Formats
Formats contain references to Files and Filesets to group together one or more files into what is commonly refered to as a Media Format. Formats are related to the Asset that owns them. There can multiple Formats in an Asset, but only one Asset for any Format. Though we refer to certain Formats through the name given to them such as the Original Format, it is just a naming convention used to describe the Format, the unique ID would be different to all Formats in iconik. The Original Format of almost all assets in iconik would be the format that describes the file that was first uploaded to create the Asset record.
Format components
Usually in media files there is more than one track. For example in a video format you might see the actual video track and an audio track. These are described by iconik as Format Components. A component would be related to each track, as they can be separate (such as in image sequences with a separate audio file) or embedded in the container of the media. Image files often only have one component. Examples of Components:
- Video tracks
- Audio tracks
- Metadata tracks
Please note that subtitles and closed captions have another entity to describe them in iconik and components shouldn't be used to model them
Using Formats
If you would like more information on using formats and files it is contained under Asset Files Guide.
Examples of Formats
Document Formats
Document formats typically have one file, and might be Microsoft Word, RTF, or plain text files.
Video Formats
Video formats are more complicated than document formats, and typically you might have more than one format for a particular video - such as wrapper and codec format. The video may also have multiple file associated to them with different formats.
Image Formats
Most image formats such as JPEG, PNG or TIFF are made of one file, but if the actual asset is a Video asset, the format could be of Image Sequence type and comprise of many files.
Format Status
- Active The format is active
- Deleted The format is known, but deleted through iconik
Formats relationships
Formats have a relationship to Components, Filesets and in-directly through Filesets; [Files]((files). They always belong to an asset.
A lot of the relationships are abstracted and hidden from the web interface. You won't see the list of components, or filesets in normal operation with the Web interface. Instead you might see a format being listed on more than one storage - this would actually have a fileset for each storage the format is on.
Below is some examples of different ways that Formats, Components, Filesets and Files are used. It is of course possible to mix and match these across different formats, one format being an image sequence and another format being a rendered version of the image sequence.
Basic Asset
This asset shown below depicts a single format, with two components (video and audio), that has a single fileset and relates to a single file.
Asset with separate files
This asset shown below depicts a single format, with two components (video and audio), that is derived from a Asset that has separate files for the audio and video component.
Asset with embedded metadata track
This asset shown below depicts a single format, with three components (video, audio and metadata).
Asset with two filesets.
This asset shown below depicts a single format, with two components (video and audio), but there is two filesets and each has a file associated it with. An example of this would be if the Original Format was copied onto another storage controlled by iconik. It's still the same format but we now have it in two separate locations.
Asset made up of multiple files
The example below shows how we would model an asset whose format is made up of multiple files (examples include image sequences of video, or RED files). For good measure there is also a separate Audio file and a component, fileset and file for this audio file.
Asset with two formats
Below shows an asset with two formats. If we imagine they are video formats (as it has video and audio components) of a scene that is 20 seconds long. One of the formats could be the Original in a high-bitrate production quality codec, and the second format a lower bitrate version for doing proxy editing or for sending to social media. Both would have the same content (they are reproducing the same content with no other differences other than technical format ones), but we can model them as different formats with different filesets and associated files.
Note: If you want to model so the content is different in each format (say one format is an edited version of the other, or has been through a different production process), then formats and not the way to model this. Use separate assets