MetaRender is a universal solution for many transcoding and SpeedGrade rendering tasks. Use the MetaRender UI to quickly queue transcoding jobs into a network render pipeline. Use scriping or third-party render management software with MetaRender Nodes to automate downconversion, generation of offline proxies or final deliverables. Use MetaRender Nodes with SpeedGrade to offload final rendering to your render farm.
The MetaRender product line consists of two products: MetaRender UI and MetaRender Node. MetaRender is available for Mac, Windows and LINUX.
MetaRender Node is a render client that can run individual render jobs via command line scripting or can receive render jobs through a network interface. When running in network mode, MetaRender Node can provide background rendering functionality for FrameCycler DI, SpeedGrade XR and SpeedGrade DI or receive queued jobs from MetaRender UI.
MetaRender UI is the graphical front end for one or more MetaRender Nodes. In its simplest form, it can send individual transcoding or render tasks to a locally installed Node, allowing you to interactively queue multiple conversion and render jobs.
When used with additional Nodes running on the network, MetaRender UI becomes a powerful render farm manager that allows you to distribute render jobs to multiple render machines, cancel and restart individual jobs and monitor progress.
The MetaRender UI is also built directly into the SpeedGrade XR and SpeedGrade DI user interface.
Universal File Format Support
MetaRender supports all file types commonly used in the digital film and VFX community. This includes DPX, TIFF, TGA, OpenEXR, Quicktime and AVI file formats. Many uncompressed Quicktime formats, such as Blackmagic and AJA are read and written directly, bypassing the Apple Quicktime subsystem. This increases performance and prevents some of the color space variations that are sometimes found in other Quicktime workflows.
One RAW Workflow For All Cameras
IRIDAS' unique RealTime RAW technology provides direct support for RAW files coming from digital cinema cameras, making it a one-stop transcoding solution for all cameras currently used in the field. This eliminates the need to have one specific workflow for each individual camera type - a significant step forward from the proprietary workflows of the past. MetaRender with RealTimeRAW makes working with RAW files transparent and no different than dealing with any other file format.
The Ideal Companion to your NLE
Whether you need to create ProRes files for use in Final Cut or DHxHD Quicktimes for your AVID, MetaRender allows you use virtually any input format at any size, scale and transcode it to a format your non linear editor handles well. MetaRender can use elements of the original path name in the output file name or metadata from the header of the file, including reel IDs or unique file identifiers (UMIDs/GUIDs). MetaRender can use timecode from header fields or create a new timecode based on your input.
It Grows With Your Needs
MetaRender provides a scalable workflow. You can start out with MetaRender UI and one locally installed Node. When the number of tasks increases, you can easily add additional network nodes to offload more jobs. When integrating MetaRender into an automated workflow, you can take advantage of the powerful command line scripting functionality and use MetaRender UI for monitoring.
SpeedGrade Integration
SpeedGrade has the full MetaRender UI functionality built in, giving you access to your MetaRender network nodes right from within the SpeedGrade rendering user interface. You can offload rendering of your current timeline to your render farm, freeing up processing time on your local machine. Multiple render nodes speed up time to deliverable and give you the option to render multiple deliverables in parallel.
MetaRender provides rendering for SpeedGrade timelines and transcoding for commonly used file formats, including RAW files from all digital cinema cameras currently used in the industry. Native RED support is available through the MetaRender beta program.
MetaRender can optionally accelerate rendering via the GPU, but does not require a graphics card to be present in the render node.
MetaRender can be used to create offline versions of your high res files for non linear editing.
MetaRender scales from user supervised interactive mode to fully automated render farm management.
MetaRender works stand alone or as a companion for SpeedGrade DI and SpeedGrade XR.
