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Thoughts on why FCP X is here to stay and the Mac Pro isn’t.
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I’m still on snow leopard and I can’t move at the moment. Thanks for the information.
Tim
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[Steve Connor] “How so?”
Because retraining people costs time and money. There are mistakes, things need to settle in, new workflows need to be tested and established. Entirely new software needs to be purchased, new plug-ins or hardware if plug-ins aren’t available etc.
We have 80TB of shared storage, tuned to work perfect with FCP7. In order to work fine with other NLES things need to be changed and reconfigured. That’s not a problem technically, but those 80TB need to go somewhere to do that. Preferably while still being usable. Otherwise it’s a shutdown for several days. And even after that, since are not moving to Windows from one day to the next, the challenge is to make it work with several NLEs and platforms. And which software will it be? It’s time consuming to really evaluate things to the core. The FCP ecosystem grew with us as we grew and as the market grew. It has to be replaced with something that provides full functionality from day one while still maintaining compatibility with the Macs that are still in use bascially BECAUSE FCP7 still works and the Macs still work. If we had gone with Avid or Edius (or Premiere) from day one none of these considerations would be necessary now. -
[Frank Gothmann] “Because retraining people costs time and money. There are mistakes, things need to settle in, new workflows need to be tested and established. Entirely new software needs to be purchased, new plug-ins or hardware if plug-ins aren’t available etc.
We have 80TB of shared storage, tuned to work perfect with FCP7. In order to work fine with other NLES things need to be changed and reconfigured. That’s not a problem technically, but those 80TB need to go somewhere to do that. Preferably while still being usable. Otherwise it’s a shutdown for several days. And even after that, since are not moving to Windows from one day to the next, the challenge is to make it work with several NLEs and platforms. And which software will it be? It’s time consuming to really evaluate things to the core. The FCP ecosystem grew with us as we grew and as the market grew. It has to be replaced with something that provides full functionality from day one while still maintaining compatibility with the Macs that are still in use bascially BECAUSE FCP7 still works and the Macs still work. If we had gone with Avid or Edius (or Premiere) from day one none of these considerations would be necessary now.”Fair points, although if you had gone with Avid at the time, your costs would have been much higher up front, it’s only a relatively recent development that Avid is now a reasonable price.
I like FCPX a lot, but if I was in your position it wouldn’t be in the running at the moment. As we keep saying a roadmap or at least a statement of future intent for FCPX would be very helpful for larger facilities like yours. As much as I like Apple Products, I think it’s ridiculous that they haven’t done this.
Steve Connor
“FCPX Agitator”
Adrenalin Television -
[Jim Giberti] “I wish you had to Chris, then I wouldn’t have had to clean up the coffee I sprayed on my screen.
“Someday I’m going to make a movie for playback at NAB that will simply be every editor I know spewing coffee.
David Roth Weiss
ProMax Systems
Burbank
DRW@ProMax.com
http://www.ProMax.com
Sales | Integration | SupportDavid is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.
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We’re pretty far off-topic now, aren’t we? But since we’re talking about Apple’s sync and PluralEyes, I’ll take a moment to offer another opinion.
I understand why Apple wanted to include a sync feature like this in FCPX — it’s particularly useful for dual-system audio with DSLR video, which I’d identify as one of Apple’s big anticipated uses for FCPX.
However, I think the fact that they spent time developing this feature says a lot about their approach to both their third-party developer partners and their customers’ needs.
Apple spent time and effort developing a syncing solution when they could have either paid Singular Software to do it, bought PluralEyes from Singular Software, or given Singular Software early access to FCPX so they could have developed against it had a launch release ready. Instead, they chose to develop their own version of the technology. They fundamentally threatened a partner’s business, and they signaled to other developers that they were willing to duplicate third-party efforts and bundle it in the app.
Further, assuming limited developer time and resources and given the availability of a partner with good sync technology already in place, why did Apple prioritize first-party development of this particular feature for launch release? Why wouldn’t they prioritize other things that were important to their users and that actually had to come from first-party development, like XML or broadcast monitoring?
[tony west] “That link seems to be gone.”
Sorry, I wasn’t pointing to the video — I was pointing to the whole thread, which I’d encourage you to read. Jeremy G. and Craig S. both talk about how much faster and more reliable PluralEyes is than FCPX’s built-in sync. Given their extensive experience with FCPX, that carried a lot of weight with me.
PluralEyes pops up in just about every conversation about FCPX’s Synchronize Clips feature that I’ve seen.
[tony west] “I can see using this program with 7 but not with X… Have you used it with X Walter?”
I used it with FCP7 quite a bit. I haven’t used it with X.
[tony west] “It looks like they want 149.00 for PluralEyes. Don’t know if I want to spend that if X is working the way it is now for me.”
Maybe it’s worth it for you, maybe it’s not. I don’t know what your needs are, but you do. That’s why I suggested you try the demo on your next hairy sync project and see if it works better.
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 -
That was an interesting read, both parts. So what did you decide? Are you focusing on you business as a niche position or are you broadening your services?
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[Steve Connor] “I like FCPX a lot, but if I was in your position it wouldn’t be in the running at the moment. As we keep saying a roadmap or at least a statement of future intent for FCPX would be very helpful for larger facilities like yours. As much as I like Apple Products, I think it’s ridiculous that they haven’t done this.”
I agree with you. If X had been there in addition to 7… no problem with me. Also, a big problem is that Apple’s dominance and pricing policy kept certain apps away from the Mac completely. With Apple pulling the plug, there is currently no professional DVD authoring application on the Mac available anymore (Encore doesn’t cut it). Unlike NLEs where there is a choice, DVDStudio Pro was the only viable choice on the Mac.
There never was and there never will be a pro Blu-ray authoring app, no high-end AVC encoding and zero MVC encoding on the Mac. Optical dics are big, big business for us so Apple signaling the want to see it dead and dropping support is not what we need. -
A lot of complaining about a personal opinion.
No replies on my main question.Is Thunderbolt consumer or pro technology?
Does a consumer needs 600 MBs storage + HD SDI in/out?Is Apple producing consumer technology?
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[Paul Jay] “A lot of complaining about a personal opinion. No replies on my main question. Is Thunderbolt consumer or pro technology? Does a consumer needs 600 MBs storage + HD SDI in/out? Is Apple producing consumer technology?”
I doubt that Apple thinks of Thunderbolt as consumer or professional. It’s just a pipe.
Saying that a consumer doesn’t need that kind of bandwidth is like saying that 640KB of RAM ought to be enough for anybody. It sounds fine today, but you’re likely to look pretty shortsighted in just a couple of years.
Is Apple producing consumer technology? Undoubtedly. I’d ask different questions. Is Apple producing professional technology, or technology that professionals can use? Does the distinction matter?
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 -
[Paul Jay] “A lot of complaining about a personal opinion.”
Well, since your “personal opinion” was about us, you shouldn’t be so shocked.
[Paul Jay] “No replies on my main question.”
I’m guessing that that is because most people took it as I did, which is as a rhetorical question which was meant as a statement and therefore did not require an answer.
[Paul Jay] “Is Thunderbolt consumer or pro technology?”
Neither/Both. Its agnostic. It is simply an extension of the PCI bus. It can be used as an advanced docking station for a Mac Air, or for video editing i/o. It’s like asking if a $400 no-name tower is consumer or pro because it has USB3 or, better, PCI slots.
[Paul Jay] “Does a consumer needs 600 MBs storage + HD SDI in/out?
“I’m guessing you meant something other than than “600 MBs storage,” since 1 TB is becoming the minimum standard size for most Hard drives. As to the “HD SDI in/out”–I don’t understand the relevance of the question. No, consumers don’t need that. But, you could put the same sort of i/o into the $400 no-name machine, because it has PCI slots. In the case of ThunderBolt, you can add that HD SDI for a minimum of $1000. In the cheep-o PC, you can put it in for something like $600.
[Paul Jay] “Is Apple producing consumer technology?
“Yes. People use it at work, too.
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