-
Avid laying off 120 people
-
I came across a used video gear site run by a guy nicknamed “Uncle Geo”. Seems like a cool guy. His page on used Avids made it clear to me that getting a used Avid, even a recent one, is not for the faint of heart. The systems are not often well documented, they each individually have a lot of variability in components and things like drivers and plug-ins, proprietary drives are a pain, it is a huge hassle for him to certify one much beyond the point of “hey, it lights up when you turn it on; after that, you’re on yer own!”
Ron will surely vehemently disagree, but I think part of their slide is from losing marketing buzz and a perception of market leadership from their decision to pull out of NAB’s big Vegas convention. Back in the day, they were the industry pioneer, leader and big dog, and dominated Hollywood editing, but I think they kept this mountain-top view of “you must climb up here to our level” as far as getting new users. And they grew the brand from buying up other products, kind of like Pinnacle did, instead of making new stuff from scratch. Again, nothing others didn’t do to some extent, Apple didn’t *invent* FCP, after all… But I think Avid didn’t do a great job integrating the products across the line and across all users.
FCP started out much like Sony Vegas, a small, fast, affordable little mammal running under the feet of huge reptile dinos. So cheap to try, yet producing such good results,you forgave a lot of early shortcomings. As soon as people got over the name snobbishness of not having an “Avid” suite, (with Avid PRICES and OPERATING COSTS) those products boomed in the marketplace.
-
“getting a used Avid, even a recent one, is not for the faint of heart.”
I have been using AVID for 9 years, when I started using FCP 4 years ago I was blown away how user friendly it was. I also found out I was editing twice as fast on a FCP as an operator as opposed to AVID.
Also system errors and downtimes have been cut down by 80% since switching to FCP.Still AVID Unity with Interplay is still my favorite.
Emre Tufekci
http://www.productionpit.com -
[Mark Suszko] “Avid, even a recent one, is not for the faint of heart. The systems are not often well documented, they each individually have a lot of variability in components and things like drivers and plug-ins, proprietary drives are a pain,”
Well, to be fair, the same goes with FCP.
If you just buy the FCP software, you can deal with all things firewire, and tapeless. Same now goes with Avid. Software only deals with tapeless and firewire formats. But then you add the DX hardware, and you have to deal with drivers and installing and all that. Same with FCP…get a Kona or Matrox or Decklink card, and now you have to deal with installing drivers and keeping up with what is current for your software versions. Add external storage? Same for both, as Avid no longer (hasn’t for a while) required Avid specific drives. You can use firewire, or eSATA, mini SAS…fibre…with both. UNITY? Well, that is highly technical, but then so is SanMP, XSAN…all that. I think the playing field there has leveled. but before, when it was fully integrated systems ONLY, like the Meridians or earlier…Adrenaline too…you had to really REALLY know your stuff.
People think FCP is so much easier, that you plug in a Kona card and there you go. Uh uh…you gotta know what to do with the drivers and how to set up the cards and all of that.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Who would have thought they still had 120 employees?
Must all be in the creative writing/marketing department.
I don’t expect em to be around much longer. We’ve not seen effort by that company in close to a decade now.
-
It’s not the difficulty of getting it goin’ that will be the demise fo Avid. It’s their down-grading of product line with simultaneous false marketing of that rapidly deminishing line. They should have just declared a regrouping and done that. Making their clientele beta test for them as they try to catch up with FCP was a bad decision by management that obvioulsy had no experience with this. In the last 5 years, nobody has sold more copies of FCP than Avid. It’d be hard for them to pretend to wonder why this is happening at this point.
Of the 120 that were sent home, how many of those do you think were editors/consultants? Exactly… because they don’t consult with editors. -
“Exactly… because they don’t consult with editors. ”
That’s completely not true. Bob Russo is an editor, and the product evangelist for Avid. I’m an editor and have had direct input on product, I am also a moderator on the Avid forums.
As for the forums, the Cow put all of the Avid products into one forum, while the Avid page has several for different products, which I what I have always preferred.
I started off posting in 2000 at avidpronet.com, which was eventually migrated into Avid’s site, which I continued onto. So I think this idea of criticizing Avid for “driving interest” away from the COW is not a valid argument for several reasons, one being that several folks weren’t on the COW in the first place and two being that there is nothing wrong with trying to bring your user base to your company website, it’s good marketing.
They have screwed up with the pricing on Mojo DX and other things through the years, that’s for sure. This just shows that competition is good and will determine pricing, that’s why Media Composer costs what it does now compared to several years ago.
We just bought 6 Avid’s (2 Symphony Nitris DX, 4 NewsCutter Nitris DX) along with Avid Interplay to run during the Olympics, I think they are focusing more on these things than in the single operator system.
There is room in the market for several products. The Avid bashing going on in this thread is unwarranted.
http://www.MediaCircus.TV
Media Production Services
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada -
According to the article “The company employs approximately 2,200 people worldwide.”
“We’ve not seen effort by that company in close to a decade now. ”
Cutting Media Composer pricing by 50% isn’t an effort? C’mon.http://www.MediaCircus.TV
Media Production Services
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada -
I will chime in with another take.
I have never used Avid aside from evaluating the Xpress system along with Media 100 many moons ago.“Avid is laying off 120 people”
You know what, a lot of small medium and large companies are laying off people this year. The bottom line of a business is to make a profit for the owners, the shareholders or both. Is the company is trouble beyond the need to cut costs? Is the company changing its product offerings? There are no doubt many questions associated with the decision that have less to do with product reliability and features and more with cash flow.
As has been discussed on these forums in great detail, there are editing systems at all price ranges and feature sets, giving everyone a choice that suits their needs.
As a Saturn car owner I am disappointed to learn that the company will go away completely soon, no doubt laying off thousands of dedicated workers. But as for my driving options, there are other comparably priced and equipped cars.
Mike Cohen
-
[Scott Carnegie] “Cutting Media Composer pricing by 50% isn’t an effort? C’mon”
How about the fact that just 5 years ago a fully loaded system used to run between $65,000 and $125,000? Symphony’s double that! Software only for $2500. Decked out you got $20,000? That’s pretty good. Cost compared to FCP…still high. But lordy, that’s a drop in price. And the updates of the last year…two years…all listening to editors.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Yes, some positive changes there, but I think will prove to be too little too late.
AVID may have more-or-less invented electronic nonlinear editing (or at least brought it to the masses), but they sure didn’t keep up with needs, customer expectations, or seem to give a hoot about looming competitors’ developments and pricing structures.
Anyone bought an IBM computer lately?
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up