We've just released a major new update to our Kollaborate cloud workflow platform for video professionals, with a lot of new features and important changes.

Workflows

Workflows are an extremely powerful new feature that tells Kollaborate to perform certain tasks on a file when it is assigned a specific workflow. The tasks can range from labelling or marking the file to moving it to a specific folder. It's an easy way of quickly sorting files so they are easier for your team to access.

They are also the new way of getting file approvals from other people on your team. This is considerably more powerful than before and allows you to target specific people or departments as being able to approve files, rather than everyone with approval rights. You can also specify that every single marked person must approve the file before it is considered approved, as opposed to the old system where it was approved simply by the first person to approve it.

Each approval workflow has options for running another workflow when it is approved or rejected, so you could for example run another workflow to automatically highlight approved files and move them to an Approved folder. It also means you can chain approvals together so that an approval on one workflow triggers another approval workflow, allowing a file to filter up to higher members of your team for a decision before it is finally approved.

Another way you could use this is to implement milestones. So Milestone 1 would move the file to a particular project or department, someone works on the file and they then assign it Milestone 2, which moves it onto someone else to work on. Then they assign it Milestone 3 which asks a manager to approve it and then if it is approved it is automatically assigned an Approved status which moves the file to an Approved Files folder.

That's just an example - you can set it up however you like and it's extremely flexible.

We have lots of plans for this in future and are keen to know how customers plan to incorporate this feature into their workflows.

Upload Requests

Need some files from a vendor but don't want to add the person to the project? Send them an upload link. Upload links work just like sharing links but show a file upload page instead of a video player.

Team overhaul

The Team page has been completely overhauled. Each department now has a text box at the bottom that allows you to type in an email address to invite a team member. This is a considerably quicker and simpler way of setting up your team than the previous version.

Positions have been replaced by Roles, which apply a set of default permissions to a user. In a future update you will be able to add your own roles.

Inviting new users to the service is easier than before. Rather than assigning the user a default password, they now receive an activation link. Upon clicking the link they will be asked to choose a password for their account. We feel this is a more user-friendly way of doing things that should result in fewer forgotten passwords. You can also choose to manually send a user the activation link rather than having our system send it if you want to add a personal message.

Another change is that departments are no longer required to have users inside them. This is useful if you just want a private storage area for Admins, as they are not required to be part of a department to see inside it.

Project muting

Don't want to receive alerts from a specific project but still receive alerts from others? You can now mute it. Hover over the project on the Projects page and click the bell icon next to its name.

Subtitle support

You can now view SRT subtitles in the video player. Here's how to do it:

1. Upload both the video and SRT caption file to your project.
2. Right-click on the video file on the Files page and click Relationship Editor or go to Actions > Related Files > Relationship Editor.
3. Click New Relationship.
4. Browse to the SRT file and choose Subtitles as the relationship type.
5. Save and go back to the video. You'll now see a green icon at the bottom of the player that will allow you to toggle the captions on and off.

We plan to support additional caption formats in future.

Other Changes

• File color coding
• Batch metadata editing
• New filters on the Files page - show unviewed, with comments, without comments, with revisions and since my last visit
• Metadata tags are now matched when searching from the Files page (previously you could only do this from the Advanced Search page)
• Previously if you wanted to see detailed viewing statistics about a link, you would need to send it via the site so it could match the stats to the user's email address. Now in cases where the link is emailed manually and Kollaborate doesn't know who clicked it, the site will show viewing statistics by IP address instead.
• If you're not viewing a playable file, the comment box is now selected by default to make note-taking easier
• Many UI changes plus an overhaul of the email skin

The site has also had a complete architecture overhaul where every single page was modified and optimized. We're also running on faster servers and cache data more aggressively which should result in the site being faster than before.

Kollaborate is an essential cloud workflow platform that allows you to share files with clients and team members while integrating with Digital Rebellion apps and services. To find out more, see the overview or register for the free trial.

Kollaborate Encoder 1.1.3 - Feb 7 2017

• Improved compatibility with newer versions of Node.js
• Fixed a crash that could occur when submitting a job

Pro Maintenance Tools 2.2.1 - Jan 19 2017

• Media Salvage - Support for salvaging ProRes 4444 XQ
• Plugin Manager - VST2 and VST3 plugin support
• Crash Analyzer - Improved support for Avid
• QT Repair - Stability improvements
• Plugin Manager - Stability improvements when verifying Audio Units
• Updated Crash Analyzer definitions
• Various other bug fixes, tweaks and optimizations

CinePlay for iOS 1.6.5 - Jan 19 2017

• New Kollaborate SDK with more aggressive caching improves cloud performance
• Fixed an issue where the Download option may not always appear when long pressing a Kollaborate file
• Improved compatibility with video output over an HDMI cable
• Editmote support removed
• Various UI improvements
• General bug fixes, tweaks and optimizations

Cut Notes for iPad 2.4.6 - Jan 19 2017

• New Kollaborate SDK with more aggressive caching improves cloud performance
• Long button titles no longer go all the way to the edge
• Improved reliability when exporting button presets
• Various bug fixes, tweaks and improvements

Marker Import 2.1.4 - Jan 16 2017

• Improved compatibility with FCPX 10.3.1
• Improved support for 59.94 interlaced media in FCPX events
• Various other bug fixes, tweaks and improvements

Kollaborate Folder Watcher 1.2 - Jan 16 2017

• Added progress bars in Finder to show encoding / upload progress
• Improved support for network drives
• Various bug fixes, tweaks and optimizations

CinePlay 1.4.4 - Jan 12 2017

• Flip / rotation is now taken into account when exporting movies
• Hover thumbnails now take into account the default rotation of the movie
• Flip / rotation settings are now stored on a per-movie basis
• Fixed an issue where movies could resize incorrectly when viewing a playlist in full screen
• The name of the current file is now shown when playing a playlist in full screen
• If you choose Fit to Screen (Cmd+3) during playback of a playlist, all files in the playlist will fit to the screen regardless of their intrinsic size
• Fixed a crash that could occur when closing a file
• Various other bug fixes, tweaks and improvements

CinePlay for Apple TV 1.0.2 - Jan 9 2017

• Improved compatibility with tvOS 10.1
• Improved playback stability
• Tapping the remote now hides the UI if it's showing
• Fixed an issue where you may not have been able to change playback speed while the scrubber was showing
• Fixed an issue where folder names may not appear in the title bar
• Various bug fixes for the Kollaborate authorization screen
• General bug fixes, tweaks and improvements

Last week we released Pro Maintenance Tools 2.2.1, a minor update to our suite of maintenance, troubleshooting and repair tools for your editing application.

Salvage ProRes 4444 XQ

Media Salvage can now repair files encoded with the ProRes 4444 XQ codec.

Manage VST2 and VST3 plugins

Plugin Manager can now install, remove, enable and disable VST2 and VST3 audio plugins used by popular DAWs.

Other changes

 

• Crash Analyzer - Improved support for Avid
• QT Repair - Stability improvements
• Plugin Manager - Stability improvements when verifying Audio Units
• Updated Crash Analyzer definitions
• Various other bug fixes, tweaks and optimizations

Pro Maintenance Tools is an invaluable toolset to help working video professionals get up and running again quickly in the event of a problem. To find out more, see the feature overview, read the user manual, watch the overview video or download the free 15-day trial.

 

Kollaborate Folder Watcher 1.2 is a significant update to our automatic file uploader for our Kollaborate cloud platform.

Finder progress bars

Based on your feedback, encoding and uploading now displays progress bars directly in Finder, allowing you to see at a glance the progress of any file.

Improved network drive support

Kollaborate Folder Watcher works by listening for messages from macOS that tell it when changes to a folder have occurred. These messages do not get sent on network drives so before now the app didn't work with such drives. Now it manually scans for changes too so it will detect changes on these drives, albeit with a delay compared to a local drive.

Kollaborate is an essential cloud workflow platform that allows you to share files with clients and team members while integrating with Digital Rebellion apps and services. To find out more, see the overview or register for the free trial.

Last week we released CinePlay 1.4.4, a minor update to our Mac media player for video professionals.

Flip/rotation improvements

Flip / rotation settings are now stored on a per-movie basis instead of being a global setting. This allows you to rotate movies and have the setting remembered when the file is reopened.

Additionally, flip/rotation is now taken into account when exporting movies and showing hover thumbnails.

Improved playlist support

Playlists are easier to use in full screen with a bug fix that prevents a sizing issue, as well as a new feature to show you the name of the clip when a new clip loads.

You can read the full list of changes here.

 CinePlay is a powerful playback and note-taking tool for video professionals. To find out more, see the feature list, read the user manual, watch the overview video or download the free 15-day trial. Kollaborate customers get cloud functionality in CinePlay free of charge.

We've given Kollaborate subscribers a massive free storage space boost. Kollaborate was already one of the best-value review platforms on the market due to the fact you get 5 team members and all features on the base plan, in addition to free access to several of our products, and this increases the value even more.

Additionally, our higher-level plans now come with unlimited team members.

You can view the full list of package benefits, including pricing, here.

Kollaborate is an essential cloud workflow platform that allows you to share files with clients and team members while integrating with Digital Rebellion apps and services. To find out more, see the overview or register for the free trial.

Another year is over so let’s look back on the past 12 months.

Notable updates

We launched a new online store.

Kollaborate 2.0 - We significantly enhanced our cloud workflow platform with hoverscrub thumbnails, folder peeking, to-do comments, an Adobe Premiere panel, Web Hooks and numerous other improvements. 

Pro Maintenance Tools 2.2 - Our suite of maintenance and repair tools gained improved support for Avid and the ability to manage Quartz Composer plugins for FCPX.

Pro Media Tools 1.4.5 - Our suite of media management tools received support for importing timecode from BWF files plus many improvements to QT Edit’s conform mode.

CinePlay 1.4.2 for Mac - Our professional media player gained thumbnail hover previews plus various improvements to timecode accuracy.

Cut Notes 2.4.4 - Our iPad note-taking tool received multi-line and dynamically-sized button labels plus various cloud improvements.

In total we released over 60 updates for our products.

Stats

Our most-downloaded app was Preference Manager but our most-used app was Post Haste. Our most popular paid tool was Pro Maintenance Tools. Our most popular iOS app was Video Space Calculator. The number of daily Kollaborate users doubled.

The most popular blog posts in 2016 were:

• Understanding render options in Premiere Pro
• Avid codec guide
• ARRI Alexa dailies workflow with DaVinci Resolve 12

What’s next

This year we are planning to release at least one new product alongside major updates to Kollaborate coming in the next few weeks. We are planning significant overhauls of our desktop and mobile products to not only add new features but also make them cross-platform, and we will try to release as many of these major updates as we have time for in a year. You can keep up to date with new products, features and tips by subscribing to this blog, following us on Twitter or Facebook or by subscribing to our mailing list.

Pro Maintenance Tools 2.2 - Nov 16 2016

• Housekeeper - Support for trashing After Effects disk caches not in the default location
• Plugin Manager - Support for Quartz Composer plugins
• Crash Analyzer - Improved Avid support
• CS Repair - Fixed an issue that could cause files to be erroneously flagged up
• Plugin Manager - Improved plugin installer compatibility with Xcode 8 and macOS Sierra
• Updated Crash Analyzer definitions
• Various other bug fixes, tweaks and improvements

Kollaborate Server 2.0.3 - Nov 15 2016

Pro Maintenance Tools 2.2, our suite of tools for maintaining, optimizing and troubleshooting your editing system,  was recently updated with the following new features.

Manage Quartz Composer plugins

Plugin Manager now supports Quartz Composer plugins, allowing you to boost performance and troubleshoot FCPX issues by disabling or removing errant plugins.

Trash After Effects disk caches not in the default location

Housekeeper can now clear out After Effects disk caches that are set to a custom location. This a great way of freeing up space as the cache by default takes up 10% of your drive space (100 GB on a 1 TB drive).

Improved Crash Analyzer compatibility with Avid Media Composer

Recent versions of Avid have split up the app into different processes for improved stability and performance and Crash Analyzer can now analyze crashes in these extra processes.

Other changes

• CS Repair - Fixed an issue that could cause files to be erroneously flagged up
• Plugin Manager - Improved plugin installer compatibility with Xcode 8 and macOS Sierra
• Updated Crash Analyzer definitions
• Various other bug fixes, tweaks and improvements

Pro Maintenance Tools is an invaluable toolset to help working video professionals get up and running again quickly in the event of a problem. To find out more, see the feature overview, read the user manual, watch the overview video or download the free 15-day trial.

Earlier this week we released Kollaborate Server 2.0.3, a minor update to our in-house version of our Kollaborate cloud workflow platform. These fixes have already been rolled out to users of the cloud version.

Kollaborate Server can now be run on PHP 7, as well as PHP 5.6. You will need to make sure you have the very latest version of the Ioncube Loader to do this. Even if you are not using PHP 7 you may still need to update the loader if you are using a very old version.

Other changes

• When emailing out a link through the site, the user's name is populated from their email address so they no longer need to enter it before commenting
• Users can hold down Shift to prevent the comment overlay showing in full screen
• Uploads from the FCPX plugin are now matched for revisions based on their title, not filename
• Black thumbnails are now shown instead of the "unknown document" icon if a video thumbnail is pending
• Prevented comments on archived projects
• The comments box is now sized proportionally to the height of your browser
• Added a popup alert to ask the user if they want to reset their password if they get it wrong too many times
• API - Shared links generated by apps now take the file's title instead of appearing as Untitled
• Forward and back slashes are now stripped from file titles
• Extended OAuth token expiration dates to prevent infrequent users from constantly having to reauthorize
• Improved the browser compatibility of annotation drawing
• Fixed an issue where admins could not email a link created by another user
• Fixed an issue on OS X where multiple link reminder emails may be sent
• Fixed an issue where admins could not add Approval permissions to other users
• Fixed an issue where revision uploads could fail if the parent folder contained invalid characters
• Fixed an issue where aliases may not be playable
• API: Fixed an issue where the server could choose the original file instead of the proxy when playing an alias
• Fixed an error that could occur when trying to move thumbnails for a file type that does not intrinsically support thumbnails
• Fixed an issue where comments may not show when a task with Japanese characters in the title is attached to it
• Fixed an issue where invisible users could exist and not be able to be removed from a project
• Fixed an issue where encoding jobs may not be distributed evenly across encoding servers
• Security improvements
• UI tweaks
• Various other minor bug fixes and improvements

Kollaborate is an essential cloud workflow platform that allows you to share files with clients and team members while integrating with Digital Rebellion apps and services. Kollaborate Server allows you to host the platform in-house on your own servers and storage. To find out more, see the Kollaborate Server overview or register for the free cloud trial (Server trials are available on request).