Review: Inlet Technologies Semaphore Pro 2

Performance
Once we created these Alert Conditions and ran our tests, Semaphore registered an "all clear" on files that matched our criteria and provided us with a report listing the frames that did not meet our criteria. If the report were to flag a particular portion of the file that did not meet our criteria, Semaphore—in conjunction with Fathom Pro—offers a way to correct the non-compliant content without having to re-encode the entire file.

It begins by providing a graphical representation of the frames, which is displayed along a media timeline that corresponds to the video file. This graph is especially useful for quality control on bandwidth spikes caused by a particularly complex frame or set of frames.

Other systems, including low-cost transcoding tools such as Autodesk’s Cleaner, provide this graphical representation; but thethose solutions have always required re-encoding the entire file at a lower bit rate, thereby lowering the entire overall quality of the content to compensate for a problem in only one small area of the file. It’s the digital equivalent of the old saying "throwing the baby out with the bath water."

Semaphore, on the other hand, uses Fathom Pro’s Seen by Scene functionality to allow only a particular frame or set of frames to be re-encoded, which means that the rest of the file stays at its optimal quality while only the particular scene or short set of frames is reduced in quality. During our tests, we found that the use of Semaphore and Fathom Pro’s Seen by Scene functionality decreased by almost 600% the time typically spent re-encoding problem content.

Workflow Enhancement
Another workflow enhancement that Semaphore provides for networked quality analysis is the Watch Folder feature. This feature is typical on many transcoding systems, including Cleaner, Anystream’s Agility, and Telestream’s FlipFactory and new variants of its recently acquired Popwire product line. Semaphore, however, combines the traditional Watch Folder, into which any authorized user can drop content, with a key set of reports that are generated and delivered either to the quality-control manager, the end user, or both.

The only limiting factor in this feature during our tests was a somewhat rudimentary email tool. Hopefully, future versions of Semaphore will provide a more robust set of options for distributing the reports as well as an easy way to centrally archive multiple reports if the end user would like to view multiple reports in a digest form.

In summary, Semaphore is a positive first step in allowing an average user to accurately assess the quality issues that file-based broadcasting creates. As a standalone product, Semaphore allows for consistent quality control in the field; coupled with FathomPro, Semaphore creates a much more compelling scenario for enhancing mid-sized and large broadcasters’ workflows.