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So if Avid goes under, then what?
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[Craig Seeman] “If they want to focus on price and volume they need to focus on that. “
But, Craig, I don’t think that’s what they are focusing on. To my mind, the crossgrade was an investment on their part to re-establish primacy at the upper end of the market. Even if they don’t make much off of the small users like myself, I become part of a pool of available talent for the larger users, and part of a culture that supports its existence at the high end. I don’t think its an ongoing strategy as much as a one-time event that they felt they needed to act upon. And, I think it was the smart move.
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[Bernhard Grininger] “BMD’s and TheFoundry’s technologies would be a perfect fit!”
The Foundry was acquired by a private equity group last year, so it’s a pretty safe bet that they’ll be up for sale within the next few years.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Jack Guthrey] “That infrastructure basically gets EOL’d with FCP7’s death.”
I’m not so sure unless you mean Final Cut Server. Apple doesn’t have anything that really competes with Unity/Isis. Somehow I don’t think there are a large number of companies like Bunim Murray that are waiting. They’d be moving when their budget/purchase cycle hit. It’s already been over a year.There may be moves but it’ll be more like a trickle than a rush. The longer the wait the more time Avid competitors have to put together or improve competing offerings.
[Jack Guthrey] “Avid is the only one that can really pick up that business and expand upon it.”
That doesn’t seem to be the case. It really depends on the facility needs, perceived value, ROI. I don’t see how that’s changed in the market one way or another with FCP EOL (to any great extent).
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I don’t think Quantel is a good example in this case, they are more of a niche product, and in my opinion, I’ve using a Pablo since v3, it’s way overpriced for what it does, not to mention how buggy it still is.
And for color work, I jump to Resolve if I have the chance over Pablo.I’m not sure either how more they will be able to sustain their business model. They have a client base made five years ago when big iron system made sense, but the cost of upgrading nowadays from Quantel is ridiculous and to be honest, the color tools are not that great.
On the other hand, editing is awesome, but way too expensive for an editor software. -
I think everything’s going to change once Lightworks gets ported to Mac and support 3rd party video cards like BM, Matrox and Aja (it’s in their roadmap). That will be the turning point, because it will be free or almost free. And Lightworks has proven over time to be the choice for many professional editors for feature film. I think with that looming over the horizon, it’s hard to assess if buying Avid will be a good investment for Blackmagic. ProTools on other hand it could be.
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[Gustavo Bermudas] “I don’t think Quantel is a good example in this case, they are more of a niche product, and in my opinion, I’ve using a Pablo since v3”
Actually it’s the perfect model, because Quantel has two distinctly different product lines – news and post/finishing – which use entirely different architectures based on a somewhat common interface design. On the news side, Quantel is an entirely server-based infrastructure with various levels of client software (NLE types) connected to it. Parts of the BBC and ESPN, for example, run their newsroom operations off of it.
If Avid loses the small-to-medium user market, don’t you think they’ll end up in the exact same niche?
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Chris Harlan] “But, Craig, I don’t think that’s what they are focusing on. To my mind, the crossgrade was an investment on their part to re-establish primacy at the upper end of the market.”
“Primacy” is an abstract concept that lost them money. The only reasons I can see for the crossgrade was to hook people into their expensive upgrades or to hope that if a facility moved lots of seats it would make Isis more attractive for integration.
“Primacy” doesn’t mean much if they all jump to Adobe (or FCPX?) in two years if those products catch up by that time in their professional feature set. If Adobe and Apple aren’t competitive than the difference between $1000 crossgrade and a $2400 purchase isn’t going to be an issue since the facility in need wouldn’t really have a choice.
[Chris Harlan] “And, I think it was the smart move.”
A few financial analysts think not. The only way it works is if it increases hardware sales and maybe upgrades but that hasn’t happened. That had a small bump probably because companies like Bunim Murray did make the hardware purchases along with the crossgrade but this quarter past was very very bad.
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[Craig Seeman] “Why? The ones you have stopped working or suddenly sound worse? The product line was sold, not discontinued. I have no reason to replace my M-Audio BX5a.”
I just used that anecdote to show that the announcement did not excite any concerns of Avid leaving the marketplace here.
Jack Guthrey
Carolinas Account Representative
Marshall Graphics Systems -
[Gustavo Bermudas] “it’s hard to assess if buying Avid will be a good investment for Blackmagic. “
Blackmagic has no problem with free and cheap to move people up their chain. Resolve Lite. Cinema camera including full Resolve and Ultrascope. For BMD it gives them a fully integrated post solution.
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[Michael Sanders] “Lets not forget that the cheapening of tools by companies like Apple has driven down the perception of talent needed to drive that software.”
I quarrel with this assessment.
The cheapening of the tools is nothing but a reaction to the fact that information has been unleashed in an instant and global fashion.
You can now “look up” anything from anywhere, anytime. This is the massive central change in our world. Like it or not, this is what changes everything by fundamentally devaluing “expertise” across the board. Don’t know how to shoot? Sit in bed and look it up. Don’t know how to light? Take a few hours and read up on it on an airplane or at the beach, or at your desk. Don’t know how to edit? That info is everywhere and everyone can access it in 10 seconds today.
Learning how to make moving picture content once took an internship and access to a place where expertise was concentrated. Today it simply doesn’t. A smart kid can come right here to the Cow and read Tim W intelligently break down the compositional approaches of great DPs – and learn.
This reality takes the easy first 50% of the learning curve off the table. Anyone can do the basics with a brain a Cow connection and some dedicated study.
So with increasing volumes of “content” everywhere – what’s the shelf life of “great” compared to good? How much more money can you arrange to make doing “great” verses doing just good work?
Because remember, every production effort is a pyramid of value with most of the serious money going to the top. And what we’re facing is more and more pyramids being spawned everyday – all competing for the same eyeballs and wallets.
This isn’t Apple at work. It’s the globalization of information access. And all video is just more tiny clumps of information in the massive sea.
The ship that sailed some years ago. Too many of us remain on the shore watching it sail past. Knowing we need to either grab an opportunistic rope or hope we remain somewhat close to the cargo stops of the future.
FWIW.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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