Author: chesastage

I had a chance recently to chat with Björn Adamski, the creator and originator of ScreenMux, to find out the scoop on the time-saving, user-friendly, standards-compliant screen recording software.

Q. Björn, I’ve known you for a good number of years now. First at Hamburg Pro Media, makers of the MXF4mac plugin set, and then at Telestream, one of the leading encoding system manufacturers. You’ve been immersed in file-based workflow for ages, and now you have started something new, and you are offering a tool called ScreenMux. Tell me about it.

A: ScreenMux is the first desktop recording software that captures any screen content straight to MXF and therefore is specifically designed for fast and efficient Broadcast and News operations. MXF files created by ScreenMux play everywhere and with everything: NLEs, playout servers, transcoders, archives. ScreenMux is also very easy to use. Operators, editors and journalists don’t need to worry about technical details. ScreenMux handles everything to create the best possible output with a few mouse clicks.

Q. That sounds … Exceptionally useful! Were you surprised to find that such a utilitarian tool didn’t already exist in the marketplace, in terms of meeting your vision of simplicity of use, and workflow, that such an application should offer?

A: Well, there are quite many solutions available. However, who does not complain about the vast amount of different digital formats, codecs, containers, and such? With the increase of formats also complexity of available solutions increased. Transcoding solutions are among the most complex video products out there and it can be a frustrating experience for both the customer and the developer to support the endless possibilities of format combinations.

And then you go to a webpage or social media site and you ask yourself how to get this selection of rich media content into a video transcoder the way you exactly need it.

Professional video conversion tools out there are made by engineers for engineers and available screen casting tools are made for prosumers and creatives. It’s like two different market segments that don’t have anything in common. Therefore my vision for ScreenMux is to provide a recording tool for Broadcast needs and at the same time I wanted to simplify the user experience drastically. A journalist without any technical knowledge understands the ScreenMux user interface straight away. Pro users and engineers will enjoy the freedom to just convert everything that plays on the computer screen straight to a world-standard MXF file.

Q. Would you please take a moment, and walk me through a few typical environments and workflows that you feel could really make use of ScreenMux? How does ScreenMux improve efficiency for these types of operations, that don’t use this type of an approach to screen capture today?

All forms of content have one thing in common: It just plays on our screens, in Web browsers, in apps. It plays fine and now the question is how to get the content back into the production cycle, how to reuse it, how to archive it? All this in a standardized form as MXF without any extra steps.

First of all, ScreenMux is not an editor. It’s purely and solely a recorder for Broadcast operations. We focus on this one thing and this thing we do best. We don’t want to increase complexity by adding editing capabilities to ScreenMux if the standard MXF it creates can be processed by every NLE out there such as Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro or Media Composer. It’s even better to use an external NLE because only external editors can take advantage of the coolest feature: Edit-while-Ingest. ScreenMux creates standard Sony XDCAM HD422 compliant MXF OP1a files. This file type is ready for Growing File Import, means it can be processed externally while the recording is till ongoing. In bigger broadcast environments you may have quite a few journalists and operators who would use ScreenMux to capture all sorts of online content. The MXFs are written to a central storage and can be imported from there directly into NLEs or into a central MAM. Editors can start editing the growing MXF files just seconds after the recording started. The MAM can create proxy files and load the assets into the database the same way. File workflows aren’t faster than SDI? This one is.

Then we all know too well these situations where all file importers fail, but, VLC as a last resort at least plays the buggy file. So, in such situations do we really want to try reaching out to whoever created the file and ask for another proper file delivery? This is the one file with one minute duration that needs to go live in 5 minutes. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to just click one button and the content that plays in VLC just turns into a standard error-free MXF file, just like that? With ScreenMux you can, and you can record straight to the playout server and even play the MXF to air while you’re still recording with ScreenMux.

Or, imagine even simpler tasks. The latest Star Wars movie trailer is available on YouTube in 2K. Why download it from another portal where you need to register, login, search, then select and download the most appropriate of the provided versions? You pick the ProRes movie, then wait for the download, convert into MXF, recognize that the source wasn’t 16:9 so you have to alter the crop and scale settings and convert again. Don’t you just want to make the 16:9 selection with ScreenMux and hit record on top of the 2K YouTube movie knowing the built-in scaler, MPEG-2 encoder and MXF muxer handle everything perfectly fine while also making the content available during the ongoing recording session?

There are dozens of examples. Even the Panama Papers PDF can be recorded from screen to MXF. My vision is to provide ScreenMux to journalists, editors, operators and engineers. It’s a great solution for daily News workflows as well as just a simple fallback tool.

Q. I can think of many different environments we work in at Chesapeake Systems where this could be a very useful tool to have on the belt, so-to-speak. News operations as you said, promotions departments, you name it. Can you describe how licensing works, for a department of 5, a smaller business operation of 50, or even a large enterprise environment of 1,000+ users?

A. Typical inquiries are around 20 seats but customers tend to scale the install base after they gain some experience. We have quite a few Site License requests and we are happy to provide those together with some volume discount. We want to keep the administrative part as low as possible for both sides so testing, deployment and licensing are part of the philosophy to provide an easy-to-use solution. An activation process is not required and deploying ScreenMux for 1,000+ users is as easy as for 10. We are discussing feature requests and roadmaps closely with customers, as a close and trustful relationship is very important for us.

Q. How does the licensing cost structure work, from a pricing perspective?

A. The price is $299 per seat. It’s traditional per-seat licensing including Support. There is no subscription and no separate SLA charge. That isn’t really much for a Broadcast focused solution. We can offer this price because there are no 3rd party suppliers involved. All components and the application development itself are provided by nablet. We own all video processing technology we use for ScreenMux such as our own MPEG-2 Encoder, our own Image Scaler and our own MXF Muxer. This gives us the best possible control over quality, performance and stability and we can also work very efficiently using solely our own stuff. We pass this cost advantage over to customers. In addition there can be some volume discounting for installations with 20+ seats.

Q. Is there any way a prospective user can try the software out to make sure it works well for their purposes? Are there limits to the trial version?

A. The only limitation of the demo version is that it embeds a permanent watermark without impacting performance. There is no expiration, no demo serial number, no limited feature set. Just a permanent watermark, that’s it. This allows long and unlimited testing without time pressure. The customer decides.

Q. Do you see this project as the start of something new for you, and do you have plans for other broadcast-oriented software applications focusing on utility and simplicity? Is there anything you can share about what’s next, beyond ScreenMux?

A. ScreenMux is the first solution created together with nablet, and the experience is awesome and very promising. nablet is a spin-off from MainConcept and I have been working with them for a few years. We are a great team and it’s lots of fun working together. nablet owns an incredible broad set of advanced video technologies for Codecs, File and Streaming Formats, Fingerprinting, Scaling, Denoising, Color Conversion, Framerate Conversion, Telecine Operations, Image Stabilization, Analyzing, and more. So, there is lots we can do and I have quite a few ideas and concepts how to improve and streamline workflows.

First we want to further extend the feature set of ScreenMux. For example it’s quite a heavy task to perform screen capturing of HD or 2K online videos and encode straight to XDCAM HD422 in realtime on a laptop or low-performance computer. We already own the technology to load online streams into our own video player. Having the stream in our own player allows us to buffer the frames to disk and to convert the native stream data (instead of the screen pixels) to XDCAM HD422. This adds three benefits: First, it even works on slower computers as we can process slower than realtime (still with the benefit of Edit-while-Ingest with a growing MXF file). Secondly, on fast hardware and with fast download speed we can process faster than realtime. Thirdly, screen capturing records everything on the screen and blocks the computer for other tasks, while stream capturing only records the video stream and can run in the background.

We also have customers who want to record hours of incoming online video. We performed successful stress tests of one hour of screen capturing on stronger hardware and it does the trick but a few hours is a really heavy load. So if you want to only capture an online video then a stream capture option might be better. I really want to add this feature in ScreenMux to allow customers to switch between Screen and Stream Capture mode whatever works best in each situation. The mockup is done and I think this will be super hot. It’s quite some effort and requires lots of testing with different streaming formats and URLs. Therefore we are looking for customers who want to support this feature by committing to a discounted order and helping to test it. We’re already talking to some customers in the US, so maybe CHESA can bring some more to the table ;-). Another request that is in the pipe is to output the screen selection to an external video device. The good thing about this feature is that it also supports older and less powerful computer hardware. To summarize, I think we have much on the plate for ScreenMux. For other new things, just wait and see! I promise you will know first.

Well Björn, this has been fantastic — thanks so much for spending some time to talk with me and fill us all in on your new endeavor! ScreenMux is definitely something I can imagine many of Chesapeake Systems’ clients having a use for. We are a reseller of this application, so I encourage anybody reading this who has interest to reach out to us for more information or a quote. As Björn said, if you have a high number of users who might have a need for this, we can discuss volume pricing. Finally, to download the trial version, just go to screenmux.com and hit the “request trial” button (which will spawn an email to Björn and his team). Björn and myself are interested to hear feedback from people who give the software a spin in their environment.

At Chesapeake Systems, we’re constantly showing editors, producers and other creatives the benefits of investing in infrastructure such as hardware, software, storage, workflow automation systems, or more.

We know that for those in the trenches, the need for this investment can be quite evident.

But how do you go about convincing the higher-ups, the decision-makers, that this is a justified expenditure for the company?

Framing your Argument
Making a financial investment to the tune of anywhere from $50,000 to $750,000 is significant.

Your first inclination might be to show how this new infrastructure will make your life better. But the decision maker (DM) already knows the inherent value of the technology. What they want you to tell them is how this purchase will contribute to the company’s bottom line. Will it save money? Will it help the company generate money? How much money?

The DM wants to know “What is the Return on Investment that will be derived from making this investment?”

For example, if you think your company would benefit from a shared storage system, research the following before approaching the DM:

What are you currently spending on a non-shared system?
How much data are you currently responsible for warehousing?
How much data are you generating daily/quarterly/annually on average?
How quickly is your storage requirement growing?
How much time is each department member spending in post production for a project?
How much time do they spend editing?
How much time is spent searching for uncatalogued files?

Addressing efficiencies is important – but make sure to talk about how working in a much more efficient environment can free up (insert amount) of hours. With this extra time, the current manpower will be able to complete (insert amount) additional projects, resulting in (insert amount) dollars in revenue for the company.

Here’s What Your Argument Doesn’t Look Like
“Having this shared storage system will be so convenient and make my life so much easier. I won’t have to waste time searching for files or waiting for files to open. It will improve my work life tremendously!”

What It Does Look Like
A shared storage system would be an excellent investment for our organization. We’re currently spending (insert appropriate amount) of dollars on a non-shared storage system. We’re paying (insert amount) annually for or team of employees. We estimate between A and Z hours are lost per quarter because we don’t have a shared storage system. We are responsible for warehousing (insert appropriate amount) of data. Every day we’re generating (insert appropriate amount) more data. Three years from now we will likely be generating (insert appropriate amount) of data. A shared storage system can cost anywhere from A to B. Losing any of the data we currently maintain could cause us to lose a customer. It could potentially cost our company anywhere from (insert appropriate range here) dollars. We’ve calculated we’re spending (insert amount) of money per month in searching for files. If we could recover that time, we could take on an extra project per quarter with our current manpower, which could boost our profit margin by (insert amount).

It’s really all about the right approach. You need to show where efficiencies will be gained. You need to illustrate your cost structure to date, and project what future costs may be. Generating metrics is important because it starts to create a frame of reference for how people can look at a complex set of activities and workflows and relate it to the bottom line. Creating a “best case, worst case” scenario is also suggested. Don’t worry if you don’t have exact details and amounts – plug in realistic figures or a range of time, dollars, etc. If you explain that in the best case scenario you could lose 5% of production time searching for files and in the worst case, you lose 25%, it starts to create a narrative for why it makes sense to invest in new infrastructure. It paints a bigger picture perspective for those who don’t understand the day-to-day reality.

Another Solid Approach
In addition to ROI, our friends at AVPreserve have also given us another option for framing an argument for why new infrastructure will benefit your company. Chris Lacinak, principal of the data management consulting and software development firm, likes to focus on the Cost of Inaction (COI). How much will it cost the organization if you don’t change things up?

Here’s what the hypothetical COI might look like
You have 20 desktop hard drives with (insert amount) of data on them. You know that over the span of five years, at a minimum, one of those drives will fail and the content won’t be recoverable. The COI for not backing up your data will vary depending on which drive you lose. Be sure to present a low figure and a high figure for the cost of data recovery, to represent the less costly drive and the most costly. This will begin to illustrate a concrete monetary argument for what your exposure could be and show how investing in a storage system can shield your organization from this exposure.

Still have some questions about crafting your argument?
Chesapeake Systems loves the opportunity to consult with current or potential clients to develop talking points and help structure these conversations and arguments. We’re so confident in the efficiencies to be gained, the savings to be gained, and the additional revenue opportunities, that we’re happy to be a part of any conversation to identify solutions or provide you with the tools you need to present your argument to management.

Visit us at Chesa.com or call us at 410-752-7729.

Remember when you were a child and your teacher was trying to teach you the concept of infinity? It seemed pretty crazy to think that there was no end to numbers – that you could count forever and there was simply no boundary.

The same can be said, in a way, about our work at Chesapeake Systems. When it comes to helping our clients develop workflows and utilize the latest and most efficient technology to store and access large quantities of media, there really is no end to what you can do and how you can apply the technology.

There is always a new idea to try, a new software in which to invest, a new way to deliver content more efficiently.

And that’s invigorating for our staff at Chesapeake. It’s fun for us to consult with clients and help them get to that next level. We’re constantly challenged and, as a result, we’re constantly helping them grow their return on investment.

As we take this journey with clients, service remains a central focus.

From the very make up of our team (we have a dedicated customer care advocate, for example) to the way we handle project management, customer service is at the core of our approach as we work to help our clients grow and stay relevant.

So what does our approach to service look like?

We loosely base our approach on the well-known ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) standard, which helps align IT services with the needs of a business.

Our approach is typically divided into four areas:
1. The make up of our team
2. How we track incidents
3. Focusing on continuity and change management
4. Providing 24/7 on-call support and Project Management

Having the right team in place is essential. In addition to our customer care advocate who has a background in ITIL and works with dozens of clients, we also have on staff a tenured engineer who handles our internal research and development. By taking this proactive approach, we ensure we can accommodate our clients’ needs so they can stay up and running.

At Chesapeake, we carefully track, monitor and analyze incidents. We immediately jump on the case to ensure service is restored to clients as quickly as possible and they can continue to deliver their content. If we see a repetition of incidents among customers or with the same customer, we’ll assign a higher level parent case in our system to one of our expert-level engineers. Our goal is to analyze the bandaids so, eventually, we never have to make those types of repairs again.

When it comes to continuity and change management, it’s not just a matter of being reactive, but being proactive as well. With our Maintenance and Support Agreement, we conduct onsite proactive walkthroughs to make sure things are going well. Our goal is for our customers to experience no downtime or hiccups. As a service provider, we also conduct remote checks, monitoring logs and performance. By applying our expertise, we can help clients reduce the risk of a disaster.

Whenever we do incorporate a change for clients, we always follow through. We make sure the client understands the change and can adopt it.

The reason we take such a detailed approach to customer service is because every day, we work to become better. We strive to change our clients’ environments for the better.

Interested in working with a trusted partner? Give us a call at 410-752-7729 or visit chesa.com.

My fascination with video emerged back in my elementary school days. In the mid-to-late 1980s, my neighborhood friend Charlie and I would haul around his family’s klunky old video camera creating our own home movies. I remember there was a mode where you could capture one frame at a time, so we would build 30 frames of video to create our own stop motion animation. I’m not afraid to admit my nerd status back then or to acknowledge that it continued through junior high and college.

Back then or even 15 years ago, I don’t know that those in the industry would have predicted that one day people would have the ability to create high definition video on their cell phone. Or that they could essentially beam that content to anyone who had Internet access. But they did see change coming. They were aware that equipment was becoming more advanced and was going to become more readily available and affordable.

When IT explodes in any industry or the technology itself develops, it inherently leads to a rapid state of change. And challenging though it might be to plan your business around these changes, companies must have the scalability in place to move forward with the times.

So how does a company scale?

Step 1. Be Aware of the Trends.
Use resources like Chesapeake Systems. Listen to episodes of our podcast, The Workflow Show, or sign up for our newsletter. We like to think that as consultants who have been immersed in this industry for many years, we are always staying abreast of these changes. 

Attend industry trade shows, conventions and talks. Our best advice is to make sure you put some time and energy into understanding what’s coming.

So what IS trending?
Camera manufacturers tend to drive a lot of change, with the new technology having downstream ramifications. While it may have taken some 50 years for television to transition from SD to HD, the move from HD to 4K is happening at a much quicker clip. Camera manufacturers began incorporating 4K capable censors into their equipment, which appealed to those in the industry. Shooting with 4K cameras means producing 4K files. There is already talk of 8K and even 16K possibilities. Offering 4 to 16 times the resolution impacts everything from software to storage requirements to performance level. This uptick in requirements all comes at a cost. Throw in the trending 360-degree environment and things become even more complex.

So how do these trends affect your scalability?

This brings us to Step 2.

Step 2. Incorporate Scalability Into How You Build Out Your Technological Infrastructure

There is no simple answer or quick fix for scalability, but when considering your technological infrastructure, you must think beyond your immediate needs. It can basically be guaranteed, most likely no more than five years from now, that external factors enabled by technology are going to force you to reinvest in your infrastructure – in your storage system.

If you’re making an investment in a data storage system for your video, whether it’s shorter- term stuff you’re actively editing and doing post production on, or it’s the longer-term stuff, you need to look at a system that can fulfill your needs five years out. Make sure you have a good sense of its ability to keep up during its lifetime.

The reality is, technology is a beast, and it’s going to do, in my opinion, what it’s going to do. It’s akin to a force of nature. So you have to align yourself with the right resources and partners and evolve around the evolution of technology.

Like what you’re seeing and want to know more? Sign up for our newsletter or connect with us at 410-752-7729.

To help showcase and celebrate our new focus, Chesapeake has launched a fresh logo and engaging website.

When you think about the person you were 10-15 years ago, you were probably quite different.

Maybe you moved, changed careers, shed a few pounds, launched a business or started a family. People change, grow and evolve over time.

The same can be said about Chesapeake Systems.

Our small, Baltimore-based company began 26 years ago as a shop that serviced Macintosh computers and we have reinvented ourselves as a national company that designs the infrastructure and intelligent workflow solutions that help major media outlets, musical performers, national figures and NFL teams work more efficiently.

Perhaps it sounds simple, but optimizing a workflow of collaboration between people, technology, media formats, editing and distribution is a complex process that requires a level of systems knowledge that we at Chesapeake Systems are among the select few that have the privilege of claiming.

“We’ve always been good at taking all the pieces and putting them together,” points our president, Mark Dent. “We take the best in class of all these different pieces and make them sing together.”

To help showcase and celebrate our new focus, Chesapeake is launching a fresh logo and engaging website to more accurately tell the story of who we are and what we do.

“It does it more creatively. It does it in a more contemporary way,” our chief technology officer, Jason Paquin, says. “And that’s what our client base expects, because that’s what we do for them. We creatively enable them to do their jobs by developing robust, modern systems and workflows.”

Simple with clean lines and an artistic pop of color, the logo reflects the rich media world that is central to our business. The sleek new site is packed with resources to educate customers about the edge Chesapeake Systems has when it comes to determining our clients’ needs, designing a system that can fulfill those needs and actually deploying the robust infrastructure and technology solutions our customers need to perform their jobs faster and more efficiently.

“Chesapeake Systems looks at what comes in and what needs to go out and how can we enhance, automate, rectify, improve workflow and help our clients become more efficient,” Paquin explains. “We want to design and implement a system that allows our clients to achieve their mission – that’s our goal.”

When it comes to the ever-changing world of software and technology, Chesapeake Systems is forward-thinking and strives to be ahead of the curve.

“Our world changes not by decades or years, it changes on a dime,” Dent says. “So not only are we constantly morphing into the next thing, but we’re taking a bigger step up the ladder each time, with more interesting solutions.”

To stay up-to-date with what’s happening at Chesapeake Systems, follow us at Chesa.com.

Top three reasons for Mac in the enterprise.

1. Productivity
2. Productivity
3. Productivity

 

With 250 new features in OS X Lion—including Multi-Touch® gestures, Auto Save, and full-screen apps—now’s the time to leverage the powerful productivity of Mac® for your team.

Contact us to discuss how your organization can get more done with Mac.

Chesapeake Systems
Apple Value Added Reseller
Baltimore, MD 21211

Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, MacBook, Mac OS, and Multi-Touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.