If you have updated your Media Composer to version 2021.9 and tried to open a project on your shared storage, you may have encountered the following warning message:
“Security Alert: Media Composer detected a storage device that is emulating an unsecured version of ISIS firmware, which may introduce unsecured access to your files and media.
Bin sharing and locking is not supported for unauthorized third-party storage that emulates Avid NEXIS, Avid ISIS or Avid Unity MediaNetwork.
It is recommended that users do not access projects, bins or scripts at the same time as other users on storage that does not support bin sharing or locking. Doing so can result in lost work, create conflicts and cause changes to be overwritten by other users.
Users who choose to continue to use bin sharing on products emulating Avid shared storage can enable this in the General Settings.
Enable now?
Yes / No”
Now, this message might sound ominous, but it actually isn’t. Simply clicking “Yes” is all the user needs to do. Let’s explore the origin of the message.
After various shared storage vendors have added support for Media Composers project sharing features (including Bin Locking) Avid has added the option to manually turn these 3rd party sharing capabilities on or off. The option called “Enable Bin Sharing on 3rd party storage emulating Avid NEXIS/ISIS” is located in the projects General Settings.
Alongside this sharing switch a message was also added, that users will see when they open a shared project (located on a 3rd party shared storage) for the first time. Before Media Composer version 2021.9, the original, shorter version of the message read:
“This system Is using non-Avid storage that Is emulating the Avid NEXIS/ISIS file system. Bin sharing for products emulating Avid NEXIS/ISIS storage can be enabled in General Settings.
Enable now?
Yes / No”
This message has now been expanded to accentuate the fact that Avid cannot be held accountable for the performance and security of the 3rd party shared storage products when working with Media Composer, which is fully understandable.
The second part of the message simply explains that users who have the Bin Sharing feature turned off should absolutely not work on shared projects, as this may lead to bin overwrites and other conflicts. This is a reminder for something that pretty much all Media Composer users should already be familiar with.
To summarize: Over the years, the ELEMENTS platform has been proven time and time again to be a great solution for Media Composer workflows. We are continuously testing our storage products and collaboration tools with the newest versions of professional software and are fully dedicated to enhancing the workflows of video professionals. For this reason, the newest warning message from Avid is something that ELEMENTS users don’t need to worry about.
