User Manual

Why Use a Project Server?
Multiple DaVinci Resolve workstations can access the same project when you set up a Project
Server that shares one or more PostgreSQL databases over a local network. Once you’ve set
this up, there are two ways of using a shared database.
Multiple Users Sharing Projects
The simplest case is for users to simply open up a project on the Project Server and work on it.
Working this way, if you ever have to change rooms, or switch workstations, you can easily
open that same project from any machine that’s connected to the server on the same network
without needing to export and import it first. For example, an assistant could be working with a
colorist to prepare files for the next reel by conforming shots, managing VFX replacements,
doing dust busting repairs, and so on in an unsupervised editing suite anywhere in the building,
before saving their work and closing the project so the colorist can immediately open that same
project in the grading theater across the hall.
Another way of taking advantage of shared Project Servers is to split large projects into
sections, so multiple artists can work in parallel on different pieces of the whole in different
suites, handing them off when necessary. For example, a feature film may be split into reels, or
a film can be separated from the trailer and electronic press kit projects that it shares media
with. In this case, each project can be edited, mixed, and graded by different people accessing
the Project Server.
When a shared project is opened by someone else after it’s already been opened, a dialog
informs you that it’s being opened in Read-only mode to prevent multiple users from accessing
the project at the same time. If you load a Read-only project and decide you want to make
changes anyway, you’ll need to use the Save As command to create a duplicate project file
using a new name in order to preserve your work.
Using Collaborative Workflow
Alternately, you can use the Collaborative Workflow features in DaVinci Resolve to enable
multiple collaborators on multiple workstations in multiple rooms to open and work on the very
same project at the same time. For example, an editor can be editing a project’s main timeline
in one room, while an assistant organizes media and adds metadata within the same project in
another room, and a colorist grades dailies in that same project in yet another room, all
accessing the same Project Server which allows them to work together in parallel. For more
information, see Chapter 178, “Collaborative Workflow.”
All participants in a Collaborative Workflow must have the Studio version of DaVinci Resolve,
and they must be using a PostgreSQL database on a Project Server that’s properly set up.
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