[Andrew Stone]

Thanks Kristian.

These look like the ticket…

https://www.smallhd.com/Store/5-6-inch-HD-Monitor-Accessories/D-Tap-50

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Steadicam & Camera Operator

[Andrew Stone]

Injecting more than 2 channels into the SDI stream is a pretty high end feature. The unit costs under $500 and does way more than a lot of simple conversion boxes do that cost twice as much.

If you really want to inject more audio into the HD-SDI stream, you can probably do that prior to the unit with an HD-SDI embedding unit. AJA makes one. It sells for over a grand but you would have to mix it down into 2 channels and lay it into channels 1 and 2. Assuming it is possible. A simpler and probably better solution would be to outboard mix your audio and live mix it into one of the camera’s audio inputs.

A piece of hardware can only do so much.

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Steadicam & Camera Operator

[Andrew Stone]

Aindreas,

I have to agree with you… unfortunately. I came to the same conclusion over the weekend. Apple is a consumer electronics company. What they are doing makes complete sense when you lay that notion over what they are doing with FCP even once all the extensibility is realized from 3rd party vendors. Editors need a lingua franca approach in their base editing environment. If getting someone else involved in a project which requires purchasing $2500 of extensions in order to communicate with one another then you have a problem. Editors will not want to use that environment. Too expensive, too complicated and unnerving for the parties involved. Again Apple doesn’t seem to get the pro market or they as you posit are going down the rough PR road of disenfranchising the pro video/film biz market so they can focus on their core business market: consumers.

Steadicam – Camera Operator

[Andrew Stone]

Let me restate the confusing sentence in my previous post without the confusing typos…

Apple by removing the ability to buy upgrades and additional seats of FCP 7, Color and so on, is placing many businesses in jeopardy.

Steadicam – Camera Operator

[Andrew Stone]

I am not looking at it from the perspective of inducements. My concern is Apple is demonstrating they have a fundamental lack of understanding of the industry or how vendors should be catering to professional audiences.

I’ve brought this up in previous posts, Apple by removing the businesses to buy upgrades and additional seats of FCP 7, Color and so on, is placing many businesses in jeopardy. If ILM say, needs to create five more workstations running FCP 7 for more staff, they cannot do it. This is preposterous.

Apple may think they can operate like a consumer electronics company to a professional clientele. If they think so, they are mistaken.

You will note that the only standing apps that could be considered pro now are Logic and Aperture. However, neither of these apps could be remotely considered the de facto standard for their respective industries that they are in & are not typically part of massive supply chains that are dependent on one another for complex workflows and deadlines to be met with completion guarantees involved. The rest — FCP and server apps — have either been killed off or rolled into other apps that are largely consumer based.

Steadicam & Camera Operator

[Andrew Stone]

Two things Apple ought to do today is reinstate selling box sets of FCS 3.0 and the update from 2 to 3 of FCS along with a state of the union address from Steve Jobs to the video industry.

I am still incredulous over what Apple has done to the film industry. Leave it at that.

Steadicam – Camera Operator

[Andrew Stone]

Craig we are essentially coming to the same conclusion but with different points. Pulling FCP/Studio is the tragic mistake of Apple out of this whole episode. The repercussion of this move will take years to undo, if they choose to continue with serving the pro market say 5 to 10 years from now. Just like as you have mentioned with AVID. How long did it take for them to recover and they had to change their business model in order to gain market share again?

Steadicam & Camera Operator

[Andrew Stone]

I’m trying to remember the sequence of events around AVID dropping Mac support. I think that was after FCP had been out for a bit. Regardless, I really do not intend to be drawing comparisons to AVID in what I am talking about.

I am talking about companies that have a corporate mindset. Suppliers, vendors that come on board go through a careful internal vetting process in these large companies. A supplier or vendor gets goofy, they are gone in the blink of an eye and a good portion of the video industry, the film industry is in fact very corporate in the way they operate. They have to as the supply chain is huge and the product is in many ways ephemeral and fraught with huge amounts of risk in the production process. Unlike say traditional manufacturing. We all know this. So when a company that supplies an essential tool to the supply chain says, out and out and without warning, “we are no longer selling you the product, even if you want it, things go sideways fast especially when millions of dollars are at stake, completion guarantees and other insurance matters.

Most (not all) here in forum land aren’t exposed to this world at all but you can bet high placed people are tearing new ones in people very high up in Apple and given the CEO’s placement as the head of Pixar, I am sure he has received more than a few phone calls and even visits in the past 48 hours.

Think about other software companies that develop software for big business. Microsoft as an example. They go out of their way to make sure their software development structure doesn’t leave big business stranded by EOLing software without years of notice. Final Cut Pro had become part of the big business of television and the film industry and Apple killed it in a press release without advance warning. Corporate thinking machines don’t let vendors “get it right” after they gored the client.

This to me is the real story and the area for concern.

Steadicam – Camera Operator

[Andrew Stone]

Clear path for FCPX for the industry?! Kidding right? The industry will not wait for Apple to fix FCPX. That is not the way business works.

Apple has demonstrated to the industry (I mean big production houses that cannot be as nimble as freelancers) that as a supplier Apple is high risk. Even if Apple were to reinstate FCP 7 and continue it’s software development path, the relationship, trust and low level of risk mitigation is GONE.

You will notice most people who now use FCP are now making either serious contingency plans or have begun their migration to PP or AVID MC.

Steadicam – Camera Operator

[Andrew Stone]

Jerry, most of us do not doubt that FCPX will be production ready in time. The big issue but not the only one is for many of us who either work pass material off or work in large production workflows. Imagine you are a shop that needs to install five new seats of Final Cut. What are they supposed to do? You are the CTO in a large production facility and you have been informed that the editing environment that your facility has been based on has been EOL. What are you supposed to do?

If you want to be part of the ecosystem a year from now, you should be trying to figure out what NLE is going to have you best poised to be part of the game and profitable. Final Cut Pro 6 & 7 will still work but the industry will move on and it will not be with FC. Apple could change their approach to FC but I for one will not be waiting and the industry won’t either particularly at the higher levels.

Steadicam & Camera Operator