User

Manual

Silverstack Version 7.1

Table of Contents

Clip
Library
User Interface Overview 6
The Clip Library: Bins, Folders, Smart Folders and Volumes 7
The Information Panel 10
Assets in Silverstack 13
Working with Smart Folders 14
Choosing Custom Thumbnail Images 15
The Copy and Verification Process in Silverstack: Verification Behavior 16
Suspend Verify Job 17
About Source Verification 17
Cascading Copy 17
Verification States (for File Resources, Clips and Bins) 19
Unregister a Project from Silverstack 22
Library Metadata Exchange 22
Grading Controls in Silverstack 25
Using the ACES CDL Grading Mode 29
The Silverstack Look Library 35
Look Matching 38
Audio Clips in Silverstack 42
How to Manually Sync Audio in Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab 44
Transcoding in Silverstack and Silverstack XT 48
UI Layouts: Quick Configurations for the Silverstack User Interface 56
Second Display: Two Screen Working Environment in Silverstack 58
Transfer of Project Settings 59
Crop Clips 62
Extracting LTC from Internal Audio in Silverstack and Silverstack Lab 65
Dynamic Metadata 67
Editing Keyboard Shortcuts in Silverstack 69

Offload
&
Backup
Parallel Offloading 71
Cascading Copy 73
Offload wizard templates 76
Backup Clips 77
Managing Jobs in the Jobs View 79
Jobs Summary 82
Use of path wildcards 84
LTFS backup 86
Backup Data to SONY Optical Disk Archive 88
Checksum verification methods 89
Analyzing and improving data-transfer performance 92
Adding Clips to the Library (Ingest without Copy) 93
Use Silverstack’s clip library for EDL conform 95
Sealing Drives in Silverstack 97

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 Importing Sealed Library Archives in Silverstack XT 99
Understanding the Pomfort Seal 100

Quality
Check
Playback 102
HD-SDI Output in Silverstack 103
Multichannel Audio in Silverstack 107
Basic Color Control in Silverstack 108
Visual Control Functionalities in the Playback Mode 110
Professional Video Scopes for Silverstack with ScopeBox 111
Frame Lines in the Playback View 114
Image transformation 115
Still image export 115
Volume playback priority 117
Quick Look Features 118
Player Grid View for Multi Clip Selection 119

Creating
Reports
Creating Reports 122
Customising Clip Reports 128

Metadata
Handling
Metadata Handling: View, Organize, Add, and Filter Clips 130
Tips & Tricks: Quick metadata editing 132
Transfer metadata to FCP 7, FCP X, AVID Media Composer, and Speedgrade 133
Transferring Metadata to Final Cut Pro X 135
Transfer Clips to DaVinci Resolve Including Clip and Color Metadata 136
Transfer Color Metadata to Assimilate Scratch 142
Transferring Metadata to Avid Media Composer 147
Transfer Color Metadata to AVID Media Composer 148
Exporting Looks from Silverstack 151
Transferring Looks from LiveGrade Pro to Silverstack 153
Import metadata via MovieSlate 155
Transferring Clips and Metadata to Adobe Premiere Pro 156
ZEISS CP.3 XD Lens Correction: Workflow Overview 159
ZEISS CP.3 XD Lens Correction in Silverstack 161

Camera
Formats
Generic file formats 166
ARRI ALEXA and AMIRA Looks in Silverstack 166

Silverstack
Cloud
Registering for Silverstack Cloud 168
Connecting to Silverstack Cloud 168
The Silverstack Cloud Web Application 169

Troubleshooting
Application Preferences 172
Operating Systems and Requirements 178
Reset Silverstack’s Library and Preferences 178

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How do I migrate a license from one computer to another? 179
Migrate a Silverstack project from one computer to another 179
How to Manually Migrate Silverstack 5 Projects to Silverstack 6 or Silverstack 6 Projects to
Silverstack 7 181
Incompatible Silverstack or Silverstack Lab Library Version 182
Why does Silverstack tell me my license is already activated? 183
How do I install a license for all users of a Mac? 183

4
Legal
Disclaimer
The information in this document is subject to change without notice and should not be construed as a commitment by Pomfort. Pomfort
assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear in this document. Pomfort may also make improvements and/or changes in the
software product described in this document at any time without notice. In no event shall Pomfort be liable for any special, indirect, or
consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or pro ts, whether in an action of contract,
negligence, or other action, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of this information.

Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Pomfort GmbH.

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 Silverstack
Clip Library

Clip Library
User
Interface
Overview

figure 1: User Interface overview

1 Video Preview

2 Playback control

3 Action wizards in Toolbar are Offload, Add Clips, Media, Seal, Export, Import, Report, Transcode:

Offload: Choose a source to offload it in your library.

Add
Clips: Add clips to the library without starting a copy job.
Media:
Syn
Audio: Sync video clips with audio files from an external audio recorder.
Extract
LTC: Extract longitudinal timecode from clips in the library.
Relink: Relink clips in the library to new media resources.
Backup: Backup clips in the library to new locations.
Backup
to
LTFS: Backup clips from the library to an LTO via LTFS.
Verify: Verify clips in the library.
Seal: Seal drives for subsequent workflow steps.

Export: Export metadata files to use in editorial and post production.

Import: Import metadata and match it to the clips from different sources.
Report: Create various report types in the Report wizard.
Transcode: Transcode clips to different available formats (create dailies).

4 Switch between View modes like Summary, Table, Collection, Playback.

Summary: shows statistics and details for the selected object in your library.
Table
view: useful for sorting and grouping clips by certain criteria. It is also a great way to get an overview of the variousmetadata of a set of clips.
Some of the fields are editable and you can jump from field to field by pressing the TAB key. Here you can also load and save custom view presets
which are the foundation of your clip reports.
Collection
view: it gives you a visual overview over the clips in your library.

Playback: shows the currently selected clip in the video preview and all clips from the active library object in a timeline.

5 Navigation through your Projects, Jobs, Volumes. Folders and Bins with bread crumbs. This feature is specially useful when you hide your library view
and clip information view.

6 Project Library selection switcher. It displays the name of the current project.

7 Silverstack Cloud. The production information stored in the Pomfort Cloud can be accessed through a web application.

8 Timecode of playhead and current playback speed in fps.

9 External video status and video out settings.

10 Different video preview modes: Single, Grid or Split View.

11 Visual Controls for in depth Image Analysis and Full Screen Player.

12 Work spaces such as Files, Manage, QC, Color and Transcode Config to speed up specific tasks.

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Clip Library

13 Miniplayer shows the video preview in a floating window.

14 Video Scopes such as Waveform, Vectorscope, Histogram.

15 Toggle View Controls to hide or show the Library panel, the Grading Controls, Audio Controls panel and the Clip Info panel to have more work space
for example on small laptop screens.

16 Toggle between Clip information, User Information, File Resources, Clip Header, Look Library and Transcoding configurations.

17 Clip information for supported advanced camera formats.

18 Search box to filter file metadata.

19 Successful/Failed jobs count.

20 Progress bar for running copy and transcoding jobs. Shows number of jobs in queue, progress and time left.

21 Grading Controls.

22 Switch between the audio and the grading panel in the lower “Audio&Color” section.

23 Jobs panel: Job or Copy Status, like successful or failed copy jobs, duration and file destination. More information in the article Managing Jobs.

24 Different sorting options for the library.

25 Library Panel

26 Info Display: it provides the most important information of the selected clip and cannot be edited. It contains two different view parameters: one for the
Digital Image Technician and another one with relevant information for the Data Wrangler.

Collection
View
–
Icon
explanations

figure 3: Collection view: Clip icon

1 Clip Thumbnail (user selectable).

2
Clip name and duration. If the clip has been labeled, this part is colored.
3 Description of the ingest date and time.
4 Icon indicates that clip has audio. Either external, internal or both.
5 Indicates that this clip is marked with a flag and can be searched and filtered for this criterion.
6 Indicates the number of connected storage devices concerning this clip’s storage locations. The number colored in red shows the number of storage
locations that miss the source file.

The
Clip
Library:
Bins,
Folders,
Smart
Folders
and
Volumes

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Clip Library

figure 1: The library panel part 1

figure 2: The Library panel part 2

The basic building blocks of the Silverstack library are projects, bins and folders. Every project you create in Silverstack contains by default different kinds
of “Smart
Folders” and a “Volumes” sub-item. Based on that you can add an unlimited number of folders, bins and smart folders by right-clicking on any
item of the project tree.

Project

A “Project” groups all information and data of a single project. In Silverstack all clips, jobs, volumes and destinations are assigned to one project. It may
additionally contain information like the producer, name of the DIT or a production logo, which you can edit in the Statistics overview of the selected
project.

The number behind every element of your project tree indicates the number of versions it contains, whereby duplicates are not counted. The number
behind your “Project” item indicates the number of versions contained by it, with only counting one version of each referred clip.

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Clip Library

Bin

A bin contains clip versions, but no other bins or folders. It is the smallest container unit in Silverstack. Bins are the only element to contain versions
directly, folders and projects only group a set of bins.

There are two different types of Bins:

Video Bins:

Audio Bins:

Sorting
of
Bins
&
Folders

You can organize the library by dragging and dropping bins and folders in a custom order or selecting a certain criteria to sort them by:

The bin sorting options in detail:

Custom
Order: Reflects and stores the custom order the user created with drag & drop.
Name
(A-Z): Sorts bins and folders by Name from top to bottom from 0 to Z.

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Clip Library

Name
(Z-A): Sorts bins and folders by Name from top to bottom from Z to 0.
Date
(oldest
–
newest): Sorts bins and folders by creation date, oldest date first, newest date last.
Date
(newest
–
oldest): Sorts bins and folders by creation date, newest date first, oldest date last.

Folders stay on top. Audio bins are automatically sorted separately at the bottom of video bins.

Folder

Folders are used to create logical project structures like shooting days. A folder can contain bins and other folders but not clips directly since clips always
have to be enclosed by a bin.

Folder structure can easily be duplicated by choosing “Duplicate

Folder
Structure” from the context menu:

Fig. 3: Duplicating the folder structure of a folder

Smart
Folder

Additionally there is an element called “Smart

Folders”
in the Silverstack library, which describes a folder with integrated filtering function. Using smart
folders you can find clips with a certain attribute in the dedicated project very easily. The default smart folders filter the library for clips without backups,
with a high rating, a flagging or clips that are registered today. For a closer look to the smart folder section go to the Working with smart folders article.

Volumes

By selecting “Volumes”, Silverstack outlines all used storage devices and their according information. You can also reveal the files in the finder by clicking
the reveal button. Additional information about your volumes can be found in the right sided panel. There you have the possibility to make comments,
eject the volume, get the status of your free disk space print a volume report or give your hard-drive a playback priority.

figure 4: The Silverstack “Volumes” window

The
Information
Panel
The Information Panel displays all the information (metadata) embedded in your clips. It consists mostly of editable and some read-only fields (not
editable). You can edit the fields marked with a small «pencil» icon, as well as flags, ratings, labels and cue points.

By editing and adding your own information to the clips you can simplify managing tasks like searching clips, varying the shown clip order or filter the
library for clips with a certain attribute, which you can do by using smart folders.

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Clip Library

Fig. 1: The information panel

The
Tabs

The information panel is subdivided into six tabs: General Info, User, File, Header, Look Library and Transcoding.

1
General
tab:
It encloses the clip information extracted from the metadata like the timecode, exposure, production info, camera and format information.
Additionally, there are some tips for a faster metadata editing available in the article Tips & Tricks: Quick metadata editing. You can also apply Image
transformations like anamorphic de-squeezing and image flipping. You can edit the fields marked with a small «pencil» icon.

2
User
tab:
It is fully editable. There you can set the camera letter, edit scene shot and take metadata, flag, rate and label the selected clip. Besides, you
can add a comment and cue points to it.

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Clip Library

figure 2: User Information panel

3
File
tab:
The “File” tab provides you an overview of all file resources of the selected clip.

figure 3: the File tab

4
Header
tab:
The “Header” tab contains read-only detailed technical information metadata —in a raw format— of the selected clip.

5
Look
Library
tab:
Silverstack enables you to manage looks within Silverstack in a look library in order to keep a proper overview of all the looks in your
project. The look library allows you to store new looks, edit their metadata, apply looks to one or multiple clips, as well as to import looks from LiveGrade.
For more information, please check the article The Silverstack Look Library.

6
Transcoding
tab:
Silverstack allows to manage transcoding configurations and their transcoding settings in the Transcoding tab. A transcoding preview
of the current image is automatically shown in the player view when the transcoding tab is opened. For more information about the transcoding tab and
transcoding in Silverstack please read the article Transcoding in Silverstack.

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Clip Library

Assets
in
Silverstack
Assets in Silverstack can be video clips (e.g. an Alexa or RED media file), audio clips (WAV), sidecar files accompanying clips (for example XML or RMD
files), or any other document such as photos or even a PDF. However, not all media files are recognized as clips by Silverstack. In that case we are talking
about Generic file formats.

Advanced
Camera
Support

Silverstack provides advanced support for a wide range of camera formats, which maximizes the efficiency of relevant on-set tasks such as playback,
metadata management, color grading, quality control and more.

The supported Advanced Camera Formats are:

ARRIRAW (.ari and .mxf) **:

ARRI Alexa (.ari)
ARRI Alexa LF (.ari)
ARRI Alexa Mini (.mxf)
ARRI Alexa Mini LF (.mxf)
ARRI Amira (.mxf)
ARRI Alexa 65 (.ari)
ARRIRAW CODEX HDE (High Density Encoding) (.arx)**
Blackmagic RAW (.braw) **
Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro & 4.6K
Canon XF Movies **:
Canon C300 MK I & II
Canon C500
Canon C700
Canon C200
Canon XF-HEVC **
Canon XF705
Canon MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (.mts)**
Canon C100
Canon Cinema RAW Light (.crm):
Canon C200 and C200B
Canon Uncompressed RAW (.rmf) [Silverstack XT and Lab only]:
Canon C700 and C700 FF
Canon C300 Mk II
CinemaDNG (.dng):
BMCC
DJI Inspire and Zenmuse Series
Bolex D16 **
Ikonoskop
IndieCam
Generic Image Sequences:
JPG
TIFF
DPX
H.264 Quicktime Movies:
Canon DSLR **
GoPro Hero **
Nikon DSLR **
KineRAW (.krw):
Kinefinity TERRA 4K / 5K / 6K
Kinefinity KineMINI 4K
Kinefinity KineMAX 6K
Panasonic DNG RAW [Silverstack XT and Lab only]:
Panasonic Varicam LT (with Convergent Design Odyssey7Q+)
Panasonic AVC-Intra **:
Panasonic Varicam
Panasonic V-RAW [Silverstack XT and Lab only]:
Panasonic Varicam
Phantom Cine Vision Research (.cine) [Silverstack XT and Lab only]:
Phantom Flex/Flex4K/Miro/VEO
ProRes Quicktime Movies ** (.mov):
AJA KiPro
ARRI Alexa / Alexa Mini **
ARRI Amira **
ARRI Alexa LF **
RED cameras **
Panasonic Varicam **
Atomos Ninja and Samurai
Codex Action Cam
Convergent Design Odyssey
DJI Inspire and Zenmuse Series

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Clip Library

ProRes (.mxf)
ARRI Alexa Mini LF
REDCODE ** (.red):
Red Weapon Monstro 8K VV , Red Weapon Helium 8K S35 , Red Weapon Dragon 6K
Red Raven 4.5K
Red Komodo
Red Scarlet-X , Scarlet Dragon , Scarlet-W 5K
Red Epic-X , Epic Dragon , Epic-W 8K
Red One , Red One MX

SONY RAW** [Silverstack XT and Lab only]:

Sony F5
Sony F55
Sony F65
Sony Venice
X-OCN LT**, X-OCN ST**, X-OCN XT ** [Silverstack XT and Lab only]:
Sony F5 (with AXS-R7 recorder)
Sony F55 (with AXS-R7 recorder)
Sony Venice (with AXS-R7 recorder)
XAVC **:
Sony F5
Sony F55
Sony Venice
XAVC-S **:
Sony a7S

Furthermore Silverstack offers extensive support for broadcast wave (BWF) audio wave files (.wav). Learn more in the article Audio Clips in Silverstack.

** with audio support

Working
with
Smart
Folders
In the Silverstack library you find an element called “Smart
Folders”
below the camera rolls section. Smart folders provide the opportunity to filter all your
clips for certain metadata information. Using smart folders you can find clips with a certain attribute in the dedicated project very easily.

The default smart folders filter the library for clips without backups, with a high rating, a flagging or clips that are registered today.

Create
a
new
Smart
Folder

You can create Smart Folders with an individually set filter in the “Add” wizard menu in the bottom left corner of your Silverstack window. By creating a
new Smart Folder the panel you can see in figure 2 will appear.

Name the folder and set the rules by which the Smart Folder will add video clips. You do this by applying filters which you can add and delete by the “+”
and “-” buttons (figure 1 #1). For each filter you can choose the kind of metadata information (figure 1 #2), a filter mode (figure 1 #3) and enter specified
information (figure 1 #4) for which the video clips will be filtered. Additionally you can decide if any, all or none (figure 1 #5) of this filtering criteria have to
be fulfilled by a clip which then will be added to this Smart Folder .

figure 1: Panel for creating a new smart folder in the Silverstack library

Filter
attributes

For the below mentioned attributes you have to type characters into the text field (figure 1 #4) to get a result. If you leave the text field empty, no video
clips will be filtered out – even if the according attribute field of video clips may be empty.

Clip Name
Version
Comment
Scene
Shot
Take

Camera
Reel Name
File Type
Codec
Look Name
Bin Name

If you want to filter clips for a date, you can select: today, yesterday, one week ago or any specific date.

Registration Date
Shooting Date

For the below listed attributes you have to enter a number in the text field (figure 1 #4) for getting a result. If you leave the text field empty, there will be no
video clips filtered – even if the according attribute-field of some clips is empty.

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Clip Library

Number of Frames
Pixel Width
Pixel Height
Rating
ASA
Number of File Representations
Number of Cue Points
Playable
Missing
Frames per Second
F-Stop
Whitepoint
Sensor Fps
Fps of TC
In/ Out
In Point
Out Point
Flag: You can choose between flagged/ not flagged
Label: You can choose any of the provided labels.
Colorspace: With the colorspace attribute you can filter video clips which are recorded in the Rec.709, LogC (with or without Film Style Matrix), Dci
P3, Cinestyle, SLog
Volume Name: all the clips with a copy/backup in the specified volume or volumes will be shown in the smart folder.

Note:

Besides creating a new smart folder you can edit existing ones by right-clicking on the relevant smart folder and choosing “Edit…” from the drop-
down menu.
A nice feature is furthermore the possibility to create a new bin that contains the video clips which are included in the current smart folder. Therefore
right-click on the relevant smart folder and choose “New
Bin
from
Smart
Folder”.

Choosing
Custom
Thumbnail
Images
Silverstack offers a flexible way to experience a great asset preview of your projects, bins, folder and camera rolls. We incorporated a feature allowing you
to define your own thumbnails to get a better oversight of your shots – scenes – takes and gives you the opportunity to navigate faster inside your library
and locate clips with one click.

Usual
behavior

By default, Silverstack analyzes the length of a clip and picks the thumbnail image from the middle of the take. You can customize the default behavior in
the preference menu. The thumbnail position can be set to “Begin”, “Middle” and “End” of a clip. If you want to recreate your thumbnails you can do so
by making an asset selection and then click in the “Edit” menu “Recreate Thumbnails”. All selected assets thumbnails will be recreated.

Figure 1 : “Preferences for default thumbnails”

While this is suitable for most occasions, it might happen that the preferences of the clip is by coincidence a black frame, a meaningless moment like blue
sky or a frame that is not in focus which won’t help you to identify the right take from the table view, collection view or neither in the reports.

Customize
your
clip
thumbnails

To customize your reports or Table/Clip View with a thumbnail that matches your criteria as a DIT simply mark the clip and switch into the Playback
View to locate the right frame. From there you can scrub to the desired frame and set your thumbnail via the Main Menu entry in “Edit” – “Set Thumbnail
Frame”. You can alternatively use the Shortcut ⌘
+
T
to set the thumbnail.

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Clip Library

Figure 2: “Switch to Playback View”

Figure 3: “Main Menu entry”

Note: You can only apply the ” Set Thumbnail” feature to Assets that have advanced playback support in Silverstack. You can find more information
about assets in this article.

Warning:
If you recreate thumbnails with the function in the “Edit” menu all the previous thumbnail images will be erased and replaced with the actual
setting of the preference.

The
Copy
and
Verification
Process
in
Silverstack:
Verification
Behavior
Silverstack 6.4 and later differentiates two basic types of verification behavior:

Included
in
Copy
Job:
Verification executed file per file
(One
Job
that
copies
and
verifies
[copying
file
1,
verifying
file
1,
copying
file
2,
verifying
file
2])
Separate
(per
Job):
Copy all files first in a distinct job and verify them afterwards in another job
(Copy
Job
[copying
file
1,
copying
file
2],
Verify
Job
[verifying
file
1,
verifying
file
2]).

This leads to several improvements for the transparency of the copy and verification process in Silverstack that are outlined in this article.

The
Verification
Behavior
in
Detail

Included
in
Copy
Job

The default verification behavior contains reduced options for the user. It is referred to as “Included
in
Copy
Job” as the verification process happens file
per file.

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Clip Library

Fig.1: Verification behavior “Included in Copy Job”

It always verifies all destinations and the source (“Verify All Destinations, Include Source Verification”), therefore reduces options and makes sure the
highest possible security is maintained.

Here are the facts in an overview:

Verification
Behavior: Included in Copy Job
Verification
Coverage: All destinations, with source
Available
Checksum
Methods: xxHash64 (BE), MD 5, SHA 1

Separate
(per
Job)

The advanced verification behavior “Separate (per Job)” allows to complete the copy of all files first and verify them later. It is referred to as “Separate (per
Job)” as it creates a separate copy and verify job.

Using the “Separate

(per
Job)” verification behavior, there are multiple options to choose from for the verification coverage. The verification coverage
refers to the extent of verification that is performed.

Fig.2: The offload wizard options for the verification coverage when verification behavior “Separate (per Job)” is selected

The following options are provided for the verification coverage (refer to fig. 2):

All
destinations,
with
source
(default)
Abstract:
Highest
possible
security.
The verify job verifies all copy destinations …
… and also the copy source.
All
destinations,
no
source
verification
Abstract:
Still
secure
for
destinations,
but
neglects
the
detection
of
source
problems
possible
with
“Source
Verification”.
The verify job verifies all copy destinations…
but does not verify the copy source.
No
verification,
file
size
check
only
Abstract:
No
security,
use
with
care!
Only
the
size
of
copied
files
on
destination
is
checked
against
the
original.
No verify job is created. File size check is performed with copy job.
Even if it will not be verified, Silverstack creates a checksum during the copy process that is stored in the library. Checksum Method is fixed
to xxHash to avoid limiting copy speed e.g. using MD 5 as checksum method.

Suspend
Verify
Job

The first two selections for verification coverage have an additional option to suspend the created verify job (see also fig.2). This allows all other offload
and copy jobs to be executed before the verification. The verify job suspends automatically once scheduled, and has to be resumed manually by the user.

About
Source
Verification

Learn more about “Source Verification” in the article Checksum Verification Methods. “Source Verification” or “verifying the source” refers to the process
of reading the source once more after the copy process end as part of the verification process. This is done additionally to reading the destinations again
to verify their checksums. The intention to do this is to make sure that the checksum still matches the one created during the initial read of the file for the
copy process to detect e.g. broken source cards. The verification of the destination remains untouched by this setting.

Cascading
Copy

When enabling cascading copy the verification coverage as well as the checksum methods can be selected per run:

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Fig. 3: Selecting the verification coverage for both runs with cascading copy

More information about cascading copy can be found in the article Cascading Copy.

Additional
Options

Overwrite
existing
files: This option allows to overwrite already existing copies on the destination(s).
Skip
Copy
Step: The option to skip the copy step and only ingest material has been removed in the Offload wizard to clearly separate the copy from
the ingest functionality. To ingest material without copying use the “Add
to
Library…” entry in the “File” menu.

Fig. 4: Using the “Add to Library” option for ingest only

Job
Scheduling
Control

The Offload wizard allows to schedule jobs in the queue to be executed next, after the running job finishes. The default behavior, to add the job to the
queue, will be restored after each copy job, as this is a hit and run choice before starting the jobs.

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Fig.5: The job scheduling options

Learn more about reordering of jobs with drag & drop in the article Reordering and Suspension of Jobs.

Verification
States
(for
File
Resources,
Clips
and
Bins)
Since Silverstack 6.4 file resources (all registered file copies and the source) have a verification state that is displayed in the “File” tab of the right bar.

The verification state helps the user to identify the current verification status of the file resource of a clip. This is especially necessary with the possibility to
copy files first and verify them later in a separate job: With verification states it is explicitly identifiable if the resource has been verified.

3
Verification
States

A file resource can have 3 different verification states:

Verified (green)

Defect (red)

Not
Verified (grey)

Here’s more details about the 3 states and what they mean:

Verified: The hash of the destination file matches the hash created during the initial copy of the file. For source (source file resources) a green
verified state means that they passed “Source Verification” (if enabled), which means a second read and hash check of the source and comparison
to the the initially created hash.
Defect:
The file resource has a different hash than the one created during the initial copy. This can be identified by any type of verification
Silverstack performs (e.g. as part of a copy job or with a separate verify job).
Not
Verified:
The file resource has not been verified. Silverstack did not attempt to do a verification due to settings of the user. This can be the
case e.g. for the source file resource when “Source Verification” has been disabled, or for copy destinations when choosing to copy without
verification (which we do not recommend).

You can learn more about how the Silverstack copy process works in the following article:

How does the copy process in Silverstack work?

The Copy and Verification Process in Silverstack

Verification
States
in
the
File
Tab

The file resources in the file tab show the verification state per resource and as a summary for the clip:

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Fig. 1: The file tab with verification indicators

We can see that the clip has 3 file resources:

Source: Verified
Backup 1: Verified
Backup 2: Not Verified

The summary about the clip tells us that the verification is incomplete because at least 1 file resource is not verified. We will take a closer look at this
behavior in the next section.

Escalation
of
Verification
States

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Clip Library

Fig. 2: Tracing the indicators from the bin to the file resource in the file tab

To make the user aware of the verification state of all clips resources already on a bin level, the verification state is escalated from the file resource to the
library outline:

As multiple file resources can belong to a clips, a clip is inside a bin, and bins can be grouped in folders that can be ordered in the hierarchy inside the
Library outline the following escalation is performed:

File
Resource verification state
escalates
to…
Clip verification state
escalates
to…
Bin verification state
escalates
to…
Folder verification state
escalates
to…
Library verification state

There’s a clear hierarchy of severity of states that overrule and therefore define the state of the level above:

Defect
overrules…
Not
Verified
overrules…
Verified

Understanding both cascades will help you already identify folders and bins containing problematic clips. Using the verification state column (see fig. 2)
you can trace the problem down from the bin to the file resource that might be defect or not verified.

Folders only show the verification state when collapsed to avoid confusion with containing states.

Running
Jobs
for
Bins

Due to their nature, the verification state icons on bin level do not necessarily give meaningful feedback while copy jobs are running for the bin (as running
copy jobs naturally lead to a change of the verification state). This is the case because new file resources are registered and verification processes are on
the run.

To address this a “Running Jobs” indicator has been introduced. Installed in the library on bin level, it shows in form of a little progress bar and tells the
user that this bin currently has jobs running in the background:

Fig. 3: The Running Jobs indicator in the library outline

Furthermore, the “running jobs” indicator for bins also brings other benefits such as e.g. already seeing on bin level if no job is running anymore for a bin
and a report can be created with a steady state of the library.

Migration

Please be aware that library versions of Silverstack prior to the 6.4 update do not include information about verification states. Therefore a migration to
6.4 will place verification states based on the existing job information. You can verify resources based on the existing hash information afterwards at any
time.

Also PSLAs (Pomfort Silverstack Library Archives) exported with 6.3 and earlier do not include information about jobs or verification states. Opened with
6.4 or later all file resources will receive an “unverified” state.

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Unregister
a
Project
from
Silverstack
Unregister
an
old
project

If you have several old projects in your library that you want to remove you can simply unregister them. All the clips/assets that are registered in the library
will be removed.

Note: The files that are linked to the assets will stay on the Backup Volumes and will not be removed!

Steps
to
remove
a
project:

1. Open up Silverstack

2. Select the Project you want to remove from Project selector within the toolbar.

Figure 1: “Select a project from Toolbar”

3. Go to the Main Menu and press “Unregister Current Project”

Figure 2: “Unregister Project”

Silverstack will switch automatically to the next project. If there are no other projects within your library, Silverstack will automatically create a new one.

Library
Metadata
Exchange

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 Silverstack
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figure 1: metadata exchange between workstations

Silverstack XT offers the possibility to exchange metadata between multiple workstations. This feature gives more flexibility in scenarios where different
Silverstack libraries are used along the production workflow: on set for fast and secure offloading, near set for metadata handling and in post production
houses.

figure 2: Silverstack along the production workflow

Exporting
library
metadata

Whole libraries, folders or bins can be exported using this feature. To start the process, simply select the item from the Library Panel and click on
Export>to Silverstack Library Archive (psla)…:

figure 3: export menu

The Library Export wizard will appear, letting you select again which library folder to export. In addition, you can add a comment to describe the metadata
content of the file.

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 Silverstack
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figure 4: library export wizard

After selecting «Export», a destination selection dialogue will be shown. Once the file has been saved, it should look like this:

figure 5: Silverstack library metadata file

Importing
library
metadata

In order to import metadata from the previous process into another computer, you can just double click the «Day 1.psla» file. Otherwise you can select
Import>Silverstack Library Archive (psla)…:

figure 6: import menu

Once the file has been selected, the Library Import wizard will appear. Here you can see the name of the foler that is going to be imported, the author, the
export date and the comment describing its content. You are able to choose between importing the metadata as a new project or into the current project:

figure 7: metadata import wizard

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 Silverstack
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Please bear in mind that an active license is needed to use this feature. You will need to migrate the license in case only one license key has been
purchased.

Grading
Controls
in
Silverstack
User
Interface
overview

figure 1: UI with Grading Controls

The Grading Panel in Silverstack consists of all controls for manipulating the image filtering. The controls are grouped in nodes (such as 3D LUT node,
CDL node etc.):

Grading
mode
selector: You can switch between the different grading modes available on the drop down menu.
Nodes
with
grading
controls: Here you find all the nodes for a certain grading mode such as CDL color controls, 3D LUT loading node, saturation
etc. Each node can be individually disabled by un-marking the blue check box.
Clear
buttons: You can clear either the entire look or just the color manipulation (and not LUTs or tone mapping curves)
Using the «Neutral» button you can reset all settings (color and LUT) to a «neutral» state.
Using the «Reset Colors» button you can reset the color settings to a “neutral” state.

Grading
Modes

Silverstack supports different grading modes designed for specific camera setups and workflow environments.

The node-based design allows you to disable and reorder individual filter nodes to have greater grading freedom. You can disable a certain node by
unchecking the blue check box. Have in mind that the processing order is from «top to bottom» when reordering the nodes.

Each grading mode allows different levels of grade customization, as the compatibility of the grades down the workflow creates some restrictions on how
the color information has to be processed. For example, the camera compatible grading modes can have the nodes locked in a certain position to ensure
the compatibility of the grade when being uploaded into the camera.

figure 2: The different grading modes to choose from.

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 Silverstack
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The grading modes allowing the greatest level of customization are the Advanced and Freestyle modes.

CDL
and
LUT

Figure 3: The CDL and LUT grading mode

The CDL and LUT grading mode offers ASC-CDL controls for the use in a wide range of workflows. For clips recorded in Log color spaces, Silverstack
allows to import
3D
LUTs or choose from 3D
LUT
Presets.

In order to support workflows that apply CDL in log gamma as well as in video gamma, the order
of
LUT
and
CDL
filters
can
be
changed when using
the CDL Advanced grading mode. The CDL and LUT mode can also be used with Rec.709
clips
without adding a 3D LUT.

The color controls for the CDL and LUT grading mode consist of:

ASC-CDL
controls
node:
RGB Shadows,
Mid-tones
and
Highlights
color wheels

figure 4: ASC-CDL color wheels

Saturation
slider node

figure 5: Saturation node

Import of 3D
LUT
node: The CDL and LUT grading mode can import 3D LUTs and CDL files and can export ASC-CDL files.
3D
LUT
Import
options with averaged curve displays for each channel

figure 6: 3D LUT node

CDL
Advanced

Allows you to add and reorder multiple nodes on advanced workflows.

Alexa
Looks

This mode is designed to create .xml ALEXA Looks compatible with ARRI ALEXA cameras. More information in the article Using the ALEXA Looks grading
mode.

Freestyle

This grading mode has been created to allow complete grading freedom. For this reason, there are some limitations on the available export formats for
looks created on this mode.

ACES
CDL

A mode adapted to the ACES standard. More information in the article Using the ACES grading mode.

ACES
CDL
Advanced

A mode adapted to the ACES standard. Allows you to add and reorder multiple nodes on advanced workflows.

Varicam
Compatible

This mode is designed to create 3D LUTs and looks compatible with Panasonic Varicam 35 cameras.

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 Silverstack
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Amira
Compatible

This mode is designed to create .aml AMIRA Looks compatible with ARRI AMIRA cameras.

Available
grading
nodes

CDL
Node

The CDL node contains a color wheel for Offset, Power and Slope. It can be used to adjust the color on the image.

figure 7: CDL grading node

ASC-CDL files can be directly loaded and saved to/from the CDL node (supported format: *.cdl). Click the gear button on the left side of the CDL node
and select if you want to load or save a CDL.

Please be aware that the ASC-CDL specification always includes a saturation value. When one saturation node is present CDLs will be loaded and saved
from/to the present saturation node. When multiple CDL and saturation nodes are present you will be pointed choose the saturation node you want to
load the saturation to (indicators A,B,C etc.).

Saturation
Node

Just drag the slider to either side to increase or decrease the saturation on your look.

figure 8: Saturation node

3D
LUT
Node

The 3D LUT node is designed to load your own 3D LUTs by pressing the «Load…» button. Alternatively, you can also use one of the available preset 3D
LUTs to convert the image to a Rec.709 color space.

figure 9: 3D LUT node

1D
LUT
Node

The 1D LUT lets you load your own 1D LUT file. Click the “Load…” button and select the 1D LUT you want to load to the node.

figure 10: 1D LUT Node

In contrast to the curve node the LUT in the 1D LUT node can not be edited afterwards.

Supported formats are:

*.txt
channels: 3
range: 0.0 … 1023.0 (float)
header: “R G B – HDLINK GAMMA TABLE”
entries: 1024
row example: “221.37 221.37 221.37”
*.data
channels: 4
range: 0 … 16383 (integer)
entries: 16384
row example: 15040,15040,15040,15040
*.lut
channels: 3 (4 columns with leading index (0…65535, R, G, B)
range: 0 … 65535 (integer)
header: “LUT16”
entries: 65536
row example: 45490 58366 58366 58366

Curve
Node

figure 11: Curve node

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 Silverstack
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The Curve node lets you adjust the 1D LUT curve on the image. If you click on «Edit», the curve editor window will pop up. It allows you to precisely grade
your footage:

To add a point just click on the curve, and in order to modify it’s value just drag and drop.
To remove a point simply move it out of the curve editor’s window.
When you move your mouse over the curve editor, the graph shows you the value of the exact point where it is.

figure 12: Curve editor window

HHS
Node

The HHS node –Hue to Hue and Saturation– is a new kind of node that allows you to map a certain hue on the image and replace it by another color with
different hue and saturation. Here is an example where the red has been desaturated, but the other colors remain the same:

The HHS editor allows you to drag and drop the hue circles to another location on the color space to replace the original color with another one.

figure 13: HHS editor

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Grading
Panel
Support

Silverstack supports the use of hardware grading panels for the grading functionalities. The following panels are supported:

Tangent Element Tk
Tangent Ripple
Tangent Wave
Tangent Wave2

Connect the hardware panels to Silverstack to precisely and physically manipulate your grades.

Using
the
ACES
CDL
Grading
Mode

figure 1: ACES grading controls

Silverstack XT has the capability of reproducing ACES workflows.

Different versions of the ACES workflow are available from the Preferences panel:

v 1.1.o (ACEScct)
v 1.0.3 (ACEScc and ACEScct)
v 1.0.2
v 1.0.1
v 1.0.0
v 0.7.1
v 0.7.0
v 0.2.0

These ACES versions have different IDTs (Input Device Transforms) and ODTs (Output Device Transforms). Please, make sure that the ACES version used
in Silverstack XT matches the one used during the post production process for maximum color accuracy.

The grading nodes displayed in the ACES mode are divided in two parts:

ACES color transformation panel

CDL controls

Additionally, Silverstack XT offers the ACES CDL Advanced grading mode. This grading mode lets you add multiple grading nodes between the IDT and
ODT for advanced workflows.

Managing
ACES
Versions

In the Silverstack preferences you can manage the available ACES versions and transforms:

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 Silverstack
Clip Library

Fig. 2: ACES preference panel

The dropdown lets you select the ACES version for new looks. Every new look will be initialized with the ACES version selected in the dropdown in the
preferences.

That means that every look in the library made with an ACES grading mode has an associated ACES version (you can find that version in the“ACES
Mode” column in the Silverstack library). Saving looks with different ACES versions to the library will make it easy to compare the look of different ACES
versions effortlessly.

In the section “Available

ACES
Transforms” you can find the available ACES versions and its associated transforms. The icon in the status bar will either
signalize an available set of transforms (green checkmark) or a set of transforms that can be downloaded from the servers (download icon with
downwards arrow).

Click the button “Check

for
New
Versions” at the bottom of the preferences window to see if new ACES versions are available to download from the
Pomfort servers.

Supported
ACES
IDT
and
ODT
formats

Before starting to create your grades, select the correct IDT (matching your camera system) and the ODT (matching the output display color space) from
the color transformation panel. LiveGrade Pro currently offers the following set of IDTs and ODTs:

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Silverstack
Clip Library

ACEScc v. 1.0.3
IDT
ARRI
Alexa Log-C EI1000 v3
Alexa Log-C EI1280 v3
Alexa Log-C EI160 v3
Alexa Log-C EI1600 v3
Alexa Log-C EI200 v3
Alexa Log-C EI2000 v3
Alexa Log-C EI250 v3
Alexa Log-C EI2560 v3
Alexa Log-C EI320 v3
Alexa Log-C EI3200 v3
Alexa Log-C EI400 v3
Alexa Log-C EI500 v3
Alexa Log-C EI640 v3
Alexa Log-C EI800 v3
Academy
ACESproxy
Reverse Rec.709 (ODT)
Canon
EOS C100 (A) D55 v1.0
EOS C100 (A) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 (A) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 (A) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 BT2020(B) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 BT2020(B) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 CinemaGamut(A) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 CinemaGamut(A) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog BT2020(D) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog BT2020(D) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog CinemaGamut(C) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog CinemaGamut(C) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C500 CinemaGamut(A) D55 v1.1.1
EOS C500 CinemaGamut(A) Tungsten v1.1.1
EOS C500 DCI-P3 D55 v1.1.1
EOS C500 DCI-P3 Tungsten v1.1.1
Panasonic
V35 v070
Sony
F35 S-Log1
S-Log2 Daylight
S-Log2 Tungsten
S-Log3 S-Gamut3
S-Log3 S-Gamut3.Cine
ODT
AMPAS
P3 ST2084 D60 1000nits
P3 ST2084 D60 2000nits
P3 ST2084 D60 4000nits
P3
RGB Monitor 100nits (dim)
RGB Monitor D60 100nits (dim)
Rec.2020 100nits (dim)
Rec.2020 ST2084 1000nits
Rec.709 100nits
Rec.709 D60 100nits

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Silverstack
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ACEScct v. 1.0.3
IDT
ARRI
Alexa Log-C EI1000 v3
Alexa Log-C EI1280 v3
Alexa Log-C EI160 v3
Alexa Log-C EI1600 v3
Alexa Log-C EI200 v3
Alexa Log-C EI2000 v3
Alexa Log-C EI250 v3
Alexa Log-C EI2560 v3
Alexa Log-C EI320 v3
Alexa Log-C EI3200 v3
Alexa Log-C EI400 v3
Alexa Log-C EI500 v3
Alexa Log-C EI640 v3
Alexa Log-C EI800 v3
Academy
ACESproxy
Reverse Rec.709 (ODT)
Canon
EOS C100 (A) D55 v1.0
EOS C100 (A) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 (A) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 (A) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 BT2020(B) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 BT2020(B) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 CinemaGamut(A) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 CinemaGamut(A) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog BT2020(D) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog BT2020(D) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog CinemaGamut(C) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog CinemaGamut(C) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C500 CinemaGamut(A) D55 v1.1.1
EOS C500 CinemaGamut(A) Tungsten v1.1.1
EOS C500 DCI-P3 D55 v1.1.1
EOS C500 DCI-P3 Tungsten v1.1.1
Panasonic
V35 v070
Sony
F35 S-Log1
S-Log2 Daylight
S-Log2 Tungsten
S-Log3 S-Gamut3
S-Log3 S-Gamut3.Cine
ODT
AMPAS
P3 ST2084 D60 1000nits
P3 ST2084 D60 2000nits
P3 ST2084 D60 4000nits
P3
RGB Monitor 100nits (dim)
RGB Monitor D60 100nits (dim)
Rec.2020 100nits (dim)
Rec.2020 ST2084 1000nits
Rec.709 100nits
Rec.709 D60 100nits

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Silverstack
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ACEScc v. 1.0.2
IDT
AMPAS
ACESproxy v1.0.1/1.0.2
Reverse Rec.709 (ODT) v1.0.1/1.0.2
ARRI
Alexa Log-C EI1000 v3
Alexa Log-C EI1280 v3
Alexa Log-C EI160 v3
Alexa Log-C EI1600 v3
Alexa Log-C EI200 v3
Alexa Log-C EI2000 v3
Alexa Log-C EI250 v3
Alexa Log-C EI2560 v3
Alexa Log-C EI320 v3
Alexa Log-C EI3200 v3
Alexa Log-C EI400 v3
Alexa Log-C EI500 v3
Alexa Log-C EI640 v3
Alexa Log-C EI800 v3
Canon
EOS C100 (A) D55 v1.0
EOS C100 (A) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 (A) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 (A) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 BT2020(B) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 BT2020(B) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 CinemaGamut(A) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 CinemaGamut(A) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog BT2020(D) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog BT2020(D) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog CinemaGamut(C) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog CinemaGamut(C) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C500 CinemaGamut(A) D55 v1.1.1
EOS C500 CinemaGamut(A) Tungsten v1.1.1
EOS C500 DCI-P3 D55 v1.1.1
EOS C500 DCI-P3 Tungsten v1.1.1
Panasonic
V35 v070
Sony
F35 Slog1
F55/F65 Slog2 Daylight
F55/F65 Slog2 Tungsten
ODT
AMPAS
P3 ST2084 D60 1000nits v1.0.1/1.0.2
P3 ST2084 D60 2000nits v1.0.1/1.0.2
P3 ST2084 D60 4000nits v1.0.1/1.0.2
P3 v1.0.1/1.0.2
Rec.2020 100nits (dim) v1.0.1/1.0.2
Rec.2020 ST2084 1000nits v1.0.1/1.0.2
Rec.709 100nits v1.0.1/1.0.2
Rec.709 D60 100nits v1.0.1/1.0.2

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Silverstack
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ACEScc v. 1.0.1
IDT
AMPAS
ACESproxy v1.0.1
Reverse Rec.709 (ODT) v1.0.1
ARRI
Alexa Log-C EI800 v3
Canon
EOS C100 (A) D55 v1.0
EOS C100 (A) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 (A) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 (A) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 BT2020(B) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 BT2020(B) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 CinemaGamut(A) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 CinemaGamut(A) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog BT2020(D) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog BT2020(D) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog CinemaGamut(C) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog CinemaGamut(C) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C500 CinemaGamut(A) D55 v1.1.1
EOS C500 CinemaGamut(A) Tungsten v1.1.1
EOS C500 DCI-P3 D55 v1.1.1
EOS C500 DCI-P3 Tungsten v1.1.1
Panasonic
V35 v070
Sony
F35 Slog1
F55/F65 Slog2 Daylight
F55/F65 Slog2 Tungsten
ODT
AMPAS
P3 v1.0.1
Rec.2020 100nits (dim) v1.0.1
Rec.709 100nits v1.0.1
ACESlog v. 1.0.0
IDT
AMPAS
ACESproxy (ACESlog v1.0.0)
Reverse Rec.709 (ODT) (ACESlog v1.0.0)
Alexa
v3 EI800 (ACESlog v1.0.0)
Canon
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 BT2020(B) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 BT2020(B) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 CinemaGamut(A) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog2 CinemaGamut(A) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog BT2020(D) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog BT2020(D) Tungsten v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog CinemaGamut(C) D55 v1.0
EOS C300 mkII CanonLog CinemaGamut(C) Tungsten v1.0
EOS CinemaGamut(A) D55 v1.1 (ACESlog v1.0.0)
EOS CinemaGamut(A) Tungsten v1.1 (ACESlog v1.0.0)
EOS DCI-P3 D55 v1.1 (ACESlog v1.0.0)
EOS DCI-P3 Tungsten v1.1 (ACESlog v1.0.0)
Panasonic
V35 v070 (ACESlog v1.0.0)
Sony
Slog1 (F35) (ACESlog v1.0.0)
Slog2 (F55/F65) Daylight (ACESlog v1.0.0)
Slog2 (F55/F65) Tungsten (ACESlog v1.0.0)
ODT
AMPAS
P3 (ACESlog v1.0.0)
Rec.2020 100nits dim (ACESlog v1.0.0)
Rec.709 100nits (ACESlog v1.0.0)

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ACESlog v. 0.7.1
IDT
Alexa
v3 EI800 (ACESlog v0.7.1)
Canon
EOS CinemaGamut(A) D55 v1.1 (ACESlog v0.7.1)
EOS CinemaGamut(A) Tungsten v1.1 (ACESlog v0.7.1)
EOS DCI-P3 D55 v1.1 (ACESlog v0.7.1)
EOS DCI-P3 Tungsten v1.1 (ACESlog v0.7.1)
Panasonic
V35 v070 (ACESlog v0.7.1)
Sony
Slog1 (F35) (ACESlog v0.7.1)
Slog2 (F55/F65) Daylight (ACESlog v0.7.1)
Slog2 (F55/F65) Tungsten (ACESlog v0.7.1)
ODT
AMPAS
P3 (ACESlog v0.7.1)
Rec.709 100nits (ACESlog v0.7.1)
ACESlog v. 0.7.0
IDT
Alexa
(ACESlog v0.7.0)
Canon
EOS CinemaGamut(A) D55 v1.1 (ACESlog v0.7.0)
EOS CinemaGamut(A) Tungsten v1.1 (ACESlog v0.7.0)
EOS DCI-P3+(A) D55 v1.1 (ACESlog v0.7.0)
EOS DCI-P3+(A) Tungsten v1.1 (ACESlog v0.7.0)
Panasonic
VariCam 35 (ACESlog v0.7.0)
Sony
F35 (ACESlog v0.7.0)
F55 Daylight (ACESlog v0.7.0)
F55 Tungsten (ACESlog v0.7.0)
ODT
AMPAS
P3 (ACESlog v0.7.0)
Rec.709 (ACESlog v0.7.0)
ACESlog v. 0.2.0
IDT
Alexa
(ACESlog v0.2.0)
Sony
(ACESlog v0.2.0)
ODT
AMPAS
P3 (ACESlog v0.2.0)
Rec.709 (ACESlog v0.2.0)

The CDL controls behave the same way as in the CDL Grade mode and can also be exported as usual from a saved grade. ACES grades can also be
exported as 3D LUTs, including the CDL values, IDT and ODT.

The
Silverstack
Look
Library
Silverstack enables you to manage looks within Silverstack in a look library in order to keep a proper overview of all the looks in your project. The look
library allows to store new looks, edit their metadata, apply looks to one or multiple clips, as well as to import looks from LiveGrade.

The
Look
Tab

The look tab in the right bar of Silverstack is marked with a specific icon:

Click the icon to reach the look tab. The tab itself consists of three sections:

Look
Library
Looks

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 Silverstack
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Look
Details

Figure 1: The Silverstack look tab containing the Look Library.

In detail those sections enable you to:

Look
Library

Create new folders by clicking the “+” button on the top right
Create sub folders by holding “alt” plus clicking the “+” button
Edit the structure by dragging folders out of or into each other
Rename folders by selecting and single clicking them or hitting enter

Figure 2: Organize folders containing looks

Looks

Create a new look by clicking the “+” button on the top right
Update a look by selecting one and clicking the update button next to the “+” button
Preview a look by selecting it and clicking plus holding the loupe icon
Apply a look to the current clip in the player by double-clicking the intended look
Apply looks to multiple clips by selecting the desired clips and double clicking the intended look
Move one or multiple Looks to other folders by dragging and dropping it to a different Looks folder in the Look Library*

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Figure 3: The looks section with highlighted add, update and preview look buttons

The context menu for looks can be reached by right clicking a look. It enables you to:

Figure 4: The context menu can be reached with a right click on a look

Apply a look to the selected clips (one or multiple clips)

Apply a look only to the current clip shown in the player (even if multiple clips are selected)
Update the look with the current grade
Set a new thumbnail from the current clip but leaving the look identical
Delete one or multiple looks.

To learn how to use the Silverstack grading controls please refer to the article Grading Controls in Silverstack.

Look
Details

When importing looks from LiveGrade, the information fields in the Look Details receive the values from the look edited in LiveGrade. In the Look Details it
is possible to:

Edit the look name

Edit metadata of the look including Date, Camera, Episode, Shot,Take and Reel Name
Display Start and End Timecode

Figure 5: The Look Details section

Importing
and
Exporting
Looks

You can import a look from LiveGrade by selecting “File>Import>Pomfort

Looks
(pfl)…” from the main menu. You can learn about the process of
transferring looks from LiveGrade to Silverstack in the article Transferring Looks from Livegrade to Silverstack.

Read about exporting looks from Silverstack in the article Exporting Looks from Silverstack.

Look
Functions
in
the
Main
Menu

You can find most of the functions concerning the Look Library in the Main Menu. Go to “Main
Menu>Look” and choose from the following actions:

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Figure 6: The “Look” section of the Main Menu

Create a new look

Update a selected look
Set the thumbnail from the current clip
Duplicate Look
Create a new look folder
Apply a look to all selected clips
Apply a look only to the current clip
Switch to the previous look node (useful for working with grading panels in more advanced grading modes)
Switch to the next look node (useful for working with grading panels in more advanced grading modes)
Refreshing hardware panels

Please refer to the shortcuts at the end of the entries for faster access of the functions.

*
Please be aware that you have to click and hold the selected look(s) to see the transparent thumbnails pop out to enable the drag & drop function. Trying to move a look while immediately
pulling it will leave you with the multi select function of the collection view.

Look
Matching
While using Silverstack
together
with
LiveGrade on set to manage clip data and looks hand in hand, you surely want to combine the created
information afterwards. Silverstack offers a solution to avoid assigning looks to clips manually. You can connect them based on the metadata you already
created while generating them.

How
to
Match
your
LiveGrade
Pro
Looks
to
Silverstack
Clips

It is possible to automatically match a package of looks created with LiveGrade Pro to the according clips in Silverstack. A Look Archive (.pfla) containing
several different looks can be exported from LiveGrade Pro. This Look Archive can be imported into Silverstack to then match the looks to the
according clips based on different metadata.

The
steps
to
match
looks
from
LiveGrade
Pro
to
clips
in
Silverstack
are:

1. Export a Look Archive from LiveGrade Pro

2. Import the Look Archive into Silverstack
3. Operate the matching Wizard to match by the desired criteria:
Match by Timecode
Match by Creation Time of Look
Match by Episode, Scene, Shot, Take
Choose if to match with Camera as well

1.
Export
a
Look
Archive
from
LiveGrade
Pro

A Look Archive can contain one or multiple looks along with all the further metadata acquired in LiveGrade Pro.

To export a Look Archive put all the desired looks into one folder in the LiveGrade Look Library. Perform a right click on that folder and choose “Export
Look Archive” from the context menu:

Figure 1: Exporting a Look Archive from LiveGrade Pro

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Save the resulting .pfla (Pomfort Look Archive) file to the desired destination.

2.
Import
a
Look
Archive
into
Silverstack

Make sure you ingested all the clips that will get a look into one bin in Silverstack. Learn about offloading media from the articleParallel Offloading.

Figure 2: Bin with clips that should receive matching looks

Make sure to have the according bin selected prior to starting the import.

To import a Look Archive into Silverstack go to the Main Menu. Choose “File
>
Import
>
Match
with
Pomfort
Look
Archive”:

Figure 3: Importing a Look Archive for Matching

3. The Look Matching Wizard

After that a wizard window will open that first advises you to select a Look Archive for the matching:

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Figure 4: Select the desired Look Archive

Navigate to the .pfla file you saved from LiveGrade Pro, select it and click “Open”.

You will now be presented with the matching wizard window:

Figure 5: The look matching wizard

You can choose between three different matching criteria:

•
Match
by
Timecode

This criterion will match the looks by timecode. The look will match to a clip if its TC
In is before or within the range of the TC of the clip. Additionally the
looks will be applied to all clips that follow until the next look with a subsequent TC
In. If a new look has a TC
In that is inside of the TC
range of a clip (so
the look before ends within the clip) the matching wizard will suggest two looks but preselects the latter by default.

•
Match
by
Creation
Time
of
Look

This criterion will match the looks by their creation time. The look will match to a clip if its creation date is before the time range of the clip. It will match to
all following clips until a new creation date of a look is found that is placed inside the time range of a clip. Additionally you can shift the timezone if the
camera setup was wrong at the time of recording:

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Figure 6: Adapt the timezone offset if needed.

•
Match
by
Episode,
Scene,
Shot,
Take

This criterion will match the looks by the episode, scene, shot and take metadata values. The look will match to a clip if the metadata for episode, scene,
shot or take is equal.

Additionally to the three different matching criteria, for each of them you can:

•
Match
with
Camera

Additionally to the selection of your criterion among the three criteria you can choose if the looks should be matched to the clips by the camera metadata
value.

Example:

If you have Camera A and B and match looks by timecode the looks may apply to both of the cameras if they have the same TC. If you then enable the
checkbox “Match with camera” the camera value will be considered on top of the TC and will then match the correct looks to the camera specific clips.

Taking
Over
Metadata
from
Looks
to
Matched
Clips

The PFLA (Pomfort Look Archive) enables you to take over metadata from the LiveGrade Pro looks (from the Shot Library) to the matched clips in
Silverstack

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In the lower section, the option to take over metadata from Looks to matched clips is enabled by default via its checkbox. You have several options in the
“Settings” part:

Insert
/
Update
Behavior: Insert if empty only fills metadata in Silverstack if it is not set and prevents metadata to be overwritten. Overwrite forces
the metadata from the Look in the PFLA to be written in the according Silverstack metadata field.
Import
Content: You can deselect certain metadata categories that you do not want to be imported. The tooltip of the label shows the concrete
metadata fields that are included within each category.
Slate
Info: Camera, Reel Name, Episode, Scene, Shot, Take
User/QC
Info: Flag, Rating, Comment, Caption, Distance to Object, Custom 1, Custom 2, Custom 3
Exposure
Info: ASA, Whitepoint, Tint, ND Filter
Lens
Info: Lens Model, Focal Length, T-Stop, Focus Distance, Filter

To learn how to simply transfer looks from LiveGrade to Silverstack please refer to this article Transferring Looks from LiveGrade Pro to Silverstack.

Audio
Clips
in
Silverstack
Silverstack offers advanced support for separately recorded audio files in the Broadcast Wave format (BWF, .wav).

Ingest
of
Audio
Clips

Fig 1: Ingest and copy Broadcast Wave audio files

To ingest audio files into Silverstack click the “Offload” button in the upper left corner of the UI and choose the card or folder with the audio files to be
offloaded. Audio files can be backed up within the audio wizard just as any other file type. Learn more about it in the article Parallel Offloading.

After starting the offload process Silverstack will register the audio clips in the library:

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Fig. 2: Audio clips in the Silverstack library

Silverstack will automatically detect .wav files that belong to the same clip and merges them together to an audio clip containing several audio tracks.

By opening the audio panel with the

“Audio&Color”
button in the toolbar all the audio tracks including waveform will be visible for the selected audio clip.

You can play audio clips back by clicking the play button.

The audio panel offers the following controls:

Master
Volume: Controls the output signal level of the mix.
Audio
meters: Represent the audio signal level during playback. There is a stereo Master meter and additional Channel meters — one for each
audio track. The scale on top of the meters indicates the audio level in dB (dBFS). Peaking is represented by a bar in the according color of the
peaking level that remains at the maximum position. You can reset the peak bar by clicking on the audio meters.
Channel
mixers: The sliders control the signal level for each track. You can mute specific «Left» and «Right» tracks by disabling the check boxes
on the right of the channel mixers.
Mute
button: Mutes the according audio channel or the complete audio clip section
Solo
button: Solos the according audio channel, as long as the button is pressed
Pan
control: Sets the panorama to left, middle or right

The audio tracks panel can be opened from the small play button on the left side of the track name. It enables the playback of a single audio channel*:

Fig. 3: The audio tracks panel with single audio track playback

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Audio
Clips
Metadata

Audio clips in Silverstack own a special set of metadata that is shown in the General Info tab of the right bar. The following metadata will be pulled from
the audio file metadata:

Scene – Shot – Take

Wild Track
Recorder Model
Recorder Device ID
Samples since Midnight
FPS of TC
TC Start
TC End
Tape
Recording Date
Audio Track Names

Adding
Audio
Clips
as
External
Audio
to
Video
Clips

Once ingested audio clips can be added to video clips as external audio either manually (Silverstack XT) or automatically (Silverstack Lab):

Manual Audio Sync: How to Manually Sync Audio in Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab
Automatic Audio Sync: How to Automatically Sync Audio Based on Timecode in Silverstack Lab

*only available in Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab

How
to
Manually
Sync
Audio
in
Silverstack
XT
and
Silverstack
Lab
Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab offer functionality to manually sync audio clips to video clips.

Basic
Principles:
Audio
Sync
with
Slate
Markers

The process of manually syncing audio in Silverstack is divided into two basic steps: matching the according audio clip to a video clip, and subsequently
syncing the audio and video clip at the right position.

The basic idea of the sync at the right position bases on the functionality of setting
slate
markers in the video and audio clip. By setting slate markers the
user defines a sync
position
in
both
audio
and
video
to
be
used
to
link
the
audio
and
video
clips. Silverstack will automatically align the video clip
and the according audio clip at the specified positions.

The article will describe in detail how to set the slate markers in the UI of Silverstack to attain a sync at the intended position as well as how to move the
sync position if needed.

The counterpart of the manual sync is the automatic sync based on timecode that is available in Silverstack Lab. You can learn more about automatic
audio sync in Silverstack Lab in the article “How to Automatically Sync Audio Based on Timecode in Silverstack Lab“.

Manual
Audio
Sync:
Step-by-Step

Overview

1. Have all needed assets available in the Silverstack Library (audio and video clips have to be available for playback).
2. Open the video clip you want to manually sync audio in the Silverstack player and go to the frame you want to set the video slate marker (e.g. the
frame where the slate visually closes).
3. Open the “Audio&Color” panel in the lower center of the UI and switch to the audio tab (or hit the “QC” UI Layout button in the toolbar).
4. Add the fitting audio clip to the current video clip by clicking the “+” button in the upper right corner of the audio panel
5. Browse to the position of the audio clip you want to set the audio slate marker and hit the “Slate a+v: Video + Audio” button to set the slate in the
video and the audio at the current position of the playheads.
6. Click “Add Clip” to add the audio clip as external audio to the video clip and sync at the position of the slate markers.

Please note: You can also set audio and video slate markers independently and in any order.

In
Detail

1.
Register
All
Needed
Assets
in
the
Silverstack
Library

Make sure to have the video clips and their according audio clips registered in the Silverstack Library. Learn about audio clips in Silverstack in the article
Audio Clips in Silverstack.

2.
Open
the
Video
Clip
You
Want
to
Manually
Sync
Audio
With

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Fig.1: The video clip at the slate position.

Move the video clip to the frame the slate goes down. If no slate is present you can choose any other significant position you want to sync to.

In this example the slate will be set in the next steps together with the audio slate. It is also possible to already set the video slate at this point. Read more
about “Relocating Slate Markers” in the according section below.

3.
Open
The
“Audio&Color”
Panel
in
the
Lower
Center
of
the
UI

The audio panel can be opened by clicking the “Audio&Color” button on the right side of the toolbar. Make sure to show the audio panel (see Fig.1).

The right configuration for adding manual audio clips can also be achieved by clicking the “QC” UI layout button in the toolbar (you can learn more about
UI layouts in the article “UI Layouts: Quick Configurations for the Silverstack User Interface“).

4.
Hit
The
“+”
Button
in
the
Upper
Right
Corner
of
the
Audio
Panel
to
Add
an
Audio
Clip

The “+” button in the upper right corner of the audio panel opens a popover that lets you select an audio clip that should be added to the video clip:

Fig. 2: Choose an audio clip to be added

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Fig. 3: The “Add Audio Clip” popover in detail

Select the intended audio clip from the “Audio

Clip” dropdown.

Move the playhead of the audio clips to the position you want to set the audio slate to. Click the button to set both, the audio and the
video slate at the position of the according playhead.

The button will set a slate only in the audio clip.

Please note that a video clip that has an external audio clip assigned to it will in any case contain a slate marker. If the slate marker is not specified it will
be set to the first frame of the video clip and will accordingly be used as the sync position.

6.Click
“Add
Clip”
to
add
the
audio
clip
as
external
audio

Now click “Add

Clip”. The specified audio clip will now be added to the video clip and all tracks will now be available in the audio panel. The video and
audio clip sync at their slate positions.

Fig. 4: External audio in the audio panel

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Relocating
Slate
Markers

Audio

You can relocate the audio slate marker for an external audio clip by opening the audio tracks playback panel. That can be done by clicking the play
button that can be found on the left of the track name labels in the audio panel:

Fig 5: The audio tracks panel to listen to a single audio track

Move the detail indicator (red box) to a new position and click the button to set the audio slate to the position indicated by the playhead
in the detail view at the bottom right of the popover.

Video

You can relocate the video slate marker within the cue points section of the User Info tab of the right bar:

Fig.5: The video slate marker is a special cue point in the cue points section

Move the playhead of the video clip to a new position and click the “set video slate” button in the cue points section of the User Info tab.
Alternatively you can use the shortcut Ctrl
+
Cmd
+
Enter
to set the video slate marker at the current position of the playhead.

Please note that the video slate marker is a special kind of cue point. You can remove the video slate marker like removing a cue point. In case of external
audio existing you will not be able to remove it as a video clip will with external audio will always have a slate marker. Learn more about cue points from
the article Metadata Handling: View, Organize, Add and Filter Clips.

Removing
External
Audio
Clips

External audio clips can be removed by clicking on the gear menu in the header bar of the external audio clip:

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Fig. 6: Remove an audio clip from from inside the gear menu

Remove: Removes the audio clip attached to the video clip.

Reveal: Reveals the audio clip in its audio bin
Mid/Side: Select the channels that should be used for mid/side stereophony

Audible
Frame
Stepping

When stepping through a video clip with audio frame by frame with the arrow keys you will be able to hear audio for every frame.
To deactivate audible frame stepping go to the “Playback” menu in the Main Menu and deselect “Audible
Frame
Stepping”

Transcoding
in
Silverstack
and
Silverstack
XT
Overview

The transcoding functionalities of Silverstack have been updated with Silverstack 6. The update contains a faster transcoding engine, an updated user
interface, more transcoding options and a lot more (details below).

Silverstack separates the configuration of the transcoding settings from the actual starting of a transcoding job:

The section “Transcoding

Configurations” will explain how to adjust the settings for your transcoding job.
The section “Starting
a
Transcoding
Job”
will explain how to execute a transcoding job.

Transcoding
Configurations
*

Silverstack XT offers multiple custom transcoding configurations while Silverstack offers one custom transcoding configuration.

The transcoding settings can be found in the transcoding tab of the right bar. Click the transcoding icon to access the transcoding tab:

Fig. 1: Configure the transcoding settings in the transcoding tab of the right bar

The upper part of the transcoding tab shows the custom transcoding configurations. The lower part shows the detailed settings for the selected
configuration. The settings will be applied and stored to the configurations immediately.

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Locking
Transcoding
Configurations

Fig.2: Locking transcoding configurations

Transcoding configurations can be locked to avoid changes to them by clicking the lock icon on the right side of the“Settings” header bar. Locked
configurations will be shown with a white lock icon in the table*.

Transcoding
Settings

Audio
&
Video

Video

Codec: Select the output codec depending on your requirements. There are different options available (also shown in Fig. 3):
H.264 (Quicktime Container)
H.265 / HEVC (Quicktime Container, available starting from macOS 10.13)
ProRes 4444
ProRes 422
ProRes 422 (HQ)
ProRes 422 (Proxy)

Fig. 3: Available transcoding options

Container: Select the container for the file. The following options are available:
Quicktime
(.mov): Available for all codecs (ProRes, H.264, HEVC)
MP4
(.MP4): Available for H.264 and HEVC codecs.

Size
(for
H.264
and
ProRes):
This drop down menu allows you to select the final resolution of the transcoded clips:

Fig. 4: Available frame sizes

H.264
Bitrate
Options:

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Fig. 4b: The H.264 bitrate calculator

The H.264 manual bitrate options allow you to enter a specific

bitrate
in
the
textfield or provide help for a
choice
of
quality
in
the
“H.264
bitrate
calculator” (see fig. 4b).

The bitrate calculator lets you choose the intended quality from “poor”
through
“good”
to
“best” and calculates the resulting bitrate based on the
selected resolution and the intended frame rate.

Duration
(Limit
to
In/Out
points): By enabling this option Silverstack only transcodes the part of the clip between the in and out points set in the
library.

Audio

Tick the checkbox to include audio in your transcoded clips.

Format:
Linear PCM
ACC – Good Quality **
ACC – High Quality **

Channel
Layout:
Stereo Mixdown: The custom audio mix created in the audio panel

Source

Choose different decoding options for the source formats:

ARRIRAW:
1/2 resolution
Full resolution
SONY RAW
1/4 resolution
1/2 resolution
Full resolution
REDCODE RAW
1/8 resolution
1/4 resolution
1/2 resolution
Full resolution
Canon RAW
Quality:
Full Resolution
1/2 Resolution
1/4 Resolution
Debayer Mode:
High Speed
High Quality
AVC-Intra / XAVC
1/2 resolution
Full resolution

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ProRes
1/4 resolution
1/2 resolution
Full resolution
Panasonic V-RAW
Soft (GPU)
Default (GPU)
AHD (CPU)
Phantom Cine
Soft (GPU)
Default (GPU)
AHD (CPU)
Cinema DNG
Soft (GPU)
Default (GPU)
AHD (CPU)
Blackmagic RAW
1/8 resolution
1/4 resolution
1/2 resolution
Full resolution

Compositing

Resizing:
Fitting
Strategy:
The zoom
to
fit
(Adding
black
bars/Without
black
bars) option will adjust the horizontal resolution of the clip to fit in the selected final
size.
Zoom
to
fill will affect the vertical resolution of the footage to the final size, cropping the sides.
1
to
1 will zoom the footage to 100% in the center of the image to adjust to the final selected size, cropping everything else.

Fig. 5: resizing example results

Grading:

Look
Source: Choose how to manage the color data for the clip:
As
set
in
Library: enable this setting to include the looks applied to the clip in the Library. For more information on how to apply looks,
please check the article The Silverstack Look Library.
None: Disables the color processing and transcodes the clips unmodified (as recorded).
From
file: Reads the clip metadata and applies the color processing described in the embedded looks. In case there is no look
embedded, Silverstack applies the default Log to Rec.709 conversion for the specific format.

Overlays

Burn
Ins:
Choose from two different options to burn into the transcoded clip:

Fig. 6: Burn in options

Burn
in
Parameters:
The following parameters can be adjusted for the burn ins:
Margins: A horizontal and vertical margin to position the burn ins in the frame.
Font: Sets the font style for the burn ins.
Font
Size: Sets the font size in pt.
Transparency: Sets the transparency level for the burn ins.
Text
Color: Sets the text color to “White” or “Black”
Background: Sets the background to a “Box” shape, adds an “Outline” to the text or with “None” adds no background.

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Image
Overlay:
Choose an image overlay (.png, .jpg, .tiff) to be burned into the transcoded clips.

Image
Overlay
Parameters:
Size: Sets the size of the image (0 -100 %)
Position X: Sets the position in horizontal direction
Position Y: Sets the position in vertical direction
Transparency: Sets the transparence (0 – 100 %)

The
Transcoding
Preview

When the transcoding tab in the right bar is showing Silverstack automatically switches to a transcoding preview to be shown in the playback view:

Fig. 7: The transcoding preview

The transcoding preview displays a preview of the transcoding configurations applied to the currently selected clip.

Starting
a
Transcoding
Job

The «Transcode» button

In order to start transcoding the clips, first select a folder or bin in the Library panel. Then click on Transcode to open the wizard. There you will be able to
select the clips you want to transcode. Click on continue to select the destination and transcode settings.

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Fig. 8: clip selection wizard

Now you are able to select where the transcoded clips will be stored. You can add and remove destinations by using the «+» and «-» buttons.
Alternatively, it’s also possible to modify each destination path and path wildcards. You can select from the configurations previously configured in the
transcoding configurations tab:

Fig. 9: The transcoding destination step

Click the current configuration to open the list of all available transcoding configurations:

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Fig. 10: The transcoding configurations dropdown

When the checkbox “Add to Library” is checked the transcoded clips will automatically be ingested into the Silverstack Library after the transcoding job is
done. Transcoding statistics will be available for the clips in the statistics view.

Click “Start
Render
Job” to start the render job. It can then be traced in the jobs panel.

Path
Wildcards
for
Transcode
Destinations

Path Wildcards can be used to customize the transcoding path with available metadata. Click the “Path
wildcard” icon in the status bar (see fig. 13) to
access the path wildcards settings for the selected destination:

Fig. 11: The path wildcard window

It is also possible to rename the transcoded clips by leaving out the “/” and optionally also adding a file extension. Here’s an example:

Fig. 12: Path wildcards for transcoding destinations

Hint:
It is also possible to copy and paste path wildcards like plain text.

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Multi
Destination
Transcoding*

Silverstack XT is able to transcode to multiple destination formats at a time. In certain cases (see below), the transcoding of the configurations has to be
run sequentially. The transcoding wizard will give you a hint if the transcoding will be run in parallel or sequentially:

Fig. 13 : The info message about parallel or sequential transcoding

In case of sequential transcoding you can open theWildcards for Transcodes panel to get details about the transcoding order.

The following settings can influence the parallel execution of the transcoding job:

In/Out Points
Debayer settings
Decoding resolution

Make sure to set the above settings to the same value when transcoding to two different configurations to avoid sequential transcoding.

Management
of
Transcoding
and
Offload
Jobs

Silverstack Lab is generally able to transcode and copy at the same time. Transcoding jobs as well as copy jobs run in the background while the app is
still fully accessible.

Optionally you can choose to pause transcoding jobs when offloading and while playing back clips. To do so go to the“Copy&Jobs” tab
in the
Preferences and select the according checkbox “Automatically
Interrupt
Transcoding
Jobs
during
Playback
and
Offload”:

Fig. 14: The “Copy&Jobs” tab in the preferences

Transcoding
Functionalities
Overview
for
Silverstack
and
Silverstack
XT

The transcoding functionalities of Silverstack have been updated with version 6. Silverstack and Silverstack XT come with a different set of functionalities
concerning Transcoding.

Silverstack

Single destination transcoding

One custom transcoding preset
Timecode and Clip Name burn in options
Watermarking
Transcoding resolution up to full HD (1920 x 1080)
Stereo mixdown audio channel layout for transcoded clip

Silverstack
XT
Multi destination transcoding
Many custom transcoding preset
Timecode and Clip Name burn in options
Watermarking
Transcoding resolutions higher than Full HD (1920 x 1080)
Stereo mixdown audio channel layout for transcoded clip
Transcoding statistics

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* Silverstack XT only

**Only available for ProRes and H.264

UI
Layouts:
Quick
Configurations
for
the
Silverstack
User
Interface
Silverstack comes with 3 to 4 options * to automatically configure the user interface in a steadily defined way. Like this you will be able to switch to a
certain UI configuration that is convenient for a particular task with one click.

Accessing
the
UI
Layouts

The UI Layouts include the following configurations:

Manage
QC (Quality Control)
Color
Config (Transcoding Configurations) *

The UI Layouts can be configured from the shortcut buttons on the right side of the Silverstack toolbar:

Fig. 1: The UI Layout shortcut buttons in the toolbar

Alternatively the UI Layouts can be accessed from the “Window” menu:

Fig. 2: The UI Layout shortcuts in the “Window” menu

UI
Layouts
with
One
Display

Manage: Configures the UI in a convenient way for all kinds of management tasks.
Left bar: Shown (Library)
Center: Collection View
Right bar: General Info
Audio & Color panel: Hidden
Mini Player: Open

Fig. 3: UI Layout: Manage

QC
(Quality
Control): Configures the UI in a convenient way for all kinds of quality control tasks.
Left bar: Hidden
Center: Player
Right bar: User Info tab
Audio & Color Panel: Audio

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Fig. 4: UI Layout: QC

Color: Configures the UI in a convenient way for color grading.

Left bar: Hidden
Center: Player
Right bar: Look Library
Audio & Color Panel: Color

Fig. 5: UI Layout: Color

Config
(Transcoding
Configurations)*: Configures the UI in a convenient way for adjusting transcoding configurations.
Left bar: Hidden
Center: Transcoding Preview
Right bar: Transcoding configurations
Audio & Color Panel: Hidden

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Fig. 6: UI Layout: Config

UI
Layouts
with
Two
Displays

The UI Layouts establish different configurations of the user interface when the second display is activated.

Please refer to the article Second Display: Two Screen Working Environment for more information about using a second display for the Silverstack UI.

*UI Layout “Config” (Transcoding Configurations) only available in Silverstack Lab.

Second
Display:
Two
Screen
Working
Environment
in
Silverstack
Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab offer the possibility to extend the Silverstack user interface to two screens.

Accessing
the
Second
Display

When a second display is attached to your machine the “Second

Display” button in the toolbar shows up:

Fig. 1: The “Second Display” button in the toolbar

By clicking the button you can toggle the user interface to be shown on the second screen on and off.

Alternatively the UI on the second display can be enabled from the “Window” menu. Set a checkmark to the entry “Second
Display” to activate it.

Second
Display
User
Interface
Options

The second display opens automatically on the screen that does not hold the Silverstack main window.

There are 3 content options for the second display:

List
View
of
clips

Fig. 2: The List View on the Second Display

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Collection
View
of
clips

Fig. 3: The Collection View on the Second Display

Player
View

Fig. 4: The Player View on the Second Display

Silverstack automatically adapts the interface to avoid a simultaneous display of the same element (List View, Collection View, Player View) in both the
main window and the second screen. When an element is accessed that is already shown in the other display it is automatically flipped with the previously
shown element on the first screen.

Transfer
of
Project
Settings
Silverstack allows to export and import project settings to transfer them to new projects or different machines. This can e.g. help to move project settings
from established projects to new projects to avoid setting up from scratch. Other use cases involve the transfer of transcoding configurations from
Silverstack XT or Lab to new projects or other machines.

Which
Settings
Can
Be
Transferred
?

The settings transfer involves certain project based settings as well as global settings. Find the settings that can be transferred below.

Project settings:

Folder Structure
Smart Folders
Transcoding Configurations
Copy Job Templates

Global settings:

Table View Presets

Format Options

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Export
and
Import
of
Project
Settings

To export or import project settings go to the Silverstack Main Menu and select “File
>
Project
Settings
>
Export…
/
Import…”:

Fig. 1: Export and Import of Project Settings

You can choose the content to be exported after clicking on “Export…”:

Fig. 2: Export project settings options

Here are the details about the different export options:

Project
settings:

Folder
Structure: Transfer the folder structure of your Silverstack library to a new project. All top level folders can be selected for the export.
Smart
Folders: Transfer your custom smart folders to a new project.
Transcoding
Configurations: Transfer your custom transcoding configurations to a new project*
Copy
Job
Templates: Transfer your custom copy job templates saved in the offload wizard to a new project.

Global
settings:

Table
View
Presets: Transfer your table view presets (of the main table of clips and metadata) to a new project.
Format
Options: Transfer the settings of the “Format Options” in the Silverstack preferences to a new project.

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Fig. 3: Example of the project settings export wizard including folders and transcoding configurations

Click “Export” to save the .psconfig (project settings configurations) file containing the project settings information to the selected destination.

The export and import settings windows are symmetrical hence you can choose which content to write to the .psconfig file as well as which content to
import from a .psconfig file.

Fig. 4: Example of the project settings import window

Setting
a
Default
Template
for
New
Projects

Additionally to the export and import of project settings you can define a .psconfig file that should be used as a template to create new projects.

First export a project settings file as described above and include all the settings the default template for new projects should contain.

Then go to the Silverstack preferences by choosing “Silverstack/Silverstack

Lab
>
Preferences…” in the Main Menu.

In the
“General” tab of the preferences you can click “Choose…”
to select the default .psconfig file for new projects:

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Fig. 5: Choose the .psconfig file the default project settings for new projects should be loaded from.

When you now create a new project in the toolbar or from the “File” menu (“File
>
New
Project…”) all contents of the selected .psconfig file will be
loaded as default for the new project.

Additionally to the manual process of loading the default .psconfig file in the preferences you can copy a .psconfig file named“defaults.psconfig” to the
library folder to be taken as the default template:

For Silverstack 6: ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort/Silverstack6

For Silverstack Lab 6: ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort/SilverstackLab6

Attention: Please be aware that the .psconfig file in this location will overrule the UI settings.

The .psconfig files are generally compatible throughout the different Silverstack versions Silverstack, Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab. Please be aware
though, when importing transcoding configurations from Silverstack Lab into Silverstack XT that restrictions due to incompatible features such as e.g.
DNx transcoding only available in Silverstack Lab might apply.

*Only available for Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab as the basic version of Silverstack does not support custom transcoding configurations.

Crop
Clips
Silverstack allows to crop clips to a custom aspect ratio. Cropping is non-destructive as long a crop setting is not used for transcoding.

Cropping can be set via the “Crop” popover in the General Info tab on the right side of the main window. Learn more about the right sidebar in the article
The Information Panel.

Crop
Clips
to
a
Custom
Aspect
Ratio

Go to the “General
Info” Tab and scroll down to the “Processing” section where you can find the “Crop” entry.

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Fig. 1: Crop in the Processing section

Click the little grey button with the pencil to open the popover:

Fig. 2: The Crop popover in the General Info

Crop
Options

There are 3 tabs and therefore 2 crop options available:

Selecting “None” and clicking “Apply” will make sure to remove all crop settings from the selected clip.
Crop to an Aspect
Ratio
Crop to a Custom
Resolution

Crop
to
an
Aspect
Ratio

Fig.3

Select the second tab “Aspect Ratio” and enter a custom aspect ratio into the combo box or select one from the list of presets.

Crop
to
a
Custom
Resolution

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Fig.4

Select the third tab “Custom Resolution”.

The following controls are available:

1. Size: You can enter a custom pixel resolution to crop to. The specified pixel resolution will be cropped out by default from the center of the image.
2. Aspect
Lock: You can lock the resolution to a certain ratio when changing horizontal or vertical size.
3. Recents: The gear menu shows recently used sizes for a quick selection
4. Offset: Specify a horizontal and vertical offset from the center cropped size
5. Quick
Offset
Buttons
&
Re-Center: The quick offset arrow keys enable a one-click shift of the cropped area to the respective image margins. If an
offset is entered the “0” button appears and helps to remove the offset to re-center the cropped area.
6. px/%
Switch: You can switch between specifying an custom crop resolution in pixels or percentage values.

Click “Apply” to crop the current image to the specified crop.

Source
and
Resulting
Resolution

The “Source
Resolution” and “Resulting
Resolution” give you information about the original and the resulting image resolution:

“Source
Resolution”: Native resolution of the clip. Also displayed in the General Info in the right tab under “Format
->
Resolution”
“Resulting
Resolution”: The cropped and/or desqueezed resolution.
The factors relevant for the calculation of the Resulting Resolution are displayed below (e.g. “Desqueeze (2.0) and Crop”).
The resulting percentage of the original image is displayed in brackets. The resulting aspect ratio follows.

Please be aware that the decoding resolutions of the player do not affect the calculations of resolutions in the “Crop” popover.

Highlighting
of
Cropped
Area
in
the
Playback
View

While setting the crop in the popover the area that will be cropped is highlighted in the playback view and updates live while changing crop settings.

Fig 5: The crop area shows in the image

Apply
Crop
to
Multiple
Clips

To apply a crop to two or more clips select multiple clips from the table view and open the “Crop” popover:

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Fig. 6: Multi edit for crop

The number of altered clips is displayed in the popover (see “Will edit 4 Clips” in Fig. 6) . Click“Apply” to apply the set crop factor to all selected clips.

Tags: crop, multi edit, multiedit, aspect ratio, custom resolution

Extracting
LTC
from
Internal
Audio
in
Silverstack
and
Silverstack
Lab
Linear (or Longitudinal) timecode (LTC) is an encoding of SMPTE timecode data in an audio signal.

The process of feeding LTC into the audio channel of a camera from external sources (such as timecode devices), is often used for cameras that either
cannot handle external TC sync and/or do not provide proper timecode to the recorded clips. It offers the possibility to include such cameras in a
workflow that requires synchronous timecode.

The timecode data existing in internal audio tracks of video clips can be extracted in Silverstack and Silverstack Lab to be applied to the metadata of the
video clip. This enables subsequent processes that leverage timecode, such as e.g. providing detailed clip metadata for editing, transcoding clips with
embedded timecode metadata, creating detailed clip reports or automatic audio sync based on timecode.

How
to
Extract
LTC
and
Apply
it
to
Clips

To extract LTC in Silverstack first make sure to ingest all clips with LTC into the Silverstack library.

Choose the bin or folder containing the LTC clips and from the “Media” button menu in the toolbar choose “Extract
LTC”:

Fig. 1: Extract LTC in the “Media” menu

A wizard window opens that immediately extracts LTC for all selected clips:

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Fig.2: The LTC wizard finished the extraction of LTC for all selected clips

The following information is visible to the user in the wizard:

Selected clip and audio information

Original Clip TC
Extraction status with channel information
Extracted LTC and fps of LTC info

Silverstack attempts to read the LTC at the beginning of a clip. If no LTC is found the application iterates into the clip’s timespan in several steps
searching for an LTC in the whole clip. This also indicates that an LTC only has to exist for the beginning of a clip to be read out properly.

By checking the “Mute

LTC
Channels” checkbox you can make sure that after applying the LTC timecode to the clips the channels with LTC will
become muted in Silverstack.

Click “Apply
TC” to replace the Clip TC with the extracted LTC.

Please be aware that the process of applying the extracted LTC to the clip is not reversible and cannot be undone. Once you have taken over the
extracted LTC to the clip you cannot go back to the original TC from the clip.

After taking over the extracted LTC to the clips each clips will have the regular“TC
Start” and “TC
End” in the General Info metadata on the right and in
the table view:

Fig. 3: The extracted LTC now is handled as the regular Clip TC in the Silverstack library

Now the timecode can be used for all subsequent task that involve the need of timecode for clips like e.g. transcoding or automatic audio sync based on
timecode.
. Learn more about it in the article How to Automatically Sync Audio based on Timecode in Silverstack Lab.

Error
Cases
and
Troubleshooting
when
Extracting
LTC

When extracting LTC from video clips there are different possible error cases that are displayed in the LTC extraction wizard:

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Fig. 4: The LTC extraction wizard with error messages

The “Extraction
Status”
column gives you insights about the following error cases:

“No
LTC
track
found”: No LTC track was found for the clip. Check the clips audio in the audio tab of the “Audio&Color” panel.
“Type
mismatch”: The fps of the LTC do not fit the LTC of the clip and the clip TC can therefore not be calculated correctly. This could especially
become a problem with certain DSLR camera types that display 24fps as user selection in the menu but record in 23.976fps. Make sure clip TC and
LTC match for a proper extraction.
“Clip
offline”: Clip is offline. Bring clips online to extract LTC.
“Extraction
error”: An unknown extraction error occurred.
“Clip
has
no
audio”: The clip has no audio. Check the clips audio in the audio tab of the “Audio&Color” panel.

Please be aware that LTC in the audio track does usually not survive compressed codecs such as e.g. MP3.

As the drop flag only affects the way of counting timecode and not its actual speed it is possible to apply drop-frame LTC on non-drop clips and vice
versa.

As the bounds of an image frame are not necessarily the bounds of an LTC-audio frame, an error of up to a half frame can accumulate when
synchronizing audio to LTC.

Dynamic
Metadata
Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab come with a “Dynamic
Metadata” panel that allows to extract dynamic metadata for supported clip formats. Dynamic
metadata refers to certain metadata information that changes over the time span of a clip (e.g. like TC which can also be considered dynamic). It is stored
differently in diverse formats and therefore needs a special process to be accessed.

Fig. 1: The dynamic metadata panel in the upper left corner of the Silverstack UI

Supported
Clip
Formats

The following clip formats are currently supported for the extraction of dynamic metadata in Silverstack XT and Lab:

ARRIRAW (.ari sequences and in .mxf container)

ARRI Prores
REDRAW
SONY XAVC

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SONY X-OCN
SONY RAW

Available
Dynamic
Metadata

The main part of dynamic metadata is dynamic lens metadata:

Focal Length
Aperture (T-Stop)
Focus Distance

For ARRI ProRes and ARRIRAW clips Silverstack XT and Lab also support:

Camera Tilt
Camera Roll

How
to
Extract
Dynamic
Metadata

Select the third icon displaying a horse in the left sidebar above the library (see fig. 1)

To extract dynamic metadata for the selected clip press the “Extract Dynamic Metadata” button in the middle of the dynamic metadata panel.

You can start the extraction of dynamic metadata for multiple clips by selecting an entry from the gear menu in the toolbar:

Fig. 2: Extract dynamic metadata for multiple clips

The extraction process for all clips can be monitored in the popover that reveals the current extraction state for every started clip:

Fig.3: Extracting dynamic metadata from multiple clips

After a successful extraction the dynamic metadata panel reveals the extracted dynamic lens and camera metadata:

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Fig. 4: The dynamic metadata panel with successfully extracted metadata

The metadata can now be inspected during playback or while scrubbing through a clip.

For completeness concerning lens metadata three additional static fields have been added to the lower section of the panel:

Lens
Filter
ND Filter

They mirror data from the library and can also be edited in the General Info of the right sidebar.

Using
Extracted
Dynamic
Metadata
for
Reports

For clips that support the extraction of dynamic metadata Silverstack extracts the dynamic metadata of the first frame already on ingest. That also allows
Silverstack users to benefit from the dynamic metadata functionality and receive lens and other dynamic metadata for the first frame.

The additional lens fields can be exported to clips reports to enhance their information.

Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab provide an extended functionality to leverage the dynamic metadata for generic clips reporting.

In the “Projects” preferences it is possible to make sure that the static representation of the extracted dynamic metadata, that is used for the General info
and table view library, follows the thumbnail frame:

Fig. 5: Using the extracted dynamic metadata of the thumbnail frame for reports

Like this you can make sure that the metadata that is referenced in the reports goes along with the shown thumbnail.

The focus distance unit can also be changed at the same position and allows to choose the display of the focal length in the dynamic metadata panel and
the General Info to be imperial (inches/feet) or metric (millimeters/meters).

Dynamic
Metadata
Burn
Ins

Silverstack Lab supports the functionality of adding burn ins of dynamic lens data when transcoding clips.

A “Dynamic
Lens
Info” string that contains focal length, aperture and focus distance can be selected from the burn in options to be transcoded to the
clips.

Editing
Keyboard
Shortcuts
in
Silverstack
There are a variety of keyboard shortcuts available for commands in the main menu of Silverstack. Shortcuts can help greatly in boosting your
productivity.

Many shortcuts are already predefined. You can also set shortcuts for selected commands that you perform quite often and that do not hold default
shortcuts in order to memorize the interaction with Silverstack more easily.

To inspect the exact list of available keyboard shortcuts go to

Silverstack > Keyboard
Shortcuts…
. This will open the Keyboard Shortcuts Editor (figure
1).

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Figure 1: The Keyboard Shortcut Editor

Listing
and
Searching
Keyboard
Shortcuts

The keyboard shortcut editor shows a table with a list of all actions in the main menu and their currently set keyboard shortcut. You can search the list by
typing into the search bar on top of the table.

Edit
Keyboard
Shortcuts

To edit a keyboard shortcut:

1. Select “Map
Keys” to allow changes on the key mapping list.

2. Choose the row with the command.

3. To set or modify a shortcut press the key or keys to use as the new keyboard shortcut. You can use modifiers, numbers, letters and characters
individually or in combination.

4. To remove the associated shortcut permanently press ⌫ (delete / backspace) button.

5. Close the
Edit
Keyboard
Shortcuts window when you are done.

If you choose a shortcut already assigned to a command, a warning dialog box will be displayed that shows which command already used the chosen
shortcut.

Figure 2: Alert showing used keyboard shortcut

Select “Cancel” and choose another key for your current command, or select “Reassign” which removes the shortcut from the old command and sets it
for the selected command (figure 2).

Restoring
Default
Keyboard
Shortcuts

You can reset all keyboard shortcuts to latest version default by clicking “Restore
Defaults…”.

Note
: Both
of
these
steps
executes
an
automatic
restart.

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Offload & Backup

Offload & Backup

Parallel
Offloading
Offloading is the process of adding clips or files to the Silverstack Project Library, while copying them from a camera, field recorder or storage device to
one or several backup drives. In order to make it possible you can follow these directions:

Prepare
for
offloading

First of all you have to assign clips to a project. By default, clips are offloaded into the project currently selected. You can create a new project by using
the project selection menu on the top center of the main UI window.

Additionally, it’s possible to select a folder from the library tree on the left panel before starting. This way you will be able to set the folder on which the bin
containing the new clips will be placed within the Project Library. That bin will have the same name as the source volume storing the footage. In case the
current selection in the library tree is a bin, a new bin will be created as a sibling of the selected one.

Starting
to
offload

Offload source selection

After mounting the storage device containing the clips that you’d like to offload, you have several options to start the offload process:

Click on the ‘Offload’ icon on the toolbar and select the volume you’d like to offload from.

Choose Library > ‘Offload’ from the Silverstack menu.

Right click on a folder or bin in the Project Library tree (left panel) and choose ‘Offload’ from the context menu.

Drag the folder or card from Finder onto Silverstack’s icon in the Dock window.

When using options #2 and #3, a Finder directory browser will open and you’ll need to select the volume or folder you’d like to offload from.

Offload
Wizard

The ‘Offload Wizard’ is the popup window that appears after choosing the Offload source. At this stage, Silverstack will try to automatically detect the
camera format by scanning the files. After scanning the chosen source drive, all found files will be shown in a table. If, in an exception, Silverstack should
not choose the right camera format, you can set the correct format by clicking on the ‘format selection button’. The import options for the multiple camera
types can be found and edited in the application preferences menu, under the Formats tab.

The Offload Wizard: the ‘Ingest and Create Thumbnails’ section

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Silverstack by default offloads all the clips and files contained in the scanned device. Additionally, if you just need to offload a subset of clips, you can
check the ‘Allow partial offload’ checkbox. Clips can be marked and unmarked either by using the checkboxes or the ‘mark’ and ‘unmark’ buttons by the
‘search’ field. Therefore either select all clips you’d like to import and then click on ‘Mark Only Selected’ or select those clips of all already marked that
shall not be imported and click on ‘Unmark Selected’.

As you can see in the following image, there is a bunch of keyboard shortcuts for marking (#1) and unmarking (#2) clips to facilitate this task.

‘Allow partial offload’ mode keyboard shortcuts

Additionally, Silverstack is prospecting for duplicates (clips already existing in the Project Library) when scanning a source drive and prevents them from
being offloaded by default. If you need to include duplicates nonetheless, please enable the ‘Allow import of duplicates’ checkbox.

Sometimes Silverstack will skip some hidden files and empty folders during the copy process, as shown in the image below. If you click on ‘Learn More’,
a popup window will show which files are ignored.

‘Skipped Files’ warning

You are able modify this behavior in the application preferences menu, under the ‘Ingest’ section. In addition to the settings in the Preferences menu, the
following files are always ignored:

– Mac OS X resource fork files (starting with ._)

– MHL, MD 5 and SHA 1 files that have been created by Silverstack on previous copy tasks

When you are done with your offload source choice, you can proceed to add the copy destinations.

Setting
up
the
copy
destinations

The Offload Wizard: the ‘Copy and Verify’ section

In this section you are able to choose the destination volumes to which Silverstack will copy the clips and files. To edit the import options, click on the
‘Edit’ button. The number of volumes that Silverstack can simultaneously offload to is only limited by your hardware.

Adding a new destination is done by pressing on the ‘+’ button on the lower left of the table. Click the ‘-‘ button next to it to if you’d like to remove the
selected destination drive.

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Offload & Backup

In relation to the additional options under ‘Verification Behavior’ and ‘Checksum Method’, you can find a detailed description of each one of those
settings in the article The Copy and Verification Process in Silverstack: Verification Behavior.

There is also the possibility of using the Path Wildcards feature, which offers users a way to create custom folder structures based on the metadata
contained in clips.

Additionally, Silverstack offers the possibility of saving offload wizard templates. These templates can be chosen through the drop down menu on the top
right of the Offload Wizard. For more information about the templates, please check the article Offload wizard templates.

For a detailed description of how the copy and verification process works in a cascading copy scenario (Silverstack XT and Lab), as well as other available
settings for this mode, please check the knowledge base article Cascading Copy.

Starting
the
copy
process

After determining your copy destinations and settings, click on ‘Offload’ to register the clips to the library. Silverstack will ingest all the metadata from the
clips and create thumbnails for them. Once that process is complete, the copy and verification job is going to sart. All the information about the offload
process can be supervised in the Jobs panel.

Note: if you just need to create references to video clips in the Project Library and skip the copy and verification processaltogether, please check
the knowledge base article Adding Clips to the Library (Ingest without Copy).

Revert
to
the
legacy
Offload
Wizard

It’s possible to use the classic multi-step Offload Wizard from previous Silverstack versions by modifying the settings in theapplication preferences menu.
On the ‘General’ tab you can select the check box ‘Use old multi-step Offload Wizard’:

figure 6: General Preferences menu

Cascading
Copy

Cascading Copy concept setup

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Offload & Backup

The Cascading Copy offloading mode is designed to free up camera media storage as fast as possible. This can become convenient in working
environments with small amounts of camera storage devices or in situations with only one docking station and multiple camera storage devices that have
to be offloaded.

Silverstack makes it possible in a single job by offloading the camera media first to a very fast destination (called ‘1st run’) and then to the slower backup
drives from the first fast destination (the ‘2nd run’) . Once the first run of the process is finished, the source camera media can be unmounted and is ready
to be used again while the second run copy&verification takes place.

Starting
to
offload

Offload source selection

After mounting the storage device containing the clips that you’d like to offload, you have several options to start the offload process:

Click on the ‘Offload’ icon on the toolbar and select the volume you’d like to offload from.

Choose Library > ‘Offload’ from the Silverstack menu.

Right click on a folder or bin in the Project Library tree (left panel) and choose ‘Offload’ from the context menu.

Drag the folder or card from Finder onto Silverstack’s icon in the Dock window.

When using options #2 and #3, a Finder directory browser will open and you’ll need to select the volume or folder you’d like to offload from.

Offload
Wizard

The ‘Offload Wizard’ is the popup window that appears after choosing the Offload source. At this stage, Silverstack will try to automatically detect the
camera format by scanning the files. After scanning the chosen source drive, all found files will be shown in a table. If, in an exception, Silverstack should
not choose the right camera format, you can set the correct format by clicking on the ‘format selection button’. The import options for the multiple camera
types can be found and edited in the application preferences menu, under the Formats tab.

The Offload Wizard: the ‘Ingest and Create Thumbnails’ section

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Offload & Backup

Silverstack by default offloads all the clips and files contained in the scanned device. Additionally, if you just need to offload a subset of clips, you can
check the ‘Allow partial offload’ checkbox. Clips can be marked and unmarked either by using the checkboxes or the ‘mark’ and ‘unmark’ buttons by the
‘search’ field. Therefore either select all clips you’d like to import and then click on ‘Mark Only Selected’ or select those clips of all already marked that
shall not be imported and click on ‘Unmark Selected’.

As you can see in the following image, there is a bunch of keyboard shortcuts for marking (#1) and unmarking (#2) clips to facilitate this task.

‘Allow partial offload’ mode keyboard shortcuts

Additionally, Silverstack is prospecting for duplicates (clips already existing in the Project Library) when scanning a source drive and prevents them from
being offloaded by default. If you need to include duplicates nonetheless, please enable the ‘Allow import of duplicates’ checkbox.

Sometimes Silverstack will skip some hidden files and empty folders during the copy process, as shown in the image below. If you click on ‘Learn More’,
a popup window will show which files are ignored.

‘Skipped Files’ warning

You are able modify this behavior in the application preferences menu, under the ‘Ingest’ section. In addition to the settings in the Preferences menu, the
following files are always ignored:

– Mac OS X resource fork files (starting with ._)

– MHL, MD 5 and SHA 1 files that have been created by Silverstack on previous copy tasks

When you are done with your offload source choice, you can proceed to add the copy destinations.

Setting
up
the
copy
destinations

The Offload Wizard: the ‘Copy and Verify’ section

In this section you are able to choose the destination volumes to which Silverstack will copy the clips and files. To edit the import options, click on the
‘Edit’ button. The number of volumes that Silverstack can simultaneously offload to is only limited by your hardware.

Adding a new destination is done by pressing on the ‘+’ button on the lower left of the table. Click the ‘-‘ button next to it to if you’d like to remove the
selected destination drive.

Once all the drives have been added, you can select the order to which you’d like Silverstack to copy the clips to each drive. If ‘1st Run’ is selected, the
files will be copied to that drive first. If ‘2nd Run’ is selected, the files will be copied from the 1st Run source drive to the 2nd Run destination drive, while
the original source camera media can be unmounted and reused. For a detailed description of how the copy and verification process works in a
cascading copy scenario, as well as other available settings for this mode, please check the knowledge base article Cascading Copy Preferences.

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In relation to the additional options under ‘Verification Behavior’ and ‘Checksum Method’, you can find a detailed description of each one of those
settings in the article The Copy and Verification Process in Silverstack: Verification Behavior.

There is also the possibility of using the Path Wildcards feature, which offers users a way to create custom folder structures based on the metadata
contained in clips.

Additionally, Silverstack offers the possibility of saving offload wizard templates. These templates can be chosen through the drop down menu on the top
right of the Offload Wizard. For more information about the templates, please check the article Offload wizard templates.

Starting
the
copy
process

After determining your copy destinations and settings, click on ‘Offload’ to register the clips to the library. Silverstack will ingest all the metadata from the
clips and create thumbnails for them. Once that process is complete, the copy and verification job is going to sart. All the information about the offload
process can be supervised in the Jobs panel.

Note: if you just need to create references to video clips in the Project Library and skip the copy and verification processaltogether, please check
the knowledge base article Adding Clips to the Library (Ingest without Copy).

Related articles:

Parallel offloading

Backup Clips

Analyzing and improving data-transfer performance

Checksum verification process

Cascading Copy Preferences

Offload
wizard
templates
The Offload Wizard Templates feature is designed to speed up the offloading process by simplifying the steps needed to select different copy
destinations and settings. With the offload templates you can save a series of presets that can be recalled for every offload. These templates can contain
multiple copy destinations along with different settings for each destination, like the checksum verification methods method or path wildcards.

Offload Wizard Templates

Creating
a
template

In order to start the creation of a template, just start an offloading job as usual. Once the offload wizard appears, you can select the copy destination and
adjust the settings for the checksum method and path wildcards (when needed). After you have finished setting up the offload, you can click on the ‘gear’
button on the top right corner and select ‘Save as new Template…’. At this point a dialogue opens to name the template:

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Template naming

Finally, click on ‘create’ and the template will be saved.

Updating
a
template

If there’s the need to modify an existing template, you can do so by selecting the new settings, and then you can click on the ‘gear’ button on the top
right corner and select ‘Update current Template’. The modifications will be saved to the template at this point. Once a template has been edited, it is
marked with an asterisk like ‘Template*’.

Selecting
templates

Once you have a set of offloading templates created, you can switch between them by clicking on the template name:

Backup
Clips
Silverstack offers the possibility to backup assets that already exist in your Project Library to additional backup drives. In order to start a backup job, just
choose the Folder or Bin you’d like to backup from the Project Library panel and then select the ‘Backup’ command in the ‘Media’ menu:

Media Menu

Once the ‘Backup’ command is selected, the Backup Wizard launches:

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Backup Wizard: Clip Selection

It’s possible to choose the copy source volume in case the files have multiple backups registered in the Project Library. Selecting the fastest source
volume generally increases the copy performance, depending on your hardware.

Silverstack by default copies all the clips and files contained in the Folder or Bin you previously selected to backup. If you just need to offload a subset of
clips, you can check the ‘Allow partial offload’ checkbox. Clips can be marked and unmarked either by using the checkboxes or the ‘mark’ and ‘unmark’
buttons by the ‘search’ field. Therefore either select all clips you’d like to import and then click on ‘Mark Only Selected’ or select those clips of all already
marked that shall not be imported and click on ‘Unmark Selected’.

As you can see in the following image, there is a bunch of keyboard shortcuts for marking (#1) and unmarking (#2) clips to facilitate this task.

‘Mark’ and ‘Unmark’ keyboard shortcuts

Once the source volume and the clips have been selected, you can press on ‘continue’, which leads to the Copy Destination Selection step:

Backup Wizard: Copy Destination Volumes selection

In this section you are able to choose the destination volumes to which Silverstack will copy the clips and files. To edit the import options, click on the
‘Edit’ button. The number of volumes that Silverstack can simultaneously offload to is only limited by your hardware.

Adding a new destination is done by pressing on the ‘+’ button on the lower left of the table. Click on the ‘-‘ button next to it to if you’d like to remove the
selected destination drive.

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In relation to the additional options under ‘Verification Behavior’ and ‘Checksum Method’, you can find a detailed description of each one of those
settings in the article The Copy and Verification Process in Silverstack: Verification Behavior.

There is also the possibility of using the Path Wildcards feature, which offers users a way to create custom folder structures based on the metadata
contained in clips.

After determining your copy destinations and settings, click on ‘Backup Files’ to start the copy process. All the information about the backup process can
be supervised in the Jobs panel.

Managing
Jobs
in
the
Jobs
View
The jobs view in Silverstack can be reached by clicking on “Jobs” in the lower left corner of the main window. The jobs view shows an overview and
extended details about every job that can be run in Silverstack.

In a Silverstack context the word “job” refers to copy and transcoding processes that Silverstack controls.

Overview

This article references all aspects of jobs in Silverstack including

Types
Queues
States
Actions

for and of jobs.

Job
Types

The following job types are shown in the jobs view (see column “Job”):

Offload
(copy
and
verify): Runs copy and verification file per file; verification behavior “Included in Copy Job”
Offload
(copy
only): Runs an unverified offload; verification behavior “Separate (per Job)”
Copy: Backup copy job started from an asset in the library.
Verify: Runs checksum verification for the included tasks.
Transcoding:
Clips can be transcoded to other formats via transcoding job.
Relink:
Files can be relinked to new locations via a relink job.

Job
Queues

There are three job queues that are visualized in the “Queue” column with different colors:

Primary
copy
queue (magenta)
Secondary
copy
queue (green)
Transcoding
queue (blue)

The “Queue” column indicates the order of the completion of jobs. Jobs in a queue will be completed from top to bottom. Running jobs are always on
top.

Primary (magenta), secondary (green) copy queue and transcoding queue (blue), with the queue column indicating the order of completion.

Primary
Copy
Queue

Copy jobs are generally scheduled into the main primary copy queue where they will be executed from top to bottom.

You can set the number of parallel jobs for the primary copy queue in the preferences. Please see the article Multiple Simultaneous Copy Jobs in
Silverstack for more information about the general copy preferences.

Secondary
Copy
Queue

The secondary copy queue holds “Second

Run” jobs from Cascading copy jobs. Learn more about Cascading copy jobs in the article Cascading Copy.

Enabling a separate queue for “Second Run” copy jobs will automatically schedule them into the secondary copy queue. Learn more about the
independent execution of “Second Run” copy jobs in the article Cascading Copy Preferences.

Transcoding
Queue

The transcoding queue holds all transcoding jobs and will also be executed from top to bottom. Please see the articlesTranscoding in Silverstack and
Silverstack XT or Transcoding in Silverstack Lab for more information about transcoding.

Tasks
of
a
Job

Each job can be expanded to reveal its tasks (single files to be processed) with the white triangle on the left. Details for each task can be revealed in the
right bar by selecting the task in the table.

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Job
States

Active
Jobs

The most important active job states are

Running: A job is currently executed. “Progress” column shows progress as progress bar.
Waiting: Job waits to be executed.
Suspended: Job has been manually interrupted by user. See more details below in suspend jobs section.

Additionally the following job states exist:

Has
Failed
Tasks
(but
running): One or more files of a job failed, but the job is still running

Job with failed tasks, indicated by yellow progress bar.

Automatically
Interrupted
(Transcoding
jobs
only): Transcoding jobs can be configured to automatically pause while a copy job is running. See
“Transcoding” section in “Copy&Jobs” preferences tab.

Finished
Jobs

The active
jobs are shown in the table in the upper half of the jobs view while the lower half shows thefinished
jobs.

Finished
jobs can have the following states (see “State” column):

Complete
Failed
Cancelled

Job
Actions

The user can execute certain actions for job. The available actions depend on the job state.

For
Active
Jobs

Cancel

Cancelling
a
job will immediately stop the job and move it to the finished jobs at the lower half of the jobs window.
The copy progress of the current task/file will be lost, the copy progress of completed tasks/files is preserved.
Cancelled jobs can be re-queued and will continue the copy process after the last successful task/file.

Suspend

Suspending a job will stop the job after the next task (often being the next file) is finished. This enables the prioritization of an incoming job and avoids
loss of copy or transcoding progress.

To suspend a running job select it and click the “Suspend” button in the right tab:

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The suspend and resume buttons in the right bar of the jobs window

To resume the job again click the “Resume” button.

When suspending
a
job the following state transfers will be made:

Running -> Will Suspend -> Suspended

Waiting -> Suspended

When resuming
a
job
it will again be queued with its former priority.

Suspended
jobs are still visualized at the bottom of the queue but will
not
be
executed.

Reorder

Waiting jobs in a job queue can be reordered with drag and drop. Select a waiting job and pull it over or under any other waiting jobs in the same queue:

Reordering a copy job inside the queue by dragging it to the intended queue position

Please be aware that:

Jobs cannot be moved between queues

Suspended jobs cannot be reordered above waiting jobs. They stay at the bottom of the queue and will not be executed until they are resumed.
Waiting jobs cannot be reordered above running jobs. Suspend running jobs for the next job in the queue to start.

For
Finished
Jobs

Retry
(Failed
Jobs)

Failed jobs can be tried one more time by hitting “Retry” in the right bar. Only the failed tasks of a job will be attempted again.

Re-Queue
(Cancelled
Jobs)

Cancelled jobs can be added to the copy queue of active jobs again (re-queued) to wait for execution.

Create
Incomplete
MHL
file

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In the context menu it is possible to create an incomplete MHL (.mhl) file for

Cancelled jobs
Failed jobs

An MHL file is written to all copy destinations of the respective job.

Mark
as
Read
/
Unread
(Hide
/
Show
in
Jobs
Summary)

In the context menu of a job. Mark jobs as read or unread which shows or hides them in the Jobs Summary. All jobs marked as unread show in the Jobs
Summary.

Ingest
Clips

In the context menu of a failed transcoding job. Helps to re-ingest successfully completed proxy clips as transcoded clips even if a job failed.

Jobs
Summary
The jobs summary in Silverstack can be opened by clicking on the element located bottom right in the lower toolbar.

It provides an overview of all types of finished jobs in Silverstack directly in the main window, without the need to go to the full jobs view (accessible
bottom left through “Jobs”).

It is intended to help the user to keep a condensed overview of all jobs he is taking care of.

The view is grouped by the state of finished jobs and each job state has its delimited element showing the number of such jobs:

Failed Jobs (red)

Cancelled Jobs (grey)
Complete Jobs (green)

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The jobs summary accessible in the Silverstack main window.

Mark
as
Read/Unread

Jobs in the jobs summary can be marked

as
read,
which will hide them from the jobs summary. This is intended to have a simple and clear overview for
the user about the general status of the jobs he is taking care of and for which jobs he still might have to take action.

All details about the jobs are still accessible in the jobs view. Jobs can be marked as unread again in the context menu (right click) of a job in the jobs
view, which will show them again in the jobs summary.

More actions include:

Mark
as
Read:
Completed: Marks all successfully completed (ok) jobs as read and hides them from the summary
All: Marks all jobs (independent of their state) as read and hides them from the summary
Reveal: The icon besides the job name (>) allows to reveal the job in the jobs summary

Additionally, you can execute actions for the jobs directly from the jobs summary. Please see the article Managing Jobs in the Jobs View for more general
information about actions for jobs.

Unread
Failed
Jobs
Warnings
and
Reminders

Silverstack by default reminds you of unread failed jobs (jobs with errors that didn’t complete successfully and show in the jobs summary) on every new
offload, not to miss taking care of jobs that failed successful completion. This behavior can be turned off in the “General” tab of the preferences by
unchecking:

“Warn me about unread failed jobs on every new offload”

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Unread failed jobs warnings and reminders in the “General” preferences.

Additionally, you can set a reminder notification that reappears within a certain time interval to remind you about unread failed jobs:

“Remind me about unread failed jobs every:”

10 min
20 min
30 min
1h
2h

Use
of
path
wildcards
Silverstack offers you a very flexible folder renaming feature, which allows you to create a custom folder structure on your offload and backup
destinations.

For every copy destination you can define individual folder structure options. If you start a copy process to different destinations, you can have different
folder structures on every destination. Or you just can create a clone of your source material.

There are a variety of software tools in the postproduction process which require a specific folder structure. To simplify the organization of the clips
related to the different folder structure requirements, Silverstack offers this useful feature that automatically helps you to structure the files.

To determine the names of folders you can add a various set of metadata placeholders – called wildcards – that will be replaced by the actual values of
each clip during copy.

This means that Silverstack is able to automatically save your clips in a specific, individually determined folder structure. So for example your files can be
stored in folders according to their submission date and carry the project name and submission time in their file names.

Wildcards can be added in the destination selection step (figure 1) of the “Offload” and “Backup” wizard. Therefore you first need to choose a drive and a
folder (figure 1 #1).

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figure 1: the Backup wizard. Choosing the destination path.

Document
Wildcard
Handling

You are able to decide if you want to preserve the original folder structure for the non-clip files or create your custom structure inheriting the metadata
from the clips, having this way all the sidecar documents with their parent clips. By default, Silverstack will inherit metadata from clips. To choose
between this two options, go to Preferences > Copy and choose your Document Wildcard Handling as “Inherit
metadata
from
clips” or “Always
preserve
folder
structure”:

Document wildcard handling

It is important to have in mind that when selecting the “Always

preserve
folder
structure” option, all files not considered as clips by Silverstack (such as:
non fully supported camera formats, image file sequences, sidecar documents, PDFs…) will be copied in the same path of the clips. All documents will
preserve the same folder structure of the original medium – that means all clips are in the folders you have created.

Now, to make use of the helpful feature of wildcards, click on “Path wildcards” (figure 1 #2) and the wildcards wizard opens…

Important
–
Need
to
know

Make sure that the path you have determined by choosing a drive and folder (figure 1 #1-3) is not changed or deleted unintentionally in the editable
path field of the wildcard wizard (figure 2 #1). Just add wildcards to the already existing path components.

In the path field you have to separate the single wildcard tokens by a slash (“/”) if they are supposed to mark a folder structure. Separate them with
a dash (“-”) to combine different wildcards for one folder level.

Filenames should contain some wildcards in order to make them unique. Silverstack checks the uniqueness of all created file paths and warns you
if necessary.

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figure 2: wildcard wizard

Path
textfield
and
example
label

The wildcard wizard (figure 2) at the top shows the full destination path (figure 2 #1) which is editable. You can either type path components in the text
field directly or drag and drop wildcards there from the list below. Beneath the text field you can see an example of the pathname including wildcards
using one of the clips you are going to copy.

Wildcard
table

All available metadata fields are shown in the wildcard list. So you can name your files and folders according to information as submission date and time,
project name, various clip information and others.

The tokens (figure 2 #2) can be drag&dropped into the path field (figure 2 #1). The next column (figure 2 #3) contains an example of every token as it will
be seen in the final path- or filename. The third column (figure 2 #4) tells you how many of the previously selected files contain this metadata information.

Multi-optional
wildcards

Some wildcards like the submission time (figure 3) offer several options. You can choose between those by clicking on the small triangle.

For submission and shooting time you can choose between the formats: HH_MM_SS and HH_MM
For submission and shooting date you can choose between the formats: yyyy-mm-dd, yy-mm-dd, yymmdd, yyyymmdd
For the path
components wildcard you can choose the amount of path components of the source folder structure of the clip – this information will
be include in the path of the newly generated folder structure. So if you choose “3”, the last three levels of the folder structure of the original clip are
included in the new clip’s path.
For reel characters it is possible to choose parts of the reel name as wildcards. You either can select the first or if applicable the last characters of
the reel name.

figure 3: Wildcard wizard: wildcard with several options

LTFS
backup

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LTFS backup concept

Silverstack offers a feature to specifically backup to LTO tapes. Due to the nature of their hardware, LTO tapes need a different copy and verification
process than other kinds of drives. The process used by Silverstack is to first copy all the files, then rewind the tape and perform the verification step
afterwards. This way only one tape rewinding step is needed for each backup job.

Additionally, Silverstack supports any kind of LTO drive that creates an LTFS file system on macOS. Generally if the LTO drive can be accessed in Finder,
it can be used by Silverstack. Have in mind that tape formatting has to be previously performed in the LTO drive utility before starting the backup process.

No data capacity information is offered for LTO tapes. For this reason, it is recommended to manually check that the backup size does not exceed the
tape capacity to prevent failed backup jobs. Only copy jobs to a single LTO tape are currently supported.

Starting
the
backup
process

In order to start a backup job to an LTFS drive, just select the ‘Backup to LTFS’ command in the ‘Media’ menu:

Media Menu

Once the ‘Backup to LTFS’ command is selected, the Backup Wizard launches:

Backup Wizard: Clip Selection

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It’s possible to choose the copy source volume in case the files have multiple backups registered in the Project Library. Selecting the fastest source
volume generally increases the copy performance, depending on your hardware.

Silverstack by default copies all the clips and files contained in the Folder or Bin you previously selected to backup. If you just need to offload a subset of
clips, you can check the ‘Allow partial offload’ checkbox. Clips can be marked and unmarked either by using the checkboxes or the ‘mark’ and ‘unmark’
buttons by the ‘search’ field. Therefore either select all clips you’d like to import and then click on ‘Mark Only Selected’ or select those clips of all already
marked that shall not be imported and click on ‘Unmark Selected’.

As you can see in the following image, there is a bunch of keyboard shortcuts for marking (#1) and unmarking (#2) clips to facilitate this task.

‘Mark’ and ‘Unmark’ keyboard shortcuts

Once the source volume and the clips have been selected, you can press on ‘continue’, which leads to the Copy Destination Selection step.Add the LTFS
drive to the destinations by pressing the + button:

LTFS Backup Wizard: destination selection

In relation to the additional options under ‘Verification Behavior’ and ‘Checksum Method’, you can find a detailed description of each one of those
settings in the article The Copy and Verification Process in Silverstack: Verification Behavior.

There is also the possibility of using the Path Wildcards feature, which offers users a way to create custom folder structures based on the metadata
contained in clips.

After determining your copy destinations and settings, click on ‘Backup Files’ to start the copy process. All the information about the backup process can
be supervised in the Jobs panel.

In order to keep track of the clips copied to a certain tape, it’s possible to generate a Volumes Report. For more information on how to generate these
reports in multiple formats, please check the article Creating Reports.

Backup
Data
to
SONY
Optical
Disk
Archive
Silverstack offers the functionality of backing up data to SONY’s Optical Disk Archive technology. You can use the backup function of Silverstack to write
assets to the SONY ODA (Optical Disk Archive). Take a look at the article Backup Clips to learn more about the backup function.

It is also possible to use the Silverstack Offload functionality to directly copy data to an ODA.

Silverstack will automatically detect if the backup will be made to a SONY ODA and will therefore adapt its settings to optimize the copy process.

Important
Aspects
While
Backing
Up
to
SONY
ODA

You have to avoid certain letters in file and folder names that will cause problems while backing up to the ODA. The next table represents the list of invalid
characters:

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Fig.2: List of invalid characters for backing up to Sony ODA.

Do not use the “Backup to LTFS” function to backup to a SONY ODA. There are certain constraints based on that particular backup function that e.g. will
make it impossible to read clips quickly from the ODA again after backing them up. Stick with the regular Backup functionality in Silverstack when working
with ODAs.

Checksum
verification
methods

figure 1: checksum verification

Silverstack offers multiple verification methods to compare byte by byte the source file with all of its backup copies. The verification process ensures that
no file has been corrupted during the copy process. If the verification process result is positive, Silverstack will create an .mhl file in the main folder of
each backup destination. This .mhl file is the seal of file integrity of all copied folders that should go always together with its files, as it will let the user to
manually verify each copy of the files to ensure their completeness and consistency.

figure 2: .mhl file placement

Hashing
algorithms
explained

Hashing algorithms are functions that take a certain amount of data (i.e. a file) and calculate a unique, reproducible, fixed-length “hash value”, typically a
relatively short hexadecimal (“hex”) value (consisting of digits and the characters from A to F) out of any given payload data, e.g. file. Already the
smallest changes in the payload data result in a totally different hash value. This property can be utilized in a wide range of applications from cryptography
to file verification.

In media workflows hashing algorithms are used to identify changes in a file without having the original file at hand by creating the hash value of the copy
and comparing it to the given hash value of the source. If the hash value of the copy is the same as the hash value of the source, it can be inferred, that
the content of the copy is the same as the content of the source.

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There exist a lot of different algorithms for creating hash values from data. These are the properties of hashing algorithms:

Computing complexity: More complexity in the hashing algorithms require more computer power to be calculated, decreasing performance.
Collision probability: It defines the probability that different files have same hash (high probability is bad)
Detection of modifications: modifications in a file lead to different hash (very important)

xxhash
compared
to
md5
and
sha-1

xxHash

Computing complexity: very low

Collision probability: low
Detection of modifications: very good

MD5 and SHA1

Computing complexity: high
Collision probability: very low
Detection of modifications: very good

Real
world
numbers

MD5 is widely used. It comes from an encryption background, but it can also be used to detect transfer errors. Limited to 300MB/sec on recent
hardware. MD5 is so complex to calculate, that more than 300 MB/sec is not possible on today’s computers. It checks the entire content of each
file and its size.

SHA1 also comes from an encryption background, but can also be used to detect transfer errors. Limited to 300MB/sec on recent hardware.
Checks the entire content of each file and its size.

xxHash is not a cryptographic algorithm. For detecting transfer errors is as safe as MD5. However, it is incredibly fast. In theory it can generate
check sums at several GB/sec. Checks the entire content of each file and its size. Specially useful with high speed data transfer hardware. Only
faster than MD5 or SHA1 if the transfer speed of all the sources and destinations is higher than 350MB/s. Caution! Below 300 MB/sec xxhash can
be a bit slower than MD5/SHA-1, but beyond it’s much faster, because md5 can’t get faster and xxhash goes up to a few GB/sec.

xxHash64 BE (Big Endian): generally the same as the xxHash algorithm. However, it outputs a hash string in hexadecimal values, which makes it
more compatible with some post production workflows. It is potentially faster on very large data transfer rate setups. This hashing algorithm is
compatible with Google’s xxhash implementation. Endianness information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness

xxHash64 LE/legacy (Little Endian): generally the same as the algorithm xxHash64 BE (Big Endian). However, it outputs a hash string in a Little
Endian format. Used in legacy workflows. Endianness information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness

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Hashing
algorithms
in
Silverstack

The different verification methods (hashing algorithms) are selectable from the Offload and Backup wizards:

figure 3: checksum methods

Source
verification

As shown in figure 3, by default Silverstack does a source verification with each copy, meaning that the files are read from the source again after being
copied. This is the most secure way to ensure data integrity because it’s possible to detect read errors too. However it is possible to speed up the copy
and verification process by disabling this option. In that case the files are only read form the source once when making the actual copy. If the source is
extremely slow, it could make sense to disable it, as it can slow down the verification process. Only then it should be skipped, as it doesn’t affect the
process if the source is as fast as the destination.

MD5
files
generation

There is the option to create MD5 files in addition to the MHL ones. This will give compatibility for any post production process asking for this kind of files.
The MD5 legacy files are only
created
when
the
MD5
verification
method
is
used.

figure 4: create legacy check sum files

Sources:

https://code.google.com/p/xxhash/

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Analyzing
and
improving
data-transfer
performance
Data
transfer
performance
can
be
a
very
important
issue
in
time-pressing
environments
such
as
scenarios
of
on-set
data
wrangling.

For a general list of factors that influence the speed of data-transfers such as

storage
technology,
RAID
technology, and
interfaces

please refer to the document “Factors for data-transfer performance”.

How
to
analyze
your
setup
for
bottle
necks

Every system is only as fast as the slowest component. So for example attaching a brand new, ultra-fast SSD to a computer via USB2 is no improvement
in performance over a 5 year old HDD – the USB2 interface is the limiting factor. The following list helps you to find the bottleneck and to tune your setup
for higher performance. Sometimes just using different connections (lots of devices have multiple, different connection ports) or replacing one component
already can heavily improve the performance of an entire data-transfer system.

When for example copying data from e.g. a SxS card to an external RAID and a USB3 drive with Silverstack, a lot of components are involved – and the
slowest one is slowing down the overall performance and thus all the other components.

In this example we can identify three data storage devices that are each consist of several components:

SxS card
the SxS card itself
the card reader for the SxS card
RAID system
the interface to the RAID system
the RAID system and its configuration
the drives in the RAID system
External drive
the interface to the external drive
the drive itself

1.
Measure
the
maximum
performance
of
each
device

You can determine the speed of a device by measuring the read and write speed to that device individually and independently. On the Mac you can either
use tools like Blackmagic Disk Speed Test or use command line tools such as “dd”.

Note:

Please
note
that
the
operating
system
caches
disk
access
in
RAM.
So
if
you
write
a
small
file
to
disk
it
is
still
in
the
cache
and
a
directly
following
read
test
will
retrieve
that
file
directly
from
RAM,
so
that
the
disk
is
not
used
at
all
in
your
test!
So
make
sure
that
your
test
files
are
large
enough
(e.g.
larger
than
RAM).
As
a
good
measure
you
can
always
use
“Activity
Monitor”
that
comes
with
OSX
to
monitor
drive
usage
and
performance
(use
the
“Disk
Activity”
tab).
For
example
when
accidentally
retrieving
data
from
cache
during
a
test
you
will
detect
that
as
zero
activity
on
the
drives
in
Activity
Monitor.

Comparing the performance values of the different devices, you now know the slowest device. This device will slow down the entire data transfer, so
maybe you can improve that first.

2.
Observe
the
overall
performance
during
the
copy
process

Now find out if the expected performance can be observed during a real life test. Start a copy process to multiple destinations in Silverstack and use
Activity Monitor as your instrument for measuring performance.

In Activity Monitor you will see the current overall performance. So if you let Silverstack copy the contents of a SxS card to two drives simultaneously, you
should see a write performance that is twice as high as the read performance during copy. After copying a verify-phase follows that reads the files from
the two destinations and the source again. So you should see a very high, combined overall read performance.

In our example take the read- or half of the write-performance value during copy and use this value as your current reference copy performance. Compare
it to the measured performance value of each device. It should be around the speed of the slowest device. If the reference performance value is much
lower than the speed of your slowest device, there might be problems with daisy chaining.

3.
Analyze
the
slowest
device

If the speed of your slowest device (and thus the observed reference copy performance) is much slower than the speed of the other devices it might be
worth improving that.

Determine the speed of the drive by estimating the theoretical performance of the used drives by technology (HDD, SSD, RAID).
Determine the theoretical speed of the interface.

You can now relate these values to your measured values for the entire device. If you experience completely odd values, maybe something is configured
wrong (attaching a USB3 drive to a USB2-only port) or a component is faulty.

If the interface is the limiting factor, maybe you can change that by switching the enclosure with a better interface. Maybe there is a card reader with a
faster interface available. If the drive is the limiting factor, find out if the drive is exchangeable with a similar or newer drive with better performance.

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Modifying
the
read
buffer
size
settings

The read buffer size settings use «2MB, recommended» as default. However, increasing the read buffer size might help when copying to software raids on
OS X. Decreasing below the 2MB recommended value is usually not advised. The 2MB size recommendation is only illustrative. The optimal size depends
on your specific setup and format combination.

Preferences Menu: read buffer size

Adding
Clips
to
the
Library
(Ingest
without
Copy)
There is a fast solution to create references to video clips in the Project Library in Silverstack. Instead of copying clips to another storage device, you can
select to just ingest them. This process allows a faster way to have the clips in the Project Library for subsequent tasks such as backup, LTFS backup,
quality check or metadata editing.

In order to add the clips, simply select “File

>
Add
to
Library…” or use the keyboard shortcut ⌥⌘O:

Fig. 1: File menu

After selecting the folder containing the clips, the ingest wizard opens:

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Fig 2: Ingest wizard

The ingest wizard allows you to check which clips are being ingested before proceeding. Once you click on «Add», Silverstack starts creating the
references for the clips in the Project Library by reading the metadata and creating the thumbnails. After the thumbnail creation is finished, the clips will be
available in the library to start working with them:

fig. 3: Project Library

Drag
&
Drop
Clips

Alternatively, you can also ingest clips by drag and dropping the containing folder into the Silverstack dock icon or the Silverstack Library Folder. When
using this functionality for the first time an alert will ask you what you want to do:

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Fig. 5: Ingest warning message

If your intention is to only register the clips, please select the option «Open Add to Library Wizard». The process is the same as previously described.
Otherwise, select «Open Offload Wizard» if you decide to copy the media to backup drives in addition to registering the clips in the Project Library.

In case you enable the checkbox «Don’t show this message again», Silverstack will always use the selected option in the future.

Use
Silverstack’s
clip
library
for
EDL
conform
EDL files usually represent a timeline from editing systems such as Avid Media Composer and thus contain an ordered list of clips represented by
timecode data and optional reel and clip information.

You can use an EDL in the CMX 3600 standard to consolidate clips from Silverstack’s Library in a new Bin. From there you can for example copy all
required clips from the EDL to a separate hard drive.

Use
Case

As an example we assume that the editor used five clips which we now need to transfer to a VFX facility. Instead of shipping several hard drives with all
the source footage, or manually searching them in huge folder structures, you can automatically collect them by using the EDL import feature in
Silverstack.

Silverstack matches the timecode from the EDL with the source timecode of clips in the Library and creates a new Bin with the matched clips. From there
it is easy to backup the clips to a single destination via the backup function.

Step
By
Step

We will describe briefly a typical workflow with Avid Media Composer 6.5.

1. Choose your timeline in AVID Media Composer

2. Then in the MainMenu press Output > EDL . The Avid EDL Manager will open as seen in figure 1
3. Press the “Get Sequence” Button to load the timeline
4. Make sure that the EDL settings are CMX3600 like in figure 2
5. Click in the MainMenu File > Save As… and export the file to your Desktop

Silverstack
Part

6. Open up Silverstack and choose the corresponding project.

7. Press the “Import” Button in the Main Bar and choose the “Edit Decision List” option
8. Choose the EDL file from the Desktop
9. If not set automatically, make sure that you choose the same frame rate like in the metadata of your clips like in figure 3
10. Silverstack will match the clips and add them to a new Bin.

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Figure 1: Avid EDL Manager

Figure 2: EDL Setting in the EDL Manager

Figure 3: Import wizard for EDLs in Silverstack

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This feature is available in Silverstack 3.1 and newer.

Sealing
Drives
in
Silverstack
The sealing functionality allows Silverstack to make a full inventory list of a drive. This is important, not only to assure that the content of a drive is
identical to the source material but also to make sure that the content on a drive is complete and reflects the intention of the sender. By sealing drives as
well as directories the whole content becomes registered to notice any change inside the folder in the future. The sealing process enables you to use the
free tool Pomfort SealVerify to verify the consistency and completeness of a drive at any generation later without having access to the original media.

Silverstack allows you to seal volumes as well as folders. For simplicity reasons we may only refer to “sealed volumes” or “sealed drives” below but want
to make clear that the same procedure will work for sealed folders.

What
Does
the
Sealing
Do
?

The sealing procedure bases upon the existing and widely used MHL technology and extends its functionalities. During the sealing process Silverstack
writes a .pfsl file on the drive which we refer to as the “Seal”. This seal keeps all content information together and ensures that every change to the seal
itself or any referenced information can be detected at any time. The free application Pomfort SealVerify can be used to easily verify the integrity of a
sealed drive.

Fig. 1: Finder screenshot showing the contents of a sealed drive

To learn more about the Pomfort Seal please visit the article Understanding the Pomfort Seal.

How
to
Seal
a
Drive
or
Folder

To seal
a
drive click on the “Seal” button in the Silverstack task bar and choose the drive you want to seal:

Fig. 2: The Silverstack header bar with the “Seal” button

The sealing wizard opens up and will guide you through the sealing process

To seal
a
folder
go to the main menu and choose “File
>
Seal
>
Folder…”.

[fig. 3 Main Menu File Seal Folder]

After choosing the intended folder the sealing wizard will guide you through the process.

The list shows all attached volumes that have been used as a destination in the current project. The button may be disabled if no such volume is attached.

Providing
the
Seal
Info

In the first step of the sealing wizard you can enter the information that will afterwards be present in the Seal Info:

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Fig. 3: The first step of the sealing process.

With the two checkboxes you can choose to:

Put a Sealed Library Archive on the sealed drive. Learn more about Sealed Library Archives from the article Importing Sealed Library Archives in
Silverstack XT.
Put a “How To Verify This Drive”-PDF on the drive. It contains information for the receiver of the sealed volume and explains how he will be able to
verify the drive.

Additionally you can can enter information that will be transmitted along with the Seal Info and will e.g. be readable by Pomfort SealVerify or when
Importing a Sealed Library Archive in Silverstack XT.

The Seal Info contains the following information:

Name of the person who sealed the drive or folder

Contact info like e.g. phone number or email address etc.
Time
UUID
Comment
Silverstack Version
Host
Username
Operation System

Enter the information accurately to make sure the receiver of a sealed drive will be able to receive extensive information and can contact you in case of a
problem.

The
Sealing
Procedure

The sealing procedure consists of several individual tasks. While some of them are self-explanatory others need detailed attention:

Lost
and
Found
Items

Silverstack scans the drive for files that have not been copied with Silverstack and therefore are not referenced in any MHL file. Those files are collected
and ingested into an automatically generated folder called “Lost and Found” inside the Silverstack library. Like this, the files will also be registered within
an MHL file that will be placed on the drive.

Please note that the “Lost and Found” items will be referenced by file size only. It is recommended to copy all content with Silverstack to obtain maximum
security with checksum verification.

Library
Export

After as successful sealing process the Silverstack library will contain the complete content of the sealed drive or directory. The library export option will
place a Silverstack library file (.psla) on the drive. By using the library import option in Silverstack XT, an identical Silverstack library containing the
complete and verified content of a drive can be guaranteed. The verification of the content can be handled by the free application Pomfort
SealVerify.

Verifying
a
Seal

Seals can be verified and checked for integrity with the free application Pomfort
SealVerify. Please visit the KnowledgeBase section about Pomfort
SealVerify for more information or download here.

If you are looking for a way to import sealed drives in Silverstack XT please refer to the article Importing Sealed Library Archives in Silverstack XT.

The
Seal
Info
Panel
for
Sealed
Volumes

You can open the seal info for a sealed volume from the Volumes panel. In the left bar of the Silverstack main window scroll the library down until you
arrive at the “Volumes” entry. In the right bar you will then be able to open the Seal Info by clicking on the button “Seal Info” on the side of the volume
showing the seal:

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Fig. 4: The Silverstack volumes panel with the Seal Info.

From there several

actions can be taken:

Verify
Seal:
When you have Pomfort Seal Verify installed you will be able to verify the integrity of the seal. Click the button to open the drive in
Pomfort
SealVerify.
Remove
Seal: You can delete the Pomfort Seal file and the Seal Library Archive.
Re-Seal: Delete the seal and recreate a new one with your own seal information.
Import
Library: Import the associated Sealed Library Archive (.psla) that populates a Silverstack Library containing the complete content of the
sealed drive or folder.

Or click “Close” to leave the seal information again.

Importing
Sealed
Library
Archives
in
Silverstack
XT
The import of sealed Library Archives enables you to populate a content complete Silverstack Library into a new Silverstack XT project that includesall
assets of the sealed drive or folder. You can benefit from that process by including a Library Archive export when sealing a drive in Silverstack.
Additionally the free tool Pomfort
SealVerify
enables you to perform a completeness and consistency check of the present content. Learn about the
process of sealing drives with Silverstack from the article Sealing Drives in Silverstack.

Importing
a
Sealed
Library
Archive

Open Silverstack. In the Main Menu go to “File

>
Import
>
Sealed
Library
Archive…”:

Fig. 1: Choose Import > Sealed Library Archive to import a Sealed Library Archive

In the open dialog that appears select the sealed folder that contains the Sealed Library Archive along with the Pomfort Seal you want to import .

After clicking “Open” the Seal Information panel opens up:

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Fig. 2: The Seal Info for the opened volume

The seal information comes from the person who sealed the drive in Silverstack.

Several Actions can be taken from here:

Verify
Seal:
When you have Pomfort SealVerify installed you will be able to verify the integrity of the seal. Click the button to open the drive in
Pomfort
SealVerify.
Remove
Seal: You can delete the Pomfort Seal file and the Sealed Library Archive.
Re-Seal: Delete the seal and recreate a new one with your own seal information.
Import
Library: Import the associated Sealed Library Archive (.psla) that populates a Silverstack Library containing the complete content of the
sealed drive or folder.

Click the button “Import

Library” to start importing the Sealed Library Archive.

The standard library import wizard will guide you through the process of importing the library:

Learn more about this process from the article Library

Metadata
Exchange.

Sealed
Library
Archive
vs.
Library
Archive

The Sealed Library Archive basically is a Silverstack Library Archive with additional benefits. As it can only be created in the process of sealing a drive or
folder with Silverstack the library will always contain the complete content of the sealed volume. Additionally Pomfort
SealVerify can verify the content of
the library to assure consistency with the original data.

Understanding
the
Pomfort
Seal
This article will help you understand the intention and background of the Pomfort Seal.

The
Pomfort
Seal

The Pomfort Seal complements the widely used and production-proven MHL standard for checksums and can only be produced by Silverstack. During
the sealing process, Silverstack creates a seal file (.pfsl) that references all MHL files on the drive. An additional MHL file will be created for all data that
was detected on the drive but was not copied onto it with Silverstack. The Pomfort Seal holds all this information together and is even secured against
altering the seal itself. Any kind of change of the data on the drive will break the seal and will therefore be detected by Pomfort SealVerify.

Please note that the term of “sealing” has nothing to do with encryption of the data on a drive. The Pomfort Seal does not limit the access to your data.
The sealing process aims for integrity, consistency and completeness of data. The term “sealing” is not used in a way that implies a “blocking” or
“locking” of data.

Sealed
vs
Unsealed

The following table will show you the advantages of a drive sealed with Silverstack:

consistency consistency
+
completeness

MHL
only

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(misc.
copy
tools) YES NO

MHL
+
Pomfort
Seal
YES YES
(Pomfort
Silverstack)

MHL files (or other hash files such as .md5 files) basically carry hash values and filenames. With this information, you can verify the consistency of
files without access to the original source files. The appropriate tools can determine if the contents of the files mentioned in the MHL file still have the
same content as at the time when the hash values have been created. The MHL files are usually created during a copy process.

For a drive with multiple folders copied with multiple copy processes (for examples on a film set, where multiple camera cards are copied to the same
travel drive), you cannot verify if one entire folder together with its MHL file is missing. This means with MHL files alone you can verify consistency of
single files, but not the completeness of an entire drive.

To solve this problem , the Pomfort Seal contains a list of all MHL files on a drive. With this information, a missing MHL file can detected very easily. This
means that the Pomfort Seal together with the MHL files allows to verify consistency as well as completeness of a travel drive.

The sealing process in Pomfort Silverstack also searches for files on the drive that haven’t been listed in MHL files yet. This ensures, that the Pomfort Seal
together with the MHL files cover the entire content of the sealed drive.

Pomfort SealVerify is the free one-button process to verify the Pomfort Seal and the listed MHL files. This way a reliable copy chain can be built where
both, consistency and completeness of media data can be verified at any time.

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Quality Check
Playback
The Silverstack playback view allows to play movie clips back. Please refer to the “Playback” menu in Silverstack for a list of available functionality and
shortcuts.

Playback
Modes

Silverstack has two playback modes that can be permanently set in the “Playback” menu:

Absolute
Time
Playback: Real
time
playback
->
Audio
enabled
Description: This playback mode attempts to play the clip in real time (1s in the clip will be displayed in 1s realtime). This might lead to frame
drops if performance of the machine or I/O might not allow real time playback. Playing back in real time is necessary to enable audio
playback.
Every
Frame
Playback: Play
every
frame
->
Audio
disabled
Description: This playback mode makes sure that every frame of the clip will be displayed. This might lead to a non real time display and
therefore audio playback is not possible in this playback mode.

When using JKL playback controls Silverstack automatically enables Every Frame Playback and therefore disables audio.

Playback
Controls

Playback
HUD

The playback HUD (Head Up Display)

The playback HUD enables the following functionality:

Zoom: Select a zoom setting for the current clip

Loop: Enable loop playback for the selected clips in a timeline
Display
with
Look: Allows to toggle between display of the clip with look or with original color
Display
Options: Select decoding resolution for playback (and debayer options for certain formats)
In/Out: Makes playback respect in and out points
Set
In-Point: Set in point at current playhead position
Frame
backward: Step one frame backward
Frame
forward: Step one frame forward
Play: Play the clip back
Jump
to
Clip
Start
and
Previous
Clip: Moves playhead to the first frame of the clip and if playhead is on the first frame to the previous clip
Jump
to
Middle
of
Clip: Sets playhead to the middle of the clip
Jump
to
Clip
End: Sets playhead to the last frame of the clip
Export
Still
Image: Exports a still image, see also in main menu “Clip > Export Still Image”
File
Playback
Info: Shows the current location of the clip used for playback

JKL
Controls

Playback can be controlled with J, K and L keys in a manner typical to many for example editing applications. It allows for faster playback, slower
playback, reverse playback and frame stepping also known as Playback, Shuttle and Jog:

Playback
: Press L to play forward, K to stop and J to play reverse (“Play Reverse (Faster)”; “Play Forward (Faster)”; “Stop”)
Shuttle
Play: Pressing the keys L or J two or multiple times increases the playback speed by factors 2x up to 64x
Jog: Holding K and pressing L or J allows users to frame-step through a clip forwards (L) and backwards (J) (“Next frame”, “Previous frame”)

The following more specific functionality is available in conjunction with JKL:

Fast
Reverse: Plays in reverse with same speed as currently playing forward
Fast
Forward: Plays forward with same speed as currently playing backward
Play
Slower: Slows down playback below 1x speed

Frame
Stepping

Additionally to JKL, frame stepping is also available with the arrow keys. There are additional option keys to enable larger steps:

Step
5
frames:
Shift + ->/<-
Step
2
seconds:
Shift + Ctrl + ->/<-

Playback
Indicators

Player
Toolbar

The player toolbar contains different elements to inform about the current status of the clip.

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Player Toolbar

The following indicators are displayed in the toolbar (from left to right, top to bottom):

AT/EF: Playback Mode, Absolute Time (AT) or Every Frame (EF) playback
Audio
Enabled/Disabled: Speaker symbol indicates if audio playback is currently enabled or disabled
Playback
direction
and
speed: The play symbol indicated the playback direction, the number (1x / 2x / …/64x) indicates the playback speed
Full
/
½
/
etc.
: Indicates current decoding resolution
Camera
Original
/
Look: Indicates if camera original color is displayed or look is applied
FPS: Show the current playback speed in frames per second
Timecode:
Current timecode of clip

The following controls are available in the popover:

Display
Look: Allows to toggle between display of the clip with look or with original color (see also playback HUD)
Decoding
Resolution: Select decoding resolution for playback (and debayer options for certain formats; see also playback HUD)
Playback
Mode: Switch between Absolute Time and Every Frame Playback Mode; more details see above please

HD-SDI
Output
in
Silverstack
Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab come with HD-SDI output to play out ingested clips in best quality for QC on an HD-SDI broadcast monitor. The
current clip in the player gets mirrored to the HD-SDI output showing the image in full-screen and 10 bit color depth.

Supported
Devices

To enable the HD-SDI output you need one of the following devices:

AJA T-TAP
AJA KONA series
AJA Io series
Blackmagic Design Ultrastudio Products
Blackmagic Design Mini Monitor
Blackmagic Design Decklink Cards

Attach the according interface to your Mac (Thunderbolt or PCIe) and connect the HD-SDI output of the device to the selected destination.

Figure 1: Schematic presentation of a Silverstack XT HD-SDI setup

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Drivers

In order to use the supported devices you have to install all drivers and necessary software provided by the the manufacturer.

For Blackmagic Design devices that is the “Desktop

Video” software you can download in their support area.

For AJA Devices that are the “AJA

hardware
drivers” included in the latest “AJA
software
installers” also available in their support area.

External
Video
Preferences

As soon as the HD-SDI device is connected, Silverstack XT requests permission to use it for playback. In case you decide to activate the SDI playback
later, you can enable it through “Preferences>External
Video”. You can disable the use of the device from the same menu in case another application
demands its use (i.e. parallel use of the hardware with other software). If you have multiple output devices attached, you can select which one to use by
choosing it in the drop down menu:

Figure 2: External Video settings

For the “Video

Format” you will be able to choose from two settings:

Try
to
Match
Clip: This setting will try to match the output format of the SDI to the settings of the clips. Silverstack will try to keep the frame rate
and fall back to HD if the resolution is not supported. If the frame rate is not supported it will fall back to 1080p25. In detail this means:
Frame
rate
supported
/
resolution
not
supported:
Silverstack will keep the frame rate. The resolution will fall back to a 1920 x 1080 (HD).
Frame
rate
not
supported
/
resolution
supported: Silverstack will fall back to 1080p25.
Fixed
: This setting will let you choose the output format manually.

Additionally you can choose to release the device when Silverstack XT is in background by enabling the checkbox “Release
device
when
Silverstack
is
in
background”. By default it will be kept even if Silverstack XT is in background.

Please be aware that the support of SDI formats depends on the compatibility of the attached hardware device that the implementation in Silverstack
bases on.

The
HD-SDI
Indicator

As soon as you enable the external video output in the preferences a little indicator in the toolbar of the Silverstack XT media player will give you hints on
the status of the HD-SDI output:

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Figure 3: The HD-SDI indicator will show up in the toolbar of the media player and theMiniplayer.

There
are
3
statuses
possible:

1. HD-SDI output enabled and working:

Figure 4: HD-SDI Indicator showing a working HD-SDI output.

Click on the indicator to reach the External video out settings with the settings for the HD-SDI output.

2. HD-SDI output enabled but no device attached:

Figure 5: HD-SDI indicator showing that no device is attached

Click on the indicator to reach the External video preferences to set up your attached device.

3. HD-SDI output has problems

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Figure 6: HD-SDI indicator notifying about problems with the attached device

Click on the indicator to see details about the problem.

A usual case causing this status of the indicator would be another application that tries to use the same HD-SDI device as Silverstack XT. Deactivate the
background use in the preferences of the application trying to use the same devices as Silverstack XT to avoid the problem.

Playback
Modes

You can choose between two playback modes:

Absolute
Time
Playback:
Tries to play back footage in sync with audio. Silverstack XT will skip frames to stay in sync with audio when video
processing or I/O is too slow.
Every
Frame
Playback:
Aims to play back frame exact which leads to loosing audio. Silverstack XT will play back frame exact even if that leads to
non-realtime playback.

To select the desired mode go to “Playback” in the main menu of LiveGrade and select the according entry right at the top:

figure 7: Select playback mode from the main menu

Image
processing

There are different options when it comes to display the clips through the SDI device. You can modify these settings on the External Video Out window.

figure 8: External Video Out settings window

These are the available settings:

Visual Controls: enable/disable the «Image Analyses» like False Color and Exposure Range, as well as Framelines. Learn more about frame lines
from the article Frame Lines in the Playback View.

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Scaling and Position:

Scale to fit: fills the output display with the image to compensate for a difference in the resolution.
1:1 Pixels: displays the image in full resolution, which can crop the image id the output display has less resolution than the source.

Supported
Frame
Rates
and
Resolutions

Supported frame rates and resolutions are:

720p50
720p59.98
1080p23.98
1080p24
1080p25
1080p29.97
1080p30

Silverstack XT has a fallback resolution (1920 x 1080 HD) and frame rate (25p) that is executed when the desired resolution and frame rate is not
supported by your hardware device. That means if either frame rate or resolution is not a native SDI format the SDI output will fall back to 1080p25.

Interlaced formats are currently not supported.

HD-SDI
Features
and
Quality
Characteristics

Color
Reproduction HD video matrix and gamma (ITU-R BT.709; ITU-R BT.1886)

Sync to next available video frame rates (see Supported Frame Rates and Resolutions
Timing
and Playback Modes)

Code
Values 10-bit legal range YCbCr output (internal 16-bit RGB processing)

Embedded
Audio Not supported

Metadata
Output Not supported

The
Miniplayer

Additionally, you can enable the Miniplayer from the same menu, which enables to monitor the same image sent through the SDI output on the computer
display, at the same time as you navigate across the Project Library.

When the HD-SDI Output is enabled it will automatically open the Miniplayer to keep the HD-SDI output though you switched to the list or table view etc.
As soon as you close the Miniplayer the HD-SDI output will be disabled.

You can reopen the Miniplayer manually from the Main Menu. Go to “Playback
>
Show
Miniplayer”
to open it up again. You can also open it from the
Miniplayer symbol in the header bar on the right.

figure 9: the Miniplayer

Multichannel
Audio
in
Silverstack
Silverstack offers audio playback of audio data embedded in video clips for preview and quality check. Audio can also be transcoded in dailies and for the
editorial department including a stereo mixdown or with the original audio tracks. The clips with embedded audio can be played back with sound and can
be transcoded for the editorial department including all the audio tracks.

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Silverstack supports audio features for these camera formats:

Alexa ProRes
Alexa SXT ARRIRAW (.ari)
Amira ProRes
Canon C300
H264 from DSLRs (like e.g. Canon EOS 5D Mark II)
Sony F55 XAVC
Sony X-OCN
Digital Bolex Cinema DNG
Various Red Camera models (.r3d movies)

The audio settings per clip are grouped in the “Audio” tab. There you can modify the sound settings for each clip while in Playback mode:

Fig. 1: Audio panel with audio tracks from ARRI Alexa SXT ARRIRAW (.ari)

The audio panel offers the following controls:

Master
Volume: controls the output signal level of the mix.
Audio
meters: represent the audio signal level during playback. There is a stereo Master meter and additional Channel meters — one for each
audio track. The scale on top of the meters indicates the audio level in dB (dBFS). Peaking is represented by a bar in the according color of the
peaking level that remains at the maximum position. You can reset the peak bar by clicking on the audio meters.
Channel
mixers: the sliders control the signal level for each track. You can mute specific «Left» and «Right» tracks by disabling the check boxes on
the right of the channel mixers.
Mute
button: Mutes the according audio channel
Solo
button: Solos the according audio channel
Pan
control: Sets the panorama to left, middle or right

Basic
Color
Control
in
Silverstack
This feature allows users to display “Log” clips in a different color space by applying preset LUTs, user predefined custom 3D LUTs or color metadata
(looks) embedded in clips (for selected formats1). The color processing enables you to create thumbnails, playback and transcode the clips with a look
applied. Alternatively, you can just use the file as it was recorded without any color processing (in the camera acquisition color space). By default,
Silverstack reads the clip color metadata and applies a Rec.709 LUT if needed.

Editing
the
Look
Source
in
the
General
Information
Tab

It’s possible to modify the color processing of a certain clip or group of clips by setting a different Look Source in the General Information metadata tab,
under the «Processing» section. In order to edit the Look Source of multiple clips, just select them from the library, click on the «edit» button and select an
option from the list. Once you click on «Apply» all the selected clips will have the same Look Source.

figure 1: Look Source settings on the General Information tab

You can choose from five different processings:

None: Disables the color processing and displays the clips and thumbnails unmodified (as recorded).
File: Reads the clip’s metadata and applies the color processing described in the embedded looks. In case there is no look embedded, Silverstack
applies the default Log to Rec.709 conversion for the specific format.
Preset: with this option you can choose the color processing used from a list of preset LUTs
User-defined
LUT: Will enable you to manage a custom LUT.
User-defined
Look:
Will enable you to create a custom Look with the Silverstack grade controls. More info in the section below.

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Setting
a
User-Defined
Look
for
Multiple
Clips

From the Look Source selection you can choose the processing “User-defined
Look” to enable a custom look for a clip. Select multiple clips and select
the processing to enable it for all of them.

In the Silverstack player view you will then see the grade controls being opened up. You can learn more about the grading controls and the look library
from the articles Grading Controls in Silverstack and The Silverstack Look Library.

How
to
Apply
and
Manage
Custom
LUTs

One of the features related with the look control in Silverstack is the ability to apply custom LUTs to the clips. Users can load custom 3D LUTs generated
by other software applications – such as LiveGrade Pro. When a custom LUT is used, Silverstack displays the thumbnails and playback with that look
applied. Transcoding of the clips with that LUT is also possible.

figure 2: custom LUTs loading

The supported 3D LUT formats are:

.cube (32x32x32, 33x33x33 and 65x65x65)

.3dl (32x32x32)

In order to load them, just select the Look Source to be «User-defined LUT…» and click on the «Load LUT File…». Then navigate through Finder to the
LUT file, select it and choose «Open». Finally, click on «Apply» in the Edit Source pop up to apply the LUT to the clip.

Setting
the
Look
Source
for
the
Ingest
of
Clips

The color processing can take place automatically when ingesting the clips by reading their metadata or using a preset LUT. In addition, the look applied
can be modified or disabled for each clip individually.

In order to automatically apply a look to the clips while being ingested, you have to go to the «Format Options» section on the «Preferences» menu:

figure 3: Format Options

Each format allows you to define a different color processing. You can choose the format using the «Format Selector». Once the desired format is
selected you can set the Look Source as:

None: Disables the color processing and displays the clips and thumbnails unmodified (as recorded).
File: Reads the clip’s metadata and applies the color processing described in the embedded looks. In case there is no look embedded, Silverstack
applies the default Log to Rec.709 conversion for the specific format.
Preset: with this option you can choose the color processing used from a list of preset LUTs:

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figure 4: Look presets

Setting
the
Look
for
Transcoding

While transcoding clips you can choose the look the clips will be transcoded with. You can change the settings for the Look source in the transcoding tab
in the right bar (see figure 5):

As
set
in
Library
(“As
in
Library”): Applies the look that is currently selected for the specific clip in the Library. In case you need to transcode the
clips with a custom look applied, this is the right option.
No
Look
(“None”): Transcodes the clips with no look applied (as they were recorded, with no color processing in the camera acquisition color
space).
Look
from
File
(“From
File”): Reads the clip’s metadata and applies the color processing described in the embedded looks. In case there is no
look embedded, Silverstack applies the default Log to Rec.709 conversion for the specific format.

figure 5: Choose the look settings for transcoding

1
The selected formats with Look Metadata reading are Alexa ProRes, ARRIRAW, Amira ProRes, RED Raw and Panasonic Varicam 35. If no look metadata
is embedded in the file, a default log-to-video conversion is chosen for the specific format (e.g. XAVC with S-Log).

Visual
Control
Functionalities
in
the
Playback
Mode

figure 1: visual controls in Silverstack

With the functionalities provided within the “Visual Controls” panel you can check the colors and quality of your video clip:

1. Channels: By selecting one of the three RGB-channels Silverstack shows the distribution of this color in the image of the video clip.
2. Focus
Assist:
The focus assist helps you to detect if your image is in focus by detecting the edges of the image. You can set the sensitivity.
3. Clipping:
With the clipping functionality you can check which areas of your image clip are either in the whites or blacks.

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4. Exposure
Range:
This option allows you to detect different ranged areas of luminance in your image.
5. False
Color:
You can use this option and active false color. The represented values can be found in figure 2
6. Framelines: add frame lines to visualize the clips with a different aspect ratio. More information in the article Frame Lines in the Playback View.

Figure 2 “Values for clipping”

Note: You can change the unit for clipping and range in the application preferences.

Video
Preview
playback
control

The Silverstack playback controls allow you to control the video preview with standard video controls (figure 3 #1) and the possibility to set IN- and OUT-
points (#2) as well as to loop the video and zoom into it (#3). To show the original Log gamma instead to the Rec.709 conversion, select the #4 check box.

figure 3: standard playback controls

For video files in the Red format and ARRIRAW sequences you have additional functionality to change the playback resolution (figure 4 #1): You can
select various resolutions, choosing between full, 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8.

figure 4: playback controls for any video with multiple resolutions available

100%
Zoom
for
Retina
Displays

Silverstack is optimized to work with the “Default” settings for Apple retina displays which you can find under “System
Preferences
>
Displays”.
Choosing this setting, Silverstack will map
1
media
pixel
to
1
physical
pixel of the display.

This setting is best suited for visual image analysis such as focus or sharpness.

Professional
Video
Scopes
for
Silverstack
with
ScopeBox
You can use ScopeBox by Divergent Media for software-based waveform and video scopes for Silverstack’s player. ScopeBox offers a variety of
waveform monitors and video scopes that enable image analysis and color control of the clip assets of your Silverstack library.

You can receive information about how to download, setup and license ScopeBox software on Divergent Media’s Website. To use the integration of
Silverstack in ScopeBox you have to run version 3.5 or later of the ScopeBox application.

Connecting
Silverstack
and
ScopeBox
via
ScopeLink

Silverstack sends the current image of the player directly to the ScopeBox application by DivergentMedia’s ScopeLink technology.To enable ScopeLink
open the ScopeBox application.

Click in the upper left area of the ScopeBox main window to set a new source. Choose “Add
ScopeLink
Source
>
Pomfort
Silverstack” from the
context menu:

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Figure 1: Add Pomfort’s Silverstack as a source.

After that the source should show a pending image:

Figure 2: ScopeBox waiting for the Silverstack connection.

Now open Silverstack. Open a clip in the media player.

Make sure that in the preferences of Silverstack under “External

Video” the checkbox “Connect
to
ScopeBox” is enabled. You reach the preferences
from the Main Menu by choosing “Silverstack
>
Preferences…”:

Figure 4: ScopeBox Preference in the External Video tab

There you can also choose if you want to update the frames in ScopeBox during playback in Silverstack. Checking this box may increase performance,
but Silverstack only updates Scopebox when being paused.

When you switch to ScopeBox you should then see the default view including an image preview of the image showing in Silverstack:

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Figure 3: The ScopeBox UI with a preview of the Silverstack clip and scopes.

Because of Silverstack’s internal RGB processing, signals from of YCbCr based clips sent to ScopeBox via ScopeLink don’t contain code values outside
the legal range (even if they might be present in the source files).

Learn how to use ScopeBox with this tutorial (from Divergent Media):

By loading the video, you agree to Vimeos’s privacy policy.

Learn more

Load video

Always unblock Vimeo

Find more tutorial videos from Divergent Media about ScopeBox here.

Tags: waveform, vectorscope, histogram, rgb parade

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Frame
Lines
in
the
Playback
View
It is usual to record footage with an aspect ratio different to the one used in the final product, which makes the quality checking of the clips a bit more
challenging. For this reason, Silverstack offers the possibility to overlay frame lines over the clips in the playback window, as well as for the SDI output.

The frame lines can be activated through the «Visual Controls» menu. You can open the visual controls from the Main
Menu. Choose “Playback>Show
Visual
Controls”:

figure 1: frame lines settings

Once in the Visual Controls window you can activate the frame lines with the checkbox. You can then select the aspect ratio and appearance of the frame
lines:

figure 2: aspect ration an appearance settings

You can enter a custom aspect ratio to apply it as frame lines. All entered aspect
ratios
will
be
saved in the dropdown and sorted in alphabetical order:

figure 3: The list of custom aspect ratios

Comments to the aspect ratios can be added in brackets after the aspect ratio (see example “2,39:1 (Cinemascope)”).

The list of aspect ratios is shared between all three places in Silverstack Lab where aspect ratios can be set: In the Visual Controls for framing assistance ,
in Crop, and in the transcoding configurations.

Frames lines are available for normal playback and SDI output. For more information about how to setup the SDI output in Silverstack, please refer to the
article HD-SDI output in Silverstack.

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Image
transformation
The ability to de-squeeze footage recorded with anamorphic lenses and image flipping is available in Silverstack. This features are helpful to check the
quality of the clips without distortions. Image transformations will be also applied if you decide to transcode the clips.

Anamorphic
de-squeezing

figure 1: Anamorphic transformation

The de-squeezing option can be applied to a single or multiple clips in the Clip Info tab (⌘1) from the right panel. Scroll down to Processing info and an
Anamorphic option will be shown. Click on the edit button and a panel will pop up as in figure 2. The available settings are 1.3x and 2.0x distortion, select
the one that suites your needs and click on apply. The image will appear without distortions now.

figure 2: de-squeeze settings

Image
flipping

Some production workflows demand the use of mirrors, such as 3D productions. When the moment of quality check arrives, Silverstack offers the ability
to flip the image vertically, horizontally or both at the same time as shown in figure 3. This feature can also be applied to multiple clips at a time.

figure 3: image flipping settings

Tags: desqueeze, anamorph, anamorphic

Still
image
export
Silverstack lets you export still images from single frames of clips. Simply move the playhead to the desired frame and select “Clip > Create Still Image”
from the main menu as shown in figure 1:

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figure 1: still image export

There are different settings and formats available for this feature in the Preferences menu:

figure 2: still frame preferences

The following options and actions are available:

Directory
to
Store
Stills: Choose the directory to store your still grabs on your system by clicking the “Choose…” button.

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Naming
Scheme:
With the naming scheme you can define the naming for the exported still images.

There are multiple preset options available:

In addition the “Custom:” option allows to build a file name based on the metadata of the clip the still is exported from. By clicking
“Customize…” you can open the metadata wildcards panel and choose from the available wildcards to build a custom file name scheme:

Image
Format: The available image formats for exporting frames are:
JPEG – 8-Bit, 90% Quality
TIFF – 8-Bit, Uncompressed
TIFF – 16-Bit, Uncompressed

Color
Mode: The different color modes are:
As currently shown in player
Original color
Both: Exports two images with both of the above settings – one as shown in player and the other with the original color.

Exporting
Multiple
Still
Images
and
Contextual
Still
Frame
Selection

Silverstack can export multiple still images at once when either selecting multiple clips in the table or collection view or in the timeline of the player. The
still frame position that is used for the export depends on the context in the software.

Following a “what you see is what you get” approach the selected frame for the still image export follows the context in the software:

Player
and
Timeline:
Current
frame of each selected clip (indicated by the timeline ruler).
Table
&
Collection
View:
Thumbnail
image that is displayed in the table and collection view

You can set the position for the thumbnail image creation in the preferences and can recreate still images based on the same position. Learn more about
this in the article Choosing Custom Thumbnail Images.

Volume
playback
priority
High data rate video playback is very hardware demanding. As Silverstack offers a multiple destination backup option, your valuable clips will be stored in
different volumes. Different types of volumes may have variant interface connections. To increase playback performance in Silverstack it is possible to
select the playback priority.

To accomplish that you will have to go to the Volumes tab, select the volume you want to set its playback priority and adjust it on the right panel (figure 1
#1).

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figure 1: playback priority

If your main playback volume is offline, Silverstack will automatically select another volume in the order of your playback priority . If
no
priority
is
selected,
Silverstack
will
randomly
select
the
playback
source
volume.

Quick
Look
Features
In Silverstack you are able to preview all of your Assets that are natively supported by the Quick Look feature of MacOSX and offloaded/registered to your
library. This is especially useful if you would like to review those Assets which don’t have advanced camera support. Assets like any PDF document or
image (i.e. a screenplay, storyboard, etc.)

There are also some situations where it can be handy to preview advanced camera support Assets. We will briefly review some different scenarios that
might be useful on the film set.

General

Quick Look lets you browse files — photos, Pages documents, Keynote presentations, QuickTime movies, Microsoft Word and Excel files — without
having to launch an application or leave Silverstack.

Assets that are fully supported in Silverstack are playable via the regular playback function in the Playback view, in addition to the Quick Look feature.

You can access the Quick Look feature from by going to the Main Menu: “Playback
>
Preview
in
QuickLook”. To improve your workflow you can also
use the keyboard shortcut command
“Alt
+
Cmd
+
L”.

Case
1:
Review
supported
Assets

The Quick Look feature helps you to review an Asset without changing into the Playback view. This could be especially useful when you are reviewing
shots in a camera roll with the director but still want to give him a glimpse overview (via thumbnails in the collection view) of the camera roll of the entire
shooting today.

Or if you would like to review the take with recorded scratch sound from the camera. If the recorded scene includes audio it will automatically playback
with the Quick Look feature.

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Figure 3: “Collection View with Quick Look”

Case
2:
Review
Assets
without
extended
camera
support

With the use of 3rd party software it is possible to preview footage and Assets that are not natively supported by Silverstack neither with MacOSX. These
can be for example formats like XDCAM HD with help of tool mxf4Mac Import plugin and Final Cut Pro.

Also some other 3rd plugins are out there. Please review this article to have a list of possible 3rd plugins.

Case
3:
Review
Storyboards,
Images,
Sounds
and
PDFs

You can also give the director or the camera man the ability to review storyboards (like in figure 4.) or listen to some audio files that you offloaded from the
sound department.

Figure 3 : “Quick Look Storyboard”

Case
4:
Review
multiple
Assets
(non
consecutive)

With the Quick Look option you can also quickly watch a selection of takes from your camera roll. This is useful when you have many takes in one roll.
You are still able to stay within your current view like in figure 3 but you are able to watch multiple clips and discuss those with the script continuity, the
director or camera man and simple change clips with back and forward arrow within the Quick Look window.

To make a non consecutively selection in the Collection-View (like in figure 3)you simple need to press the command key. If you like to make consecutive
selection you simple press the Shift key. These simple command also applies for the Table-View.

Player
Grid
View
for
Multi
Clip
Selection

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Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab come with a Grid View mode of the playback view to show multiple
clips
side-by-side
in
the
Silverstack
Player and
on the HD-SDI
output:

Fig. 1: The Grid View of the player in Silverstack Lab

You can access the Grid View from the single view and grid view controls in the header bar of the player:

Fig. 2: Accessing the Grid View

Alternatively you can access it from the “Playback” menu of the Main Menu bar:

Fig. 3: Multi clip selection entry in the “Playback” menu

After accessing the Grid View you have to select multiple clips in the timeline to show them in the grid. This can be done with the usual macOS modifier
keys for multiple and continuous selection. Hold shift while clicking to select a range of clips and cmd to select and deselect single clips.

Fig. 4: The timeline with three selected clips

The timeline in fig. 4 shows a selection of three clips. The first clip (A006C009_160208_R2VJ) in bold white font is the primary current clip. Editing
metadata and adjusting the grade will affect the current clip only. It is also marked in the image with a little white dot in the lower left corner.

The current clip inside of a selection can be changed by clicking

on
another
clip
of
the
selection
or
by
clicking
on
the
image
in
the
player. To
deselect clips from the selection hold the cmd key while clicking. Click a non selected clip to dissolve the selection.

Lightweight
Copy
of
Looks

The Grid View can be useful to reference and compare grades. Therefore it can be handy to easily copy grades. By using the Look library in the right bar
looks can be easily created and applied to one or multiple clips. All necessary functionality can be found in the “Look” menu of the Silverstack Main
Menu:

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Fig. 5: The “Look” menu with functionality to create and apply looks

Learn more about the Silverstack Look Library in the article The Silverstack Look Library.

Grid View on

Grid
View
Functionality

per
Silverstack
Product
Version

The Grid View functionality differs for different Silverstack versions:

Silverstack: No Grid View available.

Silverstack
XT: Grid View limited to 2 clips.
Silverstack
Lab: Grid View limited to 12 clips (due to performance reasons).

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Creating Reports

Creating Reports
Creating
Reports
A crucial Silverstack feature is the “Report”
functionality. It offers you the opportunity to create a summary of all the clips contained by the selected
project item.

Therefore choose a project, folder or bin and open the “Report” wizard from the button in the Silverstack toolbar:

The
Report
Wizard

Different
Report
Types

Silverstack offers you the possibility to export different types of reports. Each one of them is designed for a different professional involved in the
production process. Additionally you can customize the kind of information shown in the reports (more information in the article Customizing Clip
Reports).

The different types of reports are:

Shooting Day Report

Clips Report
Thumbnails Report
Contact Print Report
Volume Report

Export
Multiple
Report
Types
Simultaneously

It is possible to export multiple report types simultaneously by enabling the checkboxes on the left besides the entries per report report type. To
customize a report type select it from the table and adjust the according settings that are revealed on the right. By default a Shooting Day and a Clips
Report are created.

The quick export icon on the right of each report type table element lets you quickly export a single report for preview.

Include
Report
Note

Each report type allows to include a general report note. Enable the “Include Report Note” checkbox and add your custom report note. Report notes
support Markdown language.

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Report
Destination

Location

Adjust the location the reports are exported to.

File
Format

By default all reports are created in PDF format. You can change the report file format to HTML in the “File Format:” pop-up menu.

Since Silverstack version 7 the CSV report has moved to the “Export” menu you can also open from the toolbar.

Naming

Adjust the naming for the reports and set it to custom to use metadata path wildcards for customized naming. See the section “Report Naming Scheme”
at the end of this article for more information.

Open
After
Creation

By default the created report will open after they have been exported automatically in preview. You can prevent that by disabling the checkbox in the
lower left corner of the wizard.

Additionally each report type has basic and advanced settings to adapt its content:

Shooting
Day
Report

The Shooting
Day
Report gives you production information about the clips you have offloaded.

Basic
Options

You can include the following summaries:

Project
Production Info
Clips Overview
Workflow
User Info
Labels & Flags
Ratings
Library
Backups
Bins
Video
Video Reels
Camera Sums
Video Formats
Audio
Audio Tapes
Audio Formats

Advanced
Options

Show percentage bars: The percentage bars on the right of each line of a summary show the share in the summary based on total clips in the
summary.

Enter production information like Director, Cinematographer and DIT in the production
field in the tab project
overview,
and show it by enabling the
summary “Production Info” (see basic options above).

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Example of a Shooting Day Report – click to get a closer look

Clips
Report

Clips
Report
(figure 6) is the most customizable type of report. It exports the clip’s metadata you choose from the column layouts. You can also use a
preset column layout with important information for different professionals involved in the production process. Column layouts can be managed and
saved from the toolbar of the table view (see fig. 5). Please see the article Customizing Clip Report for more information.

Basic
Options

Clip Table Layout

Table content: Clips only or clips and other files
Ignore Audio Clips
Number of Thumbnails: 1 or 3 (see section “Three Thumbnails per Clip”)

Advanced
Options

Thumbnail Quality in %
You can include the following summaries:
Project
Production Info
Clips Overview
Workflow

Clips Report customization

Example of a Clips Report – click to get a closer look

Thumbnails
Report

Generates a report similar to the Clips Report but with bigger thumbnails to help with the identification of the clips. The information displayed in the report
behaves in the same way as in the Clips Report.

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Basic
Options

Clip Table Layout

Table content: Clips only or clips and other files
Ignore Audio Clips
Number of Thumbnails: 1 or 3 (see section “Three Thumbnails per Clip”)

Advanced
Options

Thumbnail Quality in %
You can include the following summaries:
Project
Production Info
Clips Overview
Workflow

Three
Thumbnails
per
Clip

Silverstack by default creates one thumbnail for each ingested clip that is saved in the library. This thumbnail is used for referencing clips in the Clips,
Thumbnails and Contact Print Reports.

Since Silverstack 6.3 Clips

and
Thumbnails
Reports can now be created including three
thumbnails
per
clip.
This enables an advanced reference for
clips in reporting.

How
To

When selecting the Clips or Thumbnails Report in the report wizard you can choose as “Number
of
Thumbnails:”:

1
3 (requires online media)

During the export process Silverstack creates two thumbnails for the first and the last frame of the clip in addition to the custom thumbnail. In contrast to a
single thumbnail report that accesses the custom thumbnail, the three
thumbnails
report
requires
online
media for the ad hoc creation of the additional
thumbnails.

Position
of
Thumbnails

The position for the creation of the additional thumbnails can be influenced by setting in and out points for a clip. The position of the custom thumbnail
can be set in the preferences. Also, thumbnail creation on ingest can also be deactivated in the preferences.

Additional
Thumbnails
Failed
to
Create

If the thumbnail creation process fails it can have different reasons. One common, simple reason is offline media. If the report fails the following alert will
be shown:

The alert when something went wrong with the creation of additional thumbnails.

Please be aware that if no custom thumbnails have been created the custom thumbnail will show a placeholder icon in the reports. Always
take
a
look
at
your
report
to
ensure
its
content.

Report
Examples
with
Three
Thumbnails

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Fig. 10: Example of a Clips report with three thumbnails

Example of a Thumbnails report with three thumbnails

Contact
Print
Report

This option creates a report displaying only the thumbnails of the library element selected.

Options

Thumbnail Quality in %
You can include the following summaries:
Project
Production Info
Clips Overview
Workflow

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Volume
Report

Volume
Report (figure 14) summarizes the information regarding the source and current location of the different copies of the clips registered in
Silverstack. This kind of report can also contain XX Hash, MD5 hash and SHA1 hash information to confirm data integrity.

Options

Select Volume: Select the volume you want to create a volumes report for
Export the selected information: Select the information you want to include
You can include the following summaries:
Project
Production Info
Clips Overview

Example Volume Report

Report
Naming
Scheme

When saving reports the naming scheme option help to select a meaningful naming based on your project context.

There are preset options available for the naming of the reports:

Report naming scheme preset options

In addition to the presets the “Custom:” option allows to build a file name based on available metadata. By clicking “Customize…” you can open the
metadata wildcards panel and choose from the available wildcards to build a custom file naming scheme:

Available wildcards for naming the report

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Related articles:

Customizing Clip Reports

Choosing custom thumbnail image

Customising
Clip
Reports
Silverstack includes a comprehensive reporting center. We created it to give you more flexibility and possibilities in your daily workflow.

Overview

Create customized reports with the new Silverstack – documenting your entire offload and backup tasks. Silverstack consolidates it’s flexible reporting
capabilities in a powerful reporting center(see figure 1), providing customized reports for production and post-production. Silverstack provides shooting
day reports with thumbnails and metadata as well as comprehensive, statistical summaries in well-arranged and beautiful PDF document. Reports include
all the necessary metadata to document camera media traveling to workflow steps down the road.

Silverstack can customize clip reports by right clicking on the table view columns like in figure 2. The same customized table view will show up in your
clip reports. Simply select your required data and proceed to the report center to create a Clip Report. You can also customize your thumbnails to get a
better preview in your reports. For more info refer to the article Choosing custom thumbnails images.

figure 1: “Reporting Center”

figure 2: “Customizing the table view for a Clip Report”

Additionally you can save your customized table view preset and manage it. We also offer presets created in collaboration with experienced DITs from all
over the world. We are always pleased to hear your feedback and request for improved reporting. Please contact therefore [email protected]

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figure 3: “Saving a customized table view”

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Metadata Handling

Metadata Handling
Metadata
Handling:
View,
Organize,
Add,
and
Filter
Clips
The clip library is the core of Silverstack. It easily enables you to inspect all the metadata of your clips and let you organize all your clips by these
metadata. During offload and backup all clips and files plus their file copies are registered in the Silverstack’s clip library. Over time using Silverstack in
your production you always have access to these clip metadata which refer to your project based media files. During all organizing and editing tasks
Silverstack never modifies the data of the original and their backups but saves all changes separately.

We will give you a short overview about how to modify and add metadata in the clip library:

Enter
Metadata

Metadata (metacontent) is defined as data providing information about one or more aspects of your clips, for example such as:

Timecode
Resolution
Sensor
Frame Rate
Take, Shot, Scene
Reel name

A lot of clip metadata like resolution, reelname, or exposure is already added to your clips by the camera and is therefore not editable. Non-technical
metadata like scene/shot/take information however can be edited but is not stored within the original video files. Instead Silverstack saves this editable
information and links it to the corresponding clip file. You can add a lot of this supplementary metadata very easily in Silverstack.

You can edit metadata in the Silverstack Information panel, in the “General” (figure 1 #1) and “User” tab (figure 1 #2). Information edited in the “General”
tab can be applied to several selected clips. For doing so, click on the small pen symbol (figure 1 #3) right to the metadata field. Make your desired
changes and enter the information by clicking “Apply”.

figure 1: Information panel

Metadata like comments, ratings, flaggings etc. can be edited in the “User” partition (figure 2) and affect exclusively the currently active clip.

Flag: By flagging a clip (figure 2 #1) you brand it with a flag symbol which can be interpreted individually.
Rating: You can rate each clip (figure 2 #2) by assigning a range of zero to five stars to it.
Comment: Save important information regarding a clip by commenting (figure 2 #3) it.
Label: Each clip can be labelled (figure 2 #4) and thus be categorized. Each label in the drop-down menu can be edited in the application
preferences. You get there pretty fast by clicking on “Edit..” in the drop-down menu as you can see in figure 2 #5.

figure 2: Information panel – “User” section

Cue Points: The cue points table (figure 3) shows all set markers for this clip (#1). For a better overview of your markers, within a clip you can
assign each marker to one of a set of predefined categories (#2) and also search for them (#4). You can add new markers, delete existing and
jump to the next by the buttons in the lower left corner (#3).

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figure 3: Information panel – “User” section: Cue points

Using
the
Clip
Information
View

To inspect, edit, and add metadata you can use the information view. To activate it switch the view on the left from“Library” to “Information”.

The Information view provides several subviews:

General Info – Overview of the clip’s metadata

User Info – Additional metadata like ratings,comments, and cue-points
File Info – List of file resources, showing the different disk the clip was copied to
Header Info – Detailed information of all metadata extracted from the clip

Using
the
table
view

Silverstack’s clip table view is a great way to get an overview of the various metadata of a set of clips. Some of the fields are editable and you can jump
from field to field by pressing the TAB key.

Secondary click on the table header to show or hide metadata fields. You can also rearrange table columns by dragging the columns headers.

Using
the
Quick
Entry
panels

In the playback view the “Quick

Entry” panels allow you to easily set metadata for the current clip via keyboard shortcuts in a very fast way. Here is an
overview of the available commands:

1. Rating ⇧+⌘+A
2. Comment ⇧+⌘+S
3. Label ⇧+⌘+D
4. Scene/Shot/Take ⇧+⌘+T (figure 4)

You can also trigger the panels from the Silverstack menu: Edit
>
Clip
>
Quick
Entry

figure 4: Quick Entry panel for Scene/Shot/Take information

Filter
By
Metadata

The more metadata you have added to your library the better you can use it to organize your clips using some metadata attributes.

Search

You can query all metadata fields by using the search field in the upper right of Silverstack . To search for cue points use the search field at the bottom of
the “User” tab within the information panel (figure 3 #4).

Smart
folders

Smart folders are folders that show all clips that match some criteria. Silverstack creates some smart folders by default like “Registered
today” a folder
that contains all clips that were added to the library today.

To create your own smart folders, just click on the “+” button in the lower left and choose “Add
Smart
Folder”.

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Adding a smart folder showing the flagged clips of the last week

You can now specify the criteria a clip has to fulfill in order to be added to the smart folder. If you are adding more than one filter option, you have to
choose if the clip has to fulfill only one or all of it. The example above show a simple smart folder showing all the clips that are flagged and that were
registered during the last week.

Export
Metadata

To really leverage your metadata you might want to export the information for usage in other tools of your digital cinema workflow, Silverstack provides
the following export options:

Reports – Create a report that contains an overview on all clips and save it as pdf/html.
CSV, XML – Create files that you can import in spreadsheet applications like Excel or Numbers. Or write your own scripts to process the data.
Transfer to Final Cut Pro – Get your clips and the metadata into Final Cut Pro 7 and X.
Transfer to AVID Media Composer – Get clips and metadata into AVID using ALE files.

For further information about the Silverstack “Transfer” function go to the respective article Transfer.

Note: Not every transfer format can carry the same amount of information. That is why metadata workflows differ from format to format and thus from tool
to tool.

Tips
&
Tricks:
Quick
metadata
editing
The clip library is the core of Silverstack. With this guide we would like to give you some tips to speed up the metadata editing process. During offload
and backup all clips and files are registered in the library and metadata can be added while still copying the files.

Here are some features that might improve your metadata workflow in Silverstack:

1.
Batch
metadata
editing

Silverstack offers the possibility to add metadata to multiple clips at a time. Simply select the different clips in the table and list view and click the edit
button from the metadata field on the right panel (figure 1 #1). Make sure to check the «Apply to selection» check box (figure 1 #2) to modify all the
selected clips.

figure 1: Batch metadata entry and sequential suffix

2.
Sequential
suffix

Silverstack lets you add a sequential suffix to certain clip metadata fields:

Clip name
Scene
Shot
Take
Reel name
Lens
Look name
Filter

To use this feature, simply write the fixed element of the name in the «New value» and the starting value of the sequence (integer number, letter) in the
«Sequential suffix» box (figure 1 #3). For example enter: New Value: “Reel” and Sequential Suffix: “1” and the result is “Reel1”, “Reel2”, “Reel3”, etc.

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3.
Quick
Entry

In the Playback View the «Quick Entry» panels allow you to easily set metadata for the current clip via keyboard shortcuts in a very fast way. Here is an
overview of the available commands:

Rating ⇧+⌘+A
Comment ⇧+⌘+S
Label ⇧+⌘+D
Scene/Shot/Take ⇧+⌘+T

figure 2: Quick Entry panels for Scene/Shot/Take information

You can also trigger the panels from the Silverstack menu: Edit > Clip > Quick Entry

4.
Keyboard
shortcuts

Silverstack’s metadata related keyboard shortcuts:

⇧⌘ = Increase rating
⌘ – Decrease rating
⌃ 0 Clear
⌃ 1 Set rating to 1
⌃ 2 Set rating to 2
⌃ 3 Set rating to 3
⌃ 4 Set rating to 4
⌃ 5 Set rating to 5
⌃A Increase scene
⌃Z Decrease scene
⌃S Increase shot
⌃X Decrease shot
⌃D Increase take
⌃C Decrease take
⌥⌘ + Increase label
⌥⌘ – Decrease label
⌥⌘ 0 No Label
⌥⌘ 1 Best Take
⌥⌘ 2 Average Take
⌥⌘ 3 Moderate Take
⌥⌘ 4 B Roll
⌥⌘ 5 Alternate Shots
⌥⌘ 6 Interviews
⌥⌘ 7 Pomfortionös

Transfer
metadata
to
FCP
7,
FCP
X,
AVID
Media
Composer,
and
Speedgrade

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To process your clips in other Tools like Avid Media Composer, FinalCut or Speedgrade you can use transfer wizards.

Navigate to the level in your project tree that contains the clips you want to transfer and click “Export”
in the actions bar. Now choose the desired
program to transfer your clips, the clip metadata and other useful information.

figure 2: Final Cut Pro 7 (XML)

figure 3: Final Cut Pro X (XML)

figure 4: Avid Media Composer (ALE)

figure 5: Speedgrade/FrameCycler (IRCP)

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After you have selected the proper program a corresponding “Export” wizard (figure 6) opens up. Choose the clips and then specify the export options as
you can see them in figures 2 – 5.

figure 6: Silverstack “Transfer”-wizard for Final Cut Pro 7

In the transfer process Silverstack transfers the edited information relating to the particular clip along with a link to its original clip’s storage location. It
never overwrites the original clip’s metadata.

If you want to transfer your clips to Final Cut Pro X, you find a short explanation of the menu items affecting the metadata in the Export”
“ dialog in the
article Transfer metadata to FCP X. There is another article for transferring metadata into Avid Media Composer.

If you want to export only metadata of one or several clips as a pdf/ cvs/ xml/ html, Silverstack provides you the “Creating
Reports” function for that case.

Transferring
Metadata
to
Final
Cut
Pro
X
For the transfer of metadata via Final Cut Pro XML files (.fcpxml) the clip metadata is mapped accordingly and depending on the user-defined options as
you can see in figure 1.

figure 1: “Transfer”-wizard for Final Cut Pro X

Content
(figure
1
#1)

Scene, shot and take name can be added to the name of the clip in Final Cut Pro X
Various color information can also be transmitted. Properties as camera index, whitepoint, colorspace, lookname, ASA and label from Silverstack
are mapped to keywords in Final Cut Pro X
Single-frame cue points from Silverstack are mapped to markers in Final Cut Pro X
Multi-frame cue points from Silverstack are mapped to a clip range marked with a keyword in Final Cut Pro X
Clips marked as flagged in Silverstack are marked entirely as favorite in Final Cut Pro X.
Clips with rating “★” (one star) in Silverstack are marked as rejected in Final Cut Pro X.

Color
Processing
(figure
1
#2-4)

By transferring your clips to Final Cut Pro X you can apply different color plugins in this step:

for Cinestyle clips: DSLR Log2Video Plugin (#2)

for SLog clips: SLog2Video Plugin (#3)
for clips in LogC: apply Alexa log or looks (#4)

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Import
options
(figure
1
#5)

You can either immediately open the selected clips in Final Cut Pro X or save them first as Final Cut Pro XML files.

figure 2: From Silverstack transferred video clip in Final Cut Pro X

Mapping
of
metadata
from
Silverstack
to
Final
Cut
Pro
X

For the transfer of metadata via Final Cut Pro XML files (.fcpxml) metadata is mapped accordingly (depending on the user-defined options):

The range between in- and out-points in Silverstack is marked with Keyword “In-Out” in Final Cut Pro X.
Properties camera index, whitepoint, colorspace, lookname, ASA and label from Silverstack are mapped to Keywords in Final Cut Pro X.
Single-frame cue points from Silverstack are mapped to markers in Final Cut Pro X.
Multi-frame cue points from Silverstack are mapped to a clip range marked with a keyword in Final Cut Pro X.
Clips marked as flagged in Silverstack are marked entirely as favorite in Final Cut Pro X.
Clips with rating “★” (one star) in Silverstack are marked as rejected in Final Cut Pro X.

Transfer
Clips
to
DaVinci
Resolve
Including
Clip
and
Color
Metadata
Silverstack offers a solution to export clips to DaVinci Resolve including clip metadata as well as ASC-CDL color metadata. Additionally it is possible to
set up Resolve with the according LUTs to reflect the exact node based color processing done in Silverstack.

How
to
Transfer
Clips
from
Silverstack
to
a
DaVinci
Resolve
Timeline

The steps to perform to transfer a bin from Silverstack to a Resolve timeline including clip and color metadata are in detail:

1. Export FCPXML as well as additional clip and color metadata from Silverstack
2. Import FCPXML into DaVinci Resolve
3. Use the CSV import function in DaVinci Resolve to add clip metadata
4. Use the Colortrace function in Resolve to add ASC-CDL color data

Export
FCPXML
and
Additional
Clip
and
Color
Metadata
from
Silverstack

To export to Resolve select the desired bin from the Silverstack Library. Either perform a secondary (right) click on the bin and select “Export
to
>
Davinci
Resolve
Export”
or from the “Export” button in the title bar of Silverstack choose “DaVinci
Resolve
Export”.

You will be presented with a window where you can select or deselect clips from the bin that should be exported:

Figure 1: Choose clips and media files for Davinci Resolve export

After making your selection click “Continue”.

A further dialog window opens up:

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Figure 2: Davinci Resolve export options

It lets you choose from three export options :

Timeline
(.fcpxml): This export item is responsible for creating the timeline and populating the clips in Resolve.
Color
metadata/Looks
(.edl
and
.ccc):
These export items are responsible for adding the color metadata (ASC-CDL settings) to the clips in
Resolve (via Colortrace functionality).
Clip
metadata
(.csv):
This export item is responsible for adding the clip metadata to the clips in Resolve.

To result with a timeline,

clip
and
color
metadata activate all three checkboxes and click “Export…”. Select the desired destination for the files. The
FCPXML, EDL, CCC and CSV file will be put in the same directory automatically.

Import
FCPXML
into
DaVinci
Resolve

Open up DaVinci Resolve and create a new project.

From the Main Menu choose “File

>
Import
AAF,
EDL,
XML”. Navigate to the path where you saved the FCPXML from Silverstack select it and click
open.

You will be presented with an option window for loading XMLs:

Figure 3: Preferences for loading an XML in DaVince Resolve

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Check to have the checkbox “Automatically

set
project
settings” enabled which should be the case by default. That makes sure all settings will be
adapted to match the clips from the FCPXML.

Click “Ok”.

Figure 4: The main window of Resolve with the imported timeline

You should be presented with the “Edit” tab in Resolve that shows the Media Pool on the left and a timeline containing all the clips from the Silverstack
bin you formerly exported.

How
to
Add
Clip
Metadata
to
the
Clips
in
the
Timeline

This process will only work in Resolve 12.5 or later.

Go to the “Edit” tab in Resolve. From the Main Menu choose “File
>
Import
metadata
to…
>
Media
Pool”:

Figure 5: Import metadata from the csv

In the following opening dialog choose the .csv file that you exported from Silverstack and click open.

A metadata import window will follow:

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Figure 6: Metadata import options

Choose a meaningful combination of Import Options and Merge Options for your use case. Hit “Ok”.

All matching clips in the bin should now have received the new metadata. Select a clip and check the metadata section on the right side of the Resolve
window for the results.

The FCPXML will already transfer a basic set of metadata. The additional metadata that can be transferred from Silverstack via the .csv file is in detail :

Camera ID [Camera #]
Scene [Scene]
Shot [Shot]
Take [Take]
Episode [Episode Name]
Label [Clip Color]
Flagged [Good Take]
Comment [Comments]
Caption [Description]
Custom 1 [Lens Notes]
Custom 2 [Audio Notes]
Custom 3 [VFX Notes]
Tags [Keywords]
Shot Descriptors [Shot Type]
Cue Points [Reviewers Notes]
Shutter [Shutter]
ASA [ISO]
Whitepoint [White Point (Kelvin)]
Tint [White Balance Tint]
LUT Nodes [LUT Used]
CDL SOP [CDL SOP]
CDL SAT [CDL SAT]
Director [Director]
Cinematographer [DOP]
Production [Production Name]
Producer [Producer]
Camera Assistant [Camera Assistant]
2nd Camera Assistant [2nd Asst]
Data Manager [Data Wrangler]
DIT [Digital Technician]
Script Supervisor [Script Supervisor]
Sound Mixer [Sound Mixer]
Location [Location]
Lens Model [Lens Type]
Lens Serial [Lens Number]
T-Stop [Camera Aperture]
Focus Distance [Distance]
Filter [Filter]
ND Filter [ND Filter]
Color Space [Color Space Notes]
Camera Orientation [Angle]
Camera Model [Camera Type]
Camera Manufacturer [Camera Manufacturer]
Camera Serial [Camera Serial #]
Camera Firmware Version [Camera Firmware]
External Audio Clips [Audio Media]
Soundroll [Sound Roll #]
TC Start (Ext Audio) [Audio Start TC]

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TC End (Ext Audio) [Audio End TC]

External Audio Track Names (multiples in column “Audio Track Names”) [Track 1 to Track 8]

The labels in the brackets reflect the naming of the Resolve metadata fields the Silverstack metadata is mapped to.

Setting
the
Reel
Name

To attain a proper match of the CDL values per clip you have to make sure that the Reel Names of the clips and the Reel Names in the Silverstack EDL
match.

In the Project Settings go to “Master

Project
Settings” and inside of that to “Conform
Options”. Make sure to check “Assist
using
reel
names
from
the:” checkbox:

Figure 7: Set the Project Settings Conform Options for the right reel name handling for Color Trace matching

Based on your clip types as well as path structure and clip file names the settings that match your workflow could differ.

Selecting
“Embedding
in
Source
clip
file” as an option should work for QT ProRes and ARRIRAW workflows.

Search the DaVinci Resolve manual for “extraction

pattern
operators”
to learn how to use extraction patterns to pull reel names from your media paths.

Please be aware that the ColorTrace matching wizard will also give you the opportunity to“Ignore
Reel
Names”
(see also Fig. 9) .

How
to
Add
Color
Metadata
to
the
Clips
in
the
Timeline

Use
the
Colortrace
Function
to
add
ASC-CDL
color
metadata.

After creating the timeline you will be able to add the color information.

Select the timeline from the media pool. It should be marked with a little XML indicator on its lefthand side. Perform a secondary (right) click on it and
choose “Timelines
>
ColorTrace
>
ColorTrace
from
CDL” from the context menu:

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Metadata Handling

Figure 8: Select ColorTrace from CDL

You will be presented with an open dialog where you will first have to choose the exported EDL file. Right after that you will have to choose the exported
CCC file.

After opening both of them you will be presented with the ColorTrace option window:

Figure 9: The ColorTrace option window

If all the clips have green borders everything matches fine. Click “Copy
Grade
and
Exit” to copy the according grades to the clips. This is important as
you can also “Copy Grade and Exit” without applying any look if all of the clips are marked with a red border.

You can check the “Ignore Reel Names” box to make sure that the Reel Name is not taken into account. Please see the section about setting the Reel
Name above to be able to handle multiple reels in parallel with distinct Reel Names.

Switching to the Color tab presents you with the clips that now have the ASC-CDL color metadata from Silverstack added:

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Figure 10: Switch to the color tab to see the clips with added color metadata

Transfer
Color
Metadata
to
Assimilate
Scratch
You can export an .ale from Silverstack to transfer ASC-CDL color metadata to Assimilate Scratch. Assimilate Scratch matches the according CDL values
to the loaded clips and translates them into looks.

Exporting
an
ALE
from
Silverstack
Including
ASC-CDL
Color
Information

To export an .ale file from Silverstack go to the header bar and choose “Export” :

Fig.1: Choose Assimilate Scratch from the Export options.

Choose “Assimilate
Scratch
(ALE)” and a wizard window will open:

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Metadata Handling

Fig. 2: Choose the clip you want to export in the ale.

Select the clips you want to export and click “Continue”.

In the next window choose your configuration:

Fig. 3: Choose the ALE export options

Make sure the “CDL

Values
in
ASC-SOP
&
ASC-SAT
column”
checkbox is checked to transfer color data to Assimilate Scratch.

Click “Save
ALE…” to save the .ale file to the intended destination.

Importing
an
ALE
in
Assimilate
Scratch
and
Matching
Color
Metadata

To import .ale files that contain color information in Scratch you have to follow 4 consecutive steps:

1. Import the clips into Scratch that you want to apply color information to.
2. Import the .ale file.
3. Check settings for matching and import.
4. Go to the clip view and find the ASC-CDL values affect the clips accordingly.

Let’s break the steps down into detail:

Importing
the
Clips

Click the “Load Clips” button from the lower left side of the interface:

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Fig.4: Click the Load Clips button to add clips to Scratch.

Choose the clips you exported the ALE for to add them to the Scratch project:

Fig. 5: Clips have been added to the project

Importing
the
ALE
File

Go to the “Conform” section which you will find slightly below the “Load Clips” button you just used. Click the “Import” button to open the ALE:

Fig. 6 : Choose “Import” from the conform options

Navigate to the exported ALE and click “Open”.

Check
Settings
for
Matching
and
Import

You will see the matching user interface where now the ALE data will be matched to the clips:

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Fig. 7: The ale matching user interface.

At the top of the the columns from the .ale you can select the action that should be performed for each column. Make sure you have the “ASC-SOP” and
“ASC-SAT” columns set to “Import”. Matching on TC or File Name will be easiest so make sure to that at least one of those columns, or any other you
want to match based on, is set to “Match
on…”. You can make that selection from the drop down on top of every column.

Click “Start
Matching” to match the metadata (including the ASC-CDL data) to the clips according to your settings.

While then selecting the different rows in the ALE you will see the clips the data will be matched to in the right bar of the wizard.

Fig. 8: The metadata has been connected to the clips.

Click “Execute” when you are happy with the match and want the metadata to be taken over to the clips.

Go
to
the
Clip
View
and
Find
the
ASC-CDL
Values
Affect
the
Clips
Accordingly

Double click a clip to reach the clip detail view:

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Metadata Handling

Fig. 9: The detailed view of the clip in Scratch

Select “Matrix” from the display options on the right side and “Numeric” from the panel on the left side. You will then see how the color settings have
been affected by the imported ASC-CDL data.

If working in Assimilate Scratch on a PC monitor you have to set the right gamma to match the look of the clips to the perception inside Silverstack. Go to
the Assimilate Scratch global settings to change the gamma if needed. Please be aware of the ColorSync settings in Silverstack as well (read about the
setting in the article Using Silverstack’s Full Screen Mode).

Maintaining
Grades
and
Clip
Metadata
Throughout
Production

The use of Pomfort’s LiveGrade and Silverstack in combination with Assimilate Scratch allows for an integrated workflow that involves the preservation of
clip and grade metadata throughout the process.

Looks generated with LiveGrade can easily be matched to the clips inside Silverstack. This workflow is also described in the article Look Matching.

Silverstack can then export an ALE that contains information about the LUT in the grade for each clip. By using the LUT files along with the ASC-CDL
data and the automatic matching process inside Assimilate Scratch, unique grades can easily be transferred for each individual clip.

This tutorial made by Assimilate Scratch will give you detailed insights on the workflow:

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Transferring
Metadata
to
Avid
Media
Composer
To transfer clips and their corresponding metadata information from Silverstack to Avid Media Composer the following two steps have to be performed:

Create an Avid Log Exchange (ALE) file containing the metadata of the relevant clips in Silverstack
The information from the ALE file has to be merged with available master clips in the Avid Media Composer.

Creation
of
an
ALE
file
in
Silverstack

1. Generating an ALE file can be done via the “Export” menu in Silverstack. Select the bin which contains the relevant clips, click on the “Export”
button in the toolbar of the Silverstack window and choose “Avid
Media
Composer
(ALE)”.

2. Thereon select the clips you want to transfer in the wizard that opens up.

3. In the following you have to select the content of the library to be transferred (see screenshot of options below).

Besides the required general information you can additionally select additional detailed information in this section.

4. The metadata is transferred to the Avid Media Composer via the ALE file and is only there matched with the clips. The matching can be performed
according to following metadata information:

Source File Name in Source File Column

Reel Name in Tape Column
Source File Name in Tape Column
Source File Name without File Extension in Tape Column
Video Clip Name in Tape Column

5. Click on “Save
ALE…”.

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 Silverstack
Metadata Handling

The ALE export options.

Merging
information
from
the
ALE
file
with
master
clips

1. After having created the ALE file go to the Avid Media Composer and import the clips if not done so far. They should thereon be available as master
clips.
2. Select the bin in the Avid Media Composer which contains the relevant clips.
3. Select those clips and choose “Input
>
Import
Media…” from the context menu in the bin.
4. Open the “Options”, then click on “Options…” navigate to the Shot Log tab and select “Merge
events
with
known
master
clips”.
5. Navigate to the ALE file you created before and click “Open”.

Avid Media Composer now matches master clips and metadata information from the ALE file according to their timecode and the criteria you selected
during the transfer process within Silverstack .

The information from the ALE file is attached within additional columns in the bin table as in figure 2. Some of the columns are already known by the Avid
Media Composer, all unknown information will be added as custom columns.

Avid Media Composer: Extended metadata after the ALE import

If you cannot see any custom columns, perform the following steps:

1. Close and re-open the bin

2. Right-click in the free space of the bin window and click on “Choose
columns…” in the context menu.
3. Then select and unselect columns, the custom columns from the imported ALE file you will find at the end of the list.

Transfer
Color
Metadata
to
AVID
Media
Composer
To learn about the basic process of transferring metadata to AVID please refer to the article Transferring Metadata to Avid Media Composer. The article
will help you through the process of matching metadata from an ALE file generated from Silverstack to master clips in Avid.

Adding
Color
Metadata
to
the
ALE
Export

When exporting your ALE file from Silverstack make sure you have the checkbox “CDL
Values
in
ASC-SOP
&
ASC-SAT
column” checked:

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 Silverstack
Metadata Handling

Figure 1: Include the CDL Values in the according columns of the ale file.

After the values are included in the ALE file perform the same steps as pointed out in the article Transferring Metadata to Avid Media Composer. The
result will be clips that have the CDL values from Silverstack in the ASC_SAT and ASC_SOP metadata columns in AVID Media Composer.

Transforming
the
Color
Metadata
Information
into
Looks
in
AVID

We will now use the color metadata information from the ASC_SAT and ASC_SOP column to apply them to the clips.

Select all clips in the bin you merged the metadata with. Perform a right click on the film reel icon on the left of an arbitrary clip:

Figure 2: The bin with selected clips and the reel icons marked.

From the context menu choose “Source

Settings”.
You will see the following window:

Figure 3: The Source Settings with the Color Encosing tab selected.

Make sure to have the tab “Color

Encoding” selected at the top left of the window. Click the dropdown indicator in the menu where it says “Levels
scaling
(full
range
to
video
levels)” below the “Color
transformations” list.

You will see a list of transformations to choose from:

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 Silverstack
Metadata Handling

Figure 4: Choose the CDL ASC_SOP and ASC_SAT values from the bottom of the dropdown list.

Scroll down to the bottom of the list and select the “CDL
ASC_SOP
ASC_SAT” entry. Click “Add” right below and it will appear in the “Color
transformations” list:

Figure 5 : The Source Settings with CDL values in the Color transformation list.

Now click “Apply

to
All” on the bottom of the window to apply the according CDL values to every clip. Click “OK” to leave the wizard. Every clip will now
receive the look that is generated from its associated values in the ASC_SAT and ASC_SOP columns.

Adding
a
3D
LUT
to
the
Color
Processing

To add a 3D LUT again select all the clips you want to apply a LUT to. Perform a right click on the film reel icon on the left of an arbitrary clip and from the
context menu choose “Source
Settings”.

Instead of choosing “CDL ASC_SOP ASC_SAT” from the dropdown select

the
desired
LUT and click “Add” to put it into the “Color transformations” list
above:

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 Silverstack
Metadata Handling

Figure 6: The source settings with CDL and LUT in the right order in the Color transformations list

Make sure that the CDL entry is on top of the LUT entry in the list. They will be applied in order from top to bottom as in the nodes in Silverstack.

Now click “Apply

to
All” to add the LUT to all the selected clips. Then click “OK” to leave the wizard. The clips will now all have and additional LUT added
to the CDL processing.

Exporting
Looks
from
Silverstack
It is possible to export CDLs and 3D LUTs from the Silverstack Look Library. To learn more about the Silverstack Look Library please refer to the article
The Silverstack Look Library.

To export the desired information go to the Look Library in Silverstack and choose one or more looks to export. Perform a secondary click (right-click) on
one of the selected looks and from the context menu choose “Export
selected
Looks”:

Figure 1: Select one or multiple looks for export and with a secondary click open the context menu.

You will then be pointed to a save dialog where you will be able to choose from different formats for the export:

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Figure 2: The export window with the different export options.

You can choose between three categories to export your look:

Looks
LUTs for Software
LUTs for Devices

Looks include:

ASC-CDL (.cdl, for all grading modes where possible)

Pomfort Look Exchange Format (.pfl, for Look Exchange with LiveGrade Pro)
Alexa Look (.xml, for ARRI Alexa compatible look export)
Amira Look (.aml, for ARRI Amira compatible look export)

LUTs
for
Software include:

Pomfort LiveGrade (33x33x33, RGB order, .cube file)

Pomfort Silverstack (33x33x33, RGB order, .cube file)
Adobe Speedgrade (32x32x32 3D LUT, .cube file)
Assimilate Scratch (32x32x32 .3dl file)
Autodesk Lustre (33x33x33 .lut file)
Colorfront OSD (17x17x17 .3dmesh file)
Convergent Design Odyssey (17x17x17 .cdlut file)
DaVinci Resolve (33x33x33 3D LUT, .dat file)
DigitalVision Nucoda (17x17x17 .cms file)
Filmlight Baselight (32x32x32 .cube file)
REDCINE X PRO (33x33x33, rgb order .cube file)

LUTs
for
Devices include:

BlackmagicDesign HDLink Legal to Legal (17x17x17 .cube file)

BlackmagicDesign HDLink Extended to Extended (17x17x17 .cube file)
AJA Lut box (17x17x17 .cube file)
Panasonic Varicam (17x17x17, rgb order .vlt file)

Choose the
desired
look
format
and the intended directory and hit “Save”. You will then be able to use the exported look in the intended destination
software or device.

Exporting
Look
Archives
from
Silverstack

You can export complete folders with looks directly from the Silverstack Look Library into a Look
Archive
(.pfla). To do that select one or multiple folders
from the Silverstack Look Library. Perform a secondary click (right click) and select “Export
selected
Folders
as
Look
Archive”
from the context menu:

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Figure 2: Exporting a Look Archive from a folder in the Silverstack Look Library.

In the following wizard select the directory you want to save to and click “Save”. The .pfla file will then be available for further use from that directory.

To learn how to import a Look Archive please refer to the article Transferring Looks from LiveGrade to Silverstack.

Transferring
Looks
from
LiveGrade
Pro
to
Silverstack
Silverstack’s Look Library and grading controls enable you to receive looks from LiveGrade. You can choose to export a
single
look or multiple
looks. A
single look will be handled as a Pomfort
Look
(.pfl)
file, while multiple looks will be put together into a Pomfort
Look
Archive
(.pfla)
file. To transfer looks
from LiveGrade including all grading nodes and their settings perform the following steps.

Exporting
a
Look
from
LiveGrade

Select the desired look(s) in the library of LiveGrade. In the main menu go to “File>Save
selected
Looks
As…”:

Figure 1: Save selected Looks as

After that a save dialog appears. As “Look

Format” select “Pomfort
Look
(.pfl)” then choose the name and the destination to save to:

Figure 2: Save dialog for “Pomfort Looks”

More information about creating and managing looks in LiveGrade can be found in the articles Grading Modes in LiveGrade and Create Clips, Stills and
Looks.

Importing
a
Look
into
Silverstack

Open Silverstack. Go to the Main Menu and select “File>Import>Pomfort

Looks
(pfl)…”.

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Figure 3: Import the .pfl file into Silverstack.

An open dialog shows up. Navigate to the previously saved .pfl file from LiveGrade:

Figure 4: Open dialog for Pomfort Looks

Make sure that Silverstack’s Look Library in the right info bar is shown (for example toggle the right bar from the toolbar). Learn how to use the Look
Library in Silverstack from the article The Silverstack Look Library. Go to the Look tab:

Figure 5: The Looks section with the imported “Blueish”

The look from LiveGrade will appear in the “Looks” section containing:

Thumbnail
Look name
Metadata

The settings of the grading nodes reflect those of the look in LiveGrade. After applying the look to the desired clip you will be able to modify it in
Silverstack from the point where you left off in LiveGrade.

To learn more about the grade controls in Silverstack please refer to the article Grading Controls in Silverstack 5.

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Exporting
a
Look
Archive
from
LiveGrade

A Look Archive can contain one or multiple looks along with all the further metadata acquired in LiveGrade Pro.

To export a Look Archive put all the desired looks into one folder in the LiveGrade Look Library. Perform a right click on that folder and choose “Export
Look Archive” from the context menu:

Figure 6: Exporting a Look Archive from LiveGrade Pro

Save the resulting .pfla (Pomfort Look Archive) file to the desired destination.

Importing
a
Look
Archive
into
Silverstack

Go to the looks tab in the Right Bar of Silverstack. In the Look Library perform a secondary click (right click)

Figure 7: Importing a Look Archive as a folder.

Select the desired .pfla (Pomfort Look Archive) file and click. The Looks from the Archive will then be available in the newly created folders in the
Silverstack Look Library.

Import
metadata
via
MovieSlate
Introduction

When importing metadata via MovieSlate XML you can use various methods to match the clips coming from MovieSlate with your offloaded Assets:

Timecode
File Name
Creation Date

Timecode
Mode

This mode is pretty straight forward, it will compare the timecode of your assets and look for the corresponding values in the imported MovieSlate file. If
the timecode of MovieSlate is synced with the camera each asset automatically matches with a clip from the MovieSlate XML. Matching by timecode
also offers the possibility to automatically set the in-point to the slate frame.

File
Name
Mode

The File Name mode works literally and compares the exact filenames of your offloaded assets with the clips from the imported MovieSlate XML. Even the
smallest disparity will force Silverstack not to match the Assets with the MovieSlate metadata.

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Creation
Date

This mode matches the creation date of your assets with the creation date of your MovieSlate clip metadata. This mode is working with approximation.
You have a “Tolerance” slider which can help you to adjust the time difference between the camera and MovieSlate clock. You have a range from 1sec up
to two minutes. This method is fuzzy and a high tolerance can lead to misinterpretations.

Further
articles:

Step-by-Step Tutorial: How to import via Filename Mode

Step-by-Step Tutorial: How to import via Timecode & Creation Date Mode

Figure 1: “Movie Slate Import Wizard, showing 5 matched clips”

Transferring
Clips
and
Metadata
to
Adobe
Premiere
Pro
Silverstack can create an .xml file compatible with Adobe Premiere Pro to transfer clips and clip metadata to the editing tool.

Exporting
an
Adobe
Premiere
Pro
XML
from
Silverstack

The export option can be accessed from the “Export” button in the toolbar:

Fig. 1: The export menu

After the source selection step you can define content and format options for the exported XML:

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Fig. 2: Content and format option for the XML export

Content:

General
Clip
Info: Contains the basic information needed to transfer clips (file paths, etc.)
Master
Info: Contains Scene Shot Take info as well as the Reel Name.
Scene in Silverstack maps to “Scene” column in Premiere Pro
Shot and Take in Silverstack map to the “Shot” column in Premiere Pro in the format “Shot – Take”
User/QC
Info: Contains flag/circled info as well as Comments (maps to “Description” column in Premiere Pro)
General
clip
settings
as
Master
Comment
1:
Maps general clip settings (e.g. InformationSensorFps, ShutterAngle, WhiteBalance,
ExposureIndexAsa, ColorGamma) to the Master Comment 1 column in Premiere Pro
Tags
as
Master
Comment
2: Maps the tags in Silverstack to the master comments 2 in Premiere Pro.
Custom
1,
2
as
Master
Comment

3,4
: Maps the custom comment fields 1 and 2 in Silverstack to the master comments 3 and 4 in Premiere
Pro
Labels
as
Clip
Colors: Maps the labels in Silverstack to clip colors in Premiere Pro
Audio
Info: Takes over the Source Audio Clip Names column and the # of Source Audio Tracks Info to Clip Comment A and Clip Comment B
in Premiere.
Cue
Points
as
Markers: Maps the cue points in Silverstack to the markers in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Format:
Sets the Reel Name to
Reel
Name: Sets the Reel Name of the XML as specified in the Silverstack “Reel Name” metadata field
Source
File
Name: Sets the Reel Name of the XML to the source file name of the clip in Silverstack (e.g. A003C012_160205_R2VJ.mov)
Source
File
Name
Without
Extension: Sets the Reel Name of the XML to the source file name without extension (e.g.
A003C012_160205_R2VJ)

In Premiere Pro the Reel Name of the XML will be taken over to the Tape Name column.

After defining the settings click “Save

XML…” to export the Adobe Premiere Pro XML.

Creating
Synced
Sequences
in
Premiere
with
Audio
Sync
Information
from
Silverstack
XT
or
Silverstack
Lab

Overview
and
Use
Cases

Silverstack can provide information about external audio clips that have been synced to Adobe Premiere to create synced sequences with correctly
aligned video and audio tracks.

This feature helps e.g. to implement workflows where audio clips are not available before transcoding and are synced to the transcoded clips at the end of
the day. Right after automatic audio sync the xml with audio sync information can be exported and provides synced sequences without transcoding
again.

Another use case could be bringing camera native ProRes files into edit with synced audio from Silverstack.

How
To

After syncing external audio clips with the video clips open the Premiere Export:

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Fig. 3: The Audio option in the Adobe Premiere XML Export

Make sure to mark the checkbox “Include

audio
synced
sequences
and
referenced
audio clips”. This will equip
the XML with the necessary
information.

After opening the XML in Premiere Pro you will obtain the following folders:

One folder that contains all the video clips (e.g. A007R2VJ (Editorial), see fig. 4)
One folder that contains all the audio clips synced with the video clips (“Audio Clips” in fig. 4)
One folder that contains the “Synced
Clips
Sequences”

The “Synced
Clips
Sequences”
are Adobe Premiere Pro editing sequences that have the audio in sync position to the clips:

They can now be used for editing.

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To learn more about audio sync with external audio clips in Silverstack Lab and Silverstack XT please take a look at the articlesHow To Automatically
Sync Audio Based on Timecode in Silverstack Lab and How to Manually Sync Audio in Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab.

Mention the “special setting” for editing ?

How
to
Open
an
XML
in
Premiere
Pro

After saving the XML from Silverstack you can go ahead and open the XML file in Premiere Pro.

Open Premiere Pro. Go to the “File” menu and choose “Open

Project…“. Choose the previously exported XML file and click “Open”.

The XML will import as a bin with all exported clips in Premiere:

Fig. 4: The imported XML folder in Premiere Pro

ZEISS
CP.3
XD
Lens
Correction:
Workflow
Overview
The CP.3 eXtended data (CP.3 XD) lenses by ZEISS provide extended metadata for digitally correcting images concerning optical shading and distortion
deviations. Pomfort’s applications LiveGrade Pro and Silverstack provide functionality to leverage this extended metadata for on-set
preview
(LiveGrade
Pro) and data
management
(Silverstack).

Use
of
eXtended
Data
in
LiveGrade
Pro
and
Silverstack
XT
/
Silverstack
Lab

The ZEISS eXtended data can be used for:

On-set
preview with LiveGrade
Pro
Extraction
of
recorded
lens
data and consolidation with clips in Silverstack
XT
and
Silverstack
Lab

The schematic overviews give you an idea of the on-set preview and lens data extraction use cases:

On-Set
Preview
of
Lens
Correction
with
LiveGrade
Pro

LiveGrade Pro is able to receive realtime lens correction information from a ZEISS CP.3 XD lens that is connected to an Ambient MasterLockit Plus.

Functionality

The live signal of the camera is connected to a hardware capture device that is connected via Thunderbolt to the Mac running LiveGrade Pro in order to
receive a live image in the application. Read the articles HD-SDI Setup for LiveGrade as well as SDI Recording and Frame Grabs for more information
about live image capturing in LiveGrade.

LiveGrade Pro connects via Wifi or a tethered network connection to the MasterLockit Plus that receives live lens correction data from the ZEISS CP.3 XD
lens. The live lens correction data can be applied to the captured live signal from the camera.

Learn more about the process in LiveGrade Pro in the article ZEISS CP.3 XD Lens Correction in LiveGrade Pro that offers a detailed description of the
features.

Extraction
and
Display
of
Recorded
Lens
Data
in
Silverstack

Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab allow to import, display and export lens correction data from ZEISS CP.3 XD lenses.

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Functionality

The lens correction data is recorded in the MasterLockit Plus. Clips offloaded in Silverstack hold timecode information that matches the recorded lens
data from the CP.3 XD lens. Silverstack can connect to the MasterLockit Plus via Wifi or a tethered network connection to receive the recorded lens data
and to consolidate it with the clips in the Silverstack database. After that step, the lens correction can be reviewed in the Silverstack player.

Furthermore the correction data can be exported into ZLCFs (ZEISS Lens Correction Files) for consecutive production steps as e.g. the use in
the “ZEISS
Lens
Correction” plugin ZEISS provides for Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve.

Learn more about the process in Silverstack in the article ZEISS CP.3 XD Lens Correction in Silverstack that offers a detailed description of the
functionalities.

Hardware
Overview

ZEISS eXtended data can be recorded via an external LEMO compatible plug onto an Ambient MasterLockit Plus:

Exemplary
Setup
Using
an
ARRI
Alexa
Mini

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1. Connect the ZEISS CP.3 XD lens via the metadata cable to the grey ACN port of the MasterLockit Plus
2. Connect the timecode cable from the TC port of the MasterLockit Plus to the TC port of the camera

Hardware
Components
for
LiveGrade
Pro
Workflow

The following hardware components are involved:

ZEISS CP.3 XD lens

Camera
Ambient MasterLockit Plus
Cables
Lens data cable
Power cables
Metadata cables
Timecode cables
Apple Mac / Macbook (Pro)
Blackmagic Design UltraStudio Mini Recorder or similar recording device
Thunderbolt cable
HDMI or SDI cable
Software
Pomfort LiveGrade Pro

Hardware
Components
for
Silverstack
Workflow

The following hardware components are involved:

ZEISS CP.3 XD lens

Camera
Ambient MasterLockit Plus
Cables
Lens data cable
Power cables
Metadata cables
Timecode cables
Apple Mac / Macbook (Pro)
Software
Pomfort Silverstack XT or Silverstack Lab

Additional
Information

What
is
eXtended
Data?

ZEISS eXtended Data is a newly developed lens data technology. It is based on the Cooke /i technology and extends the functionality with additional
information about the lens characteristics such as distortion and shading. The characteristics are calculated in real time for every focal point and effective
T-stop. The lens data are transferred either directly to camera through 4-pin Cooke /i interface (PL mount) and / or to any supported equipment via
external cable.

ZEISS
CP.3
XD
Lens
Correction
in
Silverstack
Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab allow to import, display and export dynamic lens correction data from ZEISS CP.3 XD lenses. In particular this involves
shading and distortion correction of the recorded image.

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Metadata Handling

Overview

The following steps can be executed in Silverstack:

Import
lens
correction
data directly from Ambient Master Lockit Plus to consolidate it with the according clips in the library.
Display
and
review
shading
and
distortion
correction via the ZEISS lens correction panel in Silverstack.
Export
.ZLCF
lens
correction
files to transport lens correction data to consecutive applications such as DaVinci Resolve.

To learn more about the general workflow please visit the article ZEISS CP.3 XD Lens Correction: Workflow Overview.

Prior to importing lens correction data, clips have been recorded in the camera with the MasterLockit Plus attached to camera and lens.

Import
Lens
Correction
Data
from
Ambient
Master
Lockit
Plus

The lens correction data saved in the MasterLockit Plus holds a timecode relation to the clips recorded in the camera. The lens correction data be pulled
via a network connection from the MasterLockit Plus and then be consolidated with the clips via timecode

1. Offload the clips that have been recorded with lens correction data into the Silverstack Library
2. Open the Import wizard through the “Import” button in the toolbar:

Fig. 1: Choose MasterLockit Plus (CP.3XD Lens Data) from the Import menu
3. The lens data import wizard opens. Enter the MasterLockit Plus IP Address to the “Master
Lockit
Address”
address field to connect to the Master
Lockit Plus. After a successful connection the lens data events have been connected to the clips:

Fig.2: The lens data import wizard

Be aware that only clips that do not hold lens correction data will be displayed in the import wizard. Learn how to remove lens correction data in the
sections below.

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4. Options:
Lens
data
queried
by
shooting
date:
The lens correction data saved in the MasterLockit Plus will be queried for a certain time range around
the shooting date of the clips. You can set a wider time frame for the query with this dropdown. By setting the time and date of the camera
correctly you can initially make sure that the shooting date and time of the clips matches the timestamp of the lens correction data.
Import
Options
Overwrite
“Lens”
information
of
clip: The lens info coming from the MasterLockit Plus can be taken over to the “Lens” metadata field
in Silverstack.
Sensor
width: The sensor width is required to be able to display the lens corrections. Silverstack can determine (look up) the sensor
width based on the following metadata of the clips (displayed as columns in the clips table):
Camera manufacturer
Camera model
Sensor model
Format description (only in cases where the above does not provide a unique sensor width)
ResolutionThere are cases
when
an
automatic
detection
is
not
possible (most probable caused by the lack of metadata of the
clips). In this case you have to specify the sensor width manually to be applied to all clips where an automatic determination was
not possible.
You can change the sensor width later in the General Info (right sidebar) under “ZEISS Lens Correction” (see details below).
5. To take over the lens correction data to the clips click the “Apply
Lens
Data” button.

Extract
Lens
Correction
Data
from
Clips

There are cameras that are capable of including the xD lens correction data directly in their recorded clips. Currently the following formats and cameras
support the integration of eXtended Data in the recorded clips:

REDRAW clips from RED DSMC2 cameras (firmware version 7.1 and above)
X-OCN from SONY Venice cameras (firmware version 4.0 and above)

To extract the eXtended Data from the video clips you have to use the generic dynamic metadata extraction functionality. Learn more about how to
extract dynamic metadata in Silverstack XT and Lab in the article Dynamic Metadata.

If eXtended Data is present in the clips, it will automatically be extracted along with the dynamic metadata. Please see the screenshot below for indicators
if distortion and shading metadata is present, marked with a yellow rectangle.

The indicators on the right show if shading and/or distortion data are available.

Display
and
Review
Shading
and
Distortion
Correction

The clips now hold lens correction data. The “ZEISS

Lens
Correction” entry in the General Info shows the enabled correction data:

Fig. 3: ZEISS Lens Correction entry in the General Info

Click the pen icon to open the ZEISS lens correction popover:

Fig.4: The ZEISS Lens Correction Popover in the General Info

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The ZEISS Lens Correction Popover in the General info allows for
two different “Actions”:
removal of lens data (for single and multiple clips)
import of ZLCF file (only if no lens correction data is available for the clip)
multi edit of shading and distortion correction activation
multi edit of sensor width

The ZEISS lens correction panel can be opened from the “Look” section of the main menu:

Fig.5: Open the ZEISS lens correction panel

Fig. 6: The ZEISS lens correction panel

The ZEISS Lens Correction panel allows for

separate activation and deactivation of shading and distortion correction for display in player
entry of distortion zoom factor
dynamic lens data review per clip

The lens correction data will be displayed in the Silverstack player:

To export the status of the lens correction data into a clips report please activate the
“ZEISS
Lens
Correction” column in the table view:

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Fig. 8: The ZEISS lens correction column in the clips table view

Export
ZEISS
Lens
Correction
Files

The acquired lens correction data can now be exported per clip for consecutive productions steps. To open the export wizard go to the “Export”
button
menu in the toolbar and select the “ZEISS
Lens
Correction
Files
(ZLCF)” entry from the list:

Fig. 9: Open the ZLCF export wizard

This opens the ZLCF export wizard:

Fig. 10: The ZLCF export wizard

Please be aware that the wizard only shows clips that hold lens correction data. All others will not be shown and are reflected in the status line at the
bottom.

Per clip one .zlcf (ZEISS lens correction file) will be exported. After clicking
“Export…”
the wizard points you to select a folder for the zlcf files to be
placed.

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Camera Formats

Camera Formats
Generic
file
formats
Offloading all kinds of assets is possible with Silverstack’s proven copy features, which offer secured backups with checksum verification. The Offload
wizard scans the source folder and automatically selects the «Generic Copy» mode when non-supported files are detected. Not all media files are
recognized as playable Clips by Silverstack, besides the supported advanced media formats that can be found in the article Assets in Silverstack.

Offloading wizard

You will get a yellow notification reading «Ingesting NO clips» in the offload wizard in case Silverstack didn’t recognize the scanned files as a supported
advanced camera format. However, you can go ahead and proceed to offload and check sum the files. Once the process is finished, the files will be
registered in the Library, where you can continue to work with them. Just make sure to enable «Show Clips and Documents» in the View menu:

View menu

ARRI
ALEXA
and
AMIRA
Looks
in
Silverstack
Silverstack can playback and transcode ProRes clips recorded with ARRI ALEXA and AMIRA cameras with the looks applied on set. This feature lets DITs
check the Log-C footage in real time with the final look and feel without the need of transcoding.

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 Silverstack
Camera Formats

figure 1: AMIRA look application on and off

In order to use this functionality, ALEXA Looks and AMIRA Looks have to be applied in the camera before recording. Then the camera will write color
metadata into the QuickTime ProRes clips. Once the clips have been added to the library, Silverstack will read this metadata from the file and apply the
color changes along with the standard Rec.709 conversion by default. After the clips have been checked for quality, Silverstack will let you transcode
them to a lighter codec with the same look applied.

This feature is active by default, but it can be disabled through Silverstack’s Preferences menu, by setting the «Look Sorce» to None:

figure 2: visual controls preferences menu

Even if the look application is disabled, the footage can be displayed with the standard Log-C to Rec.709 conversion if you select «Preset» and choose
one of the Alexa or Amira LUTs.

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Silverstack Cloud

Silverstack Cloud
Registering
for
Silverstack
Cloud
The Silverstack Cloud is a cloud service and web application to share and access production metadata online.
The Silverstack Cloud is currently still under development and is available as public beta.

Registration
and
Account

During the public beta of Silverstack Cloud, everyone with a Pomfort Account can sign in and use the Silverstack Cloud with no further restrictions. With
end of the Beta period, we will offer both a free and a paid cloud plan.

If you already have a Pomfort Account, you can sign in using the same credentials to the Silverstack Cloud athttps://cloud.pomfort.com.

If you don’t have a Pomfort Account yet, you first need to create one for free at https://account.pomfort.com.

Changing
your
Password

In order to change the password of your Pomfort Account, please visit https://account.pomfort.com, sign out and use the password reset form to set a
new password.

Connecting
to
Silverstack
Cloud
Uploading
to
a
Silverstack
Cloud
Project
From
Silverstack

Make
sure
you
are
working
with
Silverstack
7.0
or
later
to
upload
projects
to
the
Silverstack
Cloud.

Follow the steps below to make your project metadata available online.

1. Click the cloud button in the toolbar to start the setup process:

A wizard sheet opens that guides you through the first steps.

2. In the first step you sign

in
to
the
Silverstack
Cloud with your Pomfort Account credentials to connect your project with the Silverstack Cloud.

3. In the next step choose

the
cloud
project that you want your current local Silverstack project to appear in.
 You have two options:

Create a new project and give it a custom name in the “Project Name:” text field (cloud project names are forced to be unique).
Add the Silverstack library to an existing cloud project which you can choose from the “Cloud Project:” pop-up button.

4. In the last step you choose the upload options. Select if you want toupload
thumbnails with the metadata library.

5. Click “Start Upload” to start the upload process of your local project to a cloud project.

Silverstack
Cloud
Status

After the setup is completed successfully you can monitor the cloud project status in the popover that shows from the cloud button in the toolbar (see
screenshot below).

The upload process consists of three steps, a preparation step, the upload of metadata, and the upload of thumbnails (if the option to upload thumbnails
is enabled).

The elements displayed in the popover are the following:

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Silverstack Cloud

Gear
menu
button
2 available functionalities:
Take
the
project
offline
temporarily. This temporarily prevents new library data from being uploaded to the cloud project.
Disconnect
the
project
from
Silverstack
Cloud
project. This will disconnect the local project and the cloud project permanently. By
default you are able to upload your library again to the existing cloud project by setting up the upload process again.
Pomfort
Account: Shows the the Pomfort Account that is used to sign in to the Silverstack Cloud for this project.
Cloud
Project: The name of the Silverstack Cloud project that the local Silverstack project is connected to. You can click the link to the cloud
project to open it directly in your default web browser.
Include
Thumbnails: Shows YES if thumbnails are also uploaded, and NO if they are not uploaded. You can change this setting by disconnecting
the project and setting it up again.
Last
Upload: Time and date of the last complete upload.
Progress
bar: When changes are made to the library it shows the progress of the upload.

Hide
Cloud
Status
from
Toolbar

It is possible to hide the cloud icon from the toolbar. This can be done via the Silverstack Main Menu that additionally makes functionality from the
Silverstack Cloud Status popover easier accessible.

Accounts
Tab
in
the
Preferences

Your Silverstack Cloud account(s) can be managed in the Accounts tab of the application preferences. Configured accounts show up in the connection
dialog when starting the upload of a new project.

The
Silverstack
Cloud
Web
Application
The production information stored in the Pomfort Cloud can be accessed through a web application. See the article Registering for Silverstack Cloud on
how to sign in or create a new account.

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Silverstack Cloud

Cloud
Projects

All production information in the Pomfort Cloud belongs to a cloud project. New projects are created and the production information (e.g. clip metadata) is
uploaded to the Pomfort Cloud with Pomfort’s desktop applications Silverstack or Silverstack Lab (version 7.0 or newer).

The Silverstack Cloud always displays information from one current project. A cloud project can contain information uploaded from several computers
that will be displayed in their respective library folders.

Main
User
Interface

The general layout of the user interface of the Silverstack Cloud is similar to Pomfort’s desktop applications and consists of a header bar and three main
parts.

The Silverstack Cloud Main UI

Header
Bar

The header bar consists of all top-level elements to navigate the Pomfort Cloud. On the left you see the currently selected project and can access the
project chooser to switch to other projects. On the right you find buttons to export clip metadata and to manage your account.

Main
UI
Parts
(from
left
to
right)

The main UI parts show the folders, bins, and clips contained by a project.

The project outline shows the library outline of all libraries from the applications that upload to the Pomfort Cloud.
The content view shows either statistics or a list of clips/files that are part of the selected item in the library outline.
The info panel shows metadata and details about storage locations of the selected item in the item list.

Project
Outline:
The selection of an item in the project outline influences the display of the other parts. The selection is recursive, so the content will show all items in the
selected folder and all the contained sub folders.

Statistics:
You can switch between statistics and list view by using the left buttons in the toolbar. The statistic shows a summary of the items contained in the folder
selected in the library outline.

List
View:
The list view shows a metadata table containing all clips and files contained in the selected folder and it’s sub folders or bins. Using the settings icon in
the toolbar you can manage the metadata columns to display and if only clips should be shown in the list or clips and all other files. The search allows to
enter a search term that is used to filter the items shown in the list.

Info
Panel:
The info panel consists of two tabs that can be switched with the tab buttons in the toolbar. They either show all the item’s metadata or the file locations
the item is stored on. The whole info panel can be collapsed using the right most button in the toolbar.

Project
Members

The information of a Silverstack Cloud project can be shared among several users. Each project member has one role in the project.

Project
Roles

Admin: The user that created the project has the admin role. The admin can view and upload metadata, invite further project members, and manage
the project. There is only one admin per project.
Contributor: A contributor can view the project and all its metadata. He can also upload metadata from Silverstack projects.
Viewer: A viewer can only view the project and all its metadata, he is not able to upload metadata from Silverstack.

In addition to the user role, additional permissions can be given to a project member. For example the admin of the project can decide if a certain project
member should be able to see the uploaded clip thumbnails or not.

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Silverstack Cloud

The project configuration screen showing project members

Inviting
Project
Members

New project members can be invited from the project configuration screen that is accessible via the “i” button in the header bar.

In the project configuration click “Invite User”. You then need to enter the user’s email address and choose the desired role and permissions for that user.
You can also enter an invitation message that gets included in the email to the users.

The invited user will receive an email about the invitation with a link to accept it. If the user doesn’t have a Pomfort Account yet, the user will create one as
part of the invitation accept process. The invitation will show up as pending in the list of project members until the invited user accepted it.
Once the invited user accepts the invitation, he will be able to see the project in his project list and use it according to his role.

Managing
Project
Members

The project configuration screen contains shows a list of all project members. As admin user you can remove users or edit their role by clicking the
manage icon at the end of their row. While the invitation is still pending you can instead resend the email or cancel the invitation.

Managing
Projects

As admin you can archive projects that are not active anymore to keep them available online. Archived projects don’t count against your number of active
projects. When a project is archived all project members can still access it but no new members can be invited and no new metadata can be uploaded. If
needed the archived project can be unarchived at any time.

Admins also can delete projects to have them removed from the Silverstack Cloud completely. Once a project is deleted all project members including
the admin can’t access the project anymore. Deleting a project can’t be undone.

Pomfort
Cloud
REST
API

The production information stored in the Pomfort Cloud can be accessed through a REST API. If you are interested in accessing the Pomfort Cloud REST
API, please contact [email protected] for further details and to obtain an application key.

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Troubleshooting
Application
Preferences
Many general settings for Silverstack can be changed within the Application preferences and by doing so, working with Silverstack may become even
easier to fit your workflow.

You get to the preferences menu by selecting “Preferences…” in the “Silverstack

” menu. The window that opens up contains following sections which
will be described detailed in this article:

General
Thumbnails
Copy
Playback
Format Options
Ingest
Backups
External Video
Grading

figure 1: Silvertack’s preferences

General

figure 2: General preferences

You can also customize the color label naming.

You can make decisions about appearance topics
You can choose how often Silverstack should check for software updates.

Thumbnails

In the “Thumbnails” section you can choose the position in the clip from which the thumbnails are taken. In addition, you can disable the thumbnail
creation on Offload jobs to speed up the process and create them afterwards from the «Edit» menu. Still frame export options are also available from this
panel.

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figure 3: Thumbnail preferences

It’s also possible to export still frames from clips either with the Original Color, as shown in player or the two images at once. The process is described in
the article Still image export.

Copy

Here you can define all the settings related to the copy process.

figure 4: Copy preferences

Playback

Here you can edit some settings for playback Besides setting the color in which black- and white-clipping regions of a video image are indicated, you can
also set the range color and clipping and range unit.

In addition, it’s possible to disable the automatic application of ALEXA and AMIRA Looks used while recording. This way the footage will be displayed
with the default Log-C to Rec.709 instead of the look.

In the “Playback” tab you can also select on which display the Playback Mode will be shown if you have more than one screen connected to your
computer.

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figure 5: Playback preferences

Format
Options

Within this section you can change settings regarding different cameras you may use for importing video clips. You can set those attributes for following
cameras/recorders: AJA KiPro and Atomos, ARRI Alexa, Sony F5/F55/F65 XAVC, Canon C300, GoPro Hero and Nikon, R3D and Canon DSLR.

The options that are available for defining the timecode are mostly the same for the different cameras. They are useful if you need a different timecode
source than the one you got from your camera. So instead of the camera’s timecode track you can use the Quicktime header create date or file create
date. Most times this option is only necessary for the Canon DSLR and GoPRO Hero, not so much for the ARRI Alexa and AJA KiPro.

AJA
KiPro
and
Atomos

You can set the Look source which will be preselected for the ingested material. Learn more about this feature in the article Basic Color Control in
Silverstack.
Furthermore you can let Silverstack extract informations about scene and take from the filenames by selecting the according checkbox.
For the AJA KiPro Silverstack provides the opportunity to use the Alpha Append character of a clips name to assign the clip accordingly to a
camera.

figure 6: format options for AJA KiPro

ARRI
Alexa

You can set the Look source which will be preselected for the ingested material. Learn more about this feature in the article Basic Color Control in
Silverstack.
Silverstack provides the option to generate the timecode with different modes.

figure 7: format options for ARRI Alexa

Canon
c300

You can set the Look source which will be preselected for the ingested material. Learn more about this feature in the article Basic Color Control in
Silverstack.

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figure 8: format options for Canon C300

Canon
DSLR

You can set the Look source which will be preselected for the ingested material. Learn more about this feature in the article Basic Color Control in
Silverstack.
The source timecode can be defined by the Thumbnail Image file, the Quicktime header create date and the file create date.
By selecting the according checkbox Silverstack will also copy any THM sidecar files from your Canon camera.

figure 9: format options for Canon DSLR

GoPro
Hero
and
Nikon

For any GoPro Hero and Nikon camera you can set only the option which defines the source timecode either to Quicktime header create date
or file create date.
You can set the Look source which will be preselected for the ingested material. Learn more about this feature in the article Basic Color
Control in Silverstack.

figure 10: format options for GoPro Hero

R3D

You can set the Look source which will be preselected for the ingested material. Learn more about this feature in the article Basic Color Control in
Silverstack.
The source timecode can be defined as absolute timecode, edge timecode, file create date or by user preference.
Reel name generation mode.
Use a Red Rocket card if available.

figure 11: format preferences for R3D clips

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Troubleshooting

RED Reel Name options

F5/F55/F65
XAVC

You can set the Look source which will be preselected for the ingested material. Learn more about this feature in the article Basic Color Control in
Silverstack.

figure 12: format preferences for Sony F5/F55/F65 XAVC clips

Generic
File
Sequence

Silverstack allows to import JPEG, TIFF and DPX image sequences as clips. You can Set the default playback speed in the Import Options menu:

figure 12.1: Generic File Sequence preferences

Ingest

Silverstack scans the volumes from which you want to offload. In this tab you can select what kind of files or patterns should be ignored in the ingest
process. You can add or delete different file types and patterns.

figure 13: ingest preferences

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Backups

Here you can create and restore database backups of your current and past Silverstack states.

figure 14: library backups preferences

External
Video

Here you can choose the settings for the external video output.

figure 15: external video out preferences

Silverstack comes with the option to output an HD-SDI signal via compliant hardware. Learn more about it in the article HD-SDI output in Silverstack.

You can use ScopeBox by Divergent Media for software-based waveform and video scopes for Silverstack’s player.

Grading

These are the settings for the grading functionalities in Silverstack.

figure 16: grading preferences

Silverstack comes with grading functionalities and an integrated look library. Learn more about it from the articles Grading Controls in Silverstack and
The Silverstack Look Library.

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ACES

These are the settings for the ACES grading mode functionalities in Silverstack:

figure 17: ACES grading mode preferences

Operating
Systems
and
Requirements
Our software Silverstack requires an Apple Mac machine with macOS 10.13 or higher operating system. Since we are using the latest of macOS
technologies, we are not planning to support earlier versions of macOS, neither will we port Silverstack to another operating system in the near future.

So to run Silverstack you need an Intel Mac with macOS 10.13 or higher (such as any current Mac available in the MacStore).

macOS 10.13 or higher

You can find a list of supported formats in the article Assets in Silverstack. All formats with no specific detection will be handled as generic files. Please
see the article Generic File Formats for more information.

For a realtime playback of your offloaded video files the usage of a fast hard drive as a SSD card is recommended.

If you have further question about supported hardware please let us know. If you would like to know more about data performance click here. You might
be interested in this article for improving your performance.

Reset
Silverstack’s
Library
and
Preferences
In the unusual event of Silverstack not being able to launch, you will have to reset the preferences and delete Silverstack’s library.

Warning:
This
can’t
be
undone,
deleting
the
library
will
delete
all
custom
metadata,
clip
references
and
thumbnails.
The
actual
clips
won’t
be
deleted.

Deleting
Silverstack’s
library

To do so, close Silverstack and delete the folder matching

your
Silverstack
version in your home directory:

Quit Silverstack
Rename the according folder in your home directory:

For
Silverstack
6: ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort/Silverstack6
For
Silverstack
Lab
6: ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort/SilverstackLab6
For
Silverstack
5: ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort/Silverstack5
For
Silverstack
4: ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort/Silverstack4

The
Library
folder
is
hidden
by
default.
You
can
open
the
Library
folder
in
Finder
when
opening
the
“Go”
menu
and
holding
the
“alt”
key.
You
will
see
an
extra
entry
“Library”
in
the
“Go”
menu.
Choose
this
entry
and
a
Finder
window
will
open
with
the
Library
folder.

Start Silverstack again, it will automatically create a new library.

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Deleting
Silverstack’s
preferences

Quit Silverstack
Create a copy/backup of the following file matching
your
Silverstack
version (optional):

For
Silverstack
6: ~/Library/Preferences/com.pomfort.Silverstack6.plist

For
Silverstack
Lab
6: ~/Library/Preferences/com.pomfort.SilverstackLab6.plist

For
Silverstack
5: ~/Library/Preferences/com.pomfort.Silverstack5.plist

For
Silverstack
4: ~/Library/Preferences/com.pomfort.Silverstack4.plist

Open up the Terminal application (type terminal in your spotlight or navigate within the Utilities folder of your application folder)

Type the following command in your terminal window matching

your
Silverstack
version:

For
Silverstack
6: defaults delete com.pomfort.Silverstack6

For
Silverstack
Lab
6: defaults delete com.pomfort.SilverstackLab6

For
Silverstack
5: defaults delete com.pomfort.Silverstack5

For
Silverstack
4: defaults delete com.pomfort.Silverstack4

Start Silverstack

Now Silverstack should start as usual with a fresh library. If you still experience issues, please contact our support team.

The
previous
instructions
are
for
Silverstack
6,
Silverstack
Lab
6,
5
and
4.
If
you
are
using
Silverstack
3,
please
read
the
article
Silverstack
3:
Reset
Library
and
Preferences.

How
do
I
migrate
a
license
from
one
computer
to
another?
You can move a license of a Pomfort product from one computer to another. This may be useful if you move from an older Mac to a new model.

There are two activities involved:

Unregistering the license from the old computer and

registering the license on the new computer.

Please
note,
that
you
need
an
internet
connection
for
the
following
steps.

1.
Unregistering
the
license
from
the
old
computer

You now have to perform the following steps:

Open the License Panel by choosing “Licenses…” from the application menu.
Click on ”Deactivate License”.

The Pomfort application will stop working on this machine and the license is free to use on another machine.

By logging into your Pomfort Account you can make sure that the deactivation of your license was successful. The license should now be shown as
“Inactive”.

2.
Registering
the
license
on
the
new
computer

Let’s assume you already have the application installed on your new computer.

You now have to perform the following steps:

Open the program, the License Panel will appear. If not, choose “Licenses…” from the application menu.
Click on “Add License…” and insert the license key you received after purchase.

In your Pomfort Account your license will now be shown as “Activated” with the name of the computer that your license is activated on.

Migrate
a
Silverstack
project
from
one
computer
to
another
Sometimes it’s necessary to migrate an entire project from one computer to another – maybe even during a project. It’s not that difficult – this article
shows how this can be accomplished.

There are two activities involved:

Migrating the license

Migrating the Library

Migrating
the
License

Migrating the license is straight forward, it can be done in Silverstack . You need an internet connection and follow the steps described in the Tips &
Tricks document “Migrate a Silverstack license“.

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Migrating
the
Library

Migrating the project with all it’s information is basically moving the Library’s database, the thumbnails and the application’s preferences to the new
computer.

If you want to migrate your Silverstack 5 projects to Silverstack 6 please learn how to do that from the article“How to Manually Migrate Silverstack 5
Projects to Silverstack 6 or Silverstack Lab 6”

If you want to migrate your Silverstack 4 projects to Silverstack 5 please learn how to do that from the article“How to Manually Migrate Silverstack 4
Projects to Silverstack 5”

In
order
to
transfer
files
from
one
computer
to
another
please
have
an
external
hard
drive
or
a
large
USB
stick
at
hand
or
establish
a
network
connection
with
file
sharing
between
the
two
computers.

Silverstack
7

If
you
are
using
Silverstack
7, you have to perform the following steps to migrate all thumbnails and the Library database:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort in your home directory.
Copy the folder Silverstack7 and all of its contents to the same destination on the new computer.

You have to perform the following steps to migrate the application’s preferences files:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Preferences in your home directory.

Copy the file com.pomfort.Silverstack7.plist to the same destination on the new computer.

If
you
are
using
Silverstack
Lab
7, you have to perform the following steps to migrate all thumbnails and the Library database:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort in your home directory.
Copy the folder SilverstackLab7 and all of its contents to the same destination on the new computer.

You have to perform the following steps to migrate the application’s preferences files:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Preferences in your home directory.

Copy the file com.pomfort.SilverstackLab7.plist to the same destination on the new computer.

NOTE: Since OS X Lion the Library folder in your home directory is hidden. In Finder use Command-Shift-G (⌘⇧G) and enter~/Library to open the
folder.

You can also use the Library Metadata Exchange feature present in Silverstack XT.

Silverstack
6

If
you
are
using
Silverstack
6, you have to perform the following steps to migrate all thumbnails and the Library database:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort in your home directory.
Copy the folder Silverstack6 and all of its contents to the same destination on the new computer.

You have to perform the following steps to migrate the application’s preferences files:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Preferences in your home directory.

Copy the file com.pomfort.Silverstack6.plist to the same destination on the new computer.

If
you
are
using
Silverstack
Lab
6, you have to perform the following steps to migrate all thumbnails and the Library database:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort in your home directory.
Copy the folder SilverstackLab6 and all of its contents to the same destination on the new computer.

You have to perform the following steps to migrate the application’s preferences files:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Preferences in your home directory.

Copy the file com.pomfort.SilverstackLab6.plist to the same destination on the new computer.

NOTE: Since OS X Lion the Library folder in your home directory is hidden. In Finder use Command-Shift-G (⌘⇧G) and enter~/Library to open the
folder.

You can also use the Library Metadata Exchange feature present in Silverstack XT.

Silverstack
5

If
you
are
using
Silverstack
5, you have to perform the following steps to migrate all thumbnails and the Library database:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort in your home directory.
Copy the folder Silverstack5 and all of its contents to the same destination on the new computer.

You have to perform the following steps to migrate the application’s preferences files:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Preferences in your home directory.

Copy the file com.pomfort.Silverstack5.plist to the same destination on the new computer.

NOTE: Since OS X Lion the Library folder in your home directory is hidden. In Finder use Command-Shift-G (⌘⇧G) and enter~/Library to open the
folder.

You can also use the Library Metadata Exchange feature present in Silverstack XT.

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Troubleshooting

Silverstack
4

If
you
are
using
Silverstack
4, you have to perform the following steps to migrate all thumbnails and the Library database:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort in your home directory.
Copy the folder Silverstack4 and all of its contents to the same destination on the new computer.

You have to perform the following steps to migrate the application’s preferences files:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Preferences in your home directory.

Copy the file com.pomfort.Silverstack4.plist to the same destination on the new computer.

NOTE: Since OS X Lion the Library folder in your home directory is hidden. In Finder use Command-Shift-G (⌘⇧G) and enter~/Library to open the
folder.

You can also use the Library Metadata Exchange feature present in Silverstack XT.

Silverstack
3

If
you
are
using
Silverstack
3, you have to perform the following steps to migrate all thumbnails and the Library database:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort in your home directory.
Copy the folder Silverstack3 and all of its contents to the same destination on the new computer.

You have to perform the following steps to migrate the application’s preferences files:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Preferences in your home directory.

Copy the file com.pomfort.Silverstack3.plist to the same destination on the new computer.

NOTE: Since OS X Lion the Library folder in your home directory is hidden. In Finder use Command-Shift-G (⌘⇧G) and enter~/Library to open the
folder.

Silverstack
2

If
you
are
using
Silverstack
2.2, you have to perform the following steps to migrate all thumbnails and the Library database:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort in your home directory.
Copy the folder SilverstackMaster and all of its contents to the same destination on the new computer.

You have to perform the following steps to migrate the application’s preferences files:

In Finder on your old computer navigate to ~/Library/Preferences in your home directory.

Copy the file com.pomfort.SilverstackMaster.plist to the same destination on the new computer.

NOTE: Since OS X Lion the Library folder in your home directory is hidden. In Finder use Command-Shift-G (⌘⇧G) and enter~/Library to open the
folder.

How
to
Manually
Migrate
Silverstack
5
Projects
to
Silverstack
6
or
Silverstack
6
Projects
to
Silverstack
7
If you are a user of Silverstack 5 you might want to migrate your projects to Silverstack 6 or Silverstack Lab 6. There is an easy process to perform this
migration.

The
instructions
in
this
article
can
also
be
used
for
manually
migrating
Silverstack
6
to
Silverstack
7
projects.
Just
replace
the
library
path
numbers
with
the
according
version
numbers.

Locating
the
Library
Folders

Silverstack 6, Silverstack Lab 6 and Silverstack 5, have different library folders that contain the projects. You will find them at the following paths on your
Mac:

~/Library/Application
Support/Pomfort/Silverstack6
~/Library/Application
Support/Pomfort/SilverstackLab6
~/Library/Application
Support/Pomfort/Silverstack5

You can also navigate to the folders from the Main Menu of Silverstack 5 or 6 or Lab 6. Select “Silverstack>Show
Library
in
Finder” in the main menu
bar at the top of the screen. This will open the project folder an bring you to the Silverstack.psdb file of your currently opened project. From there you can
go two directories backwards to find yourself at the directory of the Silverstack library folders.

Migrating
the
Library

1. Close Silverstack 6 / Silverstack Lab 6

2. Rename the “Silverstack6” or “SilverstackLab6” folder in the directory
/Users/[yourUser]/Library/Application
Support/Pomfort/ to
“Silverstack6_old”/“SilverstackLab6_old”
(you will need that folder to keep new projects)
3. Open Silverstack 6 / Silverstack Lab 6
4. Just like when you started Silverstack 6 / Silverstack Lab 6 from scratch the first time you will be asked if you want to migrate your libraries from
version 5 or want to start clean:

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5. Choose “Copy
Existing
Projects” to migrate your Silverstack 5 libraries.

6. The library migration assistant will keep you updated on the process and tell you when the migration has finished:

Figure 2: The library migration assistant

7. You can now use Silverstack 6 / Silverstack Lab 6 with your projects from Silverstack 5.

Please note that for large libraries the process can take several minutes. During that time Silverstack will become unresponsive. Leave the system running
and the migration process will come to a solid finish.

Keeping
Projects
from
Before
the
Migration

If you want to keep projects you created in Silverstack 5 before the migration process you can do that by copying the project folders:

1. Close Silverstack.
2. Go to the previously renamed “Silverstack6_old”/“SilverstackLab6_old” folder.
3. Select the projects you want to take over to your migrated Silverstack 6 / Silverstack Lab 6 library (projects folder usually are named like “Project-
1F342864AF90”)
4. Copy them to the Silverstack6 / SilverstackLab6 folder that was automatically created during the migration.
5. Start Silverstack 6 / Silverstack Lab 6

You will then have all your migrated and the previously created projects in Silverstack 5 together at one place.

If you want you can then delete the“Silverstack6_old”/“SilverstackLab6_old” folder because now your current Silverstack 6 / Silverstack Lab 6 library
contains all your projects from Silverstack 5 and 6 respectively Silverstack Lab 6.

Incompatible
Silverstack
or
Silverstack
Lab
Library
Version
The Silverstack and Silverstack Lab library versions advance over time across software releases. This is a natural process when a software application
advances but inevitably leads to incompatible library version when opening projects with outdated versions of Silverstack/Silverstack Lab.

We always recommend to use the latest version of Silverstack/Silverstack Lab which can be downloaded on thePomfort Downloads page. Like this you
avoid the situation this article takes care of.

Migration
and
Library
Version
States

The term “Library Version” basically refers to the state of the Silverstack database and which information it can currently store.

When updating Silverstack to a newer version the existing library is migrated to the latest version. That process establishes compatibility of the existing
library with the new library version.
You can learn more about the migration of libraries in the article “How to manually migrate Silverstack 5 projects to Silverstack 6 or Silverstack Lab 6”

After the migration your library is in a later/newer state and therefore not compatible anymore with older versions of Silverstack. If you are forced by any
circumstance to move back to an outdated library version of Silverstack, you can restore a backup that has automatically been created during the
migration process.

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Restoring
a
Library
Backup

Fig. 1: The “Incompatibly Silverstack Lab Library Version” Alert, applies also to Silverstack

When you open a project that has been created with a later version of Silverstack in an older version the alert from Fig. 1 shows.

At this point you have three options that you can choose from with the buttons:

Restore
Backup:
Silverstack automatically offers the possibility to restore the last state for which a backup was created that is compatible with the
opened version of Silverstack. Backups are automatically created during migration. Automatic backups can be enabled in the Silverstack
preferences’ “Backups” tab as well as manually triggered.
Open
with
New
Project: To be able to access Silverstack even though the particular project can’t be opened, you can create a new project to start
with. You can again change to other projects from within the application then.
Quit:
You can quit the application to open the project again with a later version of Silverstack that is compatible with the library version.

In the very rare case that no backup is available you see the following alert that indicates that there is no compatible backup and therefore gives less
options:

Fig.2: The alert in case there is no available backup that can be restored

Why
does
Silverstack
tell
me
my
license
is
already
activated?
Each Silverstack license key can be activated on one computer at a time. If an error message appears when you try to activate your license on a new
computer please check if the license has been properly deactivated from the original computer.

You can do this check by logging into your Pomfort Account. The license status needs to be shown as “Inactive” for you to activate the license on
another computer. If this is not the case, please deactivate your license from the computer that it’s shown as “in use on”.

Find more information about the Pomfort Account here.

How
do
I
install
a
license
for
all
users
of
a
Mac?
You can register Silverstack and Livegrade once on one machine and afterwards make the license available to all users.

After the activation just move the files in “~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort/Licenses” to “/Library/Application Support/Pomfort/Licenses” (You will
have to create the folders Pomfort/Licenses).

Please
Note: Since OS X Lion the Library folder in your home directory is hidden. In Finder use Command-Shift-G (⌘⇧G) and enter ~/Library to open the
folder.

When restarting the application it will load the licenses from the system disk and every user should be able to use it. With that solution multiple users of
this machine can use the Pomfort product license.

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