Scalable Transcoding
For large transcoding tasks, multiple
Carbon Coders can be configured as a transcoding farm, under the control of Carbon Server software. Carbon Server manages job distribution, prioritization, load balancing, FTP transfers, status monitoring and job notification. All interaction with the server software is through an administrative Web interface that can be accessed remotely, from across the office or around the world.
XML-based SDK
Carbon Server can be controlled directly via an XML-based SDK provided with the software. Every aspect of the transcoding process can be controlled by the SDK, including source/target destinations, transcoding parameters, filtering, compositing, ad insertion, titling, notifications, etc. The same SDK controls both Carbon Server and Carbon Coder, so your work will scale from a single machine to an entire farm.
Additional Carbon Server Features
Scalable Operation
Carbon Server is designed to scale from a single user to an entire enterprise. Users can start with a single Carbon Coder node running under the control of Carbon Server, and then add more nodes as the transcoding load increases. The server software automatically recognizes new Carbon Coder nodes and adds them to the transcoding operation. If a node fails, transcoding is automatically routed to other nodes.
Web-based Interaction
All control of the Carbon Server application is through an administrative Web interface that can be securely accessed from any machine on the network. This interface allows for the configuration of network watch folders, transcoding profiles, FTP transfers, etc. The “farm” can be fully automated, with specified priorities for jobs coming from certain network locations. Users can also submit jobs on an as-needed basis.
FTP Transfer Control
The “farm” managed by the Carbon Server application can access shared storage on the network or remote storage via FTP. As an example, Carbon Server can be set to watch an FTP location on a catch server, then automatically transcode arriving material into an editing format. The transcoded video can then be automatically transferred to an editing station.
Supported Formats:
Video Codecs
- MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4
- H.263, H.264, VC-1, Flash
- DV25, DV50, DVCPro
- DPS, DivX, JPEG 2000
- DNxHD, AVCIntra
- Image Sequences
- Windows Media, RealVideo
Audio Codecs
- PCM, MP3
- AAC, AMC, AMR-NB
- WM Audio, RealAudio
Media Containers
- HDV
- MXF (including D-10/IMX)
- MPEG-2 PS, MPEG-2 TS
- GXF, LXF, QuickTime
- WMV, ASF, AVI, VOB
- 3GPP, 3G2
- WMA, WAV, Broadcast WAV
Systems
- Leitch VR, Nexio
- Grass Valley Profile, K2
- Omneon Spectrum
- Quantel sQ
- Avid Editing Systems
- Apple Final Cut Pro
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Grass Valley Edius
View the complete list (PDF) of supported import and export formats.
Minimum System
- Intel® Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon
- 2 GHz CPU
- 2 GB RAM (4GB RAM for HD encoding)
- 100 MB free hard disk space
- QuickTime v7.6.2
- DirectX 9.0 or later
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional or 2003 Server
- USB 1.1 or 2.0 port for USB Hardware Key
Recommended System
- Intel Xeon 5160 or AMD Opteron
- Dual-core, dual-processor configuration
- 3 GHz CPU
- 8 or 16GB RAM
- RAIDed hard drive system for performance
- QuickTime v7.6.2
- DirectX 9.0 or later
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional or 2003 Server
- USB 1.1 or 2.0 port for USB Hardware Key