Podcast Producer at a glance

Transcription

1 Podcast Producer 2 A complete end-to-end solution for encoding, publishing, and distributing high-quality podcasts. Features Capture Single or dual-source video capture Local and remote audio and video recording Local screen recording Direct file submissions Use Podcast Capture, a modern web browser, or command line Support for popular audio and video capture devices Process Podcast Composer to easily create and customize workflows for standardized processing Additional workflow customization using third party utilities and command-line tools QuickTime for broad support of standardsbased audio and video codecs, including H.264 and MPEG-4 Quartz Composer for video manipulation and effects Automatic chaptering Built-in scalability using Xgrid for distributed processing and Xsan for shared file system 24/7 processing with high availability of Podcast Producer and Xgrid services and Xsan Deliver Automatic Atom and RSS feed generation with Podcast Library Publish to wikis, blogs, itunes, itunes U, Final Cut Server, file servers, or folders Notification using , instant message, itunes Podcast Directory, itunes U, and third-party services Optimized playback on a Mac, PC, iphone, ipod, and Apple TV Podcast Producer takes the complexity out of capturing and publishing professionalquality podcasts. Instead of using a number of ad hoc applications and utilities, you can rely on a single solution that integrates seamlessly from start to finish. Podcast Producer 2, part of Mac OS X Server version 10.6 Snow Leopard, includes several new features and capabilities that allow you to easily set up Podcast Producer, customize workflows, and simplify and centralize content distribution. Podcasts are ideal for distributing university lectures, training a sales force, delivering product demos, or simply keeping employees, students, and customers up to date. With Podcast Producer, your organization can produce more podcasts with less work and maintain a high degree of standardization among them. This workflow-based solution automates the details, such as encoding content into specific file formats or adding standard title frames and opening videos. So the podcasts from your group will always have a consistent identity. The content is encoded in the optimized format for the devices that will be used to view and hear your podcast. And you ll never have to worry about missing an important step. After Podcast Producer has done its work, your viewers can play your productions anywhere: on a Mac, PC, ipod, iphone, or Apple TV. They can also access podcasts from a variety of sources, including itunes Podcast Directory, Apple Wiki Server, and itunes U or via standard RSS and Atom feeds. Podcast Producer at a glance Capture Process Deliver 1 Using Podcast Capture in Mac OS X or the new Podcast Capture Web from any modern web browser, record audio or video and then submit it to the Podcast Producer server for processing using a specified workflow. You can also upload video files for processing. 2 Podcast Producer submits files to Xgrid for processing as described by the workflow. 3 Once the work has been completed, the content is distributed through the publishing destinations specified in the workflow. End users can then view the content on a Mac, PC, iphone, ipod, or Apple TV. Technology Brief

2 2 Workflow-Based Production At the heart of Podcast Producer is a powerful workflow engine that automates encoding, processing, and publishing. A workflow is a script a set of actions that defines how to handle the recorded video or audio. Podcast Producer leverages the power of Xgrid, Apple s distributed computing technology, to execute these scripts as job templates on your server or on multiple systems on your network. Podcast Producer 2 comes with a new graphical editor, Podcast Composer, for creating and customizing your workflows, allowing you to easily attend to all the important details of professional podcast production. Simply point and click to add polish with opening sequences and cool transitions then protect your brand with copyright information and watermarks. With Podcast Composer, you can also specify encoding formats, publishing locations, and notifications. Once you ve defined your workflow with Podcast Composer, you can upload it directly to your Podcast Producer server for installation.

3 3 Security and authentication Podcast Producer integrates with Open Directory for user authentication. Without requiring any additional configuration, this authentication ensures a secure environment for recording and publishing content. Users can choose only the cameras and workflows they are authorized to use. Setting Up a Podcast Producer Server Setting up Podcast Producer has never been easier with the new Server Assistant in Snow Leopard Server. You can choose Express Setup ideal for setting up an all-in-one Podcast Producer server, or use the Standard Setup mode, which enables you to specify advanced configuration settings. With either mode, the Server Assistant will configure Podcast Producer as well as related services such as web, NFS, and Xgrid so your Podcast Producer services are up and running in no time. Once you ve set up and configured Podcast Producer, you can use Server Admin to control every aspect of your productions. Also, you can manage the workflows and cameras that are installed and set access privileges for each. Capturing a Podcast Creating a podcast starts with the Podcast Capture application located in the Utilities folder of your Snow Leopard system. This innovative tool makes it easy for users in your organization to capture high-quality audio and video from local and remote devices. And new in Podcast Producer 2, you can now capture dual-source videos, ideal for presentations in which you want to show both the presenter and the computer screen. Podcast Capture can run headlessly, whether on a Mac mini computer or an Xserve server in the data center, and it can record audio and video from a wide range of devices, including USB microphones, built-in isight cameras and microphones, and digital video cameras connected via FireWire. After authentication, Podcast Producer displays an intuitive interface for selecting the type of podcast you want to record. Choose audio only, video with audio, the new dualsource video capture, or screen capture with audio perfect for recording presentations and software demos. Then choose your recording device(s) from the pop-up menu of cameras and microphones.

4 4 Supported video formats: MPEG-4 H.263 H.264 DV NTSC and PAL Supported audio formats: AAC (MPEG-4 Audio) AMR Narrowband Qualcomm PureVoice (QCELP) Quartz Composer With Apple s Quartz Composer technology, you can add stunning filters, transitions, and effects to your podcasts. This visual programming environment for graphics processing and rendering taps into the wealth of Mac OS X technologies, including Quartz, Core Image, Core Video, OpenGL, QuickTime, MIDI, RSS, and XML. Use the Start button to start recording, or click Start Over for another take. When you re done recording, click Publish to select a workflow. Podcast Capture uploads the recording directly to the Podcast Producer server for processing. If the content you want to publish is complete, you can simply select the file and click Publish. And now you aren t limited to only QuickTime media files you can upload nonmedia files to your podcast. Using the new documents to movie capture mode, Podcast Producer 2 renders any Quick Look-compatible file into a movie with transitions between images or pages. For maximum e ciency, you can even start capturing a new video during upload. Encoding and Publishing Built on robust Xgrid technology, Podcast Producer makes fast work of encoding and processing chores whether on a single dedicated server system or distributed across multiple systems. Podcast Capture or Web Podcast Capture uploads recorded media and workflow information, and Podcast Producer executes the tasks defined in the workflow. Leveraging QuickTime technology, Podcast Producer encodes media content into most Internet-standard formats. This capability enables you to publish your content to wikis, blogs, itunes, itunes U, and QuickTime Streaming Server. Users who need to provide specific settings for their encodings can use Compressor to define them, since Podcast Producer 2 can use Compressor settings files to encode the media. And using Episode from Telestream, you can submit and reencode into H.264 media from popular formats such as Windows Media, Flash 8, and VC-1. For more information, see Podcast Producer 2 introduces a new feature called Podcast Library, which provides long-term storage and organization for submitted and generated media files. Podcasts are delivered using automatically generated RSS feeds or with Atom feeds, which allows each feed to include multiple versions or formats of the podcast for different devices. You can also create your own custom feeds as well as set access control lists on feeds to limit access to select users and groups. In addition to publishing to Podcast Library, you can also publish content to Apple s Wiki Server, Final Cut Server, itunes U, and file servers. Large-Scale Podcast Productions Whether you re just starting out with podcasting or you re already a mass producer, Podcast Producer scales to meet your production requirements. For high-volume production or for production of long or high-definition video content, Podcast Producer leverages Apple s Xgrid technology to distribute encoding tasks across multiple Mac or Xserve systems. Maximizing your organization s computing resources, Xgrid makes it easy to turn an ad hoc group of Mac systems into a low-cost supercomputer. Xgrid automatically assigns jobs to computers with available cycles, as long as the other systems are also running Podcast Producer and a shared file system such as Xsan or NFS. Xgrid immediately configures the new systems and begins sending them encoding tasks. Podcast Producer is also designed to run on Xsan technology as a shared file system, enabling each encoding system to have direct block-level access to the files. And because each system has simultaneous access to the same data, the amount of time required to encode and produce a podcast is dramatically reduced. As your podcast production requirements increase, simply add more Podcast Producer servers and connect them to the same Xsan volume for easy scalability.

5 5 Podcast Producer System Requirements Podcast Producer requires a Mac with an Intel processor, 2GB of RAM, an additional 512MB of RAM per processor core, and a Quartz Extreme enabled video chipset (found on most Intel based Mac systems). For optimal performance, an Xsan clustered file system is recommended. Apple Server Solutions Podcast Producer is a robust media production application built into Mac OS X Server, Apple s UNIX server operating system. Combining the latest open source technologies with Mac ease of use, Mac OS X Server unleashes the power of Xserve, Apple s rackoptimized server hardware. With phenomenal performance, massive storage capacity, high-bandwidth I/O, and integrated remote management tools, Xserve running Mac OS X Server is the ideal solution for education, small businesses, and enterprises alike. For More Information For more information about Mac OS X Server and other Apple server solutions, visit Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Apple TV, Final Cut, FireWire, ipod, isight, itunes, Mac, Mac OS, Quartz, QuickTime, Xgrid, Xsan, and Xserve are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. iphone and Snow Leopard are trademarks of Apple Inc. Intel is a trademark of Intel Corp. in the U.S. and other countries. OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard is an Open Brand UNIX 03 Registered Product. 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 2009 L416019B