Sound Designers

Studio Network Solutions Unveils New Postmap™ Software at NAB

Unique workgroup-enabled application for locating, tagging and tracking media files and meta-data on SAN, LAN or removable storage.

LAS VEGAS, NV – April 22, 2006 (Booth SL5350) – Studio Network Solutions (SNS) today demonstrated Postmap™ – its latest software product for Mac OS X and Windows. The unique benefit of Postmap is that it can easily find, manage and catalog files located on a SAN, file server and removable storage such as FireWire drives and DVDs.

Postmap is designed to fill the void in the post-production industry that exists between simple OS-native search tools and highly complex Digital Asset Management applications.

Find anything anywhere – even if it’s offline.
With Postmap users can immediately locate folders and files stored locally, remotely, offline or online. It also allows users to easily create and attach “enhanced” meta-data to describe and classify specific files and folders. This custom “tagged” information can be used to reduce search times, share production notes and organize files to create a more efficient workflow process.

Postmap offers an incredibly flexible platform of utilities that can be easily tailored to the needs of creative workgroups of all sizes. The software offers a powerful suite of highly customizable features including:

Scan/Search - a sophisticated indexing and searching platform. It offers the ability to schedule and selectively scan the contents of SANs, file servers, FireWire/USB disks, CDs and DVDs. The scanning process creates a searchable, online database of file meta-data (i.e. file name, location, author, etc.). This meta-data store is available for all Postmap users to query even if the scanned storage is offline or remote.

Enhanced Meta-data - provides the ability to easily build customized templates (digital forms) consisting of free text fields, date fields, keywords, hyperlinks, etc. These forms can then be used by all Postmap users to describe files and folders with structured information. Postmap’s complete meta-data store can be queried to quickly locate files or folders throughout a company’s storage system.

Workflow – extends the enhanced meta-data feature in such a way that enables a company to easily define the steps in its “workflow scenarios.” This allows Postmap users to set the status of a project file as it progresses through a custom workflow. Users can also fill out any additional meta-data fields such as “Production Notes” that exist on the workflow form. Postmap can even be configured to send informative, automated email at “step completion” to pre-defined recipient lists.

As a result of this tight integration, not only can the Postmap database be searched to find a file, it can also be utilized to see if that file is part of a workflow and what steps have already been completed.

Workgroups large or small, local or distributed.
Postmap can accommodate a workgroup operating in a single office, or a more complex environment where users are distributed throughout several locations. This is made possible because Postmap’s architecture allows its backend components (Postmap Server, Indexer and Database) to be installed on a single computer or distributed across multiple computers on any Ethernet network. This distributed architecture enables users to search the contents of a remote SAN.

Postmap Availability.
Postmap will be available for purchase through SNS resellers in July 2006. A trial version of Postmap will be available for download from the SNS web site. Licensing for the full version will be based on concurrent users at $429 each.

More information is available at http://www.trypostmap.com.