Resolve 15.2

[Tim Wilson]

[Oliver Peters] “That’s development pace squared.”

There’s no question that Blackmagic gets ALL the style points for degree of difficulty. Nobody has ever attempted to integrate as many pieces as they have, as quickly, OR as thoroughly. Seriously, Apple never even got FCPL to even look like it was made by Apple, much less integrated with all the apps they bought and killed that weren’t Motion, which they bought but never got very far integrating.

But to echo a point made upthread by a couple of folks, the fact that some of these are “catch-up, quality of life” features isn’t a negative. It’s the most positive possible outcome. For every single NLE, the overwhelming reaction to virtually every new product is, “Yeah, but what about this super-basic thing we’ve been waiting for that we still don’t have, where are the performance improvements, etc etc.”

I was hyper-aware of this as I transitioned out of full-time editing into full-time product management — and you might be amazed…or you may not be….by how few of us that’s EVER been the case for, to this very day. Stop building releases around bullet points for the brochure. You’ve done enough to help me climb mountains for a while, so pay more attention to helping me get the pebbles out of my shoe. THOSE are what’s slowing me down.

Most companies never get this, or barely get this, or pay it lip service while continuing to build up bullet points for the brochure. Blackmagic is putting the bulk of their development efforts EXACTLY where MOST people wish MOST companies would put the MOST effort — the day to day stuff.

I do like the look of Apple’s new release, with the first new feature set to get my attention in years, so I’m not bringing this up as a “Who Won Today’s Upgrade” conversation. (I’m never using the D word again.) The answer is, the company whose product I’m using. To hell with the rest. ????

But I had two overwhelming reactions to today’s festivities from Blackmagic.

1. This is a POINT TWO RELEASE? ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

and

2. I don’t care what this is. I need to buy a rack, then buy two of THESE things for my living room just because they look so g-d d-amn cool. (Wait, did I do that right? ????)

The new Blackmagic Audio Monitor 12G features 12G-SDI video input, HDMI output, analog and AES/EBU inputs, a powerful class D amplifier, dual subwoofers, extended range speakers, an LCD and precision meters that can display VU, PPM and Loudness ballistic scales. Where’s my ‘drool’ emoji?

As a general-purpose fan of this industry and its tech since the 60s, Blackmagic is one the companies that endlessly delights me with their own endless delight. I get the impression that Grant is having fun with all this, and now that I live on the sidelines instead of in the game, it’s sure fun to watch.

And yeah, looping Apple back in, plus frame.io, some cool stuff from AJA, and a solid handful of other announcements (Facilis, Roland, and WAVES come to mind, I’m sure there are more) — this is easily the best couple of days of releases in ages. Certainly more here than at NAB, imo.

[Michael Gissing]

[Tim Wilson]”I get the impression that Grant is having fun with all this, and now that I live on the sidelines instead of in the game, it’s sure fun to watch.”

I know he is having fun and his passion for the industry is like a little nuclear reactor at the heart of BM. But it’s also good to see Apple coming out with some interesting features, especially opening up hooks to X so third parties can do the lifting but inside the app not as brittle external plugins. Smart and hey I’m happy when Blackmagic get the odd reminder that they are in competition.

[Bill Davis]

Fascinating days, for sure.

To my eye, there are three very generalized major themes that it feels to me are emerging…

Adobe is video creation as a part of a “spokes feed multiple hubs” approach.
Lots of discrete software stand alone programs that work independently, but also interchange with each other as needed. You pick a different program from the CC Menu, depending on where you are focused currently.

Apple’s approach to video creation has a ” spokes feed ONE hub” approach – with FCP X forming the command center for everything they do. You focus on ONE program. Motion and Compressor are extensions. The Extensions Manager brings third party elements fully inside the one central hub that is FCP X.

BlackMagic’s theme appears to me to be more like “Video over IP will rule the world !”and flips Apple’s traditional “software sells hardware” philosophy – fully into a “hardware drives software” space.

I don’t comment on AVID since I know so little about them, but it appears that they are trying to navigate a transition from a traditional post suite orientation into something more agile and modern, but with so many marquee editors invested in the AVID way of thinking and working, they always need to move VERY cautiously. For better or worse.

It’s a major transitional era in this stuff. No telling what will happen next.

It’s also the era of the tech company comets – as witnessed by GoPro. Nowhere on the screen, then rocketing to dizzying heights, and apparently a bit of a fiery re-entry back to earth after gravity proves inescapable.

Strange days indeed.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Oliver Peters]

[Bill Davis] “BlackMagic’s theme appears to me to be more like “Video over IP will rule the world !””

How so? Cameras and switcher maybe, but not the entire line. Of course, that’s a direction that Telestream, Grass Valley, and NewTek have been on for a while. It seems like part of their strategy, but not the whole strategy.

[Bill Davis] “It’s also the era of the tech company comets – as witnessed by GoPro”

Hmm… In part. But they are the go-to product for 360, however large or small that market might be. Still the key product for “stunt” cameras, too.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Neil Goodman]

At the endof the day –

I think Every NLE was playing catchup this year. Nothing jawdropping in the way of new features but standard features integrated back in and efficiancy seemed to be the focus.

FCPX – color wheels/ graphs, timecode window, frame viewer etc = catchup.
Avid – live timeline, title tool, multicam enhancements = catchup
Premiere – a million little catchup things – too many to mention
Davinci – a million little catchup things too many to mention.

Hopefully we see some real innovation next year but really what are we hoping for? These nify little apps now do everything and then some and for peanuts basically.