We've just released CinePlay 1.1.2, a minor update for our professional iOS video player.

The iPad version of CinePlay now supports live comments in Kollaborate, meaning that comments on the same video from other people instantly show up as markers on your timeline, and any markers you create in CinePlay will appear instantly for other people using CinePlay or viewing the video in their web browser.

This feature had already been rolled out for users of the web version of the site and will be coming to Cut Notes users in the next update.

We've also made several other changes to the app which will result in improved performance on slower devices and fixed a couple of UI glitches on the iPhone. The full changelog is here.

CinePlay is an essential tool for dailies review and client feedback, especially when coupled with our Kollaborate cloud workflow solution. To find out more, view the feature list, read the user manual or watch the overview video.

One thing we heard loud and clear at NAB this year was the desire for a local version of Kollaborate that companies could run on their in-house servers and storage, so immediately after the show we bumped Kollaborate Server up the priority list. The software is now nearing completion and we are looking for companies to help test it.

Kollaborate is our cloud workflow platform that allows you to share files, gather feedback and manage your team in the cloud. It also integrates tightly with Digital Rebellion apps like Cut Notes, CinePlay and Post Haste, with the eventual plan being to tie it in with every app we make. You can find out more about the feature set at www.kollaborate.tv.

Kollaborate Server is aimed at businesses so we're looking for companies willing to test the software locally within their facility. You will need a dedicated computer running Apache, MySQL and PHP on OS X or Linux. Setup should not be difficult for anyone familiar with setting up a webserver and detailed instructions will be provided.

If you're interested in taking part, please contact us with a little bit of information about your company including which operating system you'll be running it on and approximately how many users will be connecting to it.

We've just released another major update to our cloud workflow platform Kollaborate with some much-requested features.

Custom user permissions

You now have more control over the individual actions of users in the project. You can override the permissions set by the user's department position to assign or deny admin status, and can control whether the user can upload, view or delete files.

Custom file permissions

As well as department-level sandboxing, you can now set permissions on a file-by-file basis. You can approve or deny access to individuals, departments or everyone. You can combine permissions to deny access to everyone except certain people, or deny access to a department except for certain people in that department.

Kollaborate continues to advance at a rapid pace (we make daily updates) and we're about 75% through our list of tasks to complete before the beta status can be removed. We are working on integrating the cloud with all of our applications (we currently support Cut Notes, CinePlay and Post Haste) and are actively working on a local server edition that will be released in a few weeks.

There are many digital asset management and workflow tools nowadays but we've taken a different path and roadmap to everyone else and the response so far has been extremely positive. Try it out today at kollaborate.tv.

We've just released a beta of Post Haste 2.5 for Mac.

This version has basic Kollaborate integration. To set it up, go to the Kollaborate tab in preferences, enter your login information and click Authorize.

Now whenever you create a new project on your local hard drive, a copy will be created in the cloud. You can choose to recreate the entire folder structure or just create an empty project. Note: you must be logged into a Kollaborate trial or subscriber account for this to work.

We're keen to hear feedback on the best ways to integrate Kollaborate functionality into your existing Post Haste workflows so contact us with your requests.

Last week we released Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.14, a minor update to our flagship suite for maintaining, optimizing and troubleshooting your editing system.

As well as the usual bug fixes and updated Crash Analyzer definitions, we've also introduced a new feature to Plugin Manager. It is now possible to print a list of plugins to refer to when reinstalling your operating system. You could also use it to compare plugins between computers, but it is much easier to do that with Pro Admin.

You can see the entire list of changes here.

Pro Maintenance Tools is an essential toolkit for post production professionals that is used worldwide by freelancers and studios alike. To find out more view the full feature list, watch the video overview, read the user manual or download the free trial.

Today we released a major update to our Kollaborate cloud workflow tool. As well as bug fixes and tweaks, we also introduced some important new features and changes.

Aliases

Aliases are shortcuts to a file, much like symbolic links in OS X. Aliases are a useful tool in managing user permissions because they behave like self-contained files, allowing you to to separate comments and other metadata between departments.

For example, an editor uploads a new cut to the Post Production department. The producer views the cut and gives his/her notes. The editor then wishes to give the client access to the file but without them seeing the producer's notes, so he creates an alias to the file, moves it to the Clients department and the client makes their notes effectively in a sandbox away from everyone else.

To add an alias, click the arrow at the right of a file and choose Create Alias, then click the arrow next to the new file, click Move and choose the department or folder.

Sharing overhaul

We've overhauled the Sharing pane to make it easier to share links with people who are not directly part of the project.

You can now email the link to people directly from the web interface and they can leave comments on the file without needing to be part of the project.

Storage statistics

Clicking the colored storage indicator in the bottom right corner now takes you to the Storage page, allowing you to see exactly how much space you're using and what the largest files in each project are.

Misc

Other minor changes include frame-by-frame navigation in the player using the left/right arrow keys, the ability to create a task from any comment, the ability to export all tasks as a calendar, UI tweaks and much more.

Apps

Kollaborate Transfer, our batch encoding and uploading tool, has been updated to allow uploads to private storage areas, folders and departments, among other changes and tweaks.

CinePlay has been updated to 1.1.1 to allow video playback from private storage areas and departments. We've also improved compatibility with iOS 5.

Cut Notes has been updated to 2.0.1 to allow note taking from video files stored in departments or subfolders, alongside various Kollaborate sync improvements. We've also made it so that it will stay in manual note-taking mode until you specifically exit it, as well as making the Export dialog clearer for new users.

These are just a few features on our ambitious Kollaborate roadmap. To find out more, visit www.kollaborate.tv and sign up for the free trial.

We're pleased to introduce our new white-label service for business customers. This allows you to customize our applications with your logo and branding for use with your clients.

It will be especially useful with the upcoming local server feature of Kollaborate, allowing you to completely customize the end-user experience for clients and keep them coming back.

The service is available on an annual subscription basis and we can do basic branding or feature customization depending on your needs and requirements. Contact us for more details.

Another NAB has been and gone, however this year was different because it was our first year as exhibitors (or indeed my first year even attending a trade show).

We had a great show, our booth traffic exceeded expectations and Kollaborate was very popular, in particular the Cut Notes sync and integration.

If you didn't make it down to NAB, you can download the product brochure we were handing out here (note: it's big).

Cut Notes sync with Kollaborate is very tight and tricky to show off in a video, however FCP.co and FreshDV did a good job of showing it off in the following videos:

Now that NAB is over we'll be back to our regular schedule so expect the usual quantity of blog posts and software updates soon.

We're excited to announce the release of Cut Notes 2.0 today. This is a major overhaul of the app based on user feedback.

We've redesigned the UI with a darker skin and you no longer need to change orientation to perform certain tasks.

Notes are now organized into sets. Use different sets to separate different contexts, such as grading and mixing. You can color code buttons for visual separation and the colors will be respected in any marker list you export (depending on application support for that color).

To edit a button you no longer tap and hold on it but instead tap the center of the segment button in the bottom left. This takes you to a dialog that allows you to modify sets, buttons and colors.

Manual text entry is significantly improved in this version too. The text box is always available at the top of the screen so you don't need to scroll or switch between pages to get to it.

Note editing has been significantly simplified. Tap on a note to display it in the text box and tap on the timecode to edit it. You can swipe down on the text box to edit the last entered note.

Tap two buttons in quick succession or make two notes at the same timecode position and Cut Notes will compound the notes together. You can switch this off in the Cut Notes section of the iOS Settings app if you want to revert to the old behavior.

Cut Notes now syncs with Adobe Audition, Pro Tools and Final Cut Pro X. FCPX needs a separate plugin available here. The user manual contains guides on how to setup sync for each application.

The export dialog has been overhauled and simplified. Choose the application you want to export to (or None if you want a human-readable version) and then choose the method - Email, Copy to Pasteboard, Print (human-readable text only), upload to Dropbox or upload to Kollaborate.

However, where Cut Notes 2.0 really shines is in its cloud integration with Kollaborate. View your cloud projects in the project browser, take notes on playable videos, sync timecode directly to your web browser (Chrome and Safari right now), full remote playback control from the iPad and comments even appear live in your web browser as you create them. Colleagues will be notified of your comments through email and Dashboard alerts.

The Kollaborate sync is very tight. Tap a note to jump to that position in the timeline and all note additions, changes and deletions are displayed live in the browser. This is much tighter integration than we are able to offer with any other application and it gives an example of the new things we're able to do when we don't rely on third parties. This is how we've always wanted sync to work and we're very excited to finally deliver it.

It's a little difficult to show it in action in the video, but we'll be running demos at booth SL15408 at NAB next week. This is just the beginning of what we have planned for Cut Notes and Kollaborate, so stay tuned.

We're proud to announce our latest product - Kollaborate, the cloud workflow platform for media professionals. Launching today in public beta, Kollaborate provides storage space and collaboration capabilities for you and your team.

Individual, department and project-level messaging helps you communicate efficiently with your team.

The Dashboard area allows you to see the most recent updates by your colleagues at a glance.

Kollaborate provides private and project storage space for sharing files with colleagues. Share files with everyone or group your team into departments and limit access on a per-department level. Non-department heads cannot see files in other departments so this is useful for limiting client access.

Type in the comment box and Kollaborate is smart enough to insert the comment at the timecode position you first started typing. It can automatically pause and resume playback while making a comment if you so wish. Submitting a comment notifies project collaborators via email and Dashboard alerts.

You can share a file with someone not involved in the project by creating a private password-protected link for them. Each link is provided with a view count, so we recommend creating one link per person with the person's name as the title so that you can easily keep track.

Revisions allow you to easily follow the progress of a file. Make notes on individual revisions and quickly switch between them for comparison.

Kollaborate has extensive task management capabilities. You can delegate tasks to others (or leave them unassigned and wait for a user to assign themselves) and be notified as to the progress of the task through Dashboard and email alerts. The task's creator can upload related files to help the assignee complete the task (this could be a diagram or mockup for example) and the assignee can respond by uploading task deliverables.

One great feature is the ability to turn a comment into a task as you create it, so that colleagues are instantly notified and can begin work on the task before you've even finished watching the video.

It is not just for video - you can upload any type of file and Kollaborate will host it for you, but only H.264s will be playable. The site does not automatically re-encode video when you upload it, so to make it easier we've provided custom encoding presets for common applications and created a tool called Kollaborate Transfer for batch encoding and uploading to the site. These are all available on the Resources page. Kollaborate Transfer is our recommended way of uploading to the site. It is currently in beta for Mac and a Windows version will be coming soon.

There are lots of video sharing sites out there so what makes Kollaborate different? The key point is that it is not just a site, it is a platform. We are building all our products around it, starting today with CinePlay 1.1 for iPad. CinePlay will allow you to play your Kollaborate videos on the move and make synchronized comments in the cloud.

We will eventually integrate Kollaborate into every product we make and we have an exciting and ambitious roadmap for it. Don't worry - our products will continue to function very well in offline mode, but they will be better with Kollaborate. The nice thing about creating our own cloud solution rather than relying on third-parties is that we can really focus on the experience. We've been relying on third parties for lots of things and that often leads to frustration and technical limitations. For this reason we really recommend Kollaborate over Dropbox for playing videos in CinePlay. You get thumbnails, synchronized timecode and comment syncing - none of which we can achieve with the limitations of the Dropbox SDK.

We've been in private beta for 3-4 months and we're now launching into a public beta. We consider Kollaborate stable enough to be used in a production environment. The reasons for the beta tag are less to do with bugs and more to do with load balancing, optimization, the fact that it requires a relatively recent web browser and an acknowledgement that there are one or two minor limitations that will be addressed in the coming weeks (e.g. Kollaborate Transfer can currently only upload to the root directory. The workaround is to move the file to the desired location in the web interface.).

We're planning for the public beta to last 2-3 months. Since it's a beta, we're offering a great deal - sign up for the Freelance or Basic package during the beta process and get an entire year at half price.

We've always believed in integration between our products and Kollaborate is integration on steroids. It's a game-changer for us and we're very excited about the future. We'll be at NAB this year so stop by booth SL15408 to see Kollaborate in action.

P.S. This isn't our only NAB announcement. We'll have something else to announce shortly.