Another post from our own Paul Turner:
I’m delighted to announce some big news on the Vantage front: we have just released the latest version of our Vantage software. Vantage 7 contains a number of new features – let me detail some of them for you:
LIVE CAPTURE INCORPORATED INTO VANTAGE
Firstly, version 7 allows Vantage to incorporate the new Lightspeed Live Capture systems into a domain. This new Capture system takes in baseband video and can convert them into a number of high bitrate mezzanine formats. That video can come in via Lightspeed Live’s four SDI inputs, or via one of the 4x 10GigE ports. The system is also capable of ingesting 4K material, again via SDI or Ethernet. The integration takes place through a new origin action, which allows automated ingest directly into a workflow.
OPEN WORKFLOWS SAVE TIME
Secondly, this version adds a new option to the Vantage toolkit: Open Workflows. Prior to the availability of Open Workflows, a Vantage workflow had to complete any specific action in the workflow before the next action can start. Consider a three-action workflow: a copy, followed by a transcode, followed by a move: prior to Open Workflows, the copy action was forced to complete in its entirety before the transcode could start. Then the transcode had to complete before the final move could start. With the addition of the Open Workflow option, that behavior can be modified: once again, the initial copy begins, but as soon as enough of the file has been copied, the transcode can start to work. Similarly, as soon as the transcode has created enough of the converted file to be useful, the final move can begin. So, in this example, the workflow can complete much more quickly, as you are no longer waiting for actions to complete before starting up the next.
Now, to be clear, not all actions can operate in an open fashion, and not all video formats can be operated on in an open fashion, but you control the formats inside your workflow and can ensure that the intermediate format can be operated on as open. Most customers will see benefit from Open Workflows: contact your local representative for info on the option.
SECURE VERSION CONTROL & ADVANCED SCHEDULING
Some of the other enhancements are less “in your face”, but still highly valuable. Starting with Vantage 7, we are adding Secure Version Control to the product. Vantage is an extremely versatile product, capable of extremely complex workflow automation. This can make system test difficult – in fact, no matter how hard we try, we will never be able to test all possible combinations of actions, parameters, variables and formats. We do extensive testing before releasing software, but customers can be somewhat concerned that a fix for one workflow may cause unintended problems with other workflows. The addition of Secure Version Control means is that it is now possible to add a new version of a particular component without removing the old version. Now you can update individual workflows to use the new component, and leave other workflows (which exhibit no issues with the old version) working on those old versions.
Another “behind the scenes” improvement is in our Advanced Task Scheduling option, which adds even more sophistication to our ability to load balance actions within a domain – maximizing your return on hardware and software node costs.
So, check out Vantage version 7: there’s something in it for everyone!!
Editor’s note: Register for our webinar, “What’s New in Vantage 7”. Available LIVE or ON-DEMAND, we’ll give you a deep dive on the new Vantage features in 45 minutes and answer your questions.
