QScan is an Automated Quality Control Solution.
- QScan does not require internet connection (only needed for the online activation)
- Preferred browser is Chrome.
Using QScan you can select files to be checked, against a set of parameters (a parameter 'template').
QScan performs an analysis of the technical characteristics, format parameters and the perceptual quality of media content. QScan focuses on the verification of formats, metadata (such AS-11 metadata information) and the effects and artefacts resulting from successive manipulations of the content, such as black frames, freezing, video levels, audio silence, etc.
Also allows to verify compliance to international standards, such as IMF or DCP packages, and now HDR measurements for MaxFALL and MaxCLL verification.
QScan presents a whole new set of unique features, such as Single Pass Analysis, Comparative Analysis, Macros, unique visual IMF representation, HDR measurements, and more. These features, combined with the easy visual UI, and the new flexible payment model, makes QScan the most affordable, fuly featured and user friendly AQC in the market. AQC will never be limited to Pro users with the new monthly, yearly or outright licenses with different flavors to adapt to any budget. The only AQC in the world that you can get for FREE. Democracy has finally arrived to the AQC world.
The new GUI reduces the complexity of a very technical task as the Quality Control
If you are a content producer, broadcaster, etc., the automation of content QC will enable you to minimize manual QC, saving significant investment in time and resources. Human inspection (i.e. 'eyeballing') is not capable of detecting or providing an objective measurement of all errors or artefacts that exist in the content.
QScan is available in English, although it does support the UNICODE standard for extended character sets (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, etc.). By using translation files, QScan can currently be adapted to any other language. Available translation files can be downloaded from the Settings/System menu option in QScan.
QScan solely makes use of the CPU.
GPU use is in our roadmap and it is expected to be available by Q2 2022.
Yes. QScan MAX can process 4 files concurrently per server (node). You can expand beyond 4 by setting up additional MAX nodes. Contact sales@lwks.com for further information.
QScan requires a Windows machine - version 7 and newer, including Server versions. This machine can also be virtual, running on Mac / Linux.
The interface can be accessed locally via a web browser (Chrome recommended). It can also be accessed remotely, from any machine on your network, running any OS and web browser.
Recommended for optimal speed (Real Time speed) up to 4 files at a time per QScan machine: - 16 core machine - Minimum 8GB of RAM - 1TB HDD: will depend on whether QScan machine is also used for the content storage.
Optimally SDD in RAID configuration. - 1GbE ports NOTE on Ethernet ports: the bitrate of the files that are to be QC'ed needs to be considered.
The required ethernet speed will depend on the file bitrate, the amount of simultaneous files, and the expected analysis speed. I.e: if we want to analyze 4 ProRes@220Mbps, 2 times faster than real time, and we do not want the networks to be the bottleneck, the network speed should be 4x220x2=1760Mbps (1.7Gbps)
You can check the HW requirements in our HW guideline document that can be downloaded from here: https://app.lwks.com/downloads/documentation
QScan may be executed from any browser, however, the recommended browser is Google Chrome.
QScan may be executed on virtual machines. It is merely necessary to ensure that the virtual machine is configured to have access to the network shares that need to be accessed to read the files (if any). QScan has been tested in VM environments such as VMWare, Virtual Box, Parallels, Hyper-V. Please contact us to know more about supported VM environments.
QScan cannot be executed natively in these operating systems, it is compatible with MAC through a virtual machine or Boot Camp and with Linux through a virtual machine.
Yes, QScan has its own API which enables integration of the QC in third-party systems such as: ingest systems, encoders, transcoders, MAMs, playout systems, correction systems, etc. The API is fully documented. For more information, please contact sales@lwks.com
The first question to answer is: how many hours of analysis will be needed per day (or week, month)? As a 'worst case' scenario, if we assume that QScan can analyze at Real Time Speeds (that is true up to HD resolutions), 1 simple license of QScan (1 file at a time) would be capable of analyzing 24 hours of material in a day, thus the basic license consisting of 4 files at a time, will be capable of analyzing 96 hours per day, assuming 24x7 use, and that the HW and network are enough for those speeds.
Taking this as the bottom line, the faster the machine, the bigger the amount of content that could be analyzed per day. So, if we aim at analyzing 125 hours of content per day, 125/24=5,21 files at a time (considering 24x7 operation). So, it would be necessary to analyze more than 5 files at a time. Thus needing additional worker nodes. NOTE: performance can vary depending on the Hardware, file formats, file bitrate, parameters to be analyzed, etc. Heavy file exchange formats (DNxHD, ProRes, XAVC, J2K, etc) might take longer than traditional broadcast formats (MPEG2, H264, HEVC, etc).
LWKS does not provide Hardware to be used with QScan. You can see the recommended minimum requirements in the download page https://app.lwks.com/downloads/documentation
The support you will receive depends on your licensing. Generally, Free and One licenses can only get support through the forum https://forum.lwks.com/#qscan-aqc.574
To know more details about support options according to the licensing you can check the License Comparison web page https://lwks.com/qscan-tech-specs/
The email address for support: support@lwks.com
QScan analyzes different types of parameters:
You can see a complete list of parameters on the QScan Tech Specs page https://lwks.com/qscan-tech-specs
Yes, although QScan is designed to perform the simultaneous analysis of audio and video, it is possible to configure the analysis solely for audio. Likewise, in the configuration process for QC projects it is possible to choose solely audio QC.
QScan can analyze up to 16 audio channels simultaneously. It is possible to analyse mono, stereo, 5.1 and 7.1 audio channels.
This will depend on various factors such as the speed of your CPU and the file formats to be analyzed. It is recommended that i7 or superior processors be used for QC tasks. We currently possess benchmarks achieved using different processors and different file formats. As a reference, it may be indicated that a 10 minute XDCAM HD file would take 6 minutes to analyse using an i7 processor and 4GB RAM.
Check out the HW Guidelines documentation that can be downloaded from the download page: https://app.lwks.com/downloads/documentation
Yes, QScan allows you to set analysis priority 'per file' and 'per project'. There are three levels of priority (High, Normal, Low).
QScan can be configured to any time zone.
No, QScan only does analysis of media files. No correction is included in any of the license options.
Yes, QScan complies to most adopted standards. These include: AMWA, DPP, SMPTE, etc. QScan also provides a complete set of ready made templates that comply to most industry delivery specifications, to guarantee that your content will be accepted by major companies such as Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, etc.
No. QScan is not a monitoring tool, but rather an Automated Quality Control tool intended for file based content.
QScan has been tested with very large files. File size will only impact on the time that is needed to perform the analysis. Furthermore, QScan Max enables workload to be distributed across multiple nodes (or QC servers). The 'Partial Analysis' feature enables you to analyze files in chunks of the selected duration, and thus processor load can be distributed across multiple nodes.
The 'Getting Started' document describes the first steps https://app.lwks.com/downloads/documentation
Check out the QScan "hints and tips" category in the forum. We periodically post new entries aimed at helping you getting the best out of QScan https://forum.lwks.com/forums/hints-tips.601/
The files to be analyzed in QScan must be available in the local drives or the repositories which are configured in the initial system configuration (Only Pro and Max). These files may be on the local machine where QScan is located or in folders on the workplace LAN.
In order to create repositories: Settings > Repositories > Create Repository.
When subsequently creating a project, watch folders would be selected within the available repositories.
Check out the hints and tips entry in the forum https://forum.lwks.com/threads/configuration-of-repositories.243594/
The number of templates which can be used in QScan depends on your license.
Growing files would never work for all file formats, since not all of them allow reading the file before it is complete. So, QScan does not support growing files. Files need to be completely copied to a folder accessible by QScan prior to the analysis. QScan will detect the file even if it still being copied, but the analysis will not start until the file copy/move is complete.
QScan licensing model is very simple. Check the comparison table on the QScan Tech Specs page https://lwks.com/qscan-tech-specs
As an entry point to the product, QScan is now available for FREE, with limited features and templates. However, for a more in-depth trial of all high end features, our new month plans are available at super-affordable prices. If you are a big company, and you are interested in our outright options, contact sales: sales@lwks.com for a tailored plan.
Follow the steps below to get started with QScan Free:
When you collect and apply the FREE license, it runs for 30 days. At the end of 30 days you will need to repeat the collection process:
The 30 day cycle will start again.
The FREE license allows you to QC your media using our 'Quick Analysis' option: select a file, select a template, Go! The number of ready-made templates is limited. The number of custom templates is also limited to 3. Only HTML reports are available. Custom templates have some restricted parameters.
No, QScan licenses are purely software licenses. For extension of an existing license, if you purchased a monthly or annual license, and you enabled the subscription option, a new license will be automatically generated and updated in the application once the payment has been confirmed. You can purchase new month/annual licenses in the app - https://app.lwks.com/buylicenses NOTE: if you are interested in outright licenses, please contact sales@lwks.com
In order to transfer the existing license to another machine, you will need to: