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NLEs and NAB – Oliver Peters
https://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/nab-2013-distilled/
I very good observation on NLE at NAB. I do think there’s more to say on this though:
The trouble is Apple gets in its own way due to corporate secrecy.
To me, it’s not so much the secrecy but the near non existent marketing. Even touting the current feature set would be a good step forward… that Apple doesn’t do.
Currently their marketing seems limited to “self discovery.” There’s nothing more than Apple’s “In Action” pages and, apparently, their interaction with the press doesn’t go further than “we’re staying the course” (yes, an unknown course).
Advanced Editors and Facility Managers need to be shown advantages an FCXP workflow would bring. That would involved direct in depth presentation (not dog and pony show) and discussion (the kind that helps editors and managers make big long term financial decisions).
Even deep first hand accounts (non “In Action” gloss) by those facilities that have moved to FCPX (and there are a number and, while small, it’s far wider than Apple’s marketing shows) would help. The problem is those facilities that have moved to FCPX are pretty much silent. Not only don’t they have the incentive but they risk ridicule and probably loss of business as a result. I overheard one such FCPX facility advocate say not too long ago that he was tired of being called a moron. I know other facilities using it and they simply don’t want to be too public about it because it will distract from their work, it can damage their facility’s image in the market place.
Basically I think Apple’s poor marketing is, at this point, is as great or greater hindrance than the lack of any specific feature (and their are some lacks).
Apple’s big marketing mistakes are thinking FCPX will sell itself. It wont. It’s different, It needs to be shown and explained in depth. And that those facilities using it will sell it. They wont. At this point their testimonial is far too risky for their businesses.
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32 Replies
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I’ve said for some time now that the software will technically ready long before the PR damage has been fixed.
Part of that will be put to bed [for good or ill] with the release of the new MacPro this year. But for the software itself, it’s going to be a steady stream of incremental improvements just as it has been up to now. I don’t think anything needs to change on the development side.
On the PR side, however, Apple needs to get in the game. First off, these “In Action” stories need to be videos. You’re talking about visual storytelling- tell your story visually. Next- the return of Apple roadshows. After the next major update, Apple should be pounding the pavement touting not only NEW features, but also all the stuff that FCPX has done for some time that no one seems to know about.
As for the public roadmap, there was always going to be an end to this. As long as they were reintegrating Legacy functionality, they weren’t giving anything away by listing that past features were returning. But key features going forward are more likely to be new [or heavily rethought], and so there’s no chance Apple will be announcing them beforehand.
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[Marcus Moore] “As for the public roadmap, there was always going to be an end to this. As long as they were reintegrating Legacy functionality, they weren’t giving anything away by listing that past features were returning. But key features going forward are more likely to be new [or heavily rethought], and so there’s no chance Apple will be announcing them beforehand.”
Yeah, I really don’t think Apple needs roadmaps at this point. Especially if, as seems to be the case, they plan to continue pushing out new features on a 3-4 month update cycle, rather one with one big update every 12-24 months. You don’t have to reassure people that you’re working on new features when you’re proving it by supplying a steady stream of them.
In fact, unless Avid and Adobe switch to something more like Apple’s release cycle, FCP X users will find out about new features long before MC/Premiere users — and they’ll be able to download the update that includes them the same day.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.
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[Marcus Moore] “First off, these “In Action” stories need to be videos. “
Yes, a major faux pas from a company selling an NLE to professionals. While there are the glossy quick demos, that’s not the stuff a facility manager is going to use to make final decisions. I want to hear from the managers with interviews about workflows, facility walk through showing system integration.
[Marcus Moore] “Next- the return of Apple roadshows. After the next major update, Apple should be pounding the pavement touting not only NEW features, but also all the stuff that FCPX has done for some time that no one seems to know about.”
Yes again. It has to be something other than the dog and pony show though. One doesn’t need an in person version of the recorded demo videos. One needs to see and hear from people who have tackled real world workflow design with FCPX. One has to be able to ask and have answered the challenging question of design for specific higher end, potentially complex workflows. What it should not be is simple product demos. It has to be solution oriented. It has to address a real cost benefit analysis where both the build out and time savings should be shown palpably.
Since there are no VARs in the way that FCP Legacy had, Apple has to some extent be the VAR at least as far as the sales pitch is concerned.
One might guess and hope that the MacPro has been the missing link because, if Apple is going to push up the sales volume of a low volume selling computer and FCPX is designed to push MacPro sales, Apple must make a “professional” push to show how the combination is worth a six or seven figure secure investment for a facility.
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[Chris Kenny] “In fact, unless Avid and Adobe switch to something more like Apple’s release cycle, FCP X users will find out about new features long before MC/Premiere users — and they’ll be able to download the update that includes them the same day.”
Perhaps you didn’t hear about this: Adobe plans to roll out new features for Creative Cloud members over the coming year. Stay tuned.
Kevin Monahan
Social Support Lead
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Systems, Inc.
Follow Me on Twitter! -
[Kevin Monahan] “Perhaps you didn’t hear about this: Adobe plans to roll out new features for Creative Cloud members over the coming year. Stay tuned.”
Yeah, I commented in my other post on the update cycle issue that it wouldn’t be very surprising to see Adobe move to this model as well. It’s a natural fit for subscription-based licensing models.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.
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[Craig Seeman] “Apple must make a “professional” push to show how the combination is worth a six or seven figure secure investment for a facility.”
They’ve shown already that it is not a secure investment. With both soft- and hardware. We needed two more machines and employed a new guy full-time last month. I am in Europe. If we had not gone PC last year I would have been forced to look on Ebay for a Mac Pro because I need PCIe connectivity. Very secure.
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iTunes End User Licence Agreement -
[Marcus Moore] “On the PR side, however, Apple needs to get in the game. First off, these “In Action” stories need to be videos. You’re talking about visual storytelling- tell your story visually. Next- the return of Apple roadshows. After the next major update, Apple should be pounding the pavement touting not only NEW features, but also all the stuff that FCPX has done for some time that no one seems to know about.
As for the public roadmap, there was always going to be an end to this. As long as they were reintegrating Legacy functionality, they weren’t giving anything away by listing that past features were returning. But key features going forward are more likely to be new [or heavily rethought], and so there’s no chance Apple will be announcing them beforehand.”
Absolutely, on both points. I have a feeling that a more focused marketing push will happen. Hopefully sooner than later. I also think that sending feedback to Apple about the marketing of X is just as helpful as bug reports/feature requests. Seriously. And I also hope Apple is reading threads like this.
Hope springs eternal. 😉
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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
… which is why Apple needs to stop up their marketing and direct support game. I certainly don’t know if they will but if they want to sell the MacPro replacement and use FCPX as a selling tool, they need to do it. There’s no VAR who will do that. It will not sell itself.
Past performance in not a prediction of future behavior. I can point to any number of companies in professional production that have done damaging things (and I have). Apple may be the most recent but they are not the first.
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[Oliver Peters] “Another year – another NAB exhibition. A lot of fun stuff to see. Plenty of innovation and advances …”
Oliver,
Another good piece of technology summary and perspective (though understandably US-centric). Your blog often contains good info and well-founded opinion.
Thanks!
… tangentially, I’m interested to see how Adobe Anywhere scales down (rather than up), appealing more to smaller groups, and wonder if they’re be developments in that direction over the next few years. Is that the end run around puck-expectant Apple?
Franz.
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Small-scale remote workflows is definitely where I’d like to see things go. I participate simultaneously in 3 different “virtual post houses”, and based on how effectively we’ve been able to pilfer clientele from more traditional agencies due to their large and inefficient overhead, I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Adobe Anywhere might be a few years away from being downscaled to business on my scale, and there’s been some code-level hints that FCPX has some collaborative workflow tricks up it’s sleeve- but those are all speculative for now.
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