The Video Server Toolkit (VST) is the SGI broadcast-quality video playback, edit, and record engine that unifies SGI Origin servers and digital media components. VST allows application developers to create powerful, high-performance solutions for broadcast playout. This tool enables (supported) automation systems and developer applications to trigger video for playout through (supported) video output devices on an SGI workstation or server.
The Video Server Toolkit Developer's Guide describes how to use VST to play and record digital media and to store the data in, and retrieve it from, a StudioCentral 2.0 archive system.
Also described in this document are the graphical user interfaces (GUIs), which are used to manually control VST, and MVCP (Multi-Unit Video Computer Protocol), which is a command line, control protocol supported by VST.
 | Note: Video Server Toolkit is the new name for what used to be called VCP-Recorder. |
The following material is covered in this document:
Chapter 1, “New Features,” provides a streamlined description of the new features in VST, version 1.1.
Chapter 2, “Overview of Video Server Toolkit,” contains an overview of the product.
Chapter 3, “Using the Video Server Toolkit GUIs,” describes how to use the VST graphical user interface (GUI) to play and record clips and to determine status information.
Chapter 4, “Adding and Removing Clips,” describes how to add and remove audio and video media clips from VST.
Chapter 5, “Using Clip Manager,” describes how to use the VST GUI to manage clips.
Chapter 6, “Archiving Clips,” describes how to use VST with an archive system.
Chapter 7, “Virtual Clips,” explains the MVCP commands you use to manipulate virtual clips. A virtual clip is a list of in and out points that refer to one or more clip files.
Chapter 8, “4:2:2:4 Sampled Video,” describes how to play and record 4;2:2:4 sampled video.
Chapter 9, “DVB-ASI Time-Delay Server,” describes how you can pause or stop a compressed MPEG-2 transport stream.
Chapter 10, “FailSafe Operations,” describes how to use redundant servers to provide a high-availability system.
Chapter 11, “Completing Common Tasks Using MVCP Commands,” explains how to complete common tasks you routinely perform using MVCP commands.
Appendix A, “Multiport Video Computer Protocol (MVCP) Command Summary,” describes the SGI Multiple-Unit Video Computer Protocol.
The glossary provides definitions of key words used in this document.
HTML versions of the VST books are installed at URL:
http://hostname.domain/VST/VST_DG
http://hostname.domain/VST/VST_AG
This document is written for Video Server Toolkit application developers and 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.
Refer to the man pages for specific command help. The man page titles are:
vtrstart(1)— for startup
vtrstop(1)— for shutdown
vtrstat(1)— for status
vtrclip(1)— for clip management
mcpanel(1)— for media control panel
mcclips(1)— for clip manager
mcstat(1)— for status display
mccompstats(1)— for compression monitor
vcp-recorder-controls(5)— for VST controls
mvcp(5)— Multiport Video Computer Protocol
vvtr(1)— for VST server
vtrd(1)— for VST daemon
vtrvfutil(1)— for VST vframe clip utility
You can list the man pages by entering the following command:
% versions long vcp_recorder_eoe | grep man |
Refer to the following documents for related information:
Video Server Toolkit Installation and Administration Guide (part number 007-3622-nnn) for information about installing and maintaining a Video Server Toolkit system
Refer to the following documents for supplementary information:
IRIX Admin: Software Installation and Licensing (part number 007-1364-nnn) for information about installing software that runs under IRIX, the SGI implementation of the UNIX operating system
IRIX Admin: System Configuration and Operation (part number 007-2859-nnn) for information about IRIX system administration tasks
IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems (part number 007-2825-nnn) for information about general filesystem concepts and system administration procedures for SCSI disks, XFS and EFS filesystems, logical volumes, and guaranteed rate I/O
The following type and symbol conventions are used in this document:
| Italics | Used for filenames, pathnames, directory names, emphasis, document titles, variable names, glossary terms, and command-line programs | |
| Bold | Used for keywords | |
| Fixed-width | Used for code examples and command syntax | |
| Bold fixed-width |
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| Square brackets ([]) |
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| Square bullets |
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| Ellipsis (...) | Indicate that the preceding is repeated | |
| Right angle brackets (>) |
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