Defining a Video Workflow

Step 1: Adding Media Mover Configurations

Media Mover allows significant flexibility in regards to your video work flow through the use of user defined 'Configurations'. Configurations are managed in the Media Mover administration area, accessible in the general administration area under Site Building. If you have been following the installation guide up to this point, you should have no configurations -- so the first step is to add at least one (and probably more). You can add them manually in the Media Mover administration area by clicking "Add Config" and then working through the configuration screen. Each Media Mover configuration is broken down into four phases:

Harvest: defines where the system should look for new media files to be processed (ex: the "...Or Upload a new video" filefield on the show content type)
Process: configures how new media files should be processed, this is where you choose the encoding type (ex: MP2), set audio and video bitrate, and manipulate other command line options available from FFMPEG or your encoder of choice.
Storage: tells media mover where to store the newly encoded file (ex: the "Archival MPEG2" filefield on the show content type)
Complete:any operation that you would like run after the media file has been encoded and stored. (ex: MM Remove, remove harvest and processed files leaving only the final stored MPEG2)

There are numerous choices to make in this process, and far too many possible combinations too document here. In order to provide an example of a working configuration, I have included exports of Denver Open Media's Media Mover configurations below. At Denver Open Media three configurations are defined and run in this order:

1. Archival MPEG2: this configuration harvests new media files attached to the show content type on the "...Or Upload a new video" filefield (This filefield has an unusual name to make it easier on the end user when the form is displayed). It then processes them using a custom FFMPEG command that produces files compatible with TelVue/Princeton playback servers:
   -i %in_file -acodec ac3 -ar 48000 -ab 448k -vcodec mpeg2video -f dvd -copyts -s 720x480 -g 18 -b 8000000 -maxrate 9000000 -minrate 0 -bufsize 835008 -packetsize 2048 -muxrate 10080000 %out_file
   This encoded file is then stored in the "Archival MPEG2" filefield on the show content type, while the original file on the "Upload a new video" is deleted along with any temporary files produced during the encoding process.
2. Flash: this configuration harvests new media files attached to the show content type on the "Archival MPEG2" filefield. It then processes them using a standard FFMPEG flash configuration (Audio bitrate 64k, Audio sample rate 22khz, libmp3lame audio library, 320x240 aspect ratio, 25 frames per second, 750kps video bitrate). This encoded file is stored back on to the "Flash" filefield on the show content type, while any temporary files produced during the encoding process are deleted.
3. Screen Capture: this configuration harvests new media files attached to the show content type on the "Archival MPEG2" filefield. It then processes them using FFMPEG to generate a 704x576 pixel screen shot which is stored back on to the "Screen Capture" filefield on the show content type, while any temporary files produced during the encoding process are deleted.

WARNING REGARDING USING THE EXPORTS: While Media Mover will import most of the information properly, it does not pick up the proper storage location on each import. For the MPEG2 import the storage step regarding "Save the file to this CCK field" needs to be changed to store the file in the "Archival MPEG2" field. For the Flash import, adjust the same setting to store on the "Flash" field. For the Screen Capture import, adjust it to store on the "Screen Capture" field.

Step 2: Adjusting file storage locations

Where the media files are stored (when originally uploaded, as well as after they are encoded) is set on the relevant filefields on the om_show content type. Navigate to the content types via the administration area, then click manage fields on the Show content type to get to the appropriate area.

There are three fields inside of the Video group you can adjust, plus a fifth field at top "...or upload a new video" which controls where newly uploaded files or files selected from your local ingest folder are stored. To set the storage path, configure each field and look for the collapsed fieldset titled "Path settings". Expanding this fieldset will show the default path set by the show module, something like "archive_new/[ogname-raw]". Thanks to the filefield paths module, this setting allows for tokens. At Denver Open Media, and most of the Access stations using the Open Media suite, this default setting is in use. Basically it stores all files inside of the sites/default/files/archive_new folder, inside of a subfolder with the name of its associated project (organic group). This allows a station to browse media files by project. You could easily adjust this to whatever storage scheme you prefer. For instance, if you wanted to store files organized by user accounts you could adjust it to "archive_new/[user]", or you could use any of the other dozens of tokens available listed under the fieldset.