Support
Our business is built for time-critical workflows, and our support reflects your requirements.
Existing customer?
Friendly well trained support staff
First line support team 24/5
Customers can contact our first line support team by phone or email, 24/5 during standard office hours 9-5.30pm.
Knowledgebase
helping you maximise the benefits of your Blackbird solution from ‘How to’ guides and videos and FAQs.
Out of hours support
Most customers don’t need support out of hours. For Live workflows, we offer 24/7 support – please contact us for pricing. We understand customers need support out of normal hours and provide a bespoke support plan which includes bank holidays and weekends and Pay-per-project support plan.
Onsite training
we can provide ongoing training, online or at your offices.
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WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS HAVE TO SAY
LOGGING
HOW TO PRINT/EXPORT LOGGING DATA?
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.
EXPORTING LOGS DOESN'T WORK?
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.
UPLOADING A LOGGING DOCUMENT (.CSV FORMAT) 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.
BLACKBIRD APPEARS TO BE DUPLICATING MY LOGGING NOTES WHY IS THIS?
HOW TO ENABLE THE PRIVATE COLUMN WHEN LOGGING
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.
INGEST
WHY IS MEDIA FROM MY WATCH - FOLDER MISSING IN MY BLACKBIRD ACCOUNT?
If you continue to have this issue please contact support on support@Blackbird.net
WHEN WILL A SPECIFIC REEL GET INGESTED?
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.
MY REELNAMES ARE COMING OUT WRONG
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).
I'VE INGESTED STUFF TO THE WRONG ACCOUNT
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.
IT WON'T LET ME INGEST OR UPLOAD TO MY ACCOUNT
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.
HOW DO I INGEST MY MEDIA INTO BLACKBIRD?
SOME OF MY INGESTS SAY "FAIL"
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.
A FILE IN A WATCHFOLDER HAS A WEIRD STATUS - EXPLAINED
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.
WHAT WILL GO WRONG IF I INGEST SOMETHING TWICE?
AVID ISIS CLIENT MANAGER SET UP
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
INGEST IS RUNNING TOO SLOWLY
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
THE BLACKBIRD BOX IS SLOWING DOWN MY NETWORK, CAN I TURN IT OFF?
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
WHY CAN I ONLY SEE A "MANAGE" TAB (DAEMON AWOL MESSAGE)?
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.
WHY CAN I CHOOSE ALL SORTS OF WRONG FORMATS TO INGEST MATERIAL IN?
You can contact support on support@Blackbird.net
CAN I USE TWO BOXES POINTING AT THE SAME WATCH DIRECTORY?
MY WATCHFOLDER SAYS "NOT A DIRECTORY"
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
REVERT TO A PREVIOUSLY SAVED VERSION OF A 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.
SAVING PARTS OF YOUR SEQUENCE SEPARATELY IN BLACKBIRD
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.
HOW TO SELECT MULTIPLE CLIPS IN BLACKBIRD
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.
WHY DOES IT SAY UPLOAD MACHINE NOT CONNECTED? (IN THE EDITING FRONTEND)
HOW 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.
EXPORTING A SEQUENCE FROM AVID TO BLACKBIRD:
Comment TAB:- [deselect] comments
Master list TAB:- Reel ID Type [select] Disk label or Camera Roll
ACCOUNT SETUP
HOW TO ADD A PUBLISHING BUTTON TO AN ACCOUNT
1. Log into Blackbird at https://Blackbird.net/login
2. Click on your account name
3. Go to the “Users” tab on the left
4. Expand the “Users with access” tab
5. Click on the red “X” next to the user you want to remove
6. Click the “Remove” option
If you are trying to remove an account manager, follow the same procedure but go to the “Managers” tab in step 3 instead.
If you have any issue removing a user, press 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.
ADDING AN ACCOUNT MANAGER
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.
HOW TO ADD A USER FROM THE PORTAL
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.
HOW TO IGNORE BAD TIME CODE
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.
HOW TO CONFIGURE HTTPS ONLY
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.
HOW TO DISABLE TOOLTIPS
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.
TO ENABLE MARKERS ON AN 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.
GENERAL
BLACKBIRD RUNNING SLOW?
If it is still running slowly, you can try the steps to try and resolve your issue:
Changing Caching Proxy:
When you first log into Blackbird, there is a dropdown menu for “caching proxy” under the search bar. Press the dropdown menu and see what other options are available to you. Try out another one of these options to see if it is any faster. If there is another option, changing this to be different from other users often helps with slow-downs. Please note that this option is only available if it has been enabled on your Project. If this resolves your problem then there may be an issues with bandwidth on your network.
Adding a video Download thread:
If Blackbird is still running slowly, and it is particularly slow when you are trying to load clips, we can add an additional video thread.
You can do this by first getting the Debug menu up by holding CTRL+Shift+D
From this menu, select the “Add video Download thread” option.
Still having the issue?
If you are still having the issue after trying the above steps, you may be having issues with the speed of your Internet connection. Go to http://www.speedtest.net/ and run a speed test. This will determine the speed of your Internet. If this test shows that the Internet speed is low, you should contact your network administrator and let them know that you are experiencing network speed issues. If another network is available to you (for example another WiFi network or a wired connection), try to connect to it and run the same speedtest. Stick to the network that is providing you with the best speed.
If you are still having issues, raise a support ticket by choosing the “New Support Ticket” option from the top of this page.
WHAT DO ICONS ON THE MENU DO?
- 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:
IMPORTING AN AAF
DO I HAVE TO INSTALL SOFTWARE TO USE BLACKBIRD?
JAVA UPDATES MAY CHANGE SETTINGS IN BLACKBIRD - FIREFOX
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.
ENABLE RIGHT CLICK ON NEWER APPLE LAPTOPS
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.
IMPORTING AN AAF WITH TITLE EFFECTS INTO BLACKBIRD
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.
APPLICATION BLOCKED BY DEPLOYMENT RULE SET
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.
CAN I USE BOTH MAC AND PC?
WHAT SIZE INTERNET CONNECTION DO I NEED?
CAN I ACCESS BLACKBIRD ON MY TABLET OR PHONE?
WHICH POST HOUSES AND RENTAL COMPANIES HAVE BLACKBIRD?
DOES BLACKBIRD INTEGRATE WITH OTHER NLES AND PROFESSIONAL BROADCASTING SYSTEMS?
HOW DO I GET MY PROJECT OUT OF BLACKBIRD?
WHERE IS MEDIA BACKED UP?
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO USE BLACKBIRD?
WHAT AUDIO AND VIDEO FORMATS DOES BLACKBIRD SUPPORT?
EXPORTING AAF
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
I'VE CHANGE DISKLABELS IN AVID MEDIA COMPOSER, HOW CAN I TELL BLACKBIRD ABOUT MY CHANGES?
You have the following options:
- Change metadata in your source material before ingesting it to the Avid (You could potentially use a tool called “Assimilate SCRATCH” for that)
- 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)
- Change metadata in Avid Media Composer and change metadata in Blackbird to match using import-export feature of the Blackbird ingest server
- Contact Blackbird Support to assist you with this if you are unsure of any of the above methods on support@Blackbird.com