FCPX Broadcast Monitoring in action

[Chris Kenny]

[Herb Sevush] “I find AI’s analyses more on target than yours. They brought the app to market to suit this new demographic and took almost a year to bring to market the other features desired by the less important “higher end” of the market.”

I considered the AI analysis implausible because I didn’t believe Apple would abandon the high-end market. And they didn’t. What I failed to account for was that Apple’s pattern of shipping minimalistic initial releases provided a mechanism by which they could ship a more mainstream initial release despite not indenting to abandon the high-end.

[Herb Sevush] “They brought the app to market to suit this new demographic and took almost a year to bring to market the other features desired by the less important “higher end” of the market. I don’t know about you, but I prefer to be the desired demographic for the products I use. I’m not as interested in building my business around a product that treats me like “oh and here’s something for you, when we get around to it.””

I addressed this argument a couple of days ago. The argument you’re making seems plausible at first glance, but it doesn’t take into account some important market dynamics. There’s a lot of overlap between what the high-end needs and what mid-range users need. Really, if you go down the list of every single feature in a modern NLE, the difference between an app that works for mid-range users and an app that additionally works for high-end users probably comes down to less than 5% of the features.

Now, consider that the amount of development effort a vendor can invest in an application isn’t contingent on its per-unit cost, but on the total revenue that they derive from that application. You start to see my point, yes? A more mass-market application that brings in more total revenue can, and generally will, have more resources invested in its development. This makes the app better for all of its users, including its high-end users who are, after all, mostly using the same features the more mainstream users are.

We see this dynamic at work all the time. Consider the trouble that the iPhone is causing for RIM, for instance. The iPhone is primarily a consumer-targeted device to which Apple has added some enterprise features over the years, whereas RIM has focused the BlackBerry more closely on enterprise users. The iPhone’s mass-market success has created a very strong ecosystem around it, and has allowed Apple to make massive investments in iOS, such that it has better user interface, better bundled apps, offers more capabilities to third-party developers, etc. Consequently now that the iPhone has some enterprise deployment features, it’s suddenly a very strong product in that market despite that market not being Apple’s primary focus.

Or consider, in our industry, that we all use hardware platforms and operating systems were originally created primarily for office productivity tasks and that today are used by hundreds of millions of people primarily for things like browsing Facebook. We’re not using specialty hardware platforms and specialty operating systems built from the ground up for video editing. If you want a more specific example, consider that DaVinci has, over the last decade, gone from being and expensive turnkey system with custom hardware to being an application that runs quite nicely on gaming GPUs. Our market is too small to support the kind of R&D that the mass market can support, and consequently specialty products commonly lose out to more mainstream products in the long run. Nobody building graphics processing hardware solely for color grading systems could possibly afford to invest what NVIDIA invests in R&D.

Bringing this back around to our primary subject, I consider the fact that FCP X has mass-market appeal to be a significant strength vs. (say) Media Composer. It will result in Apple being able to invest more in the app, in the app having a stronger ecosystem around it, and in many entry-level users learning the app and some of them later taking it with them when they move upmarket.

[Herb Sevush] “If you predicted that everyone would freak out, why do you get so amazed that everyone is freaking out?”

I’m not amazed, just annoyed.

—
Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.

You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.

[Herb Sevush]

[Chris Kenny] ” I didn’t believe Apple would abandon the high-end market. “

I feel abandoned. My MacPro tower recently died. For the moment I’m getting by with a loaner. I would like to stay with OSX, at least for the near future, but they don’t seem to be making anything for me to do that with, neither software nor hardware. When and if I see a solution that works for me I will stop feeling abandoned. Your 80% assurances don’t count.

[Chris Kenny] “Our market is too small to support the kind of R&D that the mass market can support”

I do understand mass market economies of scale. As I have written in other threads I believe that the era of high-end video riding on the coattails of mass market computers is coming to an end. My guess is that many of us will be working on Linux boxes in the next few years and paying a lot more to do that. I don’t believe Apple is interested in arresting that trend or serving that market.

[Chris Kenny] “I’m not amazed, just annoyed.”

OK

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Aindreas Gallagher]

It’s too early for premiere – maybe FCPX too really, but its definitely far too early to judge the level of impact PPro 6 is going to have – I think there is going to be a pretty significant shift to PPro: I mean it looks fit for purpose, almost everyone already has it to upgrade to 6 from, the trimming tools are now better than I know how to use, there’s proper application level card output support, and there are a couple usps like warp stabilser..

I personally find it really easy to imagine myself editing in 6, and I reckon a ton of corporate commercial (at least moodfilm, case study stuff) could go largely to premiere.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos
http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Bill Davis]

[David Roth Weiss] “At NAB, the confusion and distrust was pervasive, and for you to think otherwise is reality distortion.
“

Oh, David, please.

This is just simply inaccurate at a very fundamental level.

The only “pervasive” subject I took note of on the show floor was how many of the traditional players are adopting social media strategies in addition to their traditional sales efforts. (Better late than never, guys!)

That was a theme for at least 30% of the booths of companies like Harris Broadcast (larger booth presence than anyone except perhaps Sony) that form the core of the actual broadcast industry. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube icons were prominent in many booths where traditional players are staking out turf in the new social media world.

Even in the small subset of “digital video editing” – which in itself is about 10% of what NAB is all about – anyone without an agenda would easily put the Blackmagic announcement, the Smoke announcement, and even the Go Pro offerings WAY ahead of FCP-X as a topic of conversation.

So when Mr. Weiss uses the term “pervasive” it’s just not accurate at all.

Sorry, David, but you’re stuck in a small echo chamber. And it’s leading you astray. Perhaps at the Media Motion Ball – the discussion was closer to “pervasive” – but not anywhere else.

In the discussions I engaged at on the show floor – with dozens of fellow production professionals it hardly came up.

In fact in the meeting with the other guys from THIS board like Walter, Moody and (jeez, I’m spacing on the other name. how rude of me, sorry) we talked for 3 full hours about our careers and industry trends and I don’t believe X or any other software consumed more than maybe 20 minutes aggregate of the total.

And nobody said a cross word about anyone else the entire time. (How refreshing do you think THAT was!)

That’s the difference “face to face” makes. Something I’m trying to bring to my writing here.

X is solid enough now so that no matter how people try to “spin” the past year or cling to and attempt to defend their prior positions – the truth is well represented out there.

It’s a great product that works really well for a market niche. Just like every other software editing package out there.

Everyone has to face the reality – no matter how annoying it may be – that there is no longer a monolithic single software solution that works well for everyone.

Legacy became sorta close to that by accident. Largely because during it’s time – most editors needed a similar tool.

Now they don’t.

The market has shifted. The industry has shifted. NAB proved that. Some traditional processes remain but are re-aligning. Others are being replaced. Go Pro has more people talking than Ikigami.

Like it or not, that’s the way it is.

(Actually I had a studio shoot right before I left for Vegas and that’s what the client showed up to shoot with. ONE Go Pro Hero 1. All they needed was a quick backlit shot of a guy stepping up on a podium and raising their arms in victory for an opening. It’s going to the opening sequence of an iMag piece in a large convention. So getting a silhouette knock out image hardly needs a Red. So the camera fit the gig.)

Life moves on. Pick a direction. Adapt to your new reality – however that plays out – or fall behind.

I now wish we could do this forum in person occasionally. THAT would knock down the angst and ire significantly.

You can’t trash a person face to face very easily. You have to do so behind a keyboard if you want to keep feeling “safe.” And that’s really too bad.

FWIW.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Mitch Ives]

[Chris Kenny] “You’re stating opinions as facts.”

Hmmm. seems like a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black?

I don’t hate FCPX. What I hate are the fanboys who refuse to admit there are/were any shortcomings.

To Apple’s eternal embarrassment, you still can’t keyframe the damn color correction filter! You don’t need a study to know that this is one of the most basic things in a serious app. It’s been asked for since the first release. If Apple was listening to anybody it would be here by now, wouldn’t it?

Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.

“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Bill Davis] “In fact in the meeting with the other guys from THIS board like Walter, Moody and (jeez,”

I was hoping that there would be a picture. I really want a picture of the debate meetup. Especially of jeez. 😉

Jeremy

[Chris Kenny]

[Herb Sevush] “I do understand mass market economies of scale. As I have written in other threads I believe that the era of high-end video riding on the coattails of mass market computers is coming to an end. My guess is that many of us will be working on Linux boxes in the next few years and paying a lot more to do that. I don’t believe Apple is interested in arresting that trend or serving that market.”

I guess I get the logic here — mainstream computing is moving to a more appliance-like model (iPad, Metro, etc.) and you don’t think pro video editing is compatible with that model? Not sure I agree.

First off, I think traditional personal computers are going to take a pretty long time to exit the stage — even if 80% of consumer computing happens on phones, tablets and maybe ARM desktops in five years, there will likely still be a viable market for high-powered traditional desktops and laptops. It’s not just pro video customers — it’s gaming enthusiasts, engineers, scientists, developers, etc. And there’s the whole server market, which also largely shares the same hardware platforms. It’s enough of a customer base to keep prices reasonable, I think.

Secondly, I’m not sure appliance-like computing is inherently incompatible with what we do, the hardware it occurs on becomes more powerful and developers and platform vendors figure out how to handle problems like sharing data between apps better within the new model. I doubt many people looked at the Mac in 1984 and saw a system of relevance to professional video editing — today’s iPad is already much closer to being useful to our market, and we’re already seeing video editing tools there. Nothing that could substitute for a desktop NLE yet, but it’s early days.

—
Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.

You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.

[Herb Sevush]

[Chris Kenny] “even if 80% of consumer computing happens on phones, tablets and maybe ARM desktops in five years, there will likely still be a viable market for high-powered traditional desktops and laptops. It’s not just pro video customers — it’s gaming enthusiasts, engineers, scientists, developers, etc. And there’s the whole server market, which also largely shares the same hardware platforms. It’s enough of a customer base to keep prices reasonable, I think.”

That would be nice, but first of all I’d say 95-5 instead of your 80-20. The computers on most people’s desks are a waste – most people need a web browser, email, word processor and for a much smaller group a spreadsheet. You don’t need a desktop for this any longer.

You can go into any corporate office and wipe out 95% of the desktops and replace them with Pads and tablets. All of the markets you named will be in the same boat as high end video. It would be nice if prices were not effected, by I’m guessing otherwise. The other issue is operating systems. As both Apple and Microsoft go full bore after the tablet market I expect these high end niche players to be left behind. Again, that might just be my negative outlook on things, but “hope for the best, expect the worst” works for me.

[Chris Kenny] “Secondly, I’m not sure appliance-like computing is inherently incompatible with what we do”

I need a keyboard, I need multiple large monitors, I need access to large fast storage. This is the antithesis of the cloud world of pads and tablets where mobility reins. I’m sure it will be possible to edit on tablets, but will it be optimal?

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Alban Egger]

[Jules bowman] “I don’t like it.

Magnetic trackless timeline is stupid. Renaming things is stupid. A project isn’t an event. No manual save is insane. This is not an upgrade to fcp7 which is how it was sold.

First of all they never sold it as an upgrade. They sold as “the new paradigm”. NEW!

Second: tracks are not smart, so trackless is not stupid. Trackless and magnetic are helpful. For some projects/workflows. To me actually in most situations.

I agree with the naming. A project is a project, not an event and a timeline is a timeline, not a project. That is annoying, but I can live with it and it is the same in Aperture, so I had it before.

The manual save is VERY helpful and a truly professional feature. I used the NLE FAST before (which was later turned into Avid Liquid) and it is still used by many broadcasters worldwide (those who are stuck in SD and satellite phone-links). It didn´t have manual save. One of my companies branches does Digital Signage and we use Harris´ Infocaster. Very professional tool. Has no manual save.

You don´t like it. Fine. But that does´t mean the program is stupid. It only has a different feature set, that apparently does´t appeal to you.