We've just launched a public beta of a new tool for self-hosted Kollaborate customers that makes it easy to get up and running with minimal configuration.

Kollaborate Server Manager runs Kollaborate Server and Kollaborate Encoder in Docker containers on your system and handles downloading, setting up and running the software for you. The current release is Mac-only but we will have a Windows version available soon.

The software allows you to easily view logs all in one place, meaning you don't have to go hunting to find the PHP log if a problem occurs.

There are also options to make it easy to edit configuration files and get access to the server through the terminal.

This beta is intended for testing purposes and customer feedback only and we do not yet intend for it to be used in a production environment as we have not yet optimized it for performance and security. However, in the longer term we will be deprecating support for running the software directly on Mac and PC and making it Linux-only, so in future Kollaborate Server Manager will be the only way to run it on a Mac or PC server.

The current beta lacks the ability for Kollaborate Server to send emails and run over SSL, however all other features are operational and you can upload files and use it normally. Kollaborate Encoder is feature complete in this version.

This software requires a valid Kollaborate Server license or trial (contact us if you'd like to sign up for the trial). You can download the beta here.

We're pleased to announce that we will be exhibiting at NAB this year, from April 8th-11th 2019. We will be located in the Lower South Hall at booth SL15205.

We will be showcasing a preview of Kollaborate 3.0, a major update to our cloud workflow platform with lots of new, exciting and powerful features to improve your workflow and make it easier to coordinate with your colleagues and clients.

Use our guest pass code LV3792 to get free access to the exhibit hall (must be redeemed before March 25th).

Marker Import for Mac 2.1.11 - Feb 13 2019

• Added an option to prevent whitespace being stripped from markers
• Minor bug fixes, tweaks and optimizations

Kollaborate Encoder 1.3.1 - Feb 11 2019

Kollaborate Server 2.7.2 - Feb 11 2019

Kollaborate Server 2.7.3 adds lots of new features and fixes to our self-hosted workflow platform, along with a corresponding update for Kollaborate Encoder.

Inline renaming

Renaming a file no longer launches a dialog box or takes you to a different page - it now happens directly in the Files view. This is a better user experience and matches what you would expect in Finder or Windows Explorer. 

Audio playheads

Audio files now show a playhead over their waveform, allowing you to easily skip to specific points in the file. 

Dynamic dates

Dates on comments and files now update dynamically to ensure they are accurate without needing to reload the page - i.e. instead of saying "just now" until you hit refresh, it will now say "x minutes ago" automatically depending on how much time has elapsed.

You can also click on a date on a file or comment to toggle between relative and absolute dates.

File browsing improvements

• File titles dynamically resize so you can view longer titles
• Creating new folders or aliases no longer reloads the page
• Sorting columns no longer reloads the page
• Added F shortcut key for favoriting files
• Departments now show size and last modified date and can be sorted by this information
• Right-clicking two or more files now reveals a Combine Versions option
• Entering a folder after searching now continues the search inside that folder
• Quick Look - Improved the UI of folder previews - scroll to see files in the folder, click on a file to view it in the player

UI changes

We've made lots of user interface improvements including new button styles and a new avatar style with a greater range of colors. 

Other changes

Server-specific features

• Added a tool to the Tools page in the admin area to regenerate the scheduled tasks (useful if you upgrade MAMP and your PHP path changes)
• The Installer now automatically checks if your Apache AllowOverride setting is correct
• A message is now shown at the top of the site when a new version has been installed but the database hasn't been upgraded
• More button style options on the Customize Colors page

Full changelog:

• Alerts - Project titles are now mentioned in alert emails where appropriate
• Alerts - Fixed an issue where digests would show alerts for folders moved to a user's department
• API - Fixed an issue where workflows added during upload wouldn't execute
• Comments - Updates dates dynamically and you can now toggle between relative / absolute
• Comments - Show error if the user has been logged out
• Comments - Markers are now aligned correctly to the playhead
• Comments - Fixed an issue where the marker bar wouldn't update when removing a comment
• Files - Inline renaming
• Files - Sorting no longer reloads the entire page
• Files - Creating folders and aliases no longer requires a page reload
• Files - Departments now show size and last date and can be sorted by this information
• Files - Added F shortcut key for favoriting files
• Files - Searches are now continued when entering a new folder
• Files - Support for recognizing Ogg audio/video files, MP4 ringtones and WebP images
• Files - Added the ability to disable thumbnails on specific files from the Edit Metadata page or via an Upload Workflow
• Files - Added Combine Versions right-click option
• Files - Dates now update dynamically and you can toggle between relative / absolute
• Files - Fixed an issue where revisions may be numbered incorrectly
• Files - Fixed an issue where moving a file to another project does not recalculate storage space
• Files - Restoring a deleted file now recalculates disk space correctly
• Files - Fixed an issue where thumbs could be low quality on iPhone
• Files - Fixed an issue where in certain situations the files view may be empty if files had previously been deleted
• Files - Fixed an issue where Advanced Search may return no results for non-admins
• Files - Fixed an issue where folder size may include the size of deleted files
• Files - Fixed an issue where moving a file to a different project would switch projects even if "Navigate to destination folder" was switched off
• Files - Fixed an issue where deleted files may not be sorted correctly
• Installer - Added the ability to manually download launchd plists on Mac even when installed correctly
• Installer - Fixed an issue where the config file couldn't be parsed
• Login - Increased the number of attempts required to trigger account lockout
• Login - Warn user their account may be locked out if they have too many login attempts
• Marker importing - Fixed an issue where Resolve EDLs may not import correctly
• MFA - Support for copying a text string instead of scanning the QR code
• Player - Real-time encoding progress (requires Kollaborate Encoder 1.3.1)
• Player - Audio files now have a visible playhead over the waveform
• Player - Prevented link users from entering empty usernames
• Player - Fixed an issue where the left/right arrows in the player may try to navigate you to a file that has been deleted
• Player - Fixed an issue where the wrong avatar could show for custom uploaders
• Projects - Fixed an issue where projects couldn't be unarchived
• Projects - Don't show deleted files or aliases when showing project file count
• Quick Look - Improved the UI of folder previews - scroll to see files in the folder, click on a file to view it in the player
• Share - Share link summary page now includes the password if specified
• Share - Moved buttons to create new links to a New dropdown menu
• Tasks - Tasks can now be imported from a CSV file
• Tasks - Fixed an issue where task import page could be blank
• Thumbs - Fixed an issue where manual time position may not be set correctly
• UI - New shaded button style
• UI - Changed avatar style and added new avatar colors
• UI - File titles now dynamically shrink if the filename is long
• UI - Login page now has centered content look
• UI - Improved folder path naming on links
• UI - File thumbs are now center-aligned on mobile
• UI - Link pages now show your company logo more prominently
• UI - Improved the display of alerts in the alert dropdown
• UI - Increased spacing in thumbnail view
• UI - Don't show hoverthumbs on mobile
• UI - Fixed an issue where the player page footer would display on links
• UI - Fixed an issue where the hoverscrub popup wouldn't display correctly
• UI - Fixed an issue where deleted projects could appear in the Projects dropdown
• UI - Fixed an issue where checkmarks in menus were not highlighted when hovering the mouse over them
• UI - Fixed an issue where the triangle icon in the path bar could appear too big in some browsers
• Workflows - Fixed an issue where some users would receive emails asking them to review files they did not have permission to access
• Workflows - Fixed an issue where file expiration dates could be extended after editing a file workflow
• Workflows - Fixed an issue where links shared from a workflow may not be emailed
• Overhaul of browser sessions with a greater focus on security
• Various minor fixes, tweaks and optimizations

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).

CinePlay for iOS 1.7.2 - Jan 22 2019

• Fixed an issue that could cause a "Cannot Complete Action" message to appear when launching certain Kollaborate videos.

We've listened to customer feedback on our cloud workflow platform and Kollaborate 2.7.2 has a lot of great new features, both large and small, that customers have been asking for.

Large file uploads (beta)

Kollaborate now supports segmented uploads, meaning that not only can you upload larger files to the site, but your uploads should be both faster and more reliable.

This will soon be the default option on the site but for now it is opt-in. To enable it, head to the beta page and tick the box marked Large file uploads then click Save. Note that this is a per-browser setting so you will need to re-enable it if you switch to a different browser or computer.

Once enabled, segmenting will work automatically for all files over 20 MB. For now the new upper limit is 50 GB per file, but we will likely raise it further as we get closer to making it the default option.

We're keen to hear feedback on this feature, especially from people outside of the US. Your feedback will help us tune it further and make it even faster.

Inline renaming

Renaming a file no longer launches a dialog box or takes you to a different page - it now happens directly in the Files view. This is a better user experience and matches what you would expect in Finder or Windows Explorer. 

Audio playheads

Audio files now show a playhead over their waveform, allowing you to easily skip to specific points in the file. 

Dynamic dates

Dates on comments and files now update dynamically to ensure they are accurate without needing to reload the page - i.e. instead of saying "just now" until you hit refresh, it will now say "x minutes ago" automatically depending on how much time has elapsed.

You can also click on a date on a file or comment to toggle between relative and absolute dates.

File browsing improvements

• File titles dynamically resize so you can view longer titles
• Creating new folders or aliases no longer reloads the page
• Sorting columns no longer reloads the page
• Added F shortcut key for favoriting files
• Departments now show size and last modified date and can be sorted by this information
• Right-clicking two or more files now reveals a Combine Versions option
• Entering a folder after searching now continues the search inside that folder
• Quick Look - Improved the UI of folder previews - scroll to see files in the folder, click on a file to view it in the player

UI changes

We've made lots of user interface improvements including new button styles and a new avatar style with a greater range of colors. 

Architecture improvements

A lot of the changes in this version are on the back-end, including an overhaul of how we manage logins and active sessions. These features may not be noticeable but they pave the way for a lot of exciting things we plan to deliver in the near future.

Other changes

• Multi-Factor Authentication: You can now copy a text string instead of the QR code
• Tasks can now be imported from a CSV file
• Share - Share link summary page now includes the password if specified
• Numerous bug fixes / minor tweaks

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

Kollaborate - We made lots of enhancements to our cloud workflow platform over the year including Upload Workflows to automate tasks when uploading a file, including embedding LUTs and overlays; restoring deleted files; improved DaVinci Resolve integration; folder uploading; lots of new workflow tasks and much more.

We also reduced our month-to-month pricing on the cloud and added some additional options for self-hosted customers such as the ability to hide unused pages or options.

Pro Maintenance Tools - Our suite of maintenance and repair tools gained support for downgrading Adobe Premiere projects to open them in earlier versions, support for running scripts inside plugin installers, plus bug fixes and improved FCPX support.

Pro Media Tools - Our suite of media management tools had many improvements including Auto Transfer transfer logs, Video Check sensitivity improvements, Timeline Tricks can now strip audio/video transitions, QT Edit conform improvements and new Quick Tasks, plus several Batch Renamer usability improvements.

CinePlay for Mac - Our professional desktop media player gained many improvements to its Ganged Playheads feature, plus many UI and usability improvements to speed up your workflow.  

In total we released over 50 updates for our products.

Stats

Our most-downloaded and used app was Post Haste. Our most popular paid product was Kollaborate. Our most popular iOS app was Video Space Calculator.

Over 650,000 unique visitors visited digitalrebellion.com and our products were downloaded over 175,000 times.

The most popular blog posts in 2018 were:

Understanding render options in Premiere Pro
How to import sequences into Premiere Pro from XML without duplicating files
Thoughts on 32-bit codecs being phased out in macOS

What’s next

We're planning some big new things in 2019. You can keep up to date with new products, features and tips by subscribing to this blog, following us on Twitter or by subscribing to our mailing list.

Last week we released CinePlay for Mac 1.5.5, a minor update to our professional media player with some useful new changes and fixes.

Ganged Playheads overhaul

We've made significant changes under-the-hood to our Ganged Playheads feature, which allows you to play two or more files together in sync. We've improved the reliability and accuracy of the feature and fixed a couple of situations where it was possible for the videos to become unsynchronized from each other.

When entering Gang mode, the windows now automatically tile to fit on the screen, making it easy to compare videos side-by-side. We also now indicate Gang mode in the title bar of each window to make it clearer when the feature is enabled.

Window tiling

As well as occuring automatically in Gang mode, you can also manually tile documents to fit on the screen at any time from the Window menu.

UI tweaks

We've made lots of improvements to the UI, including adding a blue area to show the in/out range and fixing some issues with drawing markers and in/out points.

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.

CinePlay 1.5.5 - Dec 5 2018

• Ganged Playheads - General overhaul with improved accuracy
• Ganged Playheads - Windows now say "(Ganged)" to make it more obvious when Ganged Playheads is active
• Ganged Playheads - Windows automatically tile to fit on the screen when entering gang mode
• Added a menu option to manually tile windows to fit the screen
• You can now open multiple files at once from the Open dialog
• Several UI tweaks including new colors for audio waveforms and the in/out range now appears in blue on the timeline
• Various minor bug fixes, tweaks and optimizations

Pro Media Tools 1.7.3 - Nov 16 2018

• Auto Transfer - Added an option to disable transfer logs
• Auto Transfer now displays a message to alert you when one or more destinations are offline instead of the transfer just failing
• Auto Transfer - Fixed a crash that could occur when writing to the transfer log after a file transfer has failed
• Batch Renamer - When renumbering an image sequence, the number padding of the first file is now applied to all files
• QT Edit - New Quick Tasks: Disable all video tracks except track 1, Remove all video tracks except track 1, Disable all audio tracks, Remove all chapters.
• QT Edit - Fixed an issue where audio sample rates in the Info pane could be incorrect
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the Open dialog launching when an app starts up
• Various minor bug fixes, tweaks and optimizations

Marker Import for Mac 2.1.10 - Nov 16 2018

• Fixed an issue where the Open dialog may fail to show at startup
• Minor bug fixes, tweaks and optimizations

Kollaborate Plugin Pack 1.1.4 - Nov 12 2018

• Support for setting File Workflows when uploading
• Minor bug fixes, tweaks and optimizations

Kollaborate Transfer 1.5.3 - Nov 11 2018

• Support for setting File Workflows when uploading
• Minor bug fixes, tweaks and optimizations

We recently released a minor update to our suite of media management tools. Here's what's new in Pro Media Tools 1.7.3:

QT Edit

We've added Quick Tasks in QT Edit for the following actions:

• Disable all video tracks except track 1
• Remove all video tracks except track 1
• Disable all audio tracks
• Remove all chapters

These tasks can be run in single-file or batch modes.

Additionally, while you won't be able to see the difference by looking, we've completely overhauled Quick Tasks under the hood to make it more efficient and to make it easier for us to deliver more Quick Tasks in future.

Auto Transfer

We've improved how Auto Transfer handles situations where volumes are offline. It now informs you which volumes are offline when you click the Transfer button, instead of the transfer just failing.

You can also now switch off transfer logging in preferences.

 Other changes

• Auto Transfer - Fixed a crash that could occur when writing to the transfer log after a file transfer has failed
• Batch Renamer - When renumbering an image sequence, the number padding of the first file is now applied to all files
• QT Edit - Fixed an issue where audio sample rates in the Info pane could be incorrect
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the Open dialog launching when an app starts up
• Various minor bug fixes, tweaks and optimizations

Pro Media Tools is an essential toolkit for media professionals. To find out more, view the feature list, read the user manual or download the free 15-day trial.