FlexXTEND User Guide

Introduction

The FlexXTEND panel in Adobe Premiere is an extension that allows the editors to browse, search, preview and use media from the Flex system in their Premiere projects compositions and save said compositions back to Flex. More advanced capabilities include the upload of local media to the Flex system and saving Adobe Projects to Flex for ongoing work. The FlexXTEND panel is run from Adobe Premiere and is an extension of the Flex system.

Logging in to FlexXTEND

Open the FlexXTEND panel in Adobe Premiere by launching Adobe Premiere Pro and creating a new project or opening an existing project.

Go to Window > Extensions > FlexXTEND.

The FlexXTEND panel will pop up. Click the Plus (+) icon to create a new environment or select an existing environment from the dropdown list.

See FlexXTEND Installation and Configuration for more details on environment settings.

Select your environment and then log in with your Dalet Flex credentials.

The Asset Panel

Once logged in, the FlexXTEND Panel will open on the Import tab.

Here you can search and filter the available assets in the Flex system; and import media for editing in Adobe Premiere.

Click on the User Profile button to see your login credentials and configure the Xtend settings.

Logout if a user change is required.

Click on the Settings icon to open the panel display settings.

Switch from Table to Tile view and change the Asset view Template, as configured for this user in the Flex system.

Tile View:

The left-hand side “hamburger” menu allows users to access various Collections and Workspaces, as configured in the Flex system.

Saved Search Filters for Xtend are also saved here (see below for details).

Search and Filter

User the text field at the top of the panel to search from the available assets.

Depending on the selected Template, use each column header to filter by that column’s metadata. In the image below, the filter is set to filter Audio assets, from the Type column header.

Create custom Search Filters by clicking on the Filter icon at the top right.

From the dropdown lists, select the required parameters.

Click Add to apply the filter.

Click on the X Filters icons to remove any filters.

To save a search Filter, click on Save.

You can combine Search filters with Header filters to create more complex search queries.

Saved Filters can be applied via the Activity > My Searches section of the left-hand side menu.

Preview and Import

Double click on an asset to Preview it before import. Note that this is possible only if a proxy format is configured and accessible.

Control the playout, enter a manual timecode, and adjust volume and play speed using the bottom controls.

Click Import to import the previewed asset or Back to return to the Asset list.

Alternatively, in the Asset list, select one or more assets and click Import.

All imported assets will appear in the Adobe Premiere Media Bin.

Export: Check-In Media

Users who use local media in the Premiere project and wish that that original local media will be available also from the Flex system, can use the Media Check-In option to upload any local media used the Premiere project.

Click on the Export tab to open the Render options.

Media Check-In does not require any metadata, even if mandatory fields exist in the form.

Local Adobe Media Encoder

Click on Media check-in to upload the local media to Flex.

Follow the Export process status.

Click OK when done. A new media asset has been created in Flex, associated to the newly uploaded media file.

Remote Adobe Media Encoder

The remote encoder will use the export location to write the target files, and then the premiere panel can optionally request the remote Adobe Media Encoder (AME) to upload to S3. Here is the process, as seen from the Premiere FlexXTEND panel:

Request render:

Select Adobe Media Encoder:

Start render:

Upload to S3 (if configured)

Start workflow

Save the Adobe Project

Users can save their Adobe Premiere Project (the *.PRPROJ file) directly to the Flex system, allowing them to reload it later for continuous work. Project assets can be loaded to different Premiere workstations, as long as all media used in these projects was uploaded or checked-in to the Flex system (see Check-In Local Media below).

Click on the Save Project tab to open the Save Project options.

If there is a mandatory field, users must fill it in before saving is enabled. Fill in the fields and click Export Project.

In the image below, the text field is mandatory.

Follow the Save Project process status.

If configured, the Adobe Premiere Sequences in the Project will be uploaded to Flex as well and are created as Flex Edit assets.

Click OK when done. A new project asset has been created in Flex, associated to the PRPROJ file.

Export: Render

Render the current sequence of a project and save the new video to the Flex system.

Click on the Export tab to open the Render options.

If there is a mandatory field, users must fill it in before rendering is enabled. Fill in the fields and click Render.

The rendering is done by Adobe Media Encoder. It will launch automatically if rendering locally, from the same machine of the Adobe Premiere. When using a Remote AME (Adobe Media Encoder) instance, the render job will be sent to the remote server.

Follow the Render Status.

A new media asset is created in Flex, associated to the new media file which was just created.