Briefing for professionals in London by Apple

Here's what I just posted on my blog:

Looks like Apple?s softly softly actions to keep professionals onside are continuing.

Sam Johnson (of AMV LAB) was invited, amongst others, to an Apple briefing on Final Cut Pro X.

Here are is what Sam tweeted after the briefing. Follow him on Twitter where he posts as @aPostEngineer

Quote

1. FCP XML in/out is coming via 3rd party soon?no FCP 6/7 support project support coming ever it seems?

2. Ability to buy FCP7 licenses for enterprise deployments coming in the next few weeks?

3. FCPX EDL import/export coming soon?

4. FCPX AJA plugins coming soon for tape capture and layback?capture straight into FCPX bins.

5. XSAN support for FCPX coming in the next few weeks?

6. FCPX Broadcast video output via #Blackmagic & @AJAVideo coming soon?

7. Additional codec support for FCPX via 3rd Parties coming soon?

8. Customizable sequence TC in FCPX for master exports coming soon?

9. Some FCPX updates will be free some will cost?

He went on to answer some questions:

conigs Do they have any kind of timeframe for ?soon?? Am I safe in guessing in 2011?

aPostEngineer within a few weeks for some updates i.e. XSAN up to a few months for 3rd party developers to get their heads around the API.

gigarafa what about the rest of the suite? Color, dvd studio etc?

aPostEngineer they have unfortunately reached their EOL and will not be developed any more..

They said that taking FCP7 off the shelf was the most complained thing? (Answering a message from @NMRUK)

Peter Wiggins of Idustrial Revolution was also there, so I imagine we?ll get an update at his fcp.co site soon.

___________________________________________________
Alexandre Gollner,
Editor, Zone 2-North West, London

alex4d on twitter, facebook, .wordpress.com + .com

Some good, some okay, some really bad. It is not convincing to learn it.

Tape capture- good. I sure as pete's sake won't pay for it. Also tape capture needs the ability to recapture.

EOL of Color- disaster. I suspect Apple engineers had problems working with XMLs and EDLs that Color requires and effects and keyword metadata will probably not pass through Color. Apple has a bad track record with industry standard tools, except that this one beat the speed record.

EDL export- no biggie. I'll do one up in text edit.

XML- good. 3rd party. Uh oh. Ka Ching.

No customizable sequence timecode yet? Not a problem. Clips I imported yesterday went offline today (drives were connected), so can't export anyway. Need to reimport and start from scratch.

Good- option to purchase FCP 7.

Good- more camera support. Currently too few to mention.



www.strypesinpost.com

Option to buy FCS 3 for ENTERPRISE DEPLOYMENT only...not individual license. For the big boys...

Well, I still think it'll be too little, too late. Too much reliance on third parties to cover what they used to do in FCP 7.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Alex4D Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 1. FCP XML in/out is coming via 3rd party
> soon?no FCP 6/7 support project support coming
> ever it seems?

I don't understand why not. If it's technically possible to translate FCP XML to FCPX then it's technically possible to translate an FCP project file. If Apple can't be bothered, fine, but they should at least release the FCP project file specification so third parties can have a go.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

I completely don't understand this. The whole thing about the connections in FCP are only in the editor's head is such crap. It's like EDLs have not worked for decades. There's nothing in the editor's head in an EDL, just what the numbers are and where the numbers fall. Really it's inconceivable to me that that cannot be translated into FCPX storylines. I'm sure you could do it Jon, even if it's only that the connection is to whatever's on V1 at the specified time location.

All the best,

Tom

Peter Wiggins has posted more over at his forum.


Alex

___________________________________________________
Alexandre Gollner,
Editor, Zone 2-North West, London

alex4d on twitter, facebook, .wordpress.com + .com

My take is that there is enormous money to be made by 3rd parties.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Peter says that Lion will include XSan. Sounds like a big deal, is this news?

Michael, if Apple plan to lean on third party developers a lot more, I hope they set up a Pro Apps App store soon. To allow for plug-in distribution, they're going to have to relax of those App Store entry requirements.

Perhaps we'll see messages like this:

"The tool required to access that footage / edit that effect / export that timeline is not installed, choose Pro App Store from the Final Cut Pro menu to browse through some solutions."

___________________________________________________
Alexandre Gollner,
Editor, Zone 2-North West, London

alex4d on twitter, facebook, .wordpress.com + .com

Absolutely ... although it seems inconceivable that the broadcast post production market will stay with FCP in the mid/long term (and frankly increasingly inconceivable that Apple will stay with it that same timeframe either) so those 3rd parties rubbing their hands together may do well not to base their (future) business around supporting it.

Alex4D Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Peter says that Lion will include XSan. Sounds
> like a big deal, is this news?

This has already been publicly stated by Apple:
[www.apple.com]

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

Andy Mees Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Absolutely ... although it seems inconceivable
> that the broadcast post production market will
> stay with FCP in the mid/long term (and frankly
> increasingly inconceivable that Apple will stay
> with it that same timeframe either) so those 3rd
> parties rubbing their hands together may do well
> not to base their (future) business around
> supporting it.

I think the third party support will be a significant factor. Many facilities are looking but many haven't jumped yet. Some are gone for sure. Others are waiting six months or so for the first round of updates. Apple may staunch some bleeding but yes, the blood lose will be severe for some time.

This industry has a very high rate of turnover when it comes to independent facilities (broadcast and cable obviously not) and new facilities coming into existence a year from now will be looking at FCPX in a different light than what we see today . . . that's assuming it's worth looking at . . . but that's up to Apple and third party support. These companies aren't going to be as heavily influenced by FCP legacy project input for example. The value of Thunderbolt and an Apple based server, XSAN, NLE may weigh heavily without the history baggage.

I think the most "extreme" reaction may actually be facilities opening now. There's no way they'd have any reason to consider Apple's present or future. It's just not workable at the moment.

I will gladly add FCPX support to my existing apps because it's not a great deal of work, but I am waiting to see how popular FCPX becomes before I put any significant investment into it. It's a chicken and egg situation.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

My point is that it wont hurt...at least that much. Jon and others can tell us if its not worth the effort eventually. Sems like it is...so far.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Shane Ross Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Option to buy FCS 3 for ENTERPRISE DEPLOYMENT
> only...not individual license. For the big
> boys...
>
> Well, I still think it'll be too little, too late.
> Too much reliance on third parties to cover what
> they used to do in FCP 7.

Unbelievable. I am so done with Apple. A 22 year relationship, gone. Sayonara.

Craig I can tell you that with Post facilities, especially larger ones than mine, it's about a 3 to 6 month process before you "jump ship" to another NLE. In my case I was looking at Adobe and Avid but never took the time to actually install the software until after X dropped.

So I would suspect that's the process that is going on at many larger Post Houses and broadcasters who are continuing to run FCP 7 at the moment throughout their facility, but have at least one or two Adobe / Avid test stations running. Particularly to give their editors a chance to test drive each and see what they think. There's also the who budget system which usually results in purchases being made starting around October. But of course most shops already own Premier as part of their CS package. So we'll know just how many post houses / broadcasters will be moving away from FCP in about 3 to 6 months.

In my case the original plan to was to transition by the end of the summer, but Premiere is working out so well, I may move it right into production next week with my documentary. The transition from FCP to PPro is just incredibly simple and the AJA Kona support means it works with our hardware. My editors are really excited about the transition.

Avid is not out of the picture by any means with us either, we just need to have AJA Kona support before we could truly test that out. We have it installed, but can't do a whole lot with it other than learn the interface again, which of course takes some time.

Very exciting times for all. Seems like everything happened just at the right time like back in 2000 when I made the switch from Media 100 to FCP.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

Quote
Jon
Alex4D Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 1. FCP XML in/out is coming via 3rd party
> soon?no FCP 6/7 support project support coming
> ever it seems?

I don't understand why not. If it's technically possible to translate FCP XML to FCPX then it's technically possible to translate an FCP project file. If Apple can't be bothered, fine, but they should at least release the FCP project file specification so third parties can have a go.

Jon you're totally right.
But as Alex stated in another thread where I said that FCPX projects are SQLite it shouldn't be too problematic for you to figure out.
I know one of gurus for FCPsvr and I talked about this with him on the phone some days ago. He first said: 'we'll wait for the API'. I answered: 'you know enough about SQL to start right away'. I got an email yesterday that they are nearly ready to go.
With your knowledge of programming you should give it try too.

Andreas

P.S. Funny anecdote: The above mentioned guy was hired by Apple to make an FCP Server training for Apple's big customers. The date of the course was the same date Apple announced EOL for FCP Server. But nobody knew about the date in advance. He got the announcement early in the morning on the airport and called Apple who organized the event to cancel it, but they didn't want to cancel. On the airport he bought a Ukulele for his son.
So the training started - as expected - with a kind of helplessness. He took the Ukulele and played some songs. After that he told the audience that he also could be hired as entertainer for Apple and other events.

Maybe with some irony, facilities with Adobe Production Premium already on every seat means Adobe gains no immediate sales. They gain "mindshare" and maybe more expeditious upgrades.

Also given that FCPX sales are a decimal point for Apple, as long as you stay Mac, Apple doesn't lose much either.

It seems Avid is in the tougher sell position because not only is that a purchase but there's the issue of the hardware compatibility expenses.

Adding to the irony though, given that it seems that just to get FCPX feature parity with FCP7, will require 3rd party purchases, the cost of moving from FCS2009 to FCPX is way more expensive than what a FCS upgrade used to cost. Even if FCPX were "killer," it may actually be far more cost effective for a facility to move to Premiere if that have Production Premium sitting on their workstations. They'll even have a more reliable way to import legacy FCP projects. It's almost as if Apple arranged to hand over Post to Adobe and minimize the cost of the move for many facilities.

As much as I see great potential in FCPX, it seems Apple doesn't have much room for facility retention especially given the economics of the move to FCPX vs the move to Premiere.

As per my comments above, FCPX's main avenue for success will be in new businesses about a year or more from now and that's only an avenue with no guarantee that road will be traveled.

Given Apple's reliance on third party support for feature parity, even if it were all available today, many facilities would be looking at a cost that may close to $1000 a seat vs nothing to move to an already installed copy of Production Premium which also provides better FCP legacy import.

Andreas Kiel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Jon you're totally right.
> But as Alex stated in another thread where I said
> that FCPX projects are SQLite it shouldn't be too
> problematic for you to figure out.
> I know one of gurus for FCPsvr and I talked about
> this with him on the phone some days ago. He first
> said: 'we'll wait for the API'. I answered: 'you
> know enough about SQL to start right away'. I got
> an email yesterday that they are nearly ready to
> go.
> With your knowledge of programming you should give
> it try too.

The problem isn't getting it into an FCPX-compatible format, the problem is extracting data from the old FCP project. The format is undocumented and I don't know of anyone who has successfully reverse-engineered it. It would be a considerable effort. It's much easier to ask everyone to convert all their projects to XML, however inconvenient that may be for larger facilities.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

I've just returned to Sam Johnson's twitter stream.

Apple have got in touch with him to give him a couple of clarifications:

Quote

2. Ability to buy ADDITIONAL #FCP7 licenses for EXISTING volume licensed deployments is something Apple are only looking into at this stage.

4. FCPX AJA plugins coming soon for tape capture and layback?capture straight into FCPX events. Will not be a plugin but an AJA application.

I've updated my blog post with this information also.

___________________________________________________
Alexandre Gollner,
Editor, Zone 2-North West, London

alex4d on twitter, facebook, .wordpress.com + .com

So London gets the world premiere of X at the SuperMeet and now gets all this info first. What is it with London? I'm moving there.



Michael Horton
-------------------