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OT: And then there is this…
Avid cutting costs/people AGAIN.
https://www.betaboston.com/news/2016/02/29/avid-technology-slims-down-again/
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
39 Replies
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With any luck – assuming the opportunity were there – Blackmagic Design will buy the Media Composer IP instead of trying to turn Resolve into a mediocre editor. Then revamp MC from the ground up as BMD has a tendency to do. This would make MC a viable competitor again.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
I prefer the interface as is in Resolve. Avid seems to be from the dinosaur age when it comes to that. Just my honest opinion. Yes, I did use the “D” word. Your eyes do not deceive you.
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Oliver may have a point. But I really don’t see any growth opportunities for Avid unless the “whistling in the dark about Avid Everywhere” comes true. While we debate here about X, Pr, and Resolve, rarely does the name Avid come up. Hey, it’s got its place and I have made money cutting on Avid back in the day, but it seems to be out of the picture sans the broadcast and film industry. But if they build it from ground up, does that alienate the precious user-base they count on?
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
You bring up a perfectly valid point. While on the subject of Resolve, curious to know what marek share they would gain by adding Fusion into the mix like The Foundry has done with Nuke Studio, would be interesting to see what would happen there. This would sort of solve a round tripping issue.
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There is an article from 2014 linked in the Boston Globe piece that stated Avid was being forced to the “top of the pyramid” catering to a small group of high-level professionals in film or aspiring to be there. Interesting analogy.
Here is the link: https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/04/05/can-avid-technology-make-comeback/E8UjuEitg6js3aqQI72AtK/story.html
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Scott Witthaus] “but it seems to be out of the picture sans the broadcast and film industry”
Actually not completely. I do a number of corporate on-site edits that are Avid-based. Of course, that’s because the production company is heavily invested in Avid. Nevertheless, it’s not film or broadcast.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “I do a number of corporate on-site edits that are Avid-based”
And if they were buying today, would you say Avid would be the choice again?
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[David Mathis] “I prefer the interface as is in Resolve. Avid seems to be from the dinosaur age when it comes to that.”
Why? A lot of Resolve’s editing design mimics Media Composer already. It’s a hybrid. I suspect it would be easier to rework the MC interface into something like Resolve and be fully developed as a well-performing NLE, than the work it will take to get Resolve into a good – not merely functional – NLE. Right now, as an NLE, the quality of Resolve’s real-time performance – within the edit tab with all modules open – is unacceptable to most editors.
Plus there’s a built-in market for Media Composer. Right now it’s shrinking, but that isn’t a given. There’s really little interest in having Resolve be an NLE, except by people who want a free one. Most colorists could care less. People who would pay for an NLE don’t care.
OTOH – there’s still a lot of name value on Media Composer – so… streamlined, lower priced, and with improved marketing – it has a shot. Remember, BMD picked up a dying company when they bought the assets of DavInci and then gutted everything except Resolve and Revival software. The control surface is their own product, not carried over from Davinci, although based on the same general design. When they did the purchase, they immediately vacated all existing support contracts and cut the chord at the remaining parts inventory and moved on. Rough for owners of older systems, but arguably saved the company in a fashion and created many more Resolve users than would have ever existed otherwise.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Scott Witthaus] “And if they were buying today, would you say Avid would be the choice again?”
In some of these cases, yes. I just did such an edit last month and these were rental systems brought in for the job. It required live recording of the general session (direct into the SAN) and 4 editors working on the same media. In a few cases we were also simultaneously in the same project file.
This sort of stuff is still best handled with Media Composer and ISIS shared storage. One editor was more comfortable with Premiere, so she was working separately, but then this slowed her down because she had to copy from the KiPro back-ups before she could start to edit. Fortunately her segments allowed for enough time to do this.
Could such a setup be made with FCPX or Premiere. Yes, but I question the solidify of it. And yes, I know about the TEDx conference case studies. For these sorts of jobs, Media Composer with ISIS is still a better option.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “There’s really little interest in having Resolve be an NLE, except by people who want a free one. Most colorists could care less. People who would pay for an NLE don’t care.”
Maybe that’s only because Resolve is not (yet) an awesome NLE.
BMD’s decision to build an editor into their color system is pretty similar to Adobe’s decision to build a color system into their editor: they’re both attempts to flatten the workflow.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn]
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