Question for Steve Bayes.

[John]

ashley

before steve jumps in – permit me to offer my spin on your question.

i was there at vers 2.6 too.

if you’re angry about what’s been happening, fair enough .

if you flick back thru the postings i think i may have matched your fury at some time last month.
all i can offer to you as an equally loyal and ‘pissed off’ user is to plan all your moves around any system that returns your investment without stretching you.

if you want to know months in advance what is going to happen with NLE’s have a quick look around at what FCP and Avid have promised and how long it takes them to deliver it. Big gap. And in Apple’s case most is based on another company’s innovation – Sony or Panasonic. So M100’s future road map is as uncertain as the others, its just that Apple’s PR juggernaut rolls out good stories while we are stuck back here in bad news land.

If you can afford the G5 M100 HD system and pay it off without needing a dividend from Optibase – do it. It is a great system. if you just want to use it with an expansion chassis with your G4 there are plenty of tips to do that on the Cow.

But is there a 2006 for Optibase and Media 100?.
I’m sure steve and tim and amir would love to know the same answer.

The remaining team at M100 are trying to make do with the best they have.
But the shift at the end of 2004 hasnt played out completely.
“Cut costs and make money on the Mac product line” went out the call.

When it became apparent that the costs of simple things like the consumer advocate were too surplus to core business for the new owners i think all us users, unknowingly entered a new phase.

Ironically if we reward the new owners with our loyalty and buy new systems then Media 100 as a unit of Optibase will make some money and a smaller but equally talented M100 may still thrive.

In fact this scenario of an unknowing NLE future with optibase is probably no different to where we were under John Molinari. Loyal customers like you and me paid platinum subs that bank rolled Pegasus and then 844.
No-one complained about the uncertain future because no-one knew! If you are looking for features in M100 Mac that arent there maybe drop John a line 🙂

Anyway, bottom line – we are not in kansas anymore. it stinks but it’s where we are at.

I have pasted below the roadmap and company outline given by the CEO, of course it makes for unpleasant reading if you are an 844 and Mac system owner -like me. but there it is.

in winding up, all i can say is that i have edited on the SW version and it is great. when it “productises” in a few months i will add it to my tool set at velocite. It gives you extra technical abilities, some overdue stuff of course but there is zero learning curve. Open a program and off you go.

Will the G5 be cool or quiet enough by the time SW ships or when you decide to buy HD?
Who knows but i guess the writing is on the wall if the IBM chips are jammed into the MS Xbox 360. Blast Apple over that.

Floh is a great user advocate for the Mac product and he is hugely knowledgeable on the products current abilities and user problems. I would say his input in the last few months outweighs almost makes up for the loss of Marianna and Scott.

It’s still possible to make a good living and edit well with Media 100.

John
velocite.net

+++++++++++++

From the desk of Uzi Breier CEO, Optibase, Inc.

Dear Valued Channel Partners:

[Bearbiter]

Ashley,

We are working hard to continue to offer value and innovation to the Media 100 installed base as well as to new users. To see our roadmap go back and read the press releases since the re-organization in January

[Ashley J. stonestreet]

Steve…Thanks for taking the time to respond and to provide some reassurance that the folks still dependent on their M100i systems are not forgotton. We all would like to move to the newest incarnation of M100 – the HD version – but until clients demand that capability and the transition to HD or HDV or 1080i or Varicam or whatever your particular niche in the market demands… there are many editors that will probably wait to see where the dust settles before making the financial plunge to enter this segment of the market. I think all we really want is to know that our investments in software and equipment will be supported for a resonable time and that we can count on support for your products. In the past, I could solve most problems by checking the CPG, Customer Advocate or visiting this forum… which is truly a wealth of information for those that use it. Your customers should not have to depend on a third party source of information for facts that should be supplied by the manufacturer of a product. Maybe I’m too critical…but I think the quality of customer service at M100 has suffered greatly and I know you have lost customers because of this. I truly like my M100 and have made a good living with it….and I hope to do so in the future. I know you have had to make some tough decisions, but they are no tougher than the ones your customers make everyday. You still have lots of loyal customers out there… just don’t foget us and all the time and money we have invested with your company.

Dual Gig Quicksilver, M100 V 8.2 XS