Apple today announced that Final Cut Server, a powerful software solution for media asset management and workflow automation, is now shipping. A scaleable server application, Final Cut Server automatically catalogs large collections of assets, allows searching across multiple disks and SAN volumes and enables viewing, annotation and approval of content from anywhere using a PC or Mac.

“Whether producing a 30-second spot, the nightly news or a major motion picture, Final Cut Studio is the choice of editors around the world,” said Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of Applications Product Marketing. “With the introduction of Final Cut Server, collaboration just got a whole lot easier for millions of editors, producers and clients who work with Final Cut Studio.”

“For the past few months we’ve been using a beta of Final Cut Server to manage our entire workflow pipeline, 24/7, and it held up beautifully,” said Evan Schechtman, CTO of Radical Media. “Best of all, Final Cut Server integrates seamlessly with our home-grown solutions so it’s actually adding new value to systems we’ve relied on for years.”

Final Cut Server automatically catalogs media and generates thumbnails, poster frames and low-resolution clip proxies for quick browsing in user specified formats. A cross-platform client enables a PC or Mac to use Final Cut Server’s broad search capabilities, which extend from simple keywords to complex combinations of IPTC, XMP and XML metadata. Final Cut Server also configures a range of highly specific access controls that define user permissions on an asset or project basis.

Final Cut Server scales to support workgroups of different sizes, ranging from a two-person post house to a multi-national news organization and can automate as much, or as little, of the production pipeline as needed. A configurable event-based response model tracks job status, monitors media changes, and automates review and approval notifications and complex sequences of tasks-all through a series of simple menu selections.

Tightly integrated with Final Cut Studio for a seamless extension of the workflow, Final Cut Server includes Compressor 3, Apple’s industrial strength digital encoding and compression tool, which delivers pristine format conversions for publishing to DVD, broadcast television, the Internet, Apple TV, iPod, iPhone and other mobile phones.

Final Cut Server is available immediately through the Apple Store (www.apple.com ), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $999 (US) for one server and 10 concurrent client licenses, and $1,999 (US) for one server and unlimited client licenses. Full system requirements and more information on Final Cut Server can be found at www.apple.com/finalcutserver .