Know your delivery spec and set your projects and proxies accordingly.
Make a backup plan.
We monitor the shared storage for corruption and proactively repair physical problems with storage, so it’s a safe space for your proxies, Original Camera Masters (OCM), and project files. Still, we can’t prevent accidental deletions or software based corruption. Protect assets with the classic “3-2-1 backup” plan, or something similar that suits your team’s needs. 3-2-1 means three copies of production data, on two different types of media (e.g. shared storage + hard drives,) with one copy in a separate geographical location (this can also be a cloud backup.)
Shared Storage
PODASS default storage setup is comprised of 3 network volumes. 1: Avid Projects, 2: Avid Media, 3: Common_Elements. These standard volumes are the same on facility shared storage and on private POD network storage. The volumes mounts are the same for MAC or PC workstations.
Custom volumes can be setup if required.
If your workflow includes a private POD network see here for setup and best practices.
Avid First Time Setup
The first time you launch Avid, you may need to point it to your team’s Avid projects folder on the project volume by clicking the folder icon and navigating to it. When you open a project for the first time, Avid may ask if you want to enable bin sharing. Always select Yes if asked, as bin sharing enables your team to collaborate in a project safely. If you accidentally click no, navigate to the general settings to re-enable, or contact support for help.
Bin Locking
Create a test bin to see how this functions by clicking File > New Bin. A green unlocked padlock will appear in the new window indicating you currently hold the lock on your new bin. So long as you have the bin open, you can edit the bin and save changes.
Should you open a bin locked by another editor, a red padlock will indicate you are in read-only mode of a snapshot of the bin’s last save. You may access the bin, but you won’t be able to save any changes to original locked bin (another editor has write control.) If you’ve made changes to a locked bin and try to save or close it, Avid will ask if you want to save your bin with a new name or discard the changes you’ve made.
If your workflow is remote login, when you end a session on your remote workstation, programs and bins left will remain open on your workstation. We recommend closing shared Avid projects between sessions to release bin locks in case others need to edit bins while you are away.
If your workflow is POD then when you close your system the bins will unlock directly.
For more detail on bin locks see here.
Media Creation Settings
From time to time, your workstation may create new media, such as title renders. For others to access these renders, ensure your Media Creation settings are pointed to shared storage. While it is best to check in with your team’s assistant editor(s) to confirm these settings, the following directions will help set a good baseline:
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- Open the settings from the Tools menu (on the toolbar) > Media Creation
- On any of the tabs set the location of renders to the Avid Media Volume and apply to all
- Set the render codec to DNX_LB and apply to all
Using the Unity Attic
If you need to recover an older version of a bin from a shared project, the Unity Attic can be found in the root of the Avid Project folder. It works as a local Avid Attic does. To recover work from the attic follow these steps:
- Find the version of the bin you want to recover in the Unity Attic folder
- Using File Explorer, copy it somewhere in your shared project folder and give the bin a new name indicating it is recovered – change the number suffix (.#) of the file to a standard .avb.
- In Avid, right click the project window and refresh the project. Close the original bin (they can’t be opened at the same time,) then open your recovery bin.
- If you wish to keep the recovered bin, delete the other version of the bin and replace it with the recovered bin.
View our best practices on project and Unity Attic maintenance.
Metadata in Shared Projects
There is a design choice in Avid bin sharing that you should know about if you regularly log data in columns, use clip colors, or markers on master clips. “Cloned” master clips are common in shared Avid projects. They are master clips that share metadata. When two master clips meet in open bins, any differences are copied over from the master clip in the bin opened first to the master clip opened second. In practice, this is very easy to do and puts certain types of metadata at risk in shared projects. Your team should make a plan how to work around this early on. For more information about metadata, see here.