Capture Pilot to Off-Site/Remote Clients -- If you've been successful, please comment
Links that will be referenced:
Capture Pilot web function
https://support.captureone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002575018-Capture-Pilot-web-function
How to set up the remote host viewing when using Capture Pilot?
Long-time Capture One user (back in the capture 5 days) needing to really nail down remote Capture Pilot viewing via Web for clients working from home on a different network.
Last month, this worked seamlessly for me on a week-long shoot where the capture station was connected to the client's (large company) password protected, employee WiFi. Client was at home on his personal network and work computer. No manual port forwarding set up was required (as detailed in the 2nd article above).
I've worked out the nuts and bolts of what C1 requires from a network in order to "send out" Capture Pilot into the world: Static IP address, Port Forwarding capability on the capture station's WiFi network.
Considering the nature of professional digi's working in studios and locations all over the place, there's rarely the time, knowledge, and ability to check enterprise-level wireless networks for this settings.
So, you roll into set not knowing if you'll be able to use Capture Pilot for remote web viewing... how do you ensure that you can?
I'm currently digging around and learning how to set up ngrok to make this work. I've heard of other techs having success with this.
Aside from that, has anyone successfully accomplished the above in a repeatable way using any other method (i.e. cellular hotspot)?
I've been in touch with Capture/Phase support (submitted a ticket) and was simply pointed to the above referenced articles.
Many thanks.
-
"Aside from that, has anyone successfully accomplished the above in a repeatable way using any other method (i.e. cellular hotspot)? "
First of all, I haven't tried such a setup myself. But because of my ICT consultant background, I'd like to share some ideas.
"Considering the nature of professional digi's working in studios and locations all over the place, there's rarely the time, knowledge, and ability to check enterprise-level wireless networks for this settings."
One possibility might be that you have a document describing what kind of setup would be needed for performing such a task. If you give it to the customer beforehand, they might be able to get the required setup arranged. If it doesn't happen, you would at least have evidence that you tried to think of such need beforehand.
"So, you roll into set not knowing if you'll be able to use Capture Pilot for remote web viewing... how do you ensure that you can?"
If you want to be sure that such a solution can be offered, you need to make sure that you have all needed parts under your own control. I.e., the customer gets just the information how to connect to your Capture One Pilot web-server.
What would be needed:
- You are able to control the router for internet access yourself, e.g. you would need a cellular hotspot (which you can configure [Port forwarding]). if the session is in your premises your normal router should be sufficient. Problem might be that your provider does not assign a fixed IP-address to you => A DynamicDNS (DDNS) provider might help in solving this
- Try to build your own network to which you and your customer(s) can connect via VPN. E.g., Amazon offers cloud computing. It should be possible to setup a virtual system to which different parties would connect. The routing to CO Pilot is done there (similar to your experience last month). Best to use VPN connections to that cloud computer. Problem might be that the customer systems do not support the VPN-protocol which you want to use
- NGROK seems to offer such an idea as described above in 2) [based on a very quick look on their pages]
As a side note:
I'm a bit surprised that your customer last month let you connect your computer to their internal network. Personally, I would not trust any computer which is not under my control. I.e., the company could not be sure that your computer was not injecting malware or tried to steal essential information. Of course, the opposite direction is true as well.
What ever you do, try to protect your computer as much as possible: Take care that a firewall is in place, don't expose anything what is not needed for the task, use common sense before allowing to running or installing a new program during such assignment...
0 -
Thanks for your comments, Ralf.
Don't have time to respond at length (apologies), but for this next upcoming job, I have had that conversation with the client. The issue is, with larger companies it creates a long email chain and makes our shoot feel less "smooth" before we even arrive. That said, in these times of remote work, it's a necessary step.
That said, I'm so far happy with the ngrok setup and will be running with that for the time being. For anyone who finds this in the future, ngrok is the way to go for now. Happy to help set it up, get in touch.
1 -
Kyle, there was no reason for apologies. I appreciate that there isn't always the time to answer in length. After all, my answer wasn't going much into details either.
I also hope that whoever finds this thread later gets some hints what might be good to consider...
0 -
Hi folks, check out https://www.capturecloud.io. I've built a desktop application which enables live, remote access to Capture Pilot Server via a branded domain name. You can sign up for the beta on the site. I hope to launch it next week.
0 -
This sounds incredible, Nolan! Will check it out and sign up. Thanks!
0
Post is closed for comments.
Comments
5 comments