71.2 Easy ingest

In order to start to using Easy Ingest you have to first set its parameters (Configuring Easy Ingest), once those parameters have been set, just launch Easy Ingest from the Etere Ingest menu, the main window will be opened, it is divided in three key sections as shown in the image below:
Easy Ingest
(Left: select asset; Center: Recording; Right: edit EDL)
As illustrated in the picture above, you can easily ingest assets in three steps just by following the next procedure:
1.Search for (or create) the asset
2.Set the ingest parameters
3.Compile media information (EDL marks)

Search for the asset
In this section, located at the left of the window (coloured with yellow), you are able to either create or search the asset you intend to ingest:
Ingest a new asset - In order to create a new asset just make right-click on the searching list and select the option 'New asset' (or press the CTRL+N combination keys), you will be asked to enter a code for the new asset.
Ingest an existing asset - Instead, to search for an existing asset, just set various searching parameters, then, once you have found the asset make double click on it to go ahead:
•Date of scheduling: Search all events scheduled in the future, in the selected date range,
•Asset Code: Set the code of the asset code you intend to ingest,
•Type: Filter assets by their type,
•Media: Search on specific device(s),
•Search also expired assets: Also those asset which have already expired will be retrieved in the list of results,
•Tapeless: Those assets arriving via tapeless reception will not be shown by default,
For a detailed explanation on these and other filters please refer to the Available search filters section of the Media Library chapter.

To avoid “Query timeout expired” error during asset search, it is recommended to exclude any column related to “On-air date” in the search form, e.g. Last on-air date, Next on-air date, Next on-air time, etc.

Note
In case of selecting an already ingested asset, a warning will be displayed and the Recorder window will only allow the preview of the clip as well as the management of the EDL marks. Please note that will be always possible to delete the linked media and start a new ingest operation.

Note
In case the selected asset is linked to more than one tape (e.g. assets spread across multiple tapes), the application will ask the operator to select the one from which media will be ingested.

Note
In case the selected asset is linked to a tape which contains other non-ingested assets, a [multiple ingest] button will be displayed (near to the proxy area) to allow performing a single ingest operation for all the still-non-ingested assets present in the tape in question.

Note
In case the selected asset is locked it will be possible to unlock it as explained in the "Unlock a locked asset file" chapter.

Note
In case a path has been configured in the resource of the video server used for ingest, the path and filename will be stored in the database for all ingested files.

Set the ingest parameters
Once you have selected the asset to be ingested, the Recorder window will be open, allowing to go ahead with the selection of the resources to be used for the ingest  as well as the required parameters to perform it:
•Resources                                
All used resources set on the parameters module will be loaded and activated automatically.
•Data                                
In this part the most relevant data of the selected will be displayed as well as some useful functions to be used after the ingest:
Code - String code of the asset to be ingested.
ID - Unique identification number of the asset.
Title - Descriptive text of the asset.
Start - END - First and last physical frames of the ingested media.
SOM - Start Of Message, initial frame of a digital image, which can coincide with the physical start.
EOM - End Of Message, final frame of a digital image, which can coincide with the physical end.

Set as Streaming: near the ID, youcan right-click on the Set as Streaming button and enable it, so that the asset will be able to start streaming while it is being ingested (see the "stream during ingest" chapter).

NB: In order to ingest an asset, compiling its SOM and EOM is mandatory as well as its audio and video format.  You must enable the “Set all ingesting assets as streaming” option in order to compile the SOM and EOM.

•Controls                                
In this section are located some useful functions to be used after the ingest, these functions includes:
Signal corrector - In case a Signal Corrector has been configured in Resources (Etere Configuration | Resources), by pressing this button (enable), you can commute the router between the 'Out Source', 'Corrector' and 'Video server'; and if you press it twice (disable), the video signal will not pass through the corrector.
Quality setting - Set here the quality of the ingested media with an integer value from 0 (to be checked) to 9(excellent).
Note: In case the recording is not discarded (i.e. not confirmed), the quality is set to its previous  value.
Audio setting - Used to define the audio type (e.g. unknown, left mono, right mono, stereo, dolby, etc).
Aspect Ratio - Specify here the conversion profile to be used for the Aspect Ratio Conversion required for recording and preview. Profiles displayed here depends on whether the GPI conversion option is enabled or not:
•Enabled: Only profiles configured in Etere Ingest > Parameters > General 4 > Activate ARC section.
•Disabled: All supported profiles present in the Etere Configuration > Settings > ARC section.
Here will be loaded the conversion profile set in the Media Library > Properties > Video section of the asset. In case that profile is not included in the GPI conversions a warning message will be displayed.
Please note that the conversion profile selected here will be automatically updated also in the Media Library > Properties > Video section of the asset.
NB: Further info on this feature can be found in the "ARC from Ingest" chapter.
Preview - Open the Preview Browser to allow watching the proxy file of the recorded file.

NB: The [OK] button allows to confirm the ingest operation, whereas the [Errors] button to show all issues encountered during the ingest.

•Source                                
The ingest Source could be either an input channel for LIVE or a VTR, information on how to proceed in both cases is following explained:
LIVE - In case you intend to ingest from a live router channel, you must select the channel from where acquire the video, press 'switch' and indicate the expected duration that can be extended up to the maximum double of the expected duration in 10 minute long passages.
VTR - This section allows to manage the VTR to be used for ingesting media (e.g. the one dragged & dropped from the resources tree). The VTR recording information will depend on the following cases:
a. Measured tape already linked: In case the asset has been already associated to a tape, the mark-in and mark-out defined in its EDL will be automatically retrieved as the VTR's start time and end time.
b. No measured tape linked: In case the asset doesn't count with any tape, the VTR's start time and end time will be set by the operator and it will be stored in the asset's EDL as the mark-in and mark-out.
Please note that it will be possible to select the counter type to be used for the ingest, available types include:
•LTC (Longitudinal Time Code):  In this case, set the SOM, EOM and Duration according to the time you intend to ingest. Remember that instead of writing this data, you are able to use the standard buttons located in the Main Part to acquire positions on the tape and using the grey square buttons located at the right of SOM/EOM to retrieve the current position on the tape.
•CTL (Control Track Longitudinal): For a tape without time code or not continuous, the [RESET] key will appear on the source panel (press it to put the counter at zero), place the tape at the point you want the ingest operation starts, and enter both its SOM, EOM and duration.
Moreover, in case the "Rec with TC IN" parameter is enabled (see "Ingest using Timecode"), the ingest process will also store the tape timecode besides the ingested file timecode.
NB: If there are no input video signal detected when ingest starts, a black screen would be present in Preview with message “Input signal lost” during recording.  Moreover, the asset been ingest would be marked as “Not ok to broadcast”.
NB: When you are ingesting from different source (e.g. Video Server and Ingest station) the time clock in both source stations must be synchronized to prevent cue clip error.

•Confidence                        
Confidence monitoring is a handy feature to watch video streams while ingesting, thus allowing to check media and set EDL marks.
Once a recording start, press the [Activate] button to enable the confidence decoder (set in Parameters > Easy Ingest). Once enabled, the confidence counter will be displayed in the destination, where, it will be possible to get the start timecode (double-click the SOM or Mark-in) as well as to move back and forth across the video using playback buttons.
Moreover, by pressing [Lock to Rec] button, the confidence playback will be synchronized with the ingest process respecting a given delay (set in Parameters > General > General3 > Lock to Rec). Please note that some devices (e.g. SeaChange MSV1000) have some limitations regarding small delays for confidence, in these cases, the "Lock to Rec" value must be set at least to 5 seconds in order to avoid errors (e.g. when performing a 'goto', 'cue with data').

•Proxy                                
The device on which the proxy version of the ingested file will be stored. it is possible to preview the asset video with the [Preview] button as well as set its mark points (SOM, EOM, Breaks).

•Third                                
The Third device allows to ingest the media, besides on the destination and backup video servers, also on a third video server, thus increasing furthermore  reliability.

•Backup                                
The Backup device allows to ingest the media, besides on the destination video server, also on a secondary video server, thus increasing reliability.

•Main                        
The Main device represents the video server channel (encoder) to be used as the target destination on which ingested media will be ingested.
Once the main encoder is selected, there will be displayed the "free space" label showing the storage space available on the selected encoder, this, based on the ingest profile (e.g. MTX ingest profile) currently set in the encoder.
You can modify the Free Space allocated to the encoder in Resources module, simply right-click on encoder channel and edit the free space.  Once modified, restart the Ingest module for changes to take effect.

Once all devices have been correctly selected, in order to start ingesting the asset media, just point out ingest panel and press the -now active- [Rec] button, if a preview resource is configured, the video file will be loaded automatically; at this point, it will be required to wait for the ingest to finish.
When the ingest process ends, and if no other information needs to be inserted, just close the Recorder window and save the changes when asked by the program; otherwise, it is possible to compile some other information (e.g. EDL marks) as explained below.

NB: When ingesting to both Main and Backup destination, you must specify different cloud-device in respective destination.

Compile media information
The right section allows to view and define the following information:
•Tape source                        
As for the "Source" section, here will be displayed the tape recording information (tape code, tape type, start time, end time and duration) of the -eventual- tape from which the asset will be ingested.
•EDL                        
Manage here the asset's EDL (Edit Decision List). When ingesting an event you can insert eventual breaks on specific segments, mark either video faults or garbage segments to avoid them to be played, set the visible segments to be played, etc.

NB: Please note that in case the asset has been ingested with timecode, the EDL will be automatically translated according to the new timecode.

When the ingest ends, decoders configured for preview will be used to play the just ingested media clip, in this way the operator will be allowed to quickly check the quality and trim of the clip. In order to set marks (i.e. SOM and EOM) it will be enough to pause the clip and a certain point and make double-click on the SOM/EOM to be inserted.

Moreover, it is possible to define "Insertion Points" and "Video Faults" by selecting them from the pop up after right clicking on the "Blocks" area on the right side.