Lightworks Mac Public Beta

[Jeff Markgraf]

Well, I doubt Avid has an official policy preferring PCs. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a really large-scale Mac-based setup. Maybe it’s because Unity – and now ISIS – have always been strictly PC. Surely it’s easier to integrate everything staying in the PC world. (That was certainly true back in the day, when networking was still a real black art.)

I remember TMZ forging new territory in trying to integrate MacPros running FCP with a PC-based Dalet newsroom and asset management system. Plus an Omneon server for playout to air. Getting Mac networks to reliably interface with PC networks was a long-running nightmare. (I think the issues were primarily with the PCs just not liking Macs, but I could be wrong.) They finally got it all working, but it took months of long on-site days from the vendors. Notably, when Extra finally made the leap from obsolete, stand-alone G4 Avids to a full-blown network setup, they went totally PC. Same tech people in charge, totally different outcome.

The setups I’ve seen are all HP, whatever their Z-series boxes are. It almost doesn’t matter what the Avids run on, since the heavy lifting is done through the ISIS. The network is slinging XDCAM 35 or rendered DNX145 through fiber. Not a lot for the local box to do, although since renders are local, fast is still better.

Probably more than you wanted to know 😉

[Andrew Kimery]

[Jeff Markgraf] “Probably more than you wanted to know ;-)”

No, Jeff I think it’s very interesting. I’ve done a fair amount of workflow development in the past so I’m always interested to see what solutions other people come up with.

It’s interesting you mention large roll outs as even places I’ve been that have 20 or 30 Avid’s all hooked into ISIS (or Unity back in the day) have been all Macs. These have mainly been TV shows though that just rent for the duration of the project (as opposed to in-house departments that would probably buy their gear) so maybe that factors into it?

[Jok Daniel]

Here’s a somewhat long-winded but quite interesting presentation of Lightworks’ new content browser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_Nj6vdTOIs&feature=em-subs_digest
Very cleverly built on top of Lightworks’ already strong database foundation, and it looks like it would support some really interesting metadata driven workflows. I am happy to see development in this direction, since this is an area where EditShare excels and where Lightworks could give even X a run for its money.

Skip ahead to 17:40 to see a really cool matchframe feature!