Fast Video Cataloger is best known as a desktop application, but it ships with a server. Set it up once, on one Windows machine, and everyone you choose can search the same video library — from the office next door or a site on the other side of the country. This page shows you the architecture that works and how to set it up.
How it fits together
One machine runs the Fast Video Cataloger Server as a Windows service. The catalog and the video files live there. Everything else connects to it:
- The people who catalog — adding videos, tagging, writing metadata — use the Fast Video Cataloger desktop application, connected to the server. That is the full tool you already know.
- The people who search and watch use a web browser. Nothing to install, nothing to update, nothing for their local IT department to approve. They log in, search, and stream — from any machine that can reach the server.
This split is what makes the setup hold up across many locations: the remote sites have no moving parts. Everything that needs installing, configuring, or backing up sits on the one server you control.
What you need
- One Windows machine for the server. A dedicated box, a VM, or the PC you already catalog on — the server runs as a background service either way. Attached storage (local disks, iSCSI, a NAS volume) holds the video files.
- Your existing licence. Every Fast Video Cataloger licence already includes the server, an administrator account, and one user account. More user accounts are added in packs — see server licensing.
- A network route to the server — your LAN, a company WAN, or a VPN. Remote users need to reach one address and port.
Setting it up
The whole setup takes about five minutes. This video does it end to end — sharing an existing catalog, creating the accounts, and what the result looks like from a browser and from the desktop application at the same time.
- Build the catalog locally first. Use Fast Video Cataloger as usual on the machine that will become the server. A catalog you already have works as-is.
- Run the wizard. With the catalog open, click the Fast Video Cataloger icon in the top left corner, go to Server and click Setup. The wizard installs the Windows service, opens the firewall, fills in your licence key, and reconnects your own application to the new server. When it finishes it shows the address clients use, for example
YourComputer:8754. - Choose the built-in HTTP server when the wizard asks how to serve video. It streams videos by ID, so files do not need to share a common root folder — your existing disk layout stays as it is.
- Turn on authentication and create accounts. On the Server page, open Manage Users and add a login for each person, with a role: Viewer, Editor, or Admin.
- Hand out the address. Browser users open it and log in. Desktop users enter it on the Connect screen.
Who can do what
| Role | Can | Cannot |
|---|---|---|
| Viewer | Search, browse, and watch everything in the catalog. | Add, edit, or delete anything. |
| Editor | Everything a Viewer can, plus add videos, tag, and edit metadata. | Manage user accounts. |
| Admin | Everything, including creating accounts and assigning roles. | — |
Roles are enforced by the server itself, not just hidden buttons: a Viewer who calls the API directly is rejected, and the video files are behind the same login. For teams handling sensitive footage — security video, unreleased productions, client material — that means read-only really is read-only.
The honest limits
- A role applies to the whole catalog. Everyone who can log in sees every video in it. Access cannot be scoped to a folder or a subset of the content. If two groups must not see each other’s material, run a separate server instance with its own catalog for each group.
- The server runs on Windows. Your storage can be anything — Synology, iSCSI, a plain file share — but the machine running the service is a Windows machine.
- Browser playback wants web-friendly formats. H.264 MP4 streams everywhere. The desktop application plays a much wider range through its built-in codecs, so test your actual files early — it takes minutes.
A typical multi-site rollout
A company with many locations puts the server at head office or in the data center, next to the archive storage. A small group of editors catalogs incoming footage with the desktop application. Everyone at the branch sites gets a Viewer login and a URL — no rollout, no site visits, no per-machine installs. When a new person joins, the admin creates an account; when a site PC is replaced, nothing needs doing at all.
Adding footage from the sites can be automated too: the full catalog API is exposed over REST, so a script can move files to the archive and register them without anyone touching the server.
Try it before you commit
The server is included in the free trial. Set it up on one machine, point it at a few hundred of your real files, and log in from a browser as a Viewer — you will see exactly what your team would see, before anyone else is involved.
Unusual setup — many sites, air-gapped networks, big archives? Tell us what you are building and we will tell you honestly whether it fits.