FlowCaster Live Review Panel

Drastic Technologies has provided tools and solutions for Adobe editor workflows for decades, and expands on this relationship with the release of the FlowCaster Live Review Panel. The panel is available for free, and provides additional Drastic related features in a dockable panel within Adobe creative software such as Premiere Pro. This page provides details on how to install and use the FlowCaster Live Review Panel.

The FlowCaster Live Review Panel is an Adobe CEP Extension Panel, a web application running within the context of Adobe Creative Cloud apps using a stack of technologies known as CEP (Common Extensibility Platform). The panel provides real time feedback between Adobe editors (Premiere, After Effects etc.) and Drastic applications including FlowCaster, and the flowcaster.live site.

Install the Panel

The panel is available through the Adobe Exchange, at the following link: https://exchange.adobe.com/apps/cc/108802/flowcasterlive.

If for some reason you cannot access the Adobe Exchange, the Adobe CEP Extension Panel is also available as a downloadable ZXP file. A ZXP file is an extension that adds additional capabilities to an Adobe software program, such as Adobe Premiere or After Effects. Our download link for the panel is as follows:

https://www.drastic.tv/downloads/flowcaster/live.flowcaster.zxp

To install this file you will need to use an installer designed for ZXP files, such as ZXP Installer. Using this particular installer is a straightforward process:

Go to the website at https://aescripts.com/learn/zxp-installer/, and download the appropriate install for your operating system. When you run it, it will look something like this:

Drag the ZXP file onto the Installer, or use the File | Open (Ctl+O) menu option to select and run the install.

A successful install will produce the below message, and activate the Premiere chip in the installer.

Once installed, you can run Adobe applications, open the panel, view FlowCaster signals, chat, telestration, webcam, and import/export markers to and from various editors.

FlowCaster Live Review

FlowCaster Live Review workflow lets you sign in to a session, and view the session directly in Adobe Premiere, without needing to go back and forth between the editor and the website. The following instructions assume you have installed FlowCaster tools from www.flowcaster.com.

With Premiere running and the panel open, go to the Flowcaster.live website, sign in, and start a session.

In Adobe go to Edit | Preferences | Playback, and click on the Flowcaster Transmitter Setup control. Set the Transmit Type to WebRTC (the arrow below), and enter the Meeting ID, or Session URL (circled in red below) from the web session you have running.

The editor will join the session, and you should start seeing video from your timeline on the web page. In the below Flowcaster.live session, a participant has added some arrows pointing out areas of interest.

In Adobe, load the panel from Windows | Extensions | FlowCaster Live Review.

You will be prompted to sign in with your email, gmail, etc.

Click on the Session tab, and enter the Meeting ID (everything in  the URL after the equals sign) to Join the session. Click the Live Preview tab to view the session directly in Adobe Premiere.

Import/Export Tab

Once the session is complete, click the Import/Export tab. In this area, existing session markers can be imported for use in a review and approval workflow. Also session markers from the current session can be exported for use in either a Premiere, Avid, or Resolve editor. Finally, any session markers that have been loaded can be cleared.

The chips across the top of the Import/Export tab exist to provide quick links to added videoQC functionality, added MediaReactor functionality, and to open the Drastic.tv website.

videoQC for file based analysis - reserved for future development	MediaReactor for edit while record functionality - reserved for future development	Drastic.tv - opens the Drastic website.

Session Markers

There are controls for loading, saving, and clearing session markers from the Adobe editor. In FlowCaster.live, a session includes comments and telestration etc., matched to the time code location at which it was made. The markers let the editor cue to each marker and review the decisions and recommendations to facilitate the content conform process.

	Load Premiere/Avid/Resolve Markers - Click to open a standard browser, which allows the user to locate and load session markers from an existing session directly into the editor.
	Save Premiere Markers - click to save the current session markers for Adobe Premiere (and After Effects, etc.) editors.
	Save Avid Markers - click to save the current session markers for Avid (Media Composer, NewsCutter etc.) editors.
	Save Resolve Markers - click to save the current session markers for Blackmagic Resolve editors.
	Clear Sequence Markers - click to clear any sequence markers from the Adobe editor.
	Sign Out - click to sign out of the current session and stop seeing feedback from your review team in the panel.

Updates

The FlowCaster Live Review panel will be updated from time to time with added functionality, and ultimately integration with videoQC and MediaReactor features. Stay tuned for developments.