Workgroup server & tape management

When used with the optional CatDV Server the commands in the Workgroup menu become available. These allow you to "publish" a catalog to save it in the shared central database, so it becomes available to other users on the local network.

You might digitize and log on one workstation, storing the media files on your SAN, then publish the clips to the server as soon as the tape has run through and its ready for editing. The editor might perform more detailed logging and publish changes back to the server, or the producer might view the same clips and add his comments too. Any potential conflicts are detected and handled by the server.

Catalogs are a convenient way to organise your clips by storing related clips that you're working on together. You might have one catalog per tape, per project, per digitizing session and so on. Catalogs aren't the only way of accessing the database though.

To retrieve clips from the workgroup database you can browse by catalog, but you can also perform advanced queries that will return all the matching clips from the database in one results window, regardless of the catalog. For example, you might perform a query by date and find both video clips and digital stills shot at the same time.

With the CatDV Pro Enterprise Client you can also use the new Library Management screen to browse by tape. A librarian can assign tape numbers and create tape records with information such as the format, subject, or shelf location, whether or not the tape has been digitized yet and any clip records exist in the database.

CatDV also integrates with an optional wireless barcode scanner. Scan a barcode on the tape to bring up the tape's details and record that it's been booked out of the library for editing, or perform a stock take quickly by scanning a shelf number and all the tapes it contains. For even greater flexibility, the scanner can work both with a "live" connection to the computer or in "remote" mode where barcodes are stored in its internal memory for subsequent upload.