Another round of (200) layoffs for Avid

Missed amongst the noise, Avid Announces Restructuring, Lays off 10% of Workforce according to SonicScoop and others:

"This is a corporation that laid off 120 people in 2010, and 410 employees the year before that – 15% of its staff at the time. It was all a part of five rounds of Avid layoffs that took place between 2006-2009 alone, and a reflection of the company’s overall declining financial health. 

Don’t forget that Avid’s product lines also span essential video editing and finishing systems (DS,Media Composer, Symphony Nitris). The VENUE live consoles are in the mix, as are a raft of popular audio brands that the company acquired over the years, notably M-Audio, System 5, and Sibelius. Clearly, none of these lines have been making enough of a difference to stop Avid from its ongoing advance in the wrong direction."

Update: from Walter Murch at a recent Final Cut event, followed by part of his presentation:

'If you didn’t use FCP, where would you go? “I’ve used Avid in the past, so I know it well. There are some very good things that Avid has, but I’m also curious about Premiere since I’m interested in technology.”'

Seems like Adobe should introduce him to Premiere with a CUDA card.



Update: the full video of the Murch presentation is available.

Premiere CS5 6 months later + Avid switchers

@AdobePremiere twittered on a few interesting items today. At DVInfo.net, Pete Bauer takes another look at Premiere Pro CS5 and adds some advice in Premiere CS5 Six Months Later. Here's an short excerpt:

"I’m using a home-built i7 980X with 12GB of RAM, Quadro FX4800, SSD for the OS and a 4 HDD RAID0 for Preview files. I routinely edit 20 – 90 minute timelines using 3-4 HD cameras in a variety of HD formats, typically using “Render and Replace” to sweeten audio in Soundbooth, and include some dynamic links to short After Effects comps. I did have a couple of seemingly random but non-repeatable crashes fairly early on. Thinking back over the past couple months since going to version 5.02 I honestly don’t recall any crashes at all.

I simply cannot overstate how satisfying it is to throw four different types of HD files on a timeline, multi-cam them, color correct, rotate, scale, add transitions, and still see a yellow bar (meaning no preview file rendering is needed) and enjoy fluid performance on the timeline. In fact, I just recently did that with Canon AVCHD, 5DmII MOV, HDV, GoPro mp4 and 24 bit audio wav files all working together in the same multi-cam and target sequences."

Not that everything is always fluid in Premiere -- sometimes you'll see several second pauses before playback starts, app startup can be comparatively lengthy, and conforming can make you wait (though conforming is much less painful than previous releases).

Also tweeted was a new video learning product from Video2brain (for Avid users, a very tough room), Premiere Pro CS5 for Avid Editors: Your Guide to Making the Leap to Premiere Pro! [later, about a half hour of samples were posted from this set on Video2brain]

SF Cutters @ Avid 12-1 + Avid/RED webinar

SF Cutters -- brought to you originally by the Option key in Final Cut -- is having a night hosted by Avid on Wednesday, December 01, 2010 from 6:30 PM - 9:30 PM.

Tickets are going fast. This meeting is at Avid (Digidesign), 2001 Junipero Serra Blvd in Daly City (not real far from BART). Here's the current agenda:

• Chris Nelson, editor of Lost and Mad Men
• Michael Krulik, Avid Sr. Applications Editor
• Jesse Spencer, expert sharing tricks
• drawing includes Avid Media Composer 5!

Update: see Scott Simmons on a free webinar with the experts on December 2, Avid and RED team up for a RED workflow webinar.

Final Cut Studio 4: a double scoop

Yesterday Mac Soda mused on Final Cut Studio 4: The Inside Scoop, which sent some all atwitter. The article is necessarily speculative and perhaps more fanboy than drivel. Philip Hodgetts, a successful developer and seer of trends, responded quickly with Final Cut Studio 4: The Inside Scoop (from MacSoda), which has its own set of counterpoints well-taken and conjectures (sorry but Nuke is the replacement for Shake).

Hodgetts also recently looked at Apple's AV Foundation and the future of QuickTime (which is quite deep and links to even more deepness on iOS video).

These articles are definitely more fun than the Spring reports of Final Cut retooling for the consumer market. Since the alternatives are uncertain, with Avid apparently still suffering financially and Adobe as yet unproven (and not endorsed by major filmmakers), one can hope that Apple remains committed to the competition even if more out of spite than fast cash.

Update: Even with Apple dragging its feet, the presumed Exodus from Final Cut to Adobe Premiere CS5 seems to have stalled. Oliver Peters explained why a few months ago; see Will CS5 and MC5 toast FCP?

Update 2: Todd Kopriva posted about Premiere Pro overview documents for Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer users. Users switching platforms at this point may only be about money at the lower end, since Premiere is still 3rd choice in the NLE hierarchy. For context, see Final Cut Studio 4: a double scoop.

There's really no secret about the kinds of things Adobe could do to improve usability and mindshare beside luring the lukewarm from the Apple camp -- assuming that there are goals in addition to short-term sales. There's plenty of advice aimed at Apple that Adobe could implement. Beyond constant drumbeats pleading for Avid-style media management and Trim Mode (see FCP-List for pro/cons), there are more examples in the feature request list at FCPro.TV and advice from Oliver Peters on Improving FCP and Media Composer.

Update 3: humor from @BeetleCarDriver,

@editblog While you were gone Apple released FCS5...

@editblog ....My mistake, it was a ProApps update...

Update 4: maybe someday a Premiere fan will get a rebuttal from an Avid user; see Dylan Reeve on What IS the big deal about FCP?

Using FCP Trim mode like Avid Trim mode + Premiere

Paul Del Vecchio has a post and some video on Using FCP's trim mode like Avid's trim mode (sorta), plus an Overview of Avid Media Composer and Avid Trim Mode. Adobe Premiere Pro also gets some attention and a couple of useful feature suggestions. Read the post for details not in the videos, and to give Paul feedback:






Update: in The Zen of Trim Steve Cohen explains the power of Avid’s trim model,

"My point was this: Most of my cuts are overlapped. When I adjust picture, I usually want to adjust sound somewhere else to stay in sync. With MC, I can trim all parts of an overlap while playing and watching any one of them. When I stop, I’m done.

The ability to see realtime video while the cut is made, and to observe what’s happening at any part of the cut, audio or video, a-side or b-side, while keeping everything else in sync, is something I can’t get anywhere else. Not to mention the ability to do asymmetrical trimming, or trim two heads or tails, slip or slide, etc., all while watching, or listening to, any portion of the cut."

Transcriptize: CS4 transcriptions to Media Composer, Excel, and Final Cut

Assisted Editing has a new product it seems to make Adobe speech transcriptions more useful for users of other software. Transcriptize takes transcriptions from Adobe CS4 Production Premium to Media Composer, Excel and Final Cut Pro.

Final Cut is catching up to Premiere (sorta)

Michael Wohl, who was on the teams that created Premiere, KeyGrip, and Final Cut, demonstarates some of the key features of Final Cut Pro 7 in What You NEED to Know About FCP 7 (part 1) at MacVideo.

Among the many features that Final Cut has borrowed from Premiere are new additions like timeline zooms around the timemarker and a shortcut for direct manipulation of the speed of a clip in the timeline. Of course, Premiere stills lags behind on features like codecs and reliability on larger complex projects (despite a big installed base).

Also, check out the reviews of The new Final Cut Studio and Avid Media Composer 2009 by Oliver Peters at DigitalFilms.

Get Avid to run with unsupported audio card

Frank Capria notes a Genius DV trick to enable editors to run Avid Media Composer on PCs with unsupported audio cards often found on legacy machines, which might be useful for logging on an older laptop or something. Genius DV found:

"A quick visit to your nearest Radio Shack may be your solution. The work around is to purchase a small usb audio device made by Gigaware. Specifically it's the 'Gigaware HeadPhone to Stereo USB Adapter with Microphone.' This device plug's into any USB socket and provides audio I/O functionality. If you can't find it at your local Radio Shack store, you can purchase it online for $20.00."

What Frank has learned at Avid

Studio Daily notes What Frank has learned at Avid, thus far. Avid's new frankness is via a new Avid product designer, Frank Capria of Xprove, FinalCutPro-List, ProVideoCoalition, Capria.TV, etc.

Frank's new Avid blog is Source / Record.

Avid names new CEO

Avid has a new CEO. Capria.TV has good background; Splice Here links you to a conference call.

From Avid to Final Cut Pro

Splice Here notes a "thoughtful analysis of the differences and similarities between Media Composer and Final Cut" at the Avid to Final Cut Pro site in a Useful Comparison of Avid and Final Cut. It's oriented toward Apple of course.

Studio Daily notes Avid news

Not only are there changes at Adobe (not the "Adobe OS" question), but at Avid with today's press release. They're passing on NAB 2008, sorta. Studio Daily has some of the background from the Avid side in an An Open Letter to Avid.

Avid's P2 Workflow movie

A bit after The Edit Blog explained P2 in Avid, an Avid blog provides it owns demo of Avid's P2 Workflow, noting other resources too.

Premiere Pro 3.1 posted, with P2 support + Intel SSE4.1

The Premiere Pro 3.1 update has been posted on the Abobe site for Windows & Mac. This update adds Panasonic P2 MXF compatibility plus a few bug fixes. Note that P2 MXF support in AE is not included.

The update has been available via the Adobe Update Manager, which hasn't been showing updates for some people who used the public beta. Details on the release were posted here previously in AE & PremierePro's P2 support, 3.1 upgrade available.

Update: The EditBlog discusses Editing P2 media on Avid.

Update 2: Adobe has a Premiere Pro Update for Intel SSE4.1 on Adobe Labs, "In November 2007, Intel released the Penryn family of processors that support new instructions called SSE4.1. These processors are identified by the 45nm production technology and one example is the Intel Core2 Extreme Processor QX9650. These new instructions are very helpful for working with video data. This update is completely optional and is meant to be a preview of the optimization work that is currently under development for the next release of Premiere Pro."

FCP2Avid. Turnabout's fair play.

The Edit Blog notes another switch site; turnabout's fair play if done right.

Murch NAB2007 interview

Martin Baker posted part 1 of his Walter Murch NAB2007 interview at Avid2FCP.com.

Murch: "Avid was having a lock on the system and my own experience with them on [The Talented Mr] Ripley was that they were noticeably unresponsive to cries of help. Even from someone like me, who had won an Oscar for The English Patient which was the first film ever to win an Oscar for a digitally edited film and it was on an Avid! So if I was having problems getting help from them, you wonder what happens at other levels."

Edit Blog compares Avid and Final Cut

The Edit Blog's Avid and Final Cut comparison series continues...