Support

Unable to export logging data?

Sometimes there may be an issue where nothing is brought up when you click on this icon. This is likely because your web browser is blocking the popup for the export window. To resolve this, you will need to allow pop-ups. The procedure to do this will be different depending on what your default web browser is. Please see the link below to see how to allow this option for your browser:

http://www.geeksquad.com/do-it-yourself/tech-tips/disable-pop-up-blocker.aspx

You then need to restart Blackbird and the web browser.

If you still have issues getting the export popup, we advise that you try using Firefox as your default browser.

When launching Firefox, you will be prompted to set it as your default browser. You should agree to this and then proceed to enable Pop-ups. You can do this by going to the below page from Firefox:

about:preferences#content

Just copy it onto your URL bar and press enter. Uncheck the option for “Block popup windows”. Restart Firefox and Blackbird and then try the export again.

If Firefox is also not working for you, please press “New Support Ticket” from the top right of this page and give us as much detail as you can. One of our Support staff will then contact you with suggestions on how to resolve this issue.

TB1_20151128AA004_PNG_491541 is the .csv document attached and the one I am using to show how to upload it to Blackbird.

Step 1 – Ensure that you have named the .csv doc as the same name as the sequence that you are relinking back to in Blackbird.

Step 2 – Edit the file as an excel document ensuring that you have 4 key fields Disklabel,Reel Name, In and Logging.

(ensure that you have no blank gaps in the .csv document and you have timecode for each logging entry)

Step 3 – Using the Upload Metadata feature select the .csv doc for upload

Step 4 – On the Meta upload screen copy like for like as per the (oct film 3 screengrab)

(ignore the unused rows message that you get)

Step 5 – Click on Apply under the Clips found section

Step 6 – Click the Go button to import the logging information

Step 7 – Log into the Blackbird Account and search for the media

(If you are unable to see the logs after making the columns visible don’t worry they simply just need to be created from the account configuration page. To do this go to the logging metadata columns (see screengrab – logging metadata)

Step 8 – Exit and Relaunch Blackbird and you should then be able to see the newly created fields with the logging information successfully imported.

When a timecode stops the clip ends and Blackbird assumes you would want to finish logging this bit and then start a new one. If you continue logging – there is a warning message – rather than set the out point then the previous clip’s logs are carried across to the next clip. The system is designed to do this, it’s not a bug…

You can follow the below instructions to add a tag onto your account which will enable the private column when loggingfor the entire account:

 

1. Go into Blackbird at https://Blackbird.net/login

2. Click on your account name

3. Expand the “Extra Data” section

4. Enter the following into the first box: tag-enable-see-private

5. Enter the following into the second box: true

6. Press the “Add Data” option

If you are having issues with this, click on the “New support ticket” option at the top of this page and one of our Support staff will contact you to assist you with it.

This can be answered by looking at the queue of items with status waiting “to ingest” on the ingest machine, and seeing where the one you want is positioned (higher items will ingest first). Particular items can be given a higher numerical priority, which will make them get done earlier. To give an item a higher priority, follow the below instructions:

 

1. Go to your ingest queue and find the item you are looking for

2. Select your item and select the “More actions” drop down menu.

3. Select the “Raise priority by 10” option until it is a the highest number in the queue

This will make that particular item the first in line to be ingested.

Ingest proceeds at very approximately real time, (ie one hour of material per hour), per processor on the ingest machine (Quad-core machine will do 4 ingests at once, each at about real time speed).

If your reel isn’t sitting on an ingest machine in “to ingest” status, its not going to turn up unless something else changes. Perhaps it hasn’t been actually found by a watch folder, or has been rejected because of missing tracks, etc.

If you still have any questions about this or your item does not have the “To ingest” status, click the “New Support Ticket” option at the top of this page and one of our Support staff will contact you and assist you with it.

It’s possible to configure a watchfolder to derive the Blackbird reelname from the original files in various different ways – even quite complex picking out information from different metadata using the magic python expressions.

If this is a file that you believe really should be treated differently by default, then please get in contact with Blackbird support and we may be able to change things(support@Blackbird.com).

Probably the easiest fix is simply to ingest it again to the correct account. If you are using a watch folder, you will need to use the “Forget” button to get the watch folder to reconsider the appropriate files – after having fixed it to go the correct account of course!

It is also possible to transfer material between accounts if you have access to the web based media manager for the source account, and upload rights to the target. However, this only transfers the media, not the folder structure that it is in, so isn’t a very satisfactory solution for very large numbers of clips.

If the material has been worked on and organized, there is a script that we can run manually on the cloud that can transfer an entire directory hierarchy of material over to another account – contact support for this.

If you need to transfer logging data as well, it will be necessary to export it from one account and then import it into the other. and again for large amounts we can automate this directly on the cloud.

The upload machine has its own particular identity that needs to be added to the account with (at least) “upload” access. Someone with “manager” access to the account can do this from the “users” tab at the bottom of the account on the account list screen. (The identity of the upload machine is visible in the logged in box at the top of its user interface)

If account access has only just been given, the upload interface might take a moment to notice the newly available account. Selecting a different account in the default account will prod it into checking sooner.

Material may also not be ingesting because the box has never had any internet access since it was turned on, and is thus unable to contact the cloud and find out what accounts it has access to. You will need to fix that internet access. Once it has talked to the cloud for the first time however, it will still be able to continue ingesting quite happily with a broken connection, and things will appear in the front end and start to upload as soon as the connection comes back.

It may also not be ingesting material because it believes its already present in the account. (The “dup” state.) This check is done using the unique id of the material if available, or otherwise the reelname and clipname. Material in the recycle bin still counts for this purpose. You can just select the “dup” items and hit “ingest” to override this.

The web upload button on the editor interface allows you to manually upload files directly from your local device to the Blackbird cloud over a standard internet connection. Alternatively you can use dedicated ingest servers running a Blackbird license to automatically upload your media into the Blackbird cloud. This solution provides the option to ingest media via an automated watchfolder scanning process or live IP or baseband ingest feeds. A range of hardware options are available, depending on your scale of use.

Something has gone wrong with the ingest process after it started. There are saved log files that can be examined to determine exactly what failed. This will often be a loss of connection to an external file server, but it can also be the software having problems with a particular file format.

If the problem is a temporary one that has been fixed, you can retry by hitting Ingest, or using the “Retry fails” for a whole watchfolder.

If the problem persists, click the “New support ticket” option from the top of this page and one of our Support staff will work with you to resolve this issue.

Too deep

Increase the max depth column and hit forget for those files

Incomplete

Probably the file is just one track from an avid ingest that had several tracks. Blackbird will only accept it when all tracks are present

Inside

The file is part of a higher level directory – check that directory status

No match

The file was filtered out by the filter expressions on the watch folder. Maybe change them and hit forget on the files, or add a separate watchfolder for those kinds of files

Removed

The file was accepted onto the queue ok, and has since been removed from the queue. You can hit forget to re-add it again, though it might just drop into “dup” state in the queue if it was already ingested.

Bad

Blackbird didn’t understand the file format. It might just be a temporary read error which will be fixed by a forget and re-examine, but otherwise you will need to use a different file format, or ask Blackbird to add support

Gone

A file has been removed from the watchfolder

Changing

A file has just appeared and Blackbird is waiting for it to finish being copied in

Should not have changed/gone

Blackbird is a bit dis-approving if files are added to a watch folder that it thought were complete, and they are then removed/changed under its feet while it still wanted them. Items may also show up as missing on the queue.

Nothing much, but it’s possible that you will get confused between the two versions. Blackbird is always quite happy to have two icons with the same name next to one another. Our Cloud and ingest software knows the difference between the two though, so say if original sources are only attached to one of the two, publishing an edit using the wrong one will only come out as browse quality. Similarly, logging done against one copy of the media won’t appear on the other one, unless we run a special ‘sync’ operation on it and after that still won’t stay in sync.

1 – Launch the Avid ISIS Client Manager enable ISIS-5000-2 and ISIS-5000-1 then mount workspaces (selecting Auto Enable Mount)

2 – Click on AvidShare (you can access this on the Windows XP client desktop)

3 – On the Linux desktop click on reset avid share

4 – Launch Blackbird Proxybox Ingest and select check now which will begin to scan the watchfolder

Speed of ingest (as opposed to upload) is determined mainly by either available read bandwidth for the source, or by available cpu on the ingest box. It is unlikely to be due to disk write speed on the ingest box, since the Blackbird browse quality is relatively low bandwidth. The ingest software is normally configured to run one ingest operation per two available ‘cpus’ on the system.

We recommend against having a very large amount of content in one watch folder, since we don’t currently have an easy way to distribute the ingest work across multiple ingest boxes. If you have multiple small watch folders, it’s much easier to just install an extra temporary or permanent ingest box.

Please contact Support for more information: support@Blackbird.com

It’s not such a good idea to turn the box off, since then any material that isn’t yet uploaded to the cloud won’t be accessible, and high quality publishing won’t be possible. Better, is to limit the amount of upload bandwidth that the box will use. This can be done temporarily for half an hour by hitting the “Backoff” button in the Overview Tab, or more permanently from a command line configuration that can be applied by our support staff. We can also set up an automatic schedule so the box can use full upload rate overnight.

Fail

The item started to ingest but then bombed out part way. This is either a read error from a fileserver part way through ingest, in which case you will want to fix it and re-ingest, or perhaps there is a bug in the ingest software and you will need to contact support for a fix.

Dup

Blackbird has detected (what seems like) the same item already ingested into the account. You can select the queue item and hit ingest to override it.

Ready

The item is waiting for you to decide what to do with it. (You dragged it manually to the queue, or told the watchfolder to only add it, not ingest it) Perhaps select it and hit ingest or remove?

Missing

The item was waiting to ingest, but a file turned up absent when it was tried. If the file re-appears (perhaps a fixed fileserver) it will get noticed and ingested automatically after a while

Dup check

Blackbird is waiting for information on the account contents to check for duplicates before ingesting. Perhaps the network is broken, or the ingest box’s access to the account has been revoked.

Bad

You manually dragged a file to the queue that wasn’t a recognized format

Crashed

The machine (or at least part of its software) actually crashed during ingest of the file. You probably want to re-ingest it.

Removed

The item has been removed from the queue and the display hasn’t caught up

The background “daemon” process that is supposed to be running is missing. Probably, this is because your machine hasn’t actually been set up with its own identity for upload yet. But it may mean some other disaster has befallen the daemon. The software is configured in such a way that the daemon will almost always be automatically restarted if it is missing, and sometimes the daemon decides to restart itself if there seems to be something really wrong with its place in the world – typically if the internet connection hasn’t worked for a while. In such a case, there will be a few seconds while it isn’t available, and the Manage Tab will flash up.

On a Windows or Mac version of the ingest software, the Manage Tab allows you to configure the daemon’s settings yourself, but on a linux machine the assumption is that your system administrator will have done it.

There is an option that support personnel can put on the account (Setting one or more “UploadFormatOption” in account “Extra Data”) that is designed to reduce the possibility of selecting the wrong format during ingest. Get a support person to set it listing only your desired formats. (eg “PAL_wide”)

You can contact support on support@Blackbird.net

Not really at present. The trouble is that though both boxes will find out what has been uploaded to the account and avoid duplicating it, there is enough delay in this process that it will fail to work well if both boxes are working simultaneously. It is reasonable to entirely transfer responsibility for a watch folder from one box to another though, to help catch up with a backlog. A box will go through looking at all the files in a new watchfolder, but it will then compare this with the account contents and mark as duplicate anything already uploaded (And not upload it automatically – one can override this if needed!)

Unless it’s an entirely new watchfolder with a mis-typed directory name, probably the ingest box has lost a connection to the fileserver where the watchfolder is hosted. If it is being accessed via another (virtual) machine, check that the machine is running, check it is logged in, and re-run the icon to export all the folders from that machine. Then you can re-run the icon on the linux side to mount those points.

If you’re still having issues, use the “New Support Ticket” option at the top right of this page and one of our support staff will contact you and help you resolve this issue

To revert to a previously saved version of a sequence, right click on your sequence and choose “previous versions” from the dropdown. This opens a new window containing all the saved versions of your sequence.

The previous versions window defaults to grid view with the most recent version at the bottom. Right click any column header to choose what information you’d like displayed to help you identify the version you’re looking for. Once you’ve decided which sequence you’d like to work with – drag it into your play or record window.

If you rename your sequence in the record window title bar, click save and then click anywhere else in the interface, your original sequence will be replaced with the version you have just saved – so you don’t end up with multiple sequences cluttering up your file window. Just right click for access to previously saved versions with different names.

You can save parts of your sequence separately in Blackbird. To save selected tracks from your entire sequence, deselect the tracks you don’t need and then drag your sequence from the record window into the file window. When you drop the sequence into your file window, it will reflect your original sequence name along with the words “selected tracks.”

You can also save separate tracks from individual clips – just right drag the track from the timeline, into the file window.

To save a segment of your sequence, mark the segment with in and out points and then drag your sequence from the record window into the file window. The segment of your sequence will reflect your original sequence name along with the word “selection”.

To rename selected tracks or segments of your sequence click the name and edit. This will not affect the original sequence.

If you still need help with this, please press “New support ticket” from the top of this page and give us some details of what exactly you are trying to do. One of our support staff will then contact you shortly to answer your questions.

In Timeline view, follow the below instructions to select and move multiple cuts

1. Hold down SHIFT

2. Select the first of the Clips

3. Select the last of the Clips

4. You can now drag them to move, “delete” to delete them all, or you can drag them to the files menu to save a new sequence with just the selected clips.

If you need further assistance or want to discuss this with one of our Support staff, click the “New Support Ticket” option from the top of this page.

This means that the Blackbird server ingest machine that it names isn’t in contact with the cloud, and hence unable to supply the material that you want. (That hasn’t previously made it into the cloud.) You will need to check that the ingest machine is powered on, and has a working internet connection. If you continue to have this issue after these checks, please contact support at support@Blackbird.com

In Order to create a freeze frame:

1. Select the frame that you want to freeze

2. Mark an in point

3. Move 1 frame forward, and mark the out point so that your selection’s duration is 1 frame

4. Mark the desired duration of the freeze frame with in and out points in the record window or on your timeline.

Within the Avid – MC space, open EDL creator and under options: EDL Type [select] File 32, instead of CMX3600. File 32 is recommend because it allows longer character names.

Comment TAB:- [deselect] comments

Master list TAB:- Reel ID Type [select] Disk label or Camera Roll

To do this, you yourself will need to be an account manager. To add an account manager, follow the below steps:

 

1. Log into Blackbird at https://Blackbird.net/login

2. Click on your account name

3. Go to the “Managers“ tab

4. From the bottom of the list, enter the Username for the new Manager (if the manager is not already a Blackbird user, they will need to be added first. Follow the instructions to add a user first).

5. Click the “Add Account Manager“ option

If you have any issues adding an account manager, click on the “New Support Ticket” option at the top of this page and one of our Support staff will contact you to assist you with it.

To add a Blackbird user onto your account, you need to be an account manager. Follow the below steps in order to add a new user:

1. Log into Forcene at https://Blackbird.net/login

2. Click on your account name

3. Go to the “Users” tab from the left

4. Click on “Add users to Account”

5. Enter the email address of the new user and press enter

6. From the “Roll” column, select the role of the user (For example Editor or Logger)

7. Click the “Add User to account” button

The user will then receive an email which will allow them to create their login credentials. They will then be able to access the account.

If you’re having any issues with this, press the “New Support Ticket” option at the top of this page and one of our Support staff will get in contact with you to assist you with it.

You can follow the below instructions to add a tag onto your account which will ignore bad timecode for the entire account:

1. Go into Blackbird at https://Blackbird.net/login

2. Click on your account name

3. Expand the “Extra Data” section

4. Enter the following into the first box: tag-dodgytc

5. Enter the following into the second box: ignore

6. Press the “Add Data” option

If you are having issues with this, click on the “New support ticket” option at the top of this page and one of our Support staff will contact you to assist you with it.

You can follow the below instructions to add a tag onto your account which will enable HTTPS only for the entire account:

1. Go into Blackbird at https://Blackbird.net/login

2. Click on your account name

3. Expand the “Extra Data” section

4. Enter the following into the first box: tag-alwayshttps

5. Enter the following into the second box: true

6. Press the “Add Data” option

If you are having issues with this, click on the “New support ticket” option at the top of this page and one of our Support staff will contact you to assist you with it.

Tooltips are the tips that appear when you hover your mouse over an area in Blackbird for a couple of seconds. These can be very useful for new users however more advanced users may want to get rid of them.

You can follow the below instructions to add a tag onto your account which will disable tooltips for the entire account:

1. Go into Blackbird at https://Blackbird.net/login

2. Click on your account name

3. Expand the “Extra Data” section

4. Enter the following into the first box: tag-enable-tooltips

5. Enter the following into the second box: false

6. Press the “Add Data” option

If you are having issues with this, click on the “New support ticket” option at the top of this page and one of our Support staff will contact you to assist you with it.

You can follow the below instructions to add a tag onto your account which will enable markers for the entire account:

1. Go into Blackbird at https://Blackbird.net/login

2. Click on your account name

3. Expand the “Extra Data” section

4. Enter the following into the first box: showmarkertrack

5. Enter the following into the second box: true

6. Press the “Add Data” option

If you are having issues with this, click on the “New support ticket” option at the top of this page and one of our Support staff will contact you to assist you with it.

The first items that need to be understood are as below:

• Click the file button to access your media.
• Use the upload button to upload media into your account.
• Drag media onto the recycle bin to delete it.
• Click the recovery button to find automatically saved versions of your work
• And use the tasks button to send files for review and approval.

If you need more information on these or other Icons, Please see the tutorial on our Youtube channel:

To import an AAF, log into Blackbird. Press the upload icon which is indicated by the arrow pointing to the cloud. This will bring you to a webpage where you can upload media including AAFs. Press the “Choose files” option at the bottom and browse to your AAF on your computer. Select the AAF and press “open” which will begin the upload into Blackbird. When this has completed, you will be able to see the AAF within the Blackbird “filles” menu.

Once in the cloud, you can access your media on a normal internet connection using production tools on a PC, Mac and android or iOS tablet. Just ensure your Mac or PC supports Java, or that your smart device has the Blackbird app downloaded.

When updating Java, Blackbird settings may get set back to default. To resolve this issue in Firefox, you can try the below steps:

1. Going to Firefox – Options

2. Going to Content – Unticking the Block popup windows box

3. Go to Security – Click on exceptions and add the url pro2.Blackbird.net as a safe url.

4. Kill all Firefox sessions and relaunch.

If you continue to have this issue, press the “New Support Ticket” option at the top right of this page. One of our Support staff will then contact you and work with you to resolve this issue.

To enable right click on newer Apple laptops, follow the below instructions:

1. Go to “System Preferences”

2. Click the “Trackpad” icon;

3. Select the secondary clicks option and choose how you would like it to be activated.

Due to the variety of third party plug-ins in Avid, Blackbird does not support the export of AAFs which have effects in them – titles or otherwise (except dissolves).

So, we do support AAF export with cuts, dissolves and audio level adjustments.

You can try removing the effects from the sequence, recreating the AAF and exporting that into Blackbird.

If this message appears when you are trying to load Blackbird, please try the below steps:

1. Go to the Java Control Panel (may be called “Configure Java”)

2. Go to the security tab

3. Click on “edit site list“

4. add “https://pro2.Blackbird.net“

5. Reload the Blackbird.net webpage and you should be able to load the Blackbird Editor.

If you continue to have this issue, press the “New Support Ticket” option on the top right of this page. One of our Support staff will then contact you and work with you to resolve the issue.

Yes. Both operating platforms support Blackbird. Blackbird runs on any desktop, laptop or other mobile device.

A standard connection will suffice. Blackbird provides frame accurate post-production even on slower connections.

Yes. Provided you’ve a Blackbird account and downloaded the app.

Halo Post, Envy, Evolutions and Triangle Post, are just some of the leading names that have incorporated Blackbird into their facilities.

Blackbird integrates with all leading professional post production technologies to simplify your workflows. We also have partnerships with a host of high-profile media and technology organisations so you can access a wider range of functional and value added services from within Blackbird.

If you’ve used Blackbird for logging only, your logs can be printed as hard copies or exported digitally as csv files. If you’ve used Blackbird for editing and want to continue working on your sequence in another NLE, you can export the edit information in various formats and then autoconform against your original source at your facility. If you’re finishing your post-production in Blackbird you can publish your video in a range of formats and to various content distribution systems.

For your added security and to deliver an always up service in the event of disaster recovery, all your media is backed up across three separate data centres in the UK.

If your post-production facility already has a Blackbird server you only pay a weekly or monthly user license fee. This fee includes 150 hours of proxy media storage. We charge based on how many users are on the system at the same time. So you can have an unlimited number of users and only pay for one license. If you’re not using a post-production facility with a Blackbird ingest system you’ll most likely need to purchase an ingest server and Blackbird ingest license. The type of server you need will depend on your scale of use. Contact us for rates in your currency.

We support all formats that FFmpeg supports. You can see the list of supported formats in FFmpeg documentation.

Firstly, within Blackbird:

1. Save your sequence.

2. Drag the saved sequence into the EDL folder

3. Wait untill it shows as “Published”

4. Double click on the published sequence (this will open a webpage with export details)

There is a Download AAF option in the center column

vid Media Composer doesn’t write the information you want to change to MXF files by default, it writes it to it’s own database which is not available to Blackbird.

You have the following options:

1. Change metadata in your source material before ingesting it to the Avid (You could potentially use a tool called “Assimilate SCRATCH” for that)
2. Change metadata in Avid Media Composer and either conform or re-encode to generate a new set of MXF files and in Blackbird set up a new watchfolder to ingest it (it may not work for you if you already have logged content in Blackbird)
3. Change metadata in Avid Media Composer and change metadata in Blackbird to match using import-export feature of the Blackbird ingest server
4. Contact Blackbird Support to assist you with this if you are unsure of any of the above methods on support@Blackbird.com