INTRODUCTION

The Reach Engine software platform enables media organizations, live event producers, production houses, advertising agencies, and corporate media departments to securely and seamlessly streamline complex workflows around video creation, library management, packaging and distribution, to traditional and non-traditional media outlets. Reach Engine goes far beyond a standard digital asset management (DAM) system and it is compatible with all major digital content creation hardware and software.

Adobe Prelude is a tool for reviewing, importing, logging, selecting, and exporting tapeless media. The software also offers features like speech transcription and rough cut creation. You can easily tag and transcode video footage and quickly create a rough cut. You can easily ingest assets into the intuitively designed interface for efficient media organization and metadata entry. Prelude translates effortlessly into Adobe Premiere Pro, ensuring fluid communication and organization throughout the video production process. An Adobe Prelude-integrated Interface, Reach Engine Acquire, allows users to import assets and tag them with metadata, then import them into the Reach Engine database.

USE REACH ENGINE ACQUIRE IN YOUR WORKFLOW

Acquire can be used by editors or anyone else with access to the Reach Engine database to view the assets to which you have permissions. From Prelude, you can ingest multiple files into your project. Once you have added the required metadata to your assets, you can export these assets into Reach Engine Craft with Premiere.

WHAT'S NEW

Release 2.7.26

Ping Authentication
Signing Panel Installers for MacOS Gatekeeper
All .pkg installers are notarized by Apple using the Levels Beyond Apple Developer ID during the build process

Release 2.7.23

Prelude Acquire checks to see if a folder exists in the temp directory on the Status tab.

Release 2.7.0

Note: Release 2.7.0 was released after version 5.0.0. The version scheme was updated to synchronize with other Levels Beyond products.

Prelude can be used with SAML configured server-side.
Comments made in Prelude are ingested into Reach Engine via JSON file.
Aspera can be used as the transfer mechanism between Adobe Prelude workstations and the Reach Engine deployed in AWS.

Release 5.0.0

Different OS pathmapping for Panels.

Release 4.1.2

The metadata is auto-saved to the JSON file when a user selects the Ingest tab from the Tag tab.
The Ingest tab allows you to choose if you would like the JSON file to remain or be deleted after ingest.

Releases 3.2.1-4.0.0

If Reach Engine is configured with AWS, when you click Ingest, Reach Engine is able to pick up the JSON + media and ingest into Reach Engine on AWS or local server configuration.

Releases 3.0.0-3.2.1

If you have the appropriate permissions, you can add additional categories to the chosen metadata form.
URL preferences can be set remotely. Prior to this release, you could install the panel remotely but you could only change the URL on the host machine.
Collections are no longer required for Ingest.

INSTALLING ACQUIRE

To install Acquire, contact your administrator. The administrator will need to log into their Reach Engine support portal to download the Acquire ZIP installation file. The administrator installs the panels to /Library/ApplicationSupport/Adobe/CEP/extensions/ folder via the panel installer package.
Once installed, you can move the Acquire panels to the most convenient location for you and dock it.

Note: To support the increased Security requirements of the latest MacOS versions and "Gatekeeper" all Panel installers are now Signed with the Levels Beyond Apple Developer ID and officially validated and Notarized by Apple Inc.

USING REACH ENGINE ACQUIRE

Using Reach Engine Acquire within Prelude lets you easily add metadata to assets prior to importing them to a collection within the Reach Engine Database. To use Acquire:

Open Acquire by choosing Windows > Extension > Reach Engine Acquire.
If you are accessing this Acquire panel for the first time, enter your Reach Engine URL.
Select whether the Sidecar Location is Source or Internal:
- Source: the original location of the asset. The Reach Engine database is accessed via http/https connection.
- Internal: is internal storage; the ability to save the sidecar json along-side the project instead of the asset. This assists when using a full or read-only external drive, or using multiple camera cards with identical filenames.
Click Next to display the Congratulations screen.
Click Next to display the Log In screen. Enter your Username and Password. Note: All screens display either vertically or horizontally, and adjust accordingly, depending on your panel size.

Note: It is possible to sign in with Okta for all Reach Engine Apps.
- If using OAuth:
  - OAuth detects a valid session
  - OAuth allows two-factor authentication
  - Specific code is needed for:
    - Okta
    - SAML
    - Ping: Users are able to login and interact with Reach Engine per standard Panel supported capabilities when Reach Engine is configured for Ping authentication
Confirm your settings by clicking the Gear icon ( ) in the upper right of the panel and select Settings.

Enter the Reach Engine URL in the associated field.

Confirm or change the Reach Engine URL. If the URL is not valid, an error message displays:
Confirm the Sidecar Location, Source or Internal.
Click Save. The Reach Engine Acquire dialog displays.
After your initial login, each subsequent login displays a reminder screen:

The Tag tab lets you select a pre-defined form and add metadata to the selected assets. Note: You can tag assets and ingest without selecting an ingest form on the Tag tab. As long as a sidecar JSON was created at some point, assets ingest assuming they complete validation.
The Ingest tab lets you import to a collection or create a collection of assets.
The Status tab indicates the progress of the ingest process and keeps a history of workflows.

When you are finished using the Reach Engine Acquire extension, or if you need to disconnect from your current session, click the Gear icon then select Signout.

Remote Configuration

The Acquire panel can be installed remotely. To configure the Reach Engine URL remotely:

Create a file named reach-engine-config.json. This file accepts two arguments, serverUrl and sidecarStorageLocation.
Open the file and specify the argument(s) that you need.
- serverUrl must be valid url.
- sidecarStorageLocation must be either source or internal.
  
  Example:
```
{
"serverUrl": http://10.0.0.108:8080,
"sidecarStorageLocation": "source"
}
```
Copy the file to the remote machine.

For Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions\reach-engine-config.json
For Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CEP/extensions/reach-engine-config.json

Tag tab

The Tag tab lets you select a Metadata form to associate with an asset, allowing you to add pertinent metadata to an asset before adding it to a collection. To select a Metadata form and add asset details:

Click the Tag tab in the Acquire panel.
Select one or more assets from the project panel.
Select a Metadata Form from the drop-down list.
Complete the associated fields in the form for each asset:
- Fields with a red asterisk * are mandatory.
- If you have the appropriate permissions, you can add additional categories to the chosen metadata form.
- Click the X next to the entry to remove the associated field.
- Click the button to increase or decrease a number.
- Drag the corner to create more room in text boxes.
Click Save to commit the metadata to the associated JSON files.

Note: The metadata is auto-saved to the JSON file when selecting the Ingest tab from the Tag tab.

Append Text to a Free Text Field

Loggers have the ability to choose whether or not to append or replace metadata in a text metadata field, e.g., a Clip Description. For example,

Click on a file listed.
Click on Description field "Append Text to < Multi Values >, to see state after user enters text.
Click Save to see the edits applied to the files.

Ingest tab

The Ingest tab displays options to either import to a previously created collection of assets, or, create a collection with selected assets. You can also import assets to multiple collections.

Note: Remember to mount the drive where assets will be placed. If the drive is not mounted, ingests will fail.

Importing to a collection

When importing to an existing collection, a category is not required. To import assets to a collection:

Click the Ingest tab.
Select one or more collections from the Select Collection drop-down menu into which the tagged asset is ingested.
- You can select an unlimited number of Collections.
- Click the X to remove a collection from the Import task.
Optionally, check the Remove the Sidecar File after the ingest to save space and keep your system clean.
Click IMPORT.
Proceed to the Ingest section.

Creating a collection

Creating a collection allows you to form a repository for your assets. When creating a new collection, the category on the Collection required.
To create a collection:

Click the Plus sign next to the Select Collections drop-down.
Enter the name of the new collection in the Name field.
Select the Visibility level:
- Private: The collection is only viewable by the user creating the collection.
- By Category lets you assign categories to assign to the collection. If By Category is selected, choose one or more categories to which the asset belongs from the Categories menu.
Click CREATE. The collection with the new name is created within the Reach Engine database for future use.

The Ingest tab displays with the option to import tagged assets.
Click the Plus sign to create another Collection, if needed.
Click IMPORT after all Collections have been selected.

Proceed to the Ingest section.

Ingest

Regardless of whether you ingest assets into an existing collection or create a new collection, you must click Import to ingest the assets. When this button is clicked, the Proceed with Ingest panel displays to confirm the decision to ingest the selected assets. All selected assets are listed.

Click Ingest. Assets are validated against the fields set in the selected form and imported into the Reach Engine.

The Ingesting Assets dialog displays. If successful, the tagged assets are now a part of a collection in the Reach Engine database.
Note: All comments made within Prelude are added to the JSON file that is ultimately ingested into Reach Engine.
Click Hide to redisplay the Ingest tab.

Notes:

If an asset fails to validate, an error message displays.
Click the to close the error message. A red bar displays in the associated area where the validation fails.
An indicator displays next to the Status tab and an option displays to send an email message of the error report.
If an error occurs, an error message displays with the option to email the error report. Click Email Error Report to send a copy of the error message to an email recipient.
If any selected files are in a read-only directory, a warning displays. Ensure you save the sidecar JSON file by clicking Change to modify the sidecar storage location to internal.
If Reach Engine is configured with AWS, when you click Ingest, Reach Engine is able to pick up the JSON + media and ingest into Reach Engine on AWS or local server configuration.

Note: If internet connection is lost during upload, the workflow stalls.
See the Status tab section for more information.

Status tab

The Status tab displays the progress of the ingest process, and whether an error occurred. If one or more errors occurred, the number of errors displays at the top of the Status tab. To review the status of an ingest:

Click the Status tab to see the status of an ingest.

Failed ingests

Successful ingests

Note: If a temporary directory has not been selected or created on the server, an error message displays: Unable to Ingest Unmanaged Asset. Shared storage in some client environments are latent enough, between the Reach Engine server and the Client system running the Panel, that temporary directories created by Reach Engine wouldn't be seen for several seconds. With release 2.8.0, the panel no longer assumes the temp directory is created instantaneously. Instead the panel waits several seconds, and retries several times, for the existence of the temp ingest directory. Should the directory still not be accessible, the panel produces more detailed errors for improved troubleshooting. Two separate sub-error messages may display below the initial error:

- Unable to get unique destination directory from server.
  - Acquire will retry the request 3 times to get the temporary directory from server.
  - Each attempt is performed 500 milliseconds apart.
  - Upon successful access to the temporary directory, the error message is removed.
- Unable to access into the unique destination directory. Path does not exist.
  - Acquire will retry the request twice to create a temporary directory.
  - Each attempt is performed 500 milliseconds apart.
  - Upon successful access to the temporary directory, the error message is removed.
Click the Actions menu ( ) to select whether to review the details of the ingest.

Details

To review the details:

Select the Details option:
Review the details to determine the error location or process.

An error occurred during ingest. If an error occurs, click Email Error Report to send a copy of the error to an email recipient.

All file names are individually listed and a status of completed/stalled is shown to review what files did not make it into Reach Engine.

All assets at 100% were ingested successfully.

Workflow history

The Status tab lets you review the workflow history, and retains the history of up to the last 10 Ingests, even with multiple sign-ins or panel upgrades.

Hover over the workflow to review.
Click the workflow when it becomes outlined in blue. The workflow details display.
Click Hide to redisplay the Status tab.
To see additional workflows, click the Load More button.

Abandon

If an error occurs when initiating a workflow, you can cancel the process that displays in the Status tab by clicking Abandon.

The Status tab continues to display the number of times an incident occurred during the ingest process.

Appendix

Pathmapping

Within the local.reach-engine.properties, these are the available options as of release 5.0.0:

## Panels
panels.pathmapping.prelude.mac=prelude_mac
panels.pathmapping.prelude.windows=prelude_windows

SAML

With release 2.7.0, SAML can be configured server-side to work with Prelude.

Aspera Upload Integration

Aspera can be used as the transfer mechanism between Adobe Prelude workstations and Reach Engine, which is deployed in AWS. To enable the Aspera Upload Integration three things are required:

A properly configured Aspera Enterprise Server installation (version 3.0 or greater).
A properly configured Reach Engine.
The ability to install the Aspera Connect Client on the uploading device.

Consult with your Levels Beyond product manager for further details.

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