Apple Releases Final Cut Server After Delays

Apple announced today it is finally shipping its Final Cut Server. Originally, Apple announced the product last April at the National Association of Broadcasters, but delayed its release for almost 12 months.

The product provides a powerful software solution for media asset management and work-flow automation.

Final Cut Server is Apple’s server-based back-end for managing Final Cut Pro files (in particular Final Cut Studio) and workflow automation, based on Proximity’s artbox package.

Final Cut Server is a scalable server  application which automatically catalogs collections of assets and allows searching across multiple disks and SAN volumes and enables viewing, annotation and approval of content from anywhere using a PC or Mac. According to Apple “Final Cut Server can automatically manage thousands of assets, execute dozens of routine production tasks, and keep every member of your team in sync.”

With Automatic Asset Cataloguing, Final Cut Server “continuously scans your network to identify and catalog production assets.” It generates “browse” proxies and thumbnails while you work, and creates and keeps up to date the catalog for you. Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of Applications Product Marketing, said:

Whether producing a 30-second spot, the nightly news or a major motion picture, Final Cut Studio is the choice of editors around the world… With the introduction of Final Cut Server, collaboration just got a whole lot easier for millions of editors, producers and clients who work with Final Cut Studio.

Through “event-based automation” and “modular automation tools,” Final Cut Server allows facilities of any size to free up valuable time with workflow automation. You can automate tasks for a single activity or entire workflow by using modular tools. Your team members can share assets at every stage of the workflow and multiple Final Cut Pro editors can collaborate on different sections of a film or video production at any time. All changes made to an asset can be tracked from one edit session to the next.

Once your projects are ready for delivery, Final Cut Server can execute a variety of encoding, resizing, and re-timing tasks for you.

Apple’s encoding application, Compressor 3, uses “optical flow technology to analyze media on a frame-by-frame basis and algorithmically produce conversions at astonishing quality. Compressor 3 is used for publishing to DVD, broadcast TV, the Web, Apple TV, iPod, iPhone, and other mobile  devices. The Compressor engine can encode to MPEG-2 and H.264 formats, as well as various QuickTime formats, including Apple ProRes 422 and formats for Apple TV and iPods.

With a plug-in, it can also encode to additional formats, including VC-1, WMV, GXF and FLV. With batch processing, a user can simultaneously encode multiple formats for the same source file, or from multiple source files.

“For the past few months we’ve been using a beta of Final Cut Server to manage our entire workflow pipeline, 24/7, and it held up beautifully. Best of all, Final Cut Server integrates seamlessly with our home-grown solutions so it’s actually adding new value to systems we’ve relied on for years,” said Evan Schechtman, CTO of Radical Media.

Final Cut Server is available immediately through the Apple Store for a suggested retail price of $999 for one server and 10 concurrent client licenses, or $1,999 for one server and unlimited client licenses.

System Requirements:
Mac OS X v10.5 or later with 500MB of disk space and 2GB of RAM.
1.8GHz or faster PowerPC G5, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, or Intel Xeon processor.
AGP or PCI Express Quartz Extreme graphics card.