The SGI Media Server for Broadcast is a completely integrated solution for serving video, audio, and data that is based on open architecture, data networking, and storage technology. The core of the multichannel SGI Media Server is the SGI Video Server Technology (VST) software. VST supports a variety of video file formats and compression types.
This manual describes how to use the SGI Media Server to play and record digital media. Also described in this manual are the graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that are used to manually control the SGI Media Server and the Multiport Video Computer Protocol (MVCP), which is a command-line control protocol supported by VST.
The following material is covered in this manual:
Chapter 1, “Overview of the SGI Media Server”, provides a functional overview of the SGI Media Server and then describes its software and hardware.
Chapter 2, “System Setup ”, describes the general setup requirements of your SGI Media Server.
Chapter 3, “System Configuration”, describes the various configuration requirements and the mechanisms for configuring and controlling device-independent and device-specific features.
Chapter 4, “Running the SGI Media Server”, describes starting, monitoring, and stopping the Video Server Technology (VST) software.
Chapter 5, “Adding and Removing Clips ”, describes how you add and remove clips from the SGI Media Server.
Chapter 6, “Virtual Clips”, describes virtual clips and how you manipulate them on the SGI Media Server.
Chapter 7, “Configuring and Using External Devices”, describes how to handle the external devices connected to the SGI Media Server.
Chapter 8, “Troubleshooting”, describes some likely problem scenarios you might experience while operating your SGI Media Server and what to do.
Chapter 9, “Introduction to MVCP”, describes some common tasks you routinely perform using MVCP commands.
Chapter 10, “Clip Mirror Configuration”, describes how you can set up one or more servers for clip mirroring with clip caches that mirror the clip cache on a designated primary server.
Appendix A, “The SGI Media Server Control GUIs”, describes the graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that you can use to monitor and control system activities (such as playing and recording clips) in non-production environments.
The glossary provides definitions of key words used in this document.
This document is written for SGI Media Server users, system integrators, and others who are interested in obtaining an overview of the product. It is assumed that the reader is already familiar with broadcast industry concepts.
In addition to the information in this document, you should refer to the documentation described in the following sections:
“Release Notes” for information on how to read the online release notes for VST
“Online VST Man Pages” for online help for VST commands and utilities
“Other Publications” for a list of related hardware and software publications
The VST release notes provide information about the release that is not included in this document. Included are known issues with installation and setup, product issues, and documentation errata.
You can view the VST release notes by using one of the following two utilities:
| relnotes | Text-based viewer for online release notes | |
| grelnotes | Graphics viewer for online release notes |
To list the VST release notes, enter one of the following commands at a shell prompt on the SGI Media Server:
relnotes vst_eoe |
or
grelnotes vst_eoe |
Online information provided with the SGI Media Server includes man pages for specific commands and utilities. Refer to these man pages for information about a command. The man page categories and titles are presented in this section.
The man pages are formatted in the standard UNIX “man page” style. You can list the man pages by entering the following command at the command prompt on the SGI Media Server:
% versions long vst_eoe | grep man |
The following are man pages for program and utility files:
| Man Page | Description | |
| vst(1) | Introduces the Video Server Technology (VST) software. | |
| vtrstart(1) Describes VST startup. |
| vtrstop(1) Describes VST shutdown. |
| vtrstat(1) | Describes how to get VST status. | |
| vtrclip(1) | Describes clip management. | |
| vvtr(1) | Describes the VST server. | |
| vtrd(1) | Describes the VST daemon. | |
| vtrvfutil(1) | Describes the VST vframe clip utility. | |
| vtrdircopy(1) | Describes the copy-directory daemon for VST. | |
| vtrftp(1) | Describes the command-line FTP client for VST. | |
| vtrftpd(1) | Describes the real-time-enabled FTP daemon for VST. | |
| vtrmpegutil(1) | Describes the MPEG-2 parsing utility for VST. | |
| vtrsyncinfo(1) | Describes the VST video sync information tool. | |
| rotatelogs(1) | Describes the rotating of VST log files. |
Refer to the following publications for additional information:
IRIX Admin: Software Installation and Licensing for information about installing software that runs under IRIX, the SGI implementation of the UNIX operating system
IRIX Admin: System Configuration and Operation for information about IRIX system administration tasks
IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems for information about general filesystem concepts and system administration procedures for SCSI disks, XFS and EFS filesystems, logical volumes, and guaranteed rate I/O
SGI InfiniteStorage RM610 and RM660 User's Guide for information about the default disk system used with the SGI Media Server
SGI Total Performance 9100 Storage System Owner's Guide for information about high-capacity Fibre Channel storage that can be used with the SGI Media Server
SGI Origin 350 Server System User's Guide for information about the server platform that is used for the SGI Media Server Model 325, Model 345, Model 365, and Model 385
PCI Expansion Module User's Guide for information about the PCI expansion module that is used in the SGI Media Server Model 385
You can obtain SGI documentation in the following ways:
See the SGI Technical Publications Library at http://docs.sgi.com . Various formats are available. This library contains the most recent and most comprehensive set of online books, release notes, man pages, and other information.
If it is installed on your SGI system, you can use InfoSearch, an online tool that provides a more limited set of online books, release notes, and man pages. With an IRIX system, select Help from the Toolchest, and then select InfoSearch. Or you can type infosearch on a command line.
You can also view release notes by typing either grelnotes or relnotes on a command line.
You can also view man pages by typing man <title> on a command line.
The following conventions are used throughout this publication:
Convention | Meaning |
command | This fixed-space font denotes literal items such as commands, files, routines, path names, signals, messages, and programming language structures. |
variable | Italic typeface denotes variable entries and words or concepts being defined. |
user input | This bold, fixed-space font denotes literal items that the user enters in interactive sessions. (Output is shown in nonbold, fixed-space font.) |
[] | Brackets enclose optional portions of a command or directive line. |
... | Ellipses indicate that a preceding element can be repeated. |
manpage(x) | Man page section identifiers appear in parentheses after man page names. |
GUI element | This font denotes the names of graphical user interface (GUI) elements such as windows, screens, dialog boxes, menus, toolbars, icons, buttons, boxes, fields, and lists. |
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