legendary ease of use, and all in a single product designed to work seamlessly with Final Cut Studio. Whether you’re part of a two-person startup or a larger workgroup, Final Cut Server frees you up to spend more time on high-value creative activities. Collaborate over a LAN or WAN, or use the power of to share media across a large number of workstations. Final Cut Server combines server software designed to run on Mac OS X with a cross- platform client that runs on both Mac and Windows-based computers. It breaks new ground in post-production software through its extraordinary combination of:

• Powerful media asset management. Use Final Cut Server to automatically catalog your media in any format and in any location. Powerful search tools let you find an asset fast, whether you’re in the studio or on the road. Browse thumbnails, poster frames, and proxies generated by Final Cut Server in formats you specify, and configure a rich set of metadata to support the way you work.

• Sophisticated workflow automation. Final Cut Server scales to support workgroups of different sizes, ranging from a two-person post house to a multi-artist news graphics operation. Use the configurable event-based response model to track job status, monitor media changes, facilitate review and approval, and automate complex sequences of tasks—all through a series of simple menu selections. Get started quickly with professional workflow templates, modify them, or create completely custom flows.

• Final Cut Studio integration. Editors will discover that Final Cut Server offers a seamless extension of their workflow. Drag assets from Final Cut Server to any of the Final Cut Studio applications. Use Final Cut Server to organize Productions—including any combination of projects, media assets, and production documents. Or check out a Final Cut Pro project from Final Cut Server to begin editing; when you check it back in, the catalog updates automatically. Whether you’re cutting commercials, editing feature films, or pushing out the nightly news, Final Cut Server helps you work faster and smarter whenever you’re working together.

Fact Sheet Final Cut Server Fact Sheet 2 Final Cut Server

Powerful Media Asset Management Final Cut Server makes it easy to ingest, catalog, group and find your media files. View your content in list, thumbnail, or tile views complete with convenient proxy browsing. You can organize your assets in multiple ways—without duplicating media—by using Production containers. Set access permissions at the asset or Production level.

Comprehensive content cataloging and search Final Cut Server can scan content in both remote and local file systems to discover your assets and generate a catalog. Drag and drop additional assets into the system or set up “watched” folders and volumes for dynamic updating. When you need to find an asset, drill rapidly through the catalog with the layered search tool in Final Cut Server. Just type keywords in a search field for simple searches; for more complex searches, a single click opens up additional fields that allow you to use Boolean expressions to search on a wide range of parameters. Final Cut Server supports more than 100 different file types and a wide range of file systems and media storage devices. No matter whether your media is stored on external volumes or a SAN, all the files in the catalog are visible and accessible from a single browser. Final Cut Server also lets you maintain and manage multiple versions of your working files.

Automatic generation of proxies and thumbnails Proxies and thumbnails, used to reference original media, are an essential component of media asset management. Final Cut Server can be configured to automatically generate reference media—including thumbnails, poster frames, and clip proxies—whenever assets are added to the catalog. Final Cut Server gives you complete control in specifying the formats for proxies. If you wish, configure Final Cut Server to skip files that are already associated with proxies generated by other systems. Fact Sheet 3 Final Cut Server

Easy-to-use metadata tools Final Cut Server automatically extracts and reports industry-standard metadata— including IPTC, XMP, and XML data types—as it catalogs assets. This eliminates the need for hours of manual data entry. Configure any metadata view in Final Cut Server with just the fields you want, in views that group the fields to fit the way you work. A powerful mapping algorithm translates metadata from different formats so that your data will give you consistent information across your catalog. You can easily export metadata from Final Cut Server to special-purpose workflows such as broadcast traffic systems.

Flexible content “containers” Final Cut Server allows you to aggregate references to media in containers called Productions. Because these containers consist only of file references rather than the actual assets, you can have an almost infinite number of Productions that combine your assets in various ways without increasing your storage requirements. Use Production- level metadata to track job status, usage rights, exposure, and other information that you want to apply globally to all the assets in the container. Productions can include full Final Cut Pro projects as well as rough-cut sequences and production documents.

Define the metadata that makes sense to you for any given workflow; assign custom fields to the Production to track its status as it moves from preparation to production, to review and approval, and finally to distribution and archive. You can even use the Production container to link all the media required at each step of your pipeline, to ensure that the assets are readily available to team members at every step.

Robust access controls Your client wants to evaluate a rough cut. You want her to view yesterday’s edit but not last week’s version—let alone the media you’re creating for other clients. Or one of your workgroups is disclosed on a new product that a client is about to launch, while the other people in your shop are not authorized to view the materials. Final Cut Server allows administrators to configure a range of highly specific access controls that define permissions on an asset or Production basis. Fact Sheet 4 Final Cut Server

Sophisticated Workflow Automation Final Cut Server is fully configurable software that lets you quickly establish a baseline workflow and modify it over time. Use Final Cut Server to track and monitor each step of your post-production process. You can configure it to watch specific assets or Productions for conditions that trigger automated events. For example, it can send out notifications, copy out media files, and launch a sequence of time-saving batch processes—all at the right moment.

Simplified setup through workflow templates Final Cut Server includes a set of professional workflow templates that let you get started immediately, with no need for expensive consultants or weeks of process analysis. The templates define a set of users, permissions, and asset and production types, as well as review and approval notifications and publishing rules. As you uncover additional ways to use Final Cut Server in your organization, you can branch out and customize the templates. Ultimately you can configure Final Cut Server to support every aspect of your post-production workflow.

Fully configurable event-based response model Final Cut Server offers a comprehensive system of watch-and-respond behaviors that can be used for everything from tracking projects as they move through the pipeline to automating complex sequences of repetitive tasks. Configure Final Cut Server to watch for status changes, user activity, asset additions, and more. Direct the software to automatically make copies, move old content to a backup location, or convert media to an output format and push it to a server. Set up a single response or a chain of responses for any given “watched” event; saving your settings for reuse on future projects. Fact Sheet 5 Final Cut Server

Location-independent review and approval Final Cut Server lets you automate review and approval processes so that internal or external clients can view, and approve content from anywhere. You can configure Final Cut Server to notify reviewers by email when a project is ready for evaluation. Reviewers can add notes to low-resolution proxies so that a Final Cut Pro editor can see the comments displayed on a review clip. Because the proxy file sizes are not large, it’s possible to review projects in the Final Cut Server browser even over a low-bandwidth connection.

Workgroup-friendly cross-platform client Final Cut Server combines server-side software running on Mac OS X with a cross- platform client that runs on both and Windows-based computers. This means that you can use Final Cut Server on mixed-platform networks, or allow a client to log in from a PC even if everyone in your shop uses a Mac. The user interface is similar on both platforms. Because the Final Cut Server software is server based, a single update to the server allows any user to benefit from the latest features at login; there is no need to push updates or distribute software patches to client computers.

Final Cut Studio Integration As part of the Final Cut Studio platform, Final Cut Server is a seamless extension of Final Cut Pro. Information associated with Final Cut Pro projects—such as production notes and scene, shot, and take information—is automatically preserved as metadata in Final Cut Server. When you stop editing for the day, update Final Cut Server with one click.

Intuitive round-trip integration with Final Cut Pro The close relationship between Final Cut Server and Final Cut Pro means that Final Cut editors can retrieve assets, manage workflow, and automate repetitive processes as a natural extension of their editing work. Find your Final Cut Pro project in Final Cut Server and check it out to begin editing. If you’re working over a high-speed network, such as a network powered by Xsan, Final Cut Pro links to the high-resolution files without creating copies. Add new assets as you edit in Final Cut Pro; when you check your project back into Final Cut Server, the catalog updates automatically. Fact Sheet 6 Final Cut Server

Final Cut Server gives you the flexibility to keep working fast even if you’re not on a high-speed network. Set a preference to have Final Cut Server copy either your high- resolution files or proxies onto your local computer when you’re working across an Ethernet network. Or copy them to a MacBook Pro for remote editing. The time you log in, just click a button to check your project back in and have Final Cut Server update the catalog.

Pristine encoding and frame conversions powered by When you’re ready to output files for delivery, Final Cut Server automates encoding to a wide range of industry-standard formats for post-production and broadcast workflows. Final Cut Server uses the engine from Compressor 3 to encode MPEG-2 and H.264 files, as well as various QuickTime formats—including the new Apple ProRes 422 format and formats for iPod and Apple TV. Add the Episode Pro plug-in from Telestream to encode to VC-1, WMV, GXF, and FLV formats as well as High Profile H.264 and a number of third-party proprietary broadcast server formats. Simple menu selections let you choose from a wide range of encoding and trans- formation options, including pristine format conversions; optical flow retiming; scaling, cropping, and padding; video filters, including animated overlays; and metadata integration. Administrators can configure sequences of encoding and conversion steps and save them as templates with easy-to-understand names such as “Web Delivery.” Use templates to speed through repetitive tasks in workflows and to make it easier to offload operational work to nontechnical users.

Pricing Final Cut Server is a Universal application that runs natively on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Mac systems. The U.S. retail price of Final Cut Server is $999 for up to 10 concurrent users and $1999 for an unlimited number of users.* Contact your authorized Apple representative for education pricing.

* Prices are prices as of September 15, 2007, do not include taxes or shipping, are subject to change, and are listed For More Information in U.S. dollars. 1P For more information about Final Cut © 2007 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Final Cut, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Studio, iPod, Mac, Macintosh, Mac OS, MacBook, QuickTime, and Xsan are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Apple TV is a trademark of Server, visit www.apple.com/finalcutserver. Apple Inc. Apple Store is a service mark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Intel is a trademark of Intel Corp. in the U.S. and other countries. PowerPC is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation, used under license therefrom. Other . product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. Product specifications are subject to change without notice. This material is provided for information purposes only; Apple assumes no liability related to its use. September 2007 L342468B .