We've just released a major update to our Kollaborate cloud workflow platform.

Relationships

The Relationship Editor allows you to specify the relationship between two files. For example, you might upload a playable H.264 copy of a movie but also include a high-resolution ProRes version of the same clip for the recipient to work on. To help the other person find the file and know that it is a higher resolution copy of the same movie, you could enter the Relationship Editor for the H.264 file, browse for the ProRes copy and set the relationship as "Higher quality version". (All relationships are two-way so you can do it the opposite way around too.)

There are a wide range of relationship statuses including "Alternate version", "Foreign language version", "With text" / "Without text", "Temp audio" / "Final audio", etc. This is a very powerful feature that allows users to assign context to their files and also will allow Kollaborate in future to automatically deliver the most appropriate file to the user depending on the situation.

Comment replies

You can now reply to a comment. This was a much-requested feature we're glad to deliver.

Task indicators

Tasks are now color-coded depending on their status. Pending tasks appear red, in-progress tasks appear orange and completed tasks appear green.

Task indicators now appear in the comments view to allow you to see the tasks connected to a comment. The indicators are color-coded, allowing you to easily see which notes still need to be addressed. Note: existing tasks will not show up in the list; this only applies to tasks created from now on.

Cut Notes sync overhaul

We've overhauled Cut Notes sync and provided live comment support. Read more about that here.

Kollaborate Transfer

There's a new update to Kollaborate Transfer too. This allows you to automatically email links to a list of users upon successful upload and also now optimizes images for compatibility with the site. Other changes include more descriptive error messages and the ability to double-click a completed file to launch it in your web browser.

Other changes

Other small changes include:

• Users will receive a notification when someone moves a file they previously couldn't access into their department
• Users can be imported from existing projects when creating a new one
• Comments can be disabled when sending out links
• Project owners can now receive alerts without needing to be part of the team

Kollaborate is an advanced cloud workflow tool that integrates well with existing Digital Rebellion products. To find out more, try the free 15-day trial.

We've just released Cut Notes 2.0.3, a minor update to our iPad note-taking app.

We've overhauled timecode and playback sync with Kollaborate and you will need to use this version to sync with the site from now on.

This is more of an under-the-hood change so there aren't many user-facing differences, however you now need to press sync in the browser first and then sync in Cut Notes. Another advantage is that you no longer need to be on the same network and it should be better at negotiating firewalls. It also paves the way for some great features in future.

We've also implemented Kollaborate live comments, which means that comments other users make in their web browsers, CinePlay or other copies of Cut Notes will appear instantly in the Notes view of your device.

Cut Notes now has the option to auto-pause playback when you type, allowing you to focus on what you're typing and not lose your place in the cut. This is supported in manual sync mode (no sync source) and any sync source that can control playback - Kollaborate, Final Cut Pro 7, Adobe Premiere CC and Adobe Audition. This setting is off by default and can be switched on under the Cut Notes section of the iOS Settings app.

These are the major features; you can read the full changelog here.

Cut Notes is an invaluable time-saving post production tool. To find out more, view the feature list, read the user manual or watch the overview video.

Adobe Premiere Pro has a little-known Console window that provides access to hidden functions. To access it, press Cmd+F12 on the Mac or Ctrl+F12 on the PC. You may have to also hold down Fn on a laptop.

A blank window will appear. Click the dropdown button in the top right and select Debug Database View.

A list of various hidden options will appear. Here are five useful things you can do with it.

Enable the Time Warp filter

Adobe disabled the Time Warp filter in CS5 and subsequent versions. If you still want to use it, change TimeWarpFilterEnabled to true then relaunch Premiere.

Suppress peak file generation

Peak files allow Premiere to cache waveform information so that it doesn't need to be regenerated every time the project opens. However, these files take up space on disk and the peak file generation process can take time for certain formats. If you'd like to disable peak file generation, change SuppressPeakFileGeneration to true.

Display out of sync indicators

When you unlink video and audio and then adjust it, Premiere does not show that the clips are out of sync. You can enable that by setting TL.SupportsUnlikedSyncIndicators to true.

Note: this only appears to work on video clips that were imported with audio attached, rather than clips where the audio was manually linked.

Apply QuickTime gamma level

This respects the gamma level of the QuickTime movie as specified in its gama atom (you can add this in QT Edit). To switch it on, set QTUseSourceGammaLevel to true.

Hide Adobe Media Encoder presets

You can hide the list of AME presets that appear in the Export dialog by setting AME.EnablePresetDB to true (yes, this is counter-intuitive).

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.

You've most likely already heard about Adobe's move to get rid of Creative Suite and offer rental-only software from now on. When the announcement was made my Twitter feed exploded with both love and hate for the new policy.

While some of the negative points people made are purely hypothetical or FUD for its own sake, others are genuine concerns. There has also been a lot of misinformation flying around, in particular with regards to being connected to the internet. You do not need a constant connection - the software will connect once a month and you will have a grace period of 99 days (soon to be 180 - thanks Todd) if the connection is unsuccessful.

Another common misconception is that the apps will run off the cloud or that they will automatically update without your permission. The apps run locally on your system as they did before but the licensing is handled on the cloud, so instead of a product key you now use your email address. Software updates will not occur automatically without your permission and Adobe has said they will periodically create fixed archived copies of the applications so you can revert to a particular version if desired.

The cloud is cheaper for new users too, although it may end up being more expensive for some of Adobe's existing customers, especially if they often skip versions. Actually, that's not strictly accurate. It is cheaper at the currently announced prices, which brings me on to my own primary concern: cloud users are susceptible to future price rises and policy changes. What if the price rises? Tough luck, you have to pay it anyway. What if Adobe releases a new privacy policy that you don't want to agree to (see Facebook, Instagram)? If you ever want to access your projects again, you'll have to agree whether you like it or not. If you are planning on building your workflow around Adobe products, you have to be prepared to essentially pay Adobe every month for life, no matter the cost. Your project files are hostage to future Adobe pricing and policy changes.

I have no issues with the cloud or rental policies as concepts, my only objection is to being forced into them. It is difficult not to interpret this as a power grab.

Another thing Adobe may not have considered is that they have different traction in different markets. Photoshop is clearly the king of print and graphics, but Premiere has only started to gain traction since the demise of FCP 7. I know several people who were looking for FCP 8, thought they'd found it with Premiere CS Next and are now hesitating.

I have been fortunate to have access to pre-release versions of some of the new Adobe apps and the new Premiere is fantastic. The dev team has really listened and I try to use the new version over CS6 whenever I can. It's sad that instead of talking about the great new features, the whole Adobe MAX event was overshadowed by this decision from upper management.

The worst part is that in spite of all this I will still unhappily subscribe and so will many others. I am certain that this will end up being financially beneficial to Adobe, but it erases a certain amount of goodwill.

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Six Questions Apple Needs to Answer in 2013

Six questions for the post-Jobs Apple (#7 should be the future of the Mac and whether Apple has a long-term strategy for courting video pros).

Steven Soderbergh’s State Of Cinema Talk

Steven Soderbergh on the state of cinema.

Danny Boyle Claims 'Pixarification' of Movies is Killing 'Adult Movies'

In a similar vein, Danny Boyle laments the departure of sophisticated writing from cinema to TV.

My biggest concern. Does anyone else feel the same way?

Interesting discussion on the pros and cons of buying vs renting Adobe Creative Suite.

Offline Bounce or How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love Native Processing

Detailed overview of the new offline bounce function in Pro Tools 11.

Linear Workflow in Cinema4D and After Effects

Brush up on linear processing now that After Effects CS Next integrates with Cinema 4D.

Autodesk Smoke 2013

Extremely detailed review of Smoke 2013.

Another installment of our weekly list of serious, useful and unusual bugs in your NLE.

Premiere

Audio dropouts can occur if caches are not stored on the system drive

Text cannot be dynamically linked to After Effects

Avid

Workarounds for sending audio from Media Composer to Adobe Audition

You cannot use the arrow keys to audition fonts in Marquee on the Mac

FCPX

Lots of people getting the "share operation Master File has failed" error

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.