GV K-Manager Pro Application Software User Manual

K-Manager Pro
Application Software
User Manual
Issue 2 Rev1 2022-03-07

www.grassvalley.com

FCC Compliance

In order to comply with FCC/CFR47: Part 15 regulations, it is necessary to use high-quality, triple-screened Media or Monitor cable assemblies with integrated ferrite suppression at both ends.

Patent Information
This product may be protected by one or more patents. For further information, please visit: http://www.grassvalley.com/patents

Copyright and Trademark Notice
Grass Valley®, GV®, and the Grass Valley logo and/or any of the Grass Valley products listed in this document are trademarks or registered trademarks of GVBB Holdings SARL, Grass Valley USA, LLC, or one of its affiliates or subsidiaries. All other intellectual property rights are owned by GVBB Holdings SARL, Grass Valley USA, LLC, or one of its affiliates or subsidiaries. All third-party intellectual property rights (including logos or icons) remain the property of their respective owners.
Copyright © 2021 – 2022 GVBB Holdings SARL and Grass Valley USA, LLC. All rights reserved. Specifications are subject to change without notice.

Terms and Conditions

Please read the following terms and conditions carefully. By using K-Manager Pro documentation, you agree to the following terms and conditions.
Grass Valley hereby grants permission and license to owners of K-Manager Pro to use their product manuals for their own internal business use. Manuals for Grass Valley products may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, for any purpose unless specifically authorized in writing by Grass Valley.
A Grass Valley manual may have been revised to reflect changes made to the product during its manufacturing life. Thus, different versions of a manual may exist for any given product. Care should be taken to ensure that one obtains the proper manual version for a specific product serial number. Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Grass Valley. Warranty information is available from the Legal Terms and Conditions section of Grass Valley’s website (www.grassvalley.com).

K-Manager Pro

Acknowledgements

“Microsoft® product screen shots reprinted with kind permission from the Microsoft Corporation TM .”

Before Starting

This User Instruction Manual will help you through each stage of the setup, configuration and operation. If you have any questions regarding the use and operation of your K-Watch software, please refer to the Service Support contact details listed at the rear of this manual.

Before you can use this Product

Important:

• Make sure that your Kahuna Mainframe is running V9.6r1 software or greater.
• You have to load Kahuna MSP software onto your PC to have access to K-Manager Pro. When Kahuna MSP is loaded correctly, K-Manager Pro will automatically be installed onto your PC and you will see a K-Manager Pro icon in your PC’s desktop.
• You will see the K-Manager Pro launch screen with a button for each of the four tools

Minimum System Requirements

Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU J3355 @ 2.00GHz, 2001Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
Installed Memory (RAM): 4.00 GB (3.85 GB usable)
System Type: 64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor
Operating system: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Graphics: Intel(R) HD Graphics
HDD: 64GB.

K-Watch

K-Watch Overview

K-Watch feature can be used in two modes:

1. In stand-alone mode where the PC converts stills, clips or audio files and stores them on an internal or external memory device.
2. With K-Manager Pro (licence purchase for Kahuna required), the PC converts the stills, clips or audio files and sends them to the Kahuna mainframe over a network.
   K-Mirror feature requires a K-manager pro licence purchase

Important Note:
K-Watch works by constantly looking at a “WATCH” folder on your PC. Any video or still files which are placed in that folder will automatically be converted to the Kahuna .SWS format and the required video standard (as set by the user). The converted files are placed into a “DESTINATION” folder.
The New Kahuna Watch software is faster than the original K-Watch software. All popular video, and still formats are supported.
Newer files of same name placed in watch folder, will update previously converted filein destination folder or any existing files with the same file number will be overwritten, if newer!
With K-Manager Pro these files can be automatically uploaded to your mainframe via a network (mainframe option file licence required). Multiple projects can also be synchronized across mainframes with the K-Mirror scan.
You can have several of these watch services running at the same time ­ each can have different conversion settings.
The .SWS files are sent to a project in a specified “Destination Folder” on the computer. If the computer is networked to a Kahuna mainframe, the .SWS files will be uploaded to a specified project on the Kahuna mainframe.

K-Watch Quick Setup

This is a basic step by step overview of how to setup and use K-Watch to convert .TGA files (video clip) into the Kahuna .SWS native format. Convert a .MOV file into a Kahuna .SWS file.

Step 1 – Setup K-Watch Menus

Important:
The first thing to do is to setup a “Watch” folder and a “Destination” folders on your PC. This is so that KWatch can receive, convert and place converted files into a Destination folder. When done, double on the K-Watch icon.

Important Note:
For Direct Upload to a Mainframe, a K-Manager Pro licence is required on the desired Mainframe.

The Kahuna Watch menu will now look like this with the Watch and Destination folders set

Note:
If you close the K-Watch user interface, any watch folders that have been scheduled, will carry on running in the background as a service, if new files are dropped into the “Watch” folder.

Other Parameter Buttons

Edit ­ Will display the “Edit Watch” menu, which will allow you to change parameter settings; for example File Attributes or File Settings,
Pause ­ this can be used to pause the conversion process and K-Watch will wait.
Run ­ will start the conversion process running once more.
Remove – To remove a file from the K-Watch table, click on an instance to select it, and then press the {Remove} button

Step 2 – Naming the Incoming .TGA Files

Supported Formats
A list of supported media file formats can be found at FFmpeg – 2 Supported File Formats, Codecs or Features
It is important to understand how to name.TGA files before placing them into the Watch folder. For more detailed information, read the “K-Watch File Naming Conventions” section of this manual. When creating a sequence of.TGA files to create a .SWS clip, please follow the naming conventions example below:

Important:
The watch system scans the file name from right to left looking for naming convention tags. When naming a clip i.e. “Clip1” it’s important that the system reads in correctly so caution is required when using an “A”, “F” or “K” character in the name as the software may think that the file contains Audio, Fill or Key files and the .TGA files will not be converted to .SWS.

Note:
If the .TGA files have embedded Key data (alpha channel), then there is no need to let the sequence know about ‘F’ Fill or ‘K’ Key data and un-checking the “Ignore Alpha /Key Data” function would use the embedded alpha data in the file for the key channel.
Nearly all .TGA Stills and Clips already have Fill and Key (Alpha) data, so the following steps would only need to be taken if a file has no Key data.
If the sequence of .TGA files are made up of 50% “Fill” files and 50% “Key” files, then the naming convention should be as follows:
After “Clip1” in each .TGA file, “F” = Fill, “K” = Key and “A” = Audio
Remember:

Step 3 – Naming the .MOV File

Naming the .MOV file is very simple.
Example: Newsclip1.MOV

Note:
Any Audio, Fill or Key information will be embedded into the file so that the file will just convert to .SWS. If the .MOV file is 2.5Gb or more, the resultant .SWS file will be larger than 4Gb. K-Watch software will split the file down and place the split files into a .SWS folder (shown below).

Note: When loaded into Kahuna, the .SWS folder is seen as a clip and will run just like any other clip.

Step 4 While K-Watch is Running
Place the .TGA or .MOV files into the “Watch Folder” and K-Watch will start to convert the files to .SWS format.
Look in the Destination folder for the converted files.

K-Watch File Naming Conventions

Creating Stills

The creation of a still requires the source file name to have the following naming convention fields at the end of the file name:

{Output File Number}
{Optional ‘F’, ‘K’ or ‘A’ character for fill, key or audio}
{Optional ‘F’, ‘K’ or ‘A’ character for fill, key or audio}

Note: A key channel will automatically be created, if the source file contains a fill and key.
Examples:

Ex 1.
Still001.TGA –
This will convert the still to “1.SWS” 10.TGA – This will convert single .TGA file to “10.SWS”

Ex 2.
Still001F.BMP
This will look for a Key source file “Still001K.BMP” before creating “1.SWS” with Fill + Key

Ex 3.
Still001A.TGA
This will look for an audio source file “Still001.WAV” before creating “1.SWS” with Fill + Fill Audio.

Ex 4.
Still001FA.TGA
This will look for key source file “Still001K.TGA” and “Still001.WAV” before creating “1.SWS” with Fill + Key + Fill Audio.

Creating Clips

The creation of a clip requires the source file name to have the following naming convention fields at the end of the file name:

{Output File Number}
{Optional ‘F’, ‘K’ or ‘A’ character for fill, key or audio}
{Single Non-Numeric Character}
{Maximum Number of Still/Audio files}
{Single Non-Numeric Character}
{Sequence/Audio group number}

Note:
Audio group number in channel pairs:
Audio group number 1 is for channels 1 and 2
Audio group number 2 is for channels 3 and 4
Audio group number 3 is for channels 5 and 6
Audio group number 4 is for channels 7 and 8

Examples:
Ex1.
Still1_3_0001.TGA
Still1_3_0002.TGA
Still1_3_0003.TGA

This converts all the .TGA files above into a clip called “1.SWS” that is 3 frames long.

Ex 2.
Still2F_3_0001.BMP
Still2F_3_0002.BMP
Still2F_3_0003.BMP
Still2K_3_0001.BMP
Still2K_3_0002.BMP
Still2K_3_0003.BMP

This will convert all the .BMP files above into a clip called “2.SWS”, that is 3 frames long and contains Fill + Key data.

Ex 3.
Still3FA_3_0001. BMP
Still3FA_3_0002. BMP
Still3FA_3_0003. BMP
Still3K_3_0001. BMP
Still3K_3_0002. BMP
Still3K_3_0003. BMP,
Audio3F_1_0001.WAV

This will convert all the files above into a clip called “3.SWS”, that is 3 frames long containing Fill + Key + Fill Audio data.

Ex 4.
Still4FA_3_0001. BMP
Still4FA_3_0002. BMP
Still4FA_3_0003. BMP,
Still4KA_3_0001. BMP
Still4KA_3_0002. BMP
Still4KA_3_0003. BMP,
Audio4F_1_0001. WAV
Audio4K_1_0001. WAV

This converts all the files above into a clip called “4.SWS” clip that is 3 frames long and contains Fill + Key + Fill Audio data + Key audio data.

AVI Files

The creation of a clip requires the source file name to have the following naming convention field at the end of the file name:

{Output File Number}
Note: Audio data will automatically be added if source file contains audio.

Example:
5.AVI
This will convert the .AVI file into a clip called “5.SWS”

Naming the Clip

In this example a 53 frame clip will be created using a .TGA file format (3840 x 2160) with embedded alpha channels and a .WAV file for the audio.
Example .TGA = wipe1A_53_0001.TGA

Note The ‘A’ character is used to let the K-Watch sequence know that it requires an “Audio” file will be associated with the .TGA files.

Important Note:
When giving the clip a name i.e. “wipe1”, after the first character in the name, do not have any other capital letters because if an “A”, “F” or “K” is added after the first character the software will think that the file contains Audio, Fill or Key files and the .TGA files will not be converted to .SWS.

Example:

The audio file example name = audio1.WAV or 1.WAV
The audio file should be placed in the “Watch” folder at the same time as the .TGA files so that it can be associated with .TGA files

Important Note:
If the .TGA files have embedded Key data (Alpha channel), then there is no need to let the sequence know about ‘F’ Fill or ‘K’ Key data and un-checking the “Ignore Alpha /Key Data” would use the embedded alpha data in the file for the key channel.

Start K-Watch Running
After finishing naming the files, place all the .TGA files into the “Watch” folder and the conversion process will automatically start.

Additional Information

Note:
This information would only be needed if the files do not contain a Key (Alpha) data. From the information above, if the sequence of .TGA files are made up of 50% “Fill” files and 50% “Key” files, then the naming convention should be as follows: The number of .TGA files needs to increase to 54 to have an even number of Fill and Key files.

wipe1FA_54_0001.TGA
to
wipe1FA_54_0027.TGA
wipe1K_54_0028.TGA
to
wipe1K_54_0054.TGA
audio1F_1_0001.WAV or audio1.WAV or 1.WAV

K-Watch Menu Controls Explained

Double click on the K-Watch system tray icon in the bottom right of the Windows Desktop and the K-Watch table will be displayed.

The Add New Watch menu is where all the parameters are set for the conversion of the incoming files.
Watch Name – is the name given to the individual Watch project – the name will also be displayed in the K-Watch table.
Watch Folder – here, the user selects the Watch Folder on the PC hard drive, where the incoming stills, clips and audio files are placed.
Destination Folder – here the user selects the Destination Folder where the files are placed after the conversion process.

Output Video Properties:

Frame Size – there are two options for this.

• Original – In this mode Watch will not perform any resizing of the image.
• Match Video Standard – When this is selected, Watch will resize the image to match the video standard using the parameters below.

Output Video Standard – this drop-down menu selects the video standard for the created .sws file

Input Aspect Ratio –

• 4:3 or 16:9 – defines how images are interpreted for its aspect.
• Square Pixel – assumes that the pixels in the input image are square. This setting is ignored for HD video standards.

Position & Scale – this sets the position of the out-going .sws file relative to the Input Aspect Ratio.

• Full Width will set the input image width to follow the output video width while maintaining the aspect ratio.
• Full Height will set the input image height to follow the output image height while maintaining the aspect ratio.

Interpolation – selects the type of filter to be used for resizing input image.

• Best Quality – recommended interpolation filter designed for resizing video images.
• Fastest – standard resize interpolation filter

File Settings:

In the File Setting section, the settings will be applied to all the files converted.

Exclude Audio – will only allow the video portion to pass
Ignore Alpha / Key – Nearly all still and clip files will contain Key (Alpha) data. So keep this box unticked.
This function is only required if Key (alpha) data is not required when converting files.
Playback Settings:
Auto Play – a clip will automatically play when it is
loaded into the Kahuna Store
Loop Play – Loop Mode is selected and the clip will continuously play when it is loaded into the Kahuna Store.
Override play rate – adjusting this parameter will set the play speed of the clip when it is loaded into the Kahuna Store.

Playback Mode

• Field – switches playback to interlaced
• Frame – switches play back to progressive
• Field 1 & 2 Only – will play either interlaced frames 1 or 2 only
• Field Swap – will swap Field 1 and Field 2 around at playback

Split Large Files (FAT32) – this will split down a clip that is over 4Gb in size. The split files will go into a .SWS folder so that the folder can be imported into a Kahuna mainframe.

Note: Splitting Large Files – Only necessary when importing files via an external USB device. Not necessary when importing via MSP.
Delete source after conversion – when selected will delete the source file from the Watch Folder.

Direct Upload to Mainframe:

With the optional K-Manager Pro licence installed in your Kahuna Mainframe, K-Watch can transfer the converted files directly into a specific project on a mainframe.
This is setup using the “Mainframe Connection” settings.

The file “browse” buttons will display a list of available Mainframes and Projects on the selected Mainframe.
Important Note: Any files in the destination project with the same number will be overwritten.
Once you have set up your Watch, click OK on the dialogue.
Select your new Watch in the table and click on the Run button.

K-Mirror

K-Mirror enables the following:

• Mirror projects – synchronizes projects across mainframes, based on the most recent files.
  It scans the project directory of each mainframe, selects the latest files and downloads to a local Mirror folder on PC. It then uploads the missing or updated files to each of the mainframes, ensuring the whole project is the same across mainframes.
  If a file is deleted on any mainframe or local mirror folder, it will be mirrored back. Similarly, if a file is created or updated, it will re-sync.

• Clone projects – synchronizes projects across mainframes, based on the primary mainframe’s project files.
  It scans the primary mainframe project directory, downloads to local folder on PC, then uploads files to other mainframes, keeping them in sync with the primary.
  If a file is deleted on the primary mainframe, it would also delete the same file from the other mainframes.

• Upload projects – distributes projects from a local folder to multiple mainframes. If a file is deleted on a mainframe, it will re-sync.

• Mainframe backup – performs a mainframe back up from local folder on PC with option to restore.

Setting up a Mirror or Backup service:

To configure a K-Mirror instance, Press the {Add…} button from the K-Manager Pro menu to create a new mirror instance.

Type – select the type of mirror instance to configure project synchronizing.

• Mirror – synchronizes the project directory of each mainframe with a mirror folder on PC, as well as replacing any file based on the most recent changes.
• Upload – distributes projects from a local folder to multiple mainframes.
• Mainframe Backup – creates a copy of the mainframe project into a local folder on PC.

Schedule – select the type of scheduling to perform mirror scanning.

• Continuous – keep track of any missing or updates files after synchronization.
• Manual – pauses after completing synchronization.

To add a mainframe, Press the Add Mainframe button.

Select a mainframe you want to mirror, upload or backup. Repeat this to add further mainframes to this Mirror instance.
Note: Only one mainframe can be selected for Mainframe Backup.
If you wish to clone projects from a primary mainframe, Press the Set Primary Mainframe button. This will enable a clone type system whereby the primary’s project directory is cloned across other mainframes.

Note: In Mirror Project settings, click the “browse” button to select a project to mirror. You can also select All Projects if the mirror instance type is Upload.

After selecting a project, tick the file types you wish to mirror.
The file types Switcher States, User Configs and Eng configs are un-ticked by default.
Important Note: Click on OK button to start the configured mirror project. A Status GUI app will display the running projects’ job status.

Clip Preview

The KMP Clip Previewer allows the user to load, trim convert and upload a single media file directly to a Kahuna using the settings in an existing Watch (KMP licence required for direct upload).

Note: The Clip Previewer will use the settings from an existing Watch service (see section 2) but the user has the option to trim the clip and needs to set the final File Number.
The Watch service used could be set to pause but any Watch Service which is already running will be temporarily paused whilst the Clip Preview conversion and upload is processed. Once this action is completed the Watch will un-pause if it was previously running.

HDR 3D LUT Translator

This application is for translating HDR 3D LUT .cube files into the Kahuna .klf file format, which the Kahuna switcher uses internally for SDR-HDR and HDR-HDR conversions. This feature is available on Kahuna releases from v9.6 onwards
The option to transfer the resultant .klf files directly to a Kahuna switcher requires the mainframe to be licensed for K-Manager Pro. HDR conversion requires a FormatFusion4 licence on the Kahuna mainframe. It should also be noted that the 3D LUT files need to be obtained separately from an appropriate source. Clicking on the HDR 3D LUT button opens the Translator tool.

Cube File Name: field, use the button to navigate to the required .cube file on the PC or enter the path and file name directly.
Kahuna LUT File Number: shows two fields. The first should be filled with the File Number to be used in a Kahuna mainframe (0-999). The second field is used to input where on the PC the translated .klf file will be saved. Again, use the button for easy navigation on the PC.
Kahuna LUT Name: This is the name which will be displayed on the Kahuna menu system. Enter a name here to describe the conversion.
Input: There are two drop-down boxes to select the input video format.
The first selects the SDR or HDR format of the input:
The second is for selecting the color gamut of the input:

Output: These are two more drop-down boxes for selecting the desired output format.
3D LUT Type: This is a drop-down box for selecting the signal range covered by the 3D LUT. There are two options:

Mainframe IP: Where a Kahuna mainframe is licensed for K-Manager Pro, it is possible to transfer the resultant .klf file directly to the Kahuna.

Enter the mainframe’s IP address in the field and tick the box (the PC must be able to connect to the mainframe via a network connection).
Finally, once all the selections have been completed the Convert button should be clicked.
The translation will take place and the resultant file will be saved on the PC in the folder selected in the Kahuna LUT File Number field. Where Transfer to Mainframe is selected, the file will be uploaded to the Kahuna mainframe and will appear in the filing system in the HDR LUT folder.

Using 3D LUT Conversions on a Kahuna
The filing system shows the available LUT files in the HDR LUT folder (menu 1888).

System-Wide HDR / SDR conversion settings
3D LUT conversions can be applied for SDR to HDR or HDR to SDR conversions on a system-wide basis.
They are configured on the main System Standard menu page (menu 8731).

Local Settings for HDR / SDR Input Conversions
It is also possible to set inputs or outputs to use a LUT file independently of the System settings. For Inputs this is done on the Inputs, HDR menu 8768.
Select the desired input in the table and set that input to Local control:

The Local Format setting for this input and the setting for System HDR Format in menu 8731 will determine whether a conversion to or from HDR is available. Local HDR to HDR conversions are also possible for converting between different HDR formats.

Local Settings for HDR / SDR Output Conversions
Setting an Output to use a LUT file for conversion is done on menu 8778: This is done in a similar way to inputs.

K-Manager Pro Settings

K-Watch & K-Mirror can work with media files on both local and network drives. If you intend K-Watch or K-Mirror to process files on network shares, credentials may be necessary to gain access to those folders, and those credentials need entering above. In many organisations, credentials will be required to access network drives.
A dialog box will appear the first time you open the K-Watch software. This allows you to add “Network Share Credentials” to allow K-Manager Pro to connect and use K-Watch on a network. If you only want to use K-Watch locally on your PC, click on the {Skip} button.

Syslog Server Logging

K-Watch can use an external Syslog server to save its diagnostic output. Syslog can be used to display log files showing information about files that have been converted, mirrored or any error messages.
Below is an example form a SysLog server showing a list of files that have been converted through KWatch.

IP Gateways

Configuration of system to see mainframes on different networks.

K-Manager Pro Network

Control of network adapters, IP port number info and resetting connections to services. Press on Port Info button to set up a UDP port range.

Technical Information

The following is list of K-Manager Pro ports that require privilege on your network. The MSP installer currently sets up group policies to enable this, however your IT department ought to be aware of the following:
MSP fixed ports 5987, 5988, 5990, 7600, 7628, 7629 – UDP communication between K360 mainframe and Kahuna Transfer Service.
K-Manager Pro fixed ports 43740, 43741, 43742, 43743 – TCP communication between Kahuna Watch GUI, Kahuna Watch Service and Kahuna Transfer Service.

K-MP Status Display

To view the Status bar, open the status window using the Windows Quick-Launch icon in the Hidden Icons area on the Taskbar.

Grass Valley Technical Support
For technical assistance, contact our international support center, at 1-800-547-8949 (US and Canada) or +1 530 478 4148.
To obtain a local phone number for the support center nearest you, please consult the Contact Us section of Grass Valley’s website (www.grassvalley.com).
An on-line form for e-mail contact is also available from the website.

Corporate Head Office

Grass Valley 3499 Douglas-B.-Floreani St-Laurent, Quebec, H4S 2C6 Canada
Telephone: +1 514 333 1772
Fax: +1 514 333 9828
www.grassvalley.com

K-Manager Pro | Application Software
www.grassvalley.com

References

• Home | Grass Valley
• Home | Grass Valley
• Patents | Grass Valley
• General Documentation
• Patents | Grass Valley

Read User Manual Online (PDF format)

Download This Manual (PDF format)

Download this manual  >>