Apple today announced Final Cut Server 1.5 and Final Cut Studio 7.

Both are available now. Final Cut Studio is a $299 upgrade.

Final Cut Server had been offered in a $999 10-user flavor and a $1,999 unlimited user flavor. Now there is only a $999 unlimited user flavor. Upgrades from either are $299. [Update: The upgrade magically transforms the 10-user license to unlimited. Lucky you!]

New in FC Server:

• Active Directory Support (finally!)
• Edit Proxies in ProRes 422
• Global saved searches, and quicker searching
• Support for image sequences
• More...

New in FC Studio:

• Spotlight support for searching for missing media (works with Xsan)
• Blue-ray export
• Easier exporting, and in the background
• Looks much prettier to me
• More...

What else are you discovering? Comment below.

When you install Final Cut Server, by default you use http://127.0.0.1/finalcutserver as the path to install the client software. In a number of environments we've seen this end up getting broken for one reason or another. One easy way to fix this is to simply re-run the post-install.sh script from /Library/Application Support/Final Cut Server/Final Cut Server.bundle/Contents/Resources/sbin

However, this brings up the fact that very few Final Cut Servers are actually going to be hosting other websites. Therefore, in order to make things as easy as possible for administrators and end users, how might you go about making the path to access your client installer shorter?

Matrox announced a slick new card at NAB this year they're calling the CompressHD. The card is basically an h.264 ASIC that can be called upon by any QuickTime app including Compressor. It looks like it could be a very handy add-on for Final Cut Server installations that do not want to build a dedicated Qmaster cluster but still want to offload the encoding tasks for proxies form the CPUs so they can focus on serving out the app and running the database. Cooler still, several of them can be clustered via Qmaster (though unfortunately not in the same box). Matrox claims to be handily beating 8-core Mac Pros with a single card by a wide margin.

The Intel-Mac-only card will list for $495, is due to hit the street this month. A Windows version of the card will also be available.

Tracking processor and memory utilization of the Xsan and Final Cut Server software are fairly straight forward tasks. However, what if you want to do so from a nice clean Dashboard widget, quickly and graphically, without needing to use the command line? We have a number of customers that have asked for exactly that. After writing some java, it just didn't make sense to keep it all to myself, so it's posted for free at http://krypted.com/?page_id=2892

A couple of things to keep in mind:

1. Xsan typically uses almost no processing power, so don't be surprised if it barely shows up unless you're in a high volume/transaction/whatever environment or unless you are having some kind of trouble with your Xsan volume
2. The Final Cut Server monitor doesn't include the processes for Compressor. Expect a different monitor for Compressor at some point in the near future, but I chose not to combine them for a variety of reasons
3. I wouldn't really call this beta software, I'd lean towards calling it alpha. There are bound to be a few issues here and there, but in testing on a number of systems I've yet to see it cause any problems or show incorrect results
4. The meter is jumpy sometimes, but then so are processes...
5. If there is interest in bolting on other features or working with me to further develop the widgets then I will open source the widget and put it up on my Subversion box - if you are interested in that, drop me an email!

Final Cut Server's Archive feature is, at best, a primitive attempt to solve a very difficult problem related to its assets. After all, the assets can't live on your primary storage device forever. One day they need to be archived. I call the feature primitive because it performs the simplest of functions: it simply moves the Primary Representation of an Asset to an Archive Device. This device is any kind of Final Cut Server device: local storage, Xsan volume, nfs share, etc., with the added honor of being designated as an Archive Device. The corresponding Restore feature simply moves that Primary Representation back to its original device and path.

This last part is the real zinger. Who ever heard of an archive system that removes an archived file from its archive location? At best one should make a copy of the archived file if it needs to be restored.

There's not really much else to work with on the Final Cut Server side. For the majority of our deployments, therefore, we've had to think beyond this limitation to provide our customers with a fleshed out system for archive.

On Tuesday, Feburary 24th, Mac IT integrator MacHarmony hosting an event to demonstrate Final Cut Server workflows. The seminar is from 6-10 PM at the Sofitel Luxury Hotel in Los Angeles. Representatives from Apple, Xen Data, Promise Technology, Mediasilo, Drivesavers, and CRE Rentals will also make presentations.

Please visit MacHarmony for more information and registration.

FYI...

About Pro Apps Updates 2008-004

Pro Applications Updates improve reliability for Apple’s professional applications and are recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Server, and Logic Studio. Pro Applications Update 2008-04 addresses general performance issues and improves overall stability. Applications included in the update: Final Cut Pro 6.0.5 Compressor 3.0.5 Color 1.0.3 Shake 4.1.1 For more information about this software update, see 
Release Notes.