Image Processing Reference
In-Depth Information
The application is designed as a framework for initiating batch-compression jobs. It
is OpenTalk (previously known as Rendezvous)-aware and has queue master support,
which it has inherited from Apple's compositing tool—Shake. This allows it to automati-
cally identify other machines on the network that have compression support. It will then
distribute the compression work around the LAN to any machines that have unused com-
puting capacity.
At the end of the compression job, the application sends an e-mail alert and/or runs
an AppleScript. This allows some postprocessing to take place after the compression job is
complete. It is useful for chaining workflow systems together so that they operate in an
event-based way rather than polling watch folders all the time.
Droplet applications, which live on your desktop, are another useful feature that the
Apple Compressor supports. If you drag and drop a movie file onto the droplet icon, it
will initiate a compression job. These droplets are manufactured from the settings items in
the presets list.
30.11
Telestream Flip Factory
This is a major transcoding server product family. The idea is that it will deconstruct a
compressed file and reassemble it in a new format. It has some original approaches in that
it does not completely decode a file unless it has to. The following software products are
part of a coherent enterprise-ready system:
Traffic Manager—Media gateway
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Publish—Automation for streaming media publication
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Flip Factory Pro—Universal format translator
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Flip Factory News—News content ingest
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Flip Factory News Manager—Workflow automation
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Flip4Mac—A plug-in for QuickTime on Mac OS that creates Windows Media
output files.
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The Flip Factory software has been available for some time as an enterprise-level
transcoding engine. It has a variety of interfaces for job submission and it can be inte-
grated into an automated workflow and provided as a service to client users.
It is designed around a workflow that fits very well with news and sports organiza-
tions that have remote feeds and outside broadcast content being delivered. These arrive
via the ClipMail and Media Application Platform (MAP) interfaces.
The architecture is fairly complete and well thought out, and it runs on a Windows-
based infrastructure, integrating with the .NET technologies.
While this isn't a compression system, it will transcode content from one format to
another. There is a point at which transcoding becomes compression (when you
are transcoding from a raw digital format to a highly compressed one), but we would be
arguing fine points. Generically speaking, all compression tools transcode the content.
In fact, when you look at the range of I/O formats, Flip Factory looks a great deal
like other products such as Compression Master and Cleaner, but it offers far more in the
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