SIENNA

This may be Apple's biggest announcement at NAB.

[www.gallery.co.uk]




All the best,

Tom

That IS big.....but Apple's about 5 years behind the curve on this. Having worked in Network and Local TV newsrooms for years, AVID has devoured that integrated market...stations have spent millions on infrastructure and unless AVID is charging them monster upgrade fees each year (and Apple can come in under that for their open newsroom automation system) They may only make inroads where AVID doesn't have a sales rep. Andy

I agree. It may be too little too late, but it's interesting they're trying to wedge another chink into Avid's base. I thought something would come out of their announcement, I think last year or maybe the year before, of their partnership with Grass Valley, but that never seemed to have gotten off the floor. Maybe this time.



All the best,

Tom

Andy,

You're correct about the "5 years behind the curve"... but, who ever thought that five years ago FCP would emerge as a serious competitor for the Media Composer? Tv stations are not immune from the same logic, both technical and economic that has driven FCP to where it is today. I wouldn't underestimate Apple's ability to enter a new market and carve out a piece of the pie. (If they wanted to) Gallery is an independent company.

I have no idea whether this will catch on or not, but at the very least it will let Avid know that they may not have the field wide open without any competition forever. Considering the "broadcast" focus of NAB, this could be interesting to watch. I hear that the Avid and Apple booths are no longer directly across the hall from each other.

Mark

"I hear that the Avid and Apple booths are no longer directly across the hall from each other."

Oh too bad. We won't have any more my amp is bigger than your amp wars.



All the best,

Tom

Working at ABC ....I've seen the glacial changes big organizations make. They are still on DV25 resolution on Avid News Cutter for World News Tonight at the bureau...I remember a time where I would cut things on Final Cut and bring a mini dv tape to play up a fiber line to New York...the engineers would give me a snarky look and say "what is this - it's not broadcast quality!" So I took the DV Tape..bumped it "up" to Beta....brought back in to feed....their response? That's more like it....this is the quality we use here at the Network!

And now...they shoot on 60K Beta SP decks and cameras - only to dump on to hard drives and put to air at DV25 quality? Go figure...

As for newsroom production systems - This Sienna looks terrific...and if it's a price point 10's of thousands less than AVID's...that networks have invested 100's of thousands on...they might make some inroads.....

It's painful to move hundreds of people to another system..train them...work out the bugs and make sure it's bullet proof for air.....but being a FCP fan....I'll be rooting for them.

Andy

Are you in DC Andy?



All the best,

Tom

Yep...Tom - didn't you work at ABC in your not too distant past....?

More distant than not. Are you going to NAB? Say hi to Jeff Corwin if you see him.



All the best,

Tom

Jeff is the Mac Guru of DC! Will say hi....he's the reason the art department is the oasis of MacHeaven in a bureau full of PeeCees....now if only he could convince them to trash those clunky do nothing Avid News Cutters...

NAB -- unfortunately not too busy making a living with FCP and docs and corporate production to get away to NAB - have fun.... Andy

I'm not necessarily sure that it's too little too late. My station soured on Avid due to piss-poor tech support, extortionist upgrade costs, delays in integration and general arrogance of position in the market. We currently use Meridian Newscutters (highest upgrade of those) which we only recieved after a 5 year long fight with Avid over integration at our station. 5 years, only to see that Avid has abandoned the Meridian line; forcing stations to purchase Adrenaline or DS systems to keep current with emerging technology like Sony's XDCam with MXF format video.

When our GM does the sums, it's not too hard to justify chucking the whole Avid system in favor of FCP edit systems that are far superior to the Meridian Newscutters and are a fraction of the cost of Avid "upgrades".

I seriously doubt ours is the only station that feels this way towards Avid. And I suspect things will only get worse when Avid's arrogant stance infects Pinnacle support (we've already seen some evidence of that).

Fact is, they are not the only kid on the block anymore, and in this penny-pinching climate of TV news, they're poised to price themselves right out of small and medium markets.

Andy

Tom

You not going to NAB?

We're going.



All the best,

Tom

>>So I took the DV Tape..bumped it "up" to Beta....brought back in to feed....their response? That's more like it....this is the quality we use here at the Network! <<

I've seen that too. Seems to me if you bring it on a digibeta tape, they assume a whole system of mega quality production behind it, and suddenly it's 'broadcast quality'.

We had Newscutter running DV25 in News at our station too, until my partner kicked up a stink about the quality and made them go to DV50. I mean, why pay those thousands of extra dollars and not even bother to bump it up?

It's also a complete peice of junk - crashes and bugs galore. A very bad advertisement for the 'stability' of Avid we hear so much about.

With the Sienna - you still have this to deal with .."Oh, I don't like Apple." (Our National Head Engineer) End of story. He's not even going to look.

Andy

I think you hit the nail on the head. If Bunim-Murray and others can chuck out their Avids and switch to FCP then it follows that the news guys could do the same. The key is getting Sienna to integrate sufficiently well with the existing infrastructure and from the specs it looks like Gallery's done their homework on this.

Also there are plenty of emerging markets in the world that may not have yet gone down the Avid route, so I'm sure there's plenty of opportunities for Apple to make inroads.

Martin Baker
www.digital-heaven.co.uk
Unique plug-ins and tools for Apple Pro Apps

Instead of training and re-tooling the old AVID editors to work on FCP, they could save a ton by just hiring us FCP guys working for the past 5 years, learnign all the FCP quirks.

I think most news stations could use a bit of a face-lift... behind the scenes.



Independent photographer, film maker and Producer. In the wonderful UK.