RT – Essential Concepts and Features

Pomfort RT is the next-generation software application for professional on-set video playback in film productions. Its innovative slot concept empowers video playback operators to easily trace all signals, overlook all simultaneous actions and accomplish their tasks promptly. RT’s built on the powerful Apple silicon chip architecture, rendering it a dependable workhorse at all times.

Selected customers now have the chance to preview and test the latest alpha version.

Manage video signals with “Slots”

Slots are a flexible and transparent way to manage and route live and playback video signals to various destinations.

Each slot is a container for either a signal input, video playback, video output or a composite of other slots. You can connect slots to each other to create internal video routing setups from simple to complex structure.

Slots are represented in the user interface as individual slot cards in the slot overview on the left of the main window. Slots are grouped in the slot overview by type. Slots of the “Input Slot” type can have further modes. Slot types and slot modes are explained in more detail below.

• Slot types are input slots, output slots, library slots, composite slots
• Input slots: 
  • Associate video inputs to your system (such as SDI input ports) with your input slots to manage all your incoming live signals and source playback signals per camera or in timecode-synced groups
  • Slot modes: Input slots have three different “slot modes”:
    • Live mode – monitor and record the live signal from a camera
    • Playback mode – play back recorded clips from the associated source camera (recorded clips are loaded into the associated source input slot by default)
    • Reference mode – compare live and playback signal with various layout options:
      • Side-by-Side: Create a side-by-side view of the slot’s live and playback signal
      • Swipe: Compare the content of the slot’s live and playback signal with a horizontal or vertical swipe
      • Overlay: Mix and overlay of the slot’s live and playback signal, (e.g., to match the framing)

• Switch all input slots to live/playback slot mode with dedicated buttons in the input slots section of the slot collection view, e.g., switch all input slots to live to quickly resume to the live signal for shooting

• Output slots: 
  • Associate video outputs of your system (such as SDI output ports) with output slots to route signals from input slots, library slots and composite slots to various destinations
  • Apply an individual appearance per output slot – create a filtered, composited view tailored for the associated watcher (e.g. director wants to see a cropped image from camera A while Script Continuity wants to see an un-cropped side-by-side view of camera A and B)
  • Output routing options: Temporarily switch an output slot to one of the following routing options:
    • • Force Slot to Follow Live Video – force an output slot to always show the live signal of its configured input source (= the input slot’s live slot mode)
      • Set Slot to Follow Selection – automatically set the input/library/composite slot that is selected in the slot overview UI as source for the output slot (“what you select is what you get”)

• Input and output slots can be added/removed and associated with connected devices in a separate Slot Manager window (Cmd-D, or from the main window’s toolbar)

• Webcam output: Stream an output slot’s signal to the internet through the “Pomfort Camera” virtual webcam integration (needs to be installed separately, see instructions below)
• Library slots: 
  • Find a specific clip by browsing the library – library slots auto-load the selected clip in the library for instant review and playback
  • Compare shots or compare different play positions with 
    • an independent library selection per library slot, (e.g., different folder/bin/smart group levels) and/or
    • an independent playhead position per library slot, (e.g., two different ranges within the same recording)
• Composite slots: Compose a view from multiple input and/or library slots with live and/or playback signals:
  • Choose from a range of layout options for your compositing:
    • Side-by-Side: Create a side-by-side view of 2 slots
    • 2×2 Grid: Create a grid view of up to 4 slots
    • Swipe: Compare the content of two slots with a horizontal or vertical swipe
    • Overlay: Mix and overlay the content of two slots, (e.g., to match the framing of two shots)

• • Combine a composite slot’s source selection with the input slot modes “Live/Playback/Reference”, “Switch All Inputs Slots to Live Video/ to Playback”, and the output routing option “Force Slot to Follow Live Video” 
  • An Auto mode lets you auto-configure the input source for a composite slot following your (option-click) selection of input slots

• Filter Settings:
  • Inspect and edit filter settings in the settings tab of each slot
  • Apply independent filters such as Crop, Flip/Flop, etc. 
    • individually per slot
    • change the “Crop Appearance” for each output slot separately (e.g., crop the blackboarded camera HUD for the Director while only darkening the border for other watchers who may be interested in the metadata)
  • Consistent filter settings and layout options in composite slots and reference mode (Side-by-Side, Swipe, Overlay)
  • Filter settings of all currently connected slots are accumulated (for example, an output slot shows filter settings for itself, but also for the connected input slot(s)).
  • [BETA] Coming soon: More filters such as Image Overlay / Metadata Burn-Ins and more… 

Project Management and Media Folders

• Manage your work in a separate project for each shoot:
  • Switch between projects
  • Create a new project
• Expand your media storage flexibly with project-dependent storage locations (“Media Folders”):
  • Add multiple media folders and set one current storage location (“Record Folder”) in the recording settings
  • New recordings are saved into your currently set record folder

Device integrations: Controller, video I/O devices and video routers

• Keyboard Shortcuts: Map all existing menu items to your preferred hotkey using a dedicated keyboard shortcuts mapper

• Stream Deck: Fully control application with Stream Deck controller actions
  • Install the Stream Deck plugin via the “RT” > “Install Stream Deck Plugin…” menu item
  • The plugin comes with pre-defined layouts for the Stream Deck Classic and Stream Deck XL devices
• Video I/O devices: Use your video I/O devices by AJA and Blackmagic
  • Set up your video I/O and associate the available ports to input and output slots in the slot manager
  • Set the device port configuration (number of input and output connectors) of AJA devices in the Devices tab of the application’s Settings.
• SDI video routers: Use your SDI video routers by AJA and Blackmagic
  • Interactively control video routing in a dedicated video routing panel 
  • Create and manage multiple video routing configurations
  • Trigger configurations from Stream Deck
  • Automation Manager: Set up automations to trigger video routing configurations based on a specific event, (e.g., if the slot mode of an input slot changes from playback to live >> use case: director wants to see the live camera feed directly for lowest latency as possible)

Recordings with multiple in and out ranges

• Single recording / group recording: 
  • Create single recordings from a single camera’s live signal with the record button in the individual slot
  • or create timecode-synced group recordings from multiple live signals
    • with the record button in the viewer controls (a sync info label indicates which slots are currently synced and will be included in the group recording)
    • or with the record all button in the toolbar

• Timecode Settings: Use the current time as timecode to sync multiple incoming signals in your group recording (enabled by default), or switch to use SMPTE timecode embedded in the SDI signal (make sure to jam-sync cameras to create timecode-synced groups using SMTPE timecode) by checking “Disable use of current time as timecode” in the Recording tab of the applications’s Settings.
• Arm / un-arm individual slots for recording, e.g., for temporarily excluding a camera from the upcoming group recording (arrow button besides record button in slot UI)
• Set multiple in and out ranges during recording for marking several actions within one take
• Auto Record: Automatically trigger start/stop recording based on the record flag embedded in SDI camera signals
  • Choose between different Trigger Record Behaviours and Trigger Stop Behaviours (e.g., if you can only receive a record for one camera in your setup, you can choose that this camera should trigger start/stop recording for all cameras)
• Receive and store the Clip Name embedded in SDI camera signals
• Audio recording: Include audio from a connected audio interface in your recordings
  • Add an audio delay to the audio recording to keep it in sync with the video signals 
• Add multiple “media folders” to flexibly add additional media storage space
  • Define one media folder as the current “record folder” 
• Apply “global” metadata, such as slate info for all active input slots to apply the currently filled-in metadata values to all new recordings
  • Set the “Take” field to increase automatically after recording (set by default – see in recording settings)
  • Add and remove metadata fields to include only fields required by your production

Synced group playback with “JKL” navigation

• Auto-load new clips for playback
• Play back single recordings or synced group recordings 
• Control playback with industry standard “JKL”