[Tim Wilson]

[Noah Kadner] “Yeap but it’s same problem- 100K+ folks hitting the same couple of cell towers and that’s above and beyond the normal Vegas casino crowds.”

Yeah, there’s no practical wireless method anywhere in town that week, for anything. It’s one of those things you have to experience to really get. It really is like not having a phone at all for parts of the day. Doesn’t matter which provider or platform.

That said, it’s been 10 years since I’ve been (yikes!), but there used to be ethernet in the rooms there. Setting up a private network should be child’s play.

I dunno, I wouldn’t rule this out. I certainly understand not making it part of the marketing plan in case it doesn’t work (and I can easily imagine them losing the ethernet in an infrastructure upgrade since I was last there), but I don’t think a lot of people get just how incredibly easy this is now. It wasn’t like that even last year. It’s different now. I’d plan on bringing the kit, and be prepared to bail if you have to — but I think you might be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to set up and how well it works.

[Tim Wilson]

[Walter Soyka] “I see significant HP brand loyalty in production, and I have a good amount of it myself. I guess it depends where you look.”

Yes, in the world of people who use PCs — AND THERE ARE A LOT OF THEM — there’s a lot of brand loyalty to HP.

Dell not yet, but I can see it happening. The big issue is that their original raison d’etre was being cheap, not necessarily good or fast at all. It’s only been a few years that there’s been a move toward quality. My XPS 15 laptop is my favorite computer I’ve ever owned. I’ll put it up against ANY Mac laptop, and I’ve owned a couple dozen of them, in at least one of every form factor up until the last 2, going all the way back to THIS thing in 1987, the Apple-licensed Walkmac:

I prefer everything about the Dell XPS 15 to every Mac laptop I’ve owned — the speed, the rubberized deck, its solidity, the keyboard, and, yes, the gorgeous 4K touchscreen. It’s absolutely hilarious to me to sit around with my all-Apple family, we’re all just goofing around and talking while we’re checking email (a very tech-y family at that, including a couple who worked in upper-level exec positions at Apple) and watch them start touching their own computer screens and being surprised and frustrated when nothing happens.

So, I vastly prefer it to any of couple dozen Mac laptops I’ve owned, but do I have brand loyalty to Dell yet? Not really, because I remember all the years that they were exploiting Moore’s Law and just-in-time component sourcing to intentionally build computers that were only worth keeping around for a few months, if they actually lasted that long….which was by no means a given.

Nowadays, a different story, but I bought mine based on my wife’s experience with HER XPS 15 from the year before, so this is where I’ll start the search for my next one when the time comes….but to our communal observation here, mine’s 2 years old, and still bouncing off the walls like a little puppy. It already has T3 of course (common on the Win side long before Mac of course), so I don’t foresee shopping for a new computer for quite a while.

And Walter, to your earlier observation about iDevices and MacBooks in the NY design community — I’ll add my own observation as a developer for both Mac-only and multiplatform companies is that there’s no more iDevoted people on earth. Much moreso than Hollywood, which has a reputation as a Mac-centric town that simply isn’t warranted. TONS of Windows in Hollywood, especially in VFX, finishing, and animation, and far more than you’d think in creative editorial, too. NY design, otoh is still the Big Apple. ????

[Tim Wilson]

Wow, this is fantastic, Todd! Congratulations! We here at the COW are happy to have played even a tiny part.

20 years is a long time, so I wonder if I could get your thoughts on how things have changed for you along the way. I know you’re not shooting add much film these days ???? but I’m sure there’s even mire to it than that.

Also, we hear all the time about how tough it is out they’re, and we certainly see it ourselves….so how is it that you’re coming off your best year yet?

Do you think there’s anything in your experience that you can offer as general advice?

Also, a personal thanks from me for your contributions to this specific forum. I had a business of my own, similar to yours, 20 years ago (started earlier, and unplugged after the turn off the century when I went corporate)….and of course Creative COW is a small, self-funded family business, so the Business & Marketing forum was created with our OWN needs in mind too!

And while there are indeed some folks who’ve made more total posts in the COW, nobody has made more posts in THIS forum!

Again, or congratulations, and our thanks!

Tim Wilson
Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW
????

[Tim Wilson]

[Oliver Peters] “With the exception of HP and Dell workstations, I can’t say the same for most of the options on the PC side.”

I think that’s the key point re: Mac vs. PC approaches. Lower-end PCs really are disposable imo, and I think it took HP and Dell a while to settle into explicitly Mac-inspired values like design and solidity. Those offer some compelling stuff, but the rest of their product lines, I wouldn’t give ya a nickel for.

Not that I think that those fellas are aping Mac’s design in any Android-iOS leapfrog manner. I think that they’ve staked out unique approaches that provide some profound advantages to someone who doesn’t need Apple-y stuff. Sitting side by side with Mac users all the time, I constantly see them looking over my shoulder and say, “Wow, I wish Apple would do THAT” about one thing or another…knowing that not one of those folks would ever consider converting. ????

But I obviously agree with your other points as well, since they agree with me. ???? Computer manufacturers WANT us to keep our computers for years. And years and years.

I mean, your 2009 is still doing fine 8 years later. Can you imagine still using a 1990 computer in 1998? Basically a Mac II vs. a G3! No way! Not even slightly possible, anymore than using a G3 in 2006 instead of a Mac Pro. I mean, people dropped G5s like they were hot back then, because the Mac Pro was so hot…even though a ton of folks had so quickly dropped their G4 for a G5. That’s just what was happening — those older computers might stay in the shop, but new frontline machines were rolling in every single time .

But it’s completely conceivable to me that you might be using your 2009 tower for something meaningful in 2019! Maybe not your daily driver, but maybe not ready to be handed down yet, either.

Or hey, maybe not, but the point is the same. These things are built to last now. Nobody who makes computers is expecting you to replace what you’ve got right now, and maybe not any time soon.

[Tim Wilson]

[Craig Seeman] “They want the user to replace the machine rather than extend the life. “

[David Mathis] “I like to call it built in obsolescence which seems to be the new trend with everything now.

I think the opposite is true. If Apple believed in obsolescence, and had a business model built around replacing machines, then they’d produce machines more often, with unambiguous cases for upgrading. In other words, the exact opposite of what they actually ARE doing. What they ARE doing is producing machines less and less frequently, with relatively little reason to upgrade.

That’s not MY opinion. That’s YOUR opinion. ???? Meaning the group as a whole, not necessarily you fellas, Craig or David. It’s all through this forum, and across the web: people are making nifty livings with 2009 Mac Pros, 2015 iMacs, etc etc. Not only was the 2013 Mac Pro not enough to make some people move off their 2009 Mac Pros, it chased thousands of people who were sure they were Apple customers for life off the platform altogether.

Apple is nowhere near alone in this of course. HP’s top of the line Z workstation is little changed since 2009, and since it already has a 4K touch screen that looks vastly better than anything on an MBP, I’m not in a hurry to upgrade my 2 year old Dell XPS 15, which I don’t actually see Dell being in a hurry to upgrade anyway.

The reason why all this works? Because Apple, HP, and Dell (at least in their professional models) are building computers that not just last physically (which used to be anything but a given for all 3 companies), but which continue to offer solid performance for media formats that didn’t even exist when these computer models were introduced. Gotta give the software companies credit for that, as well as low-weight, high-impact formats like ProRes and DNxHD…but really, I don’t see ever going back to the days of EXPECTING to update a computer every 18-24 months again, do you?

Heck, look through the COW archives. There were stretches where we were buying new computers EVERY YEAR.

But now? I think one reason why Gary’s April Fools blog post struck such a chord is exactly because so many people would LIKE to see something like he’s talking about — not necessarily the licensing aspect, but the idea of an Apple that seems aggressively committed to staying out in front.

Again, this isn’t a criticism of Apple, or a “they should be more like HP” or anything like it. It’s to acknowledge that NOBODY is expecting you to upgrade your computer regularly, because NOBODY is releasing upgrades on a regular basis, and when they do, the releases are not necessarily compelling enough to make people pony up — not because the new ones suck, but because they old ones are still more than doing the job.

I think that this is in fact the biggest change in our industry, honestly, pretty much since it began. The whole thing used to be driven by computer upgrade cycles: gone. It was driven by software upgrade cycles: gone. (You’re getting the upgrades regardless, and unlike years past, don’t need to upgrade your computers or other hardware to take advantage of them.) It was driven by having to upgrade storage to meet demands of new formats: not gone, but certainly going, going.

It’s one reason why so many vendors are sitting out NAB this year. I haven’t seen anything like it since the Bird Flu Epidemic of 2005. (Which sounds hilarious but is completely true.) The odds of anybody going to the show HAVING to make a purchase happen NOW have dropped to almost zero. There are still a bunch of great reasons to attend as an end-user, especially to meet people, and the handful of things (especially in broadcast and cameras) that really DO change year to year….but mostly, stuff works, and works for a long time. Computers, more than anything.

The thing that’s moving the needle now (whether at NAB or in the industry at large) is people continuing to kit up for the first time, or dramatically expand a facility’s footprint to meet BUSINESS opportunities, rather than because of some must-have new hardware.

And the hardware that IS must-have? Peripheral hardware that handily moves between machines. If anything, Apple’s adoption of USB-C is a way to ensure MORE of that, not less. It may be the first time in generations that Apple has adopted a well-established industry connection, rather than trying to force people into a proprietary corner.

Sure sure sure, if you want the newest connections, you have to buy the newest computers, but that’s true for everyone….but hubs and adapters are proving more than robust-enough to keep up for the middle-distance future, which, again, was far from the case just a couple of years ago.

So, like I said, I’m seeing the OPPOSITE of obsolescence: a trend AWAY from driving new computer purchases, because of a trend AWAY from even bothering to release new computers, and a trend AWAY from new computers becoming immediate, no-questions-asked must-have purchases, because as good as new computers are, the old ones are still doing really, really well.

[Tim Wilson]

[David Mathis] “As soon as I find a working deck I might use Media 100 to ingest with. Also have a collection of S-VHS tapes as well. Those were the days.”

???? That’s when I did my office work. Answer the mail, return some phone calls, pay some bills, and just feed the tapes in now and again. Confirm that everything is at full-res on the timeline, hit render, then run to the post office and bank. I honestly think that the demise of the one man band had everything to do with the demise of these natural rhythms.

Look, I have no idea if this is actually the case, and I’ll be sure to ask Boris the next time I talk to him, but I think he’d be the first to say that the primary appeal of free Media 100 is for people who paid $30,000 for it 20 years ago, back when people were certain that this industry had no future if you could get broadcast-quality (back when that was considered GOOD) video for such a cheap price.

“Nostalgia” is too strong a word, but there’s a reason why this was the software that lit the desktop revolution into something you could not only earn a living with doing broadcast video, but fundamentally change power dynamics across the entire industry. Avid didn’t do it, Premiere didn’t do it, and by the time FCP came along, it had already been done — by Media 100.

Not that that’s necessarily a reason to rush out and use it today, mind you. There are reasons why the first wave of FCP adoption was fueled almost entirely by soon-to-be-former Media 100 users, and now you can see those reasons for free. ????????

But for “Collect ‘Em All” types like you, David, this is a no-brainer. Fast, easy, flexible, and free. I think you’ll be very pleasantly surprised.

[Tim Wilson]

Hi Rajnesh,

We don’t really do anything with still photography here. Not for any lack of interest on the part of the Creative COW team, but because that’s just how the COW community has evolved. The focus here is very much on video, as well as the artistic tools related to dealing with the video files after they’re captured. Even video from DSLR cameras has been a small-ish part of what’s happening here compared to dedicated video and digital cinema cameras.

It’s possible that you might find a reply if you ask a question in the COW’s Cinematography forum, but if I’m being 100% honest, the forums at DPReview are over 10 times the size of ours, and only talk about digital photography. There are over 1 million posts in the Sony Alpha forum alone, which is staggering to me to imagine — and that’s not even one of their biggest forums! Not by a long shot.

So I’d love to hear that you posted your question here and found exactly the answer you’re looking for, but the answer may already be waiting elsewhere.

Good luck!

Tim Wilson
Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW

[Tim Wilson]

[Oliver Peters] “Not much to debate, since Adobe seems pretty solid in sticking with subscription.
“

That’s one way to put it. ????

I found that forum endlessly vexatious, I have to admit. On one hand, it quickly calcified into an unfortunately un-nuanced “yuh-huh”/’nuh-uh” that didn’t spark any great waves of insight, but the outrage burned 20 times hotter there (100 times hotter?) than ever burned here. I can’t even count how many trolls we had to send packing, and that most definitely includes folks on both sides of the debate. We also had more people choose to leave the COW altogether under their own steam over those fights than any issue I’ve ever seen.

Absolutely the opposite of anything I’d hope to see, but shutting it down by fiat is definitely not our way. To the extent that there was (or, on any topic, IS) substance to debate, our policy has always been to let it play out within our very tiny handful of rules (generally distilled down to: no name calling.)

Certainly ZERO inclination to shield Adobe from the consequences of their decisions — and to their credit, they never once mentioned it, not then, not since. But that’s explicitly been our policy too: advertiser or not, customers get to hold your feet to the fire. We’re just here to make sure it follows the same rules that apply to anyone else. I can assure you that other advertisers have asked us to step in for much less over our 22 years now. I can also assure you that none of them are still around. ????

The unfortunately meager sustenance gleaned from the fury in that forum often felt like MY failure as much as anything else, but also kind of a personal embarrassment. I wasn’t always at my best there, either as a poster with one opinion no more or less valid than anyone else’s, borne out of my own 40-year stint in this business (dang, I just had to doublecheck that math — YES, OVER 40 YEARS), or an admin — and I remain grateful to the folks who gave me a lot of latitude in speaking my own piece(s) without imputing any official weight to it. Or indeed, most of the time, any weight at all. ????

Generally speaking though, 6-ish months since the last regular activity seems about right. I was actually surprised to find anything THAT recent. Saying that it may be “time to say goodbye” is probably more effort than actually needs to be expended. There’s not really anything there anymore. There’s really nothing to say at all.

It’s also likely to me that if there IS anything to say coming out of NAB, it will more likely happen here, and be more productive for it. ????

[Tim Wilson]

[Mike Parfit] “In case you’re curious, the show that we edited and finished on Resolve has its US premiere on Nat Geo Wild tomorrow night (Sunday, March 26), 9pm/8c. “Call of the Baby Beluga.””

Thanks for the tip, Mike! I can’t wait!

[Tim Wilson]

[Duke Sweden] “Not that anyone seems to bother reading my posts anymore.”

Fear not! We read and thank you for them. 🙂