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From a business point of view, can I justify the purchase of an Avid adrenaline instead od a FCP system? Discussion
Hi everyone:
I am not trying to start a discussion as to which one is best or does this better than the other. There are plenty of those out there. This is just a matter of business planning and client approach.
I own a facility hiring out broadcast equipment (cameras, grips, sound, etc) for music videos, promos and commercials. We have some old avid editing suites (2 MC versions 10) and a nice Xpress pro system. I am in the process of setting up our Xpress pro so that using a Mojo and an SD connect box we can digitize uncompressed 8 bit SDI and offline/online this way. Now the big question. I want to expand as I have had some good number of clients asking for HD support (and also to get a high end genuine editing suite, not just a patched Xpress system). Just been down to the production show in London and…
1 basic Avid adrenaline HD (HP tower and including the HD board) is more or less
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6 Replies
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I am not looking at people telling me what Avid does better than FCP, I am not interested on that. I am talking about business product and client awareness.
By going FCP, will my clients or potential clients think that I am a “B” company because I don’t have either Avid or discreet (the 2 daddies of high end stations) on offer?
Will I find more difficult to bring new clients by offering FCP instead of Avid/ discreet?
What’s the general perception of FCP as a high end system?
Will I be considered a low budget facility?
How many serious budget productions would consider doing post on FCP compared to Avid/ Discreet?
Does the massive price difference relates so much as to what I can get done on one system over the other?
What justifies a $36000 price difference?This are the kind of questions I am looking for an answer. I can get FCP editors that will do just as good work as Avid editors and vice versa. I am aware of all these things. I have used both systems and I know the weakness or strenths of each one (I am sure there are more than I don’t know).
I am looking for objective business orientated advice/previous experience. The kind I won’t get from a reseller or collegue using such or such platform.
Thanks
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Which systems are your customers asking you to supply, and if the want the Avid, are they willing to pay a price high enough so that there is a return-on-investment for the Adrenaline? That will give you your answer.
Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City -
I have had to deal with this issue, and chose the Final Cut route… But, I would not advise you to do the same, nor would I do it again myself…
One of the hidden costs, is productivity… My experience is that FCP is 30 percent slower on average than an Avid. Final Cut is just not as mature a product as an Avid.
Another hidden cost is maintenance… I had so many problems with vendors I don’t know where to begin- all saying the problems were caused by the other guys stuff… I would not rely on Avid for support directly, but there are good Avid engineers out there that can solve issues faster, than trying to deal with the multiple vendor FCP route…
The image you present to the client does matter. When I say Final Cut, clients think that they could have their Uncle Bob do it… or I’m working out of my garage… or, well, you get the picture… It takes awhile to educate the client, and I don’t have the time and resources to convince clients everything will be fine with their project.
It was my experience that the level of editors on Final Cut was no where near the level of editors you find on Avid. I had one guy that I paid MORE than a top Avid editor to work on my Final Cut project and his work was B level at best- and I was told he was a HOT FCP editor. No thanks! I dumped my system the following week and started hiring better Avid editors to work on an Avid at a lot less money.
It is harder to get money out of clients to work on Final Cut. Educated clients expect a different rate when working on Final Cut. With an Avid, I can get $175-$250 an hour. With Final Cut, $50-$100 an hour. Expect to deal with that.
Alot of this will also come down to market positioning. If you’re competing against top houses, you don’t want Final Cut. If you have Final Cut, you’re competing with Uncle Bob and the basement based “post houses” out there.
There is one caveat… HD. Final Cut can give you some leverage against high end post houses here. But the window of opportunity is closing here… Avid will catch up shortly, but I think Final Cut has an advantage in the short term, for cost effective HD finishing.
Hope this helps! I have an HD Final Cut I’m selling… Meeting with the Avid rep tomorrow…
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I too am dealing with this and the same questions. What will we viewed as, a low end production house? Will our productivity fall? And so many more questions. I can see the answer being yes to both a number of years ago with older versions of FCP but now? Nine years ago in college we used Media100 and early versions of FCP and could see why everyone went with Avid. After trying FCP with Motion, Shake and other software I’m beginning to wonder if upgrading to another Avid is worth it. We have used Avid for the past four years and have thought of switching over or upgrading……of course if we had the money we could do both : )
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It is a tricky question to answer. It is the fact the price difference is just plain and simply huge. I mean huge (imagine 1 system, 2 systems, 3 systems….. Just make numbers). Avid is losing clients and actually entire post-production houses because of this price gap. I’d love to stay avid, but can I justify the $30000 difference between one system and the other?
If it only was $10000/15000 I’d take it and would even look/ consider FCP. However…
Sam
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Sam,
Yes the price diference is huge and I have my own stories of bad customer service. Its funny how you point out that Apple pointed fingers at others but I had the same experience with Avid. It just seems, after trying out the new FCP, Motion and Shake, that you get more bang for the buck from Apple plus the fact all my Particle Illusion files and Boris Red files and both programs work the same for FCP with the whole switch over. While the thought that we may be looked at as a lower production company has crossed my mind I look around at the work that is being done on FCP and am more impressed every day. What to do What to do…..
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