Nonlinear Video Editors for Streaming Postproduction

There’s no saying you can’t do both, of course, and it’s impossible to predict what Apple will do, especially with a core group of more than 1 million Final Cut Pro users. What’s clear is that Final Cut Studio (and the Pro Apps as a whole) has moved from a strategic, foundational product to a gaudy bauble, and no one outside of Apple knows whether the company intends to shine it or sell it. I’m guessing we’ll find out in 2009.

Avid
Avid also declined to attend NAB last year, but that made a whole lot more sense: The company was bleeding cash and undergoing a change at the helm. In March, Avid announced its "New Thinking" for 2008, which included some dramatic price reductions, a simplification of its product line, and a more customer-centric viewpoint.

Though Avid didn’t have a booth at NAB, the company did have a presence there, and it announced a complete revamping of its hardware and software product lines. Hardware capture devices such as Mojo and Nitris that previously used FireWire were transitioned to the ultrafast PCI Express bus, improving editing responsiveness significantly.

Avid upgraded Media Composer to version 3.0, adding a new caption tool, multiple format support on the timeline, and—gasp—drag-and-drop editing from the source bin to the timeline. Avid continues to bundle Sorenson Squeeze with Media Composer for encoding chores, as well as its own branded version of Sonic DVDit Pro HD.


Avid upgraded Media Composer to version 3.0, adding a new caption tool, multiple format support on the timeline, and drag-and-drop editing from the source bin to the timeline.

What about Avid Liquid? Rumors of its demise appear to be overstated, though this could change at any time. Just after NAB, Avid delivered Liquid 7.2, which provided support for the JVC GY-HD100 and 200 series of HDV cameras and the Panasonic HD P2 format, as well as support for Canon XL H1 frame capture. For future marketing and development, Avid handed Liquid back to Pinnacle in late 2007. There appear to be plans for a major new release in mid-2009, but details weren’t available, and Pinnacle officials wouldn’t confirm or deny.

Sony Vegas
Sony announced and shipped Vegas 8 in late 2007, bringing native multicam editing, a new titling function, and advanced scripting capabilities. The bundled DVD Architect tool was upgraded to version 5.0 at NAB in April with newly added Blu-ray Disc authoring. In September 2008, Sony announced upgrades to its 32-bit version of Vegas (8.0c) as well as a 64-bit version, Vegas 8.1. Enhancements in 8.0c include support for several of Sony’s newer camcorders (big surprise), much-needed enhanced trimmer tools, and smart rendering, which should speed the production of lightly edited videos.

The new 64-bit version, Vegas Pro 8.1, can load projects created on the 32-bit version, but it should run more efficiently with large projects and scale more efficiently with multiple processor systems. Both versions are available as free downloads to current owners of Vegas 8.0.

What’s Ahead for 2009?
With major upgrades in 2008, both Apple and Avid should be relatively quiet in 2009. All eyes will be on Apple, and obviously not just in the streaming world. I’ve already heard rumors about Final Cut Pro 7, but there are upgrades and then there are upgrades. With NAB 2009 right around the corner, it will be interesting to see which direction Apple takes.

Jan Ozer (jozer [at] doceo.com) is a frequent contributor to industry magazines and websites on digital video-related topics and is the author and producer of the Critical Skills for Streaming Producers family of tutorials.