UK NLE Survey

[Walter Soyka]

[Simon Ubsdell] “Is it just me or does anyone else think this is a very odd result indeed for compositing in this market?”

Yes, seeing neither Ae nor Nuke on this list is simply incomprehensible and I think really calls the validity of the whole survey into question.

Here’s some more information on the survey:

Televisual specifically targetted the opinions of 100 senior production staff for the Production Technology Survey 2014, all of whom are responsible for determining technology choices on productions.

The 100 execs work at some of leading TV, film, commercials and corporate production companies in the UK such as Atlantic, Boundless, Casual Films, Company Pictures, Endemol, The Garden, IMG, Kudos, Leopard, Leftbank, Lime TV, Maverick, October Films, Princess, Rattling Stick, Raw, RDF, Ricochet, Sunset & Vine, Tiger Aspect, Wag TV, Windfall and World Television.

58% of respondents said they manage the production budget and are responsible for the production and technology choices. Meanwhile, 25% said they manage the production budget, and take advice on technology choices.

11 heads of production, four directors of production, 10 production managers, six managing directors, five heads of post production, 13 producer/directors, five exec producers and three series producers were among the 100 respondents to the survey.

73% said they work in TV production. 21% work in corporate, 13% in film, and 9% in commercials. (Some work in several sectors, explaining why the total is more than 100%).

https://www.televisual.com/read-reports-surveys/31/260/Who-took-part-in-the-Production-Technology-Survey-2014.html

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

[David Mathis] “Interesting that After Effects was mentioned. In the event I have the funds necessary I would probably go with Nuke but that software is way out of my price range.”

I see Ae and Nuke as complementary more than comparable. They have very different strengths and weaknesses.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Mark Raudonis]

Rather than focus on the “math” perhaps we should focus on the take away from this survey,
which is that in the large project, shared workflow environment, AVID still rules. The people polled for this survey are experienced professionals working on large projects with large teams in shared storage workflows. Naturally, they would favor AVID in that environment.

Despite all the noise here on this forum, I have yet to hear anyone champion FCP-X or Premier in a LARGE workgroup, shared media environment. Plenty of tales of specific, individual projects, and much debate about specific features but no tales of “great success” in the arena that I’m familiar with. I’d love to hear about it if you’re working with 25-30 editors on a network show with hundreds of TB of shared storage.

Mark

PS. I do love the multi clip creation feature in FCP-X!

[Andrew Kimery]

[Mark Raudonis] “. I’d love to hear about it if you’re working with 25-30 editors on a network show with hundreds of TB of shared storage.”

While not that big, one facility I used to work at says they are planning to move from FCP 7 to PPro. I’m not sure what the timetable is but they have about a dozen seats and 60TBs of perpetually full shared storage.

[Christopher Travis]

A “taster tape” is in common parlance where I come from (London). It’s a not-for-broadcast clip produced for commissioners or clients to sell either a programme idea or to show new presenting talent. I’m cutting a talent taster at the moment.

As for the results I’m not at all surprised to see Avid top of the pile, and I’ve no reason to call the results into question since Televisual is one of the countries leading industry magazines. They would have been able to canvas opinions from decision makers at the top of the country’s biggest production companies and facilities.

I can easily believe that in the wider (and ever widening) video production market that PP and FCPX are gaining share, and with good reason, but in TV and film, Avid isn’t going anywhere.

[Bob Woodhead]

[Christopher Travis] “A “taster tape” is in common parlance where I come from (London). It’s a not-for-broadcast clip produced for commissioners or clients to sell either a programme idea or to show new presenting talent.”

Wondrous Welsh rarebit! My cheesy joke didn’t have legs to stand on. Thanks for the slang education Chris, in fact, I may replace “sizzle” with “taster” over here. And in keeping with the theme, perhaps I’ll ply the clients with spirits prior to playback. Make that “V1” viewing into something that needs a designated driver…

I was surprised to see the lead Avid has… did UK broadcast never make much of a switch to Legacy, or did they quickly return to Avid post-Legacy?

[Dennis Radeke]

[Walter Soyka] “Yes, seeing neither Ae nor Nuke on this list is simply incomprehensible and I think really calls the validity of the whole survey into question.”

Very true. How can you talk compositing and not mention the top programs?

[Dennis Radeke]

This has been discussed many times before but there are several large facilities using Premiere Pro in production. I am primarily involved with many of these large accounts and cannot mention them all since we would need permission, but it includes TV news groups, episodic programs, soaps, US sporting federations and their affiliated teams, multi-network brands, etc.

Names that are public include CNN, Hearst TV, Saturday Night Live, and several football and baseball teams.

You can also check out success stories at adobe.com as well as the vendor sponsored Adobe page at provideocoalition (link would get flagged, so won’t bother posting)…

Hope this helps,
Dennis – Adobe guy

[James Ewart]

Yup. In fact I know some people who don’t admit to using FCPX for fear of it damaging their reputations such is the antipathy that prevails in the UK. It needs its ‘Cold Mountain’ moment over here as us Brits are a conservative bunch resistant to and suspicious of change. And the majority of our editors and facilities houses have a vested interest in maintaining Avid as the market leader. So shall it remain I would imagine. I will probably have retired by the time people catch on to the fact that especially for features and long form docs, the logging and organisational tools in FCPX are second to none. Plus there are plenty of production personnel in the UK who don’t actually know very much about the ins and outs of editing tools. They have nobody to ask but the editors. I’m all for FCPX. Their view is “why change”? I’ve had conversations with people telling them how good FCPX is and I get strange looks and I can see them thinking “does he know what he is talking about?” because everything else they have ever heard is negative and that FCPX is not a “professional tool”.

[Franz Bieberkopf]

[James Ewart] “… the fact that especially for features and long form docs, the logging and organisational tools in FCPX are second to none.”

James,

Since this comment and others like it continue to come up …
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/335/71345

I’ll repeat that I can’t speak to the browser-based editing workflows that FCP X key-wording seems designed for, but I will say that there are many ways of organizing vast amounts of data, and for sequence-based editing workflows (doc or otherwise) I don’t see any advantages in X – I certainly wouldn’t call it the “best” tool.

Franz.