MC 5.5 Avid’s last 32 bit editing system!

[Michael Kammes]

Been tellin’ people this for weeks, Terry. You’re losing your golden touch, man!

We need to have an Avid Intervention.

~Michael

.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior applications editor . post workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
.: michaelkammes.com
.: twitter: @michaelkammes
.: facebook: /mkammes

Hear me pontificate: Speaking Schedule .

[Terence Curren]

Avid wants to make sure it’s out there. Just trying to help. 😉

Terence Curren
http://www.alphadogs.tv
http://www.digitalservicestation.com
Burbank,Ca

[Job Ter burg]

I think it’s a good thing Terry’s spreading the news. There was some talk about this initially, but the information seems to have been buried a bit. It’s important folks know, so they may plan this year’s purchases.

[Michael Kammes]

Once again a little light ribbing gets lost in the B&W of forums.

Terry, I’ll “buy” you a drink at panel event!

~Michael

.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior applications editor . post workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
.: michaelkammes.com
.: twitter: @michaelkammes
.: facebook: /mkammes

Hear me pontificate: Speaking Schedule .

[Chris Magid]

Avid wants users to spread the word about a product that doesn’t exist yet? (Well, at least not outside the lab)

Great. Smells of desperation.

Beside don’t they usually hide behind Sarbanes–Oxley and other SEC mumbo jumbo regarding speaking about future products? Which is absolute BS. It is only a shield when convenient for them. This 64 bit evangelical campaign makes you wonder.

Truth is, there are things which can be discussed, polled and talked about without raising the ire of the feds, especially when it benefits customers. Product roadmaps are frequently openly discussed by public companies such as Intel and many in the telecom sector.

Avid just doesn’t have much to say about the tough stuff like criticism of 5.5, questions about Symphony development, feature requests, user issues (bugs), the whole smart tools fiasco or price structure. They will however chime in pretty quickly when the discussion is about Academy Awards, the competition and such.

It may very well be that this very public announcement is simply to save a little face regarding their tardiness and the impending release of 64 bit software from competitors like Apple. Which you may be inclined to purchase and explore.

Unless they say WHEN the move to 64 bit would occur it SHOUD NOT affect your purchase decision on any hardware or software.

What hardware are they talking about? Is it even possible to buy a CPU that is not 64 bit capable or ready? What applicable hardware is not 64 bit compatible?

Seems very sketchy and amateurish to me.

Maybe they should pass on some other details. Add some info on the Symphony roadmap and etc, so you don’t blow your money on stuff…since they seem to care so much.

Since this sexy 64bit version is on the way shortly you may also want to save your dough and opt out of the tremendous 5.5. upgrade. Thats a cool grand per copy for Symphony owners. Maybe new hardware from Avid is on the way. In that case you may want to delay purchase of any DX stuff.

This 64bit non-anouncement is not actionable intelligence. What are they saying?

Maybe this is just a way of saying “wait for us”.

Remember Avid has a lot of experience trailing the pack. 10 bit standard def video, uncompressed HD, Symphony HD, and etc were all delivered after their market contemporaries. My bet is you can add 64bit processing to that list.

Heck it is really common sense. If they can’t deliver a stable 64bit release in 12 months, they are going to look foolish. And it will hold the application back pushing around pixels and in overall speed. We need the memory and threads now. They have do it.

Honestly, Avid should of been first. Or at least a lot sooner. Unless you count DS..which has been 64 bit since 2007.

Spread the word. Nice one. How about some more words to spread?

Seriously. Share some more details Avid and then this can be a credible and useful move.

Chris Magid
RTVF

chris magid
chris@gortvf,com
Renaissance Television & Film
http://www.gortvf.com

[Terence Curren]

Chris,

I know why your pissed, I have been through the wringer with Avid in the past also. I really feel the new crop is different. They have much less to work with when they are selling systems for a fraction of what they used to charge. Even so, they are doing a lot with what they have. There have been 5 releases with new features in the last 2.5 years. That’s one every 6 months. I have no reason to believe that won’t continue happening.

As for Symphony, as the owner of 4 of them, I am particularly sensitive to the abandoned feature set. Several things have given me hope lately. From purchasing Euphonix, which puts a CC panel in house, to the following statement from Avid on the Avid community forum today in response to the complaints about Symphony upgrade pricing not reflecting the lack of added features:

” Dave Avid PM:
Give me about a week to look into Symphony upgrade pricing. I don’t want to make it seem like somebody else is responsible for the pricing because I am the person who suggests the pricing for the product. But sometimes things get overlooked or a mistake is made and I’m willing to revisit Symphony upgrades. I can’t make any promises for a change for 5.5, but let me take this back to the business review team and see what we can do. I can’t talk about futures and Symphony features, but I can tell you that this is one of the most important topics being discussed at Avid right now. More on that topic at a later date, more on Symphony upgrades in about a week.

Take care,

Dave”

Terence Curren
http://www.alphadogs.tv
http://www.digitalservicestation.com
Burbank,Ca

[Job Ter burg]

IIRC, they did not announce this as a future feature. The official statement, when asked, was: 5.5 is the last 32-bit release. I’m no lawyer but that’s hardly a surprising comment on a future release. Everyone knows 64-bit is coming. They’re not saying when it is coming. If you look at the current product release cycle, it may occur sometime in Q4, I guess.

5.5 may very well be a release that Symphony owners had better skip.

[Chris Magid]

Job,

Don’t sell yourself short. You may want to consider a second career as a lawyer. Please do not take that as criticism. Rather it is a compliment for your deft decoding of Avid’s statement. Personally I think they could share a little more concerning the future of flagship or key products, in that same spirit.

Terence,

No real sour grapes here. Machines are machines.

I just thought it was an odd announcement, especially in light of Avid’s usual tight lipped approach.

Nice to know but it is sort of a big yawn. If they didn’t have 64bit on the way, they would be in big trouble. So this is making a big deal out of nothing. It better be in their product plan along with the plans of all providers of imagining or video software. Sort of like Ford making a big announcement that they will continue to sell their cars with tires.

So it seems like Avid is yelling “we plan to keep up”, from the back of the crowd.

I do hope you are right about the current direction of the company and their products. The recent history of releases doesn’t really blow me over. Some features had to happen to stay competitive, some like motion adaption and RED support are nicely done and some I think were complete wastes of resources like smart tools.

Its a draw. Good and bad. However I am very grateful for the good.

Many long standing issues remain. Symphony is still dying on the vine along with the color corrector, as it is did under the last administration. (Symphony should really be merged with composer at this point). Major architecture changes like the move to 64bit mirror their past tardiness in key technical areas.

Overall it seems the same to me. Maybe even worse. I see the move to 3rd party hardware as a mistake. Manufacturing or OEMing competitively priced hardware could of been a better option. I also see the a la carting of multiple software elements as a problem too. Both really water down a particular competitive advantage that Avid once had and may create a lot of support issues. Just makes Avid more like the others. For the most part, it used be a Composer, was a Composer, was a Composer. Producers sort of like to know what they are getting when they hire folks and gear.

Now, since capabilities (including frame rates), options and etc vary…who knows what sort of Avid suite you may be rolling into. What sort of support, upgrade snafus or product lifespan await those on 3rd party hardware?

It is nice to see that the Symphony issue is getting a direct response. Kudos to the product manager. You are right that there has been a better vibe around the company. Although I would rather see tasty features and big improvements versus haggling over upgrade pricing.

Interesting times.

Chris Magid
RTVF

chris magid
chris@gortvf,com
Renaissance Television & Film
http://www.gortvf.com

[Terence Curren]

Job is correct. You notice the subject of this thread is MC 5.5 is the last 32 bit release. That is all that Avid has said.

Terence Curren
http://www.alphadogs.tv
http://www.digitalservicestation.com
Burbank,Ca

[Job Ter burg]

😉

Actually, I don’t think they’ve been making a big deal out of the ‘last 32-bit version’. It’s been mentioned, not listed as a feature, not brought forward as a big announcement. A straight – but not very surprising – answer to a simple question.

I do wish they would share more info with their customers. However, they have been bitten by that in the past. Remember the uncompressed HD option for Adrenaline (with an add-on board) that was big news some NAB’s ago? Vaporware, it turned out.
So if they announce support for specific 3rd party hardware, or 2K/4K, or what not, and then can’t deliver at the time of release, how would that look?