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Working Over the weekend…
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the beginning of a new generation of post houses and Professionals…
Indeed, but maybe not the way you think. Walter Biscardi has a new blog entitled, “For now, editing is now a commodity and less a craft.” The gist of the blog is that there is a new wave coming… where large investments in hardware is going to be the doom of many post-production houses. There will be a culling of “professional” video editors and companies that spend a lot of money on editing and what will be left will be “storytellers” who do not necessarily work on high end systems.
So you have a company that just spent a great sum of money on hardware that runs the exact same software, at a time when its a very poor choice to invest in hardware at all.
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Hmmm… A shop with 30 Macs but only 4 edit suites is hardly a large post house. Granted that may be the case today, but if you come from the days of large linear bays and machine room infrastructure, it’s hardly the same thing.
Unfortunately today’s reality dictates frugality and yesterday’s edit boutique is today’s large post house. If you expect to survive these days, you really need to develop a business model that allows for a complete refresh every 3 years (or less) and to have most of that paid for by active projects and not by loans. Smart companies have alays done that. It’s called having an annual Cap Ex budget and sticking to it.
Like it or not, the direction Apple is taking is supportive of that environment. I see plenty of places that are still running FCP 6 on G5s or early Mac Pros. They followed the philosophy of not replacing it because it worked. Now the stuff is so long in the tooth that it’s not a simple matter of upgrading but rather a complete, expensive overhaul of the facility. Having smaller, cheaper gear with comparable (or more) power makes it easier to pursue a plan of more frequent refreshes without breaking the bank.
Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Frank Gothmann] “Not true, you can read or burn bd-r right from the finder, the same way you’d burn a data dvd or cd. They just don’t support encrypted playback of movie discs but that is unrelated to the physical media as such. But Apple doesn’t like any optical media per se anymore. And if they consider it legacy it has to go. Again, I prefer to make my own decissions.”
And you can. Buy this and this:
https://www.macblurayplayer.com/
https://fastmac.com/slim_bluray.phpI didn’t know about BluRay from the Finder. I guess you learn something new everyday. I think I have been asked to make a BluRay once and I certainly wouldn’t use it for archiving, but maybe that’s just me. if it keeps the overall cost of the system down and I don’t need it, then I guess it’s a win? If I had to, I know where to get it.
[Frank Gothmann] “Choice, give people the freedom of choice to watch and listen to stuff they way they want to and how they want to, not exclusively the way Apple wants them to.”
And you do have the choice, you just can’t buy that privilege directly from Apple for whatever reason. I can’t buy my Aja cards from the (virtual/brick&mortar) Apple Stores, either. I don’t mind.
[Frank Gothmann] “Again, brings me right back to my point regarding server hardware. More people would buy it if it wasn’t outdated and neglected. We would have bought two last month; we went with HP instead. And more of our machines will follow in the future.”
And Apple themselves did the same in their monster server rooms as they wanted out of that sector of that business. They made that decision. The MacPro and the XServe are different, with some overlap of course. And didn’t you hear? You can use a MacMini to run a server room!! Just kidding, really (kinda).
[Frank Gothmann] “I am just surprised people still wonder wether Apple is still interested in pro users and creating specific hard- and software for their needs.”
Yeah, but don’t you think they’d be interested in people using Mac’s but not necessarily their software? Like people in Medical/Aerospace/Programming? Video peoples aren’t the only ones who use MacPros even though we like to think we are. And what about the people that don’t use FCP? Don’t you think Apple would like a room full of MacPros to run the nightly news on Avid or Premiere or whatever?
[Frank Gothmann] “If they (ie. us) can make it work for them, either via 3rd party or workarounds, fine, let them swim along. But it’s not conceived, designed and built for their needs.”
And my point is, was it ever really built for their needs exclusively? In my opinion no, the MacPro was always a bit of a compromise when compared to similar PC based hardware. You could always add more and faster to a PC than you could with a Mac without buying a whole new box. This is not new, and not much has changed, but perhaps our perspectives in the game have changed.
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Oliver, your comment is key to my speculations regarding Apple’s direction.
I think there are people here who aren’t taking into account the economic climate in business as well as production/post production.
Regardless of whether my specifics as to what replaces the MacPro are, as a business model for a hardware manufacturer, lower cost/priced and more frequently upgraded machines are a reasonable target. Making towers that people upgrade once every 3-5 years is a recipe for declining sales.
I think people have to take a serious look at Avid’s situation and Adobe and Apple (which have very different business models) and see why some companies do well and others are in trouble.
There was a time when the “Pro” market spend “Pro” dollars for equipment and $60,000 dollars and up for an NLE and $20,000 for an upgrade were profitable to serve that market. Look at the response to the cost of the Pro Tools HD upgrade and see why Avid is in a financial bind . . . and has been for years.
“Pros” want what they want and they claim they’ll pay a bit more, but it’s not enough more for financial viability for the developers and the facilities that pay the bills and are struggling to lower overhead to compete against very talented “laptop editors” are looking to cut costs.
I think Apple has the right idea. As to whether the idea is well executed might be a different story, but I think they understand what they need to grow. Avid is still trying to figure it out.
Adobe is trying to expand in the NLE market. After Effects success is, in part, it does a lot for a low cost tool compared the more expensive competitors. I’m not sure what the real value Premiere is to their overall product line but one thing they do have in common with Apple, is that Adobe is about developing an ecosystem.
Apple though is a company that makes software and provides services with the goal to sell hardware. The hardware market has changed significantly due to economic changes in production and post.
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[Kevin Patrick] “It’s true. Check it out for yourself and post back here. “
Home Depot is an Apple reseller? Wow, I know things are changing, but this is bonkers.
That is an interesting analogy, though.
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[Andrew Richards] “I completely agree the lack of 6G SATA and up-to-date GPUs should not be tied to Intel’s roadmap, but Thunderbolt absolutely is.”
I didn’t mean to imply this was tied to intel’s roadmap, but rather it’s being held back as a result of intel’s delay. They can still be mutually exclusive, but not the way Apple works.
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[Walter Soyka] “I don’t disagree with you, Jeremy. Maybe I’m just more impatient. I needed to see some signs from Apple that they were still really committed to this market.”
Like what? Release a MacPro with a 6Gb/sec Sata/USB3 connected mac that is going to have even further outdated processors in 6 months? Not Apple’s style, and in my opinion, a smart supply chain move. If you are going to refresh an already limited hardware machine (which I still contend Apple has done this for good reasons, system stability/ease of use being right up there, not to mention spare part inventory) then let’s really refresh it. Yes, they refresh their machines slower, but people tend to use those machines for a very long time. If they were cheaper, perhaps they would upgrade more frequently. Craig Seeman has great points on all of that.
[Walter Soyka] “Ironic that a company known for innovation sells old technology in its high-performance system, no?
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Likewise, it’s not a performance-oriented customer’s style to buy a year-and-a-half old system.”
This goes back to my points about macs not being the most blazing fast machines out there. They have never been. Even if they are at the day of release, they aren’t in 4 months as the motherboards of MacPros aren’t upgradable, or you will soon run out of PCIe slots to add the latest/great port and keep the older ports. To me, this is not a new philosophy from Apple, it has been their philosophy/M.O. all along, and look at the profits.
[Walter Soyka] “I couldn’t get away with telling my clients that they couldn’t have something they wanted because it would be inconvenient for me to produce. Rather than taking our money for added value, Apple just tells us we don’t really want these things — and we seem to accept it.”
Yes. Perhaps our perspectives in the game are changing and what I have ineloquently saying all along. From what we have talking about around here, Windows 7 sounds like it’s a true competitor. Who is going to ultimately benefit from this competition?
[Walter Soyka] “Thunderbolt launched sometime in February. That’s between 9 and 10 months on the calendar, so that’s five and a half years in computer industry time, right?”
9-10 months sounds just like a product testing phase, and that’s if everything goes perfectly. What is perfect? Who knows how accessible the parts are to get intel Thunderbolt controllers? What’s the application process? Thunderbolt cables are only available from Apple at this time (to consumers). There’s still a lot to be worked out even though Thunderbolt is officially on the market. It follows what is becoming conventional wisdom with electronics these days. Get the box out to market, and firmware update the changes or in the case of Apple computers, let the supply chain catch up gradually. Red is the ultimate example of this, but it is apparent in other aspects of the business as well. I don’t see 9-10 months being a big issue or indicator of anything, except things take time even in today’s fast moving world. Delays still happen in real time. The desktop Sandy Bridge delay is the biggest tangible asset in my little mind. Apple had first dibs and brought the first Thunderbolt computers to market, it doesn’t necessarily mean the rest of the market was quite ready for Thunderbolt.
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you can’t compare apple and avid. 2 totally different types of companies. Avid has always and continues to serve the pro/semi pro video and audio market. Apple is a computer/gadget giant that also had some pro apps and high end computers. Apple can never sell another pro app or computer again and make millions off of phones and i things. Avid will always fight for survival based on the very small nature of their clients.
Scott Cumbo
Editor
Broadway Video, NYC -
I wonder if the issue for Apple is the cost of implementation vs increase in sales.
Perhaps their business model is to only make changes when they believe it will drive sales relative to cost of implementation.One thing to keep in mind that given the low volume sales of MacPros vs their other computers, their parts orders are smaller and maybe not be as heavily discounted. It may not be worth them making a parts order, making changes, when the next MacPro or replacement may involve a significant case redesign.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “I didn’t mean to imply this was tied to intel’s roadmap, but rather it’s being held back as a result of intel’s delay. They can still be mutually exclusive, but not the way Apple works.”
It does reveal something about how important the Mac Pro is to Apple bottom line compared to other Macs. There are relatively frequent minor revs to iMacs and MacBooks (roughly twice a year), but on the Mac Pro, lately it seems like nothing gets refreshed until everything gets refreshed.
Best,
Andy
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