This fall, I have gone back to my hometown's community college, going for a computer sciences degree. Regarding Macs on the campus, I've seen some students using unibody MacBook Pros (regular 13" and Retina Display), some with MacBook Airs, and I've even seen one with one of those new super-thin MacBooks. The Fine Arts building also has early 2009 24" iMacs (top-of-the-line model) in their video editing lab and radio production room, a newer 21" iMac used by the theater department, and another Mac lab using 2012 Mac Minis. (Other buildings use Windows PCs that are currently being upgraded to Windows 10.)
On the iMacs in the video editing lab, we initially mainly used Final Cut Studio 3 (and sometimes still use it), and now they mainly use the Adobe Creative Suite (I forget which version.) The TV studio director held off on Final Cut Pro X since it first came out, thinking it was more or less a "prosumer" app. However today he agreed to let me give him a demonstration of Final Cut Pro X on my MacBook, after he had checked out a review for the latest version (10.2.3.) He was really impressed by it, and it reminded him a lot of the old video editing software we used back when the video editing lab used Dell PCs: Pinnacle Liquid Edition (by 2006 it became Avid Liquid.)
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Complete with background rendering and a similar "timeline" arrangement and everything. He even wondered if the Apple developers that came up with Final Cut Pro X were inspired by Liquid Edition (as he used to work for Pinnacle Systems prior to the Avid buyout in 2005.) Also impressive was the multicam and XML support added, and support for many professional features. I told him that it has so many professional features, I haven't even used them all! (since I generally don't do professional video work, it makes sense)
There is talk the video editing lab may replace the seven-year-old 24" iMacs with new top-of-the-line 27" iMacs, due to MacOS Sierra not being supported on the old Macs, among other things. This may also make for an opportunity to go with Final Cut Pro X on these new Macs, in addition to the Adobe Creative Suite. (Though they will need to use quite a few adapters for some of their legacy equipment, like the FireWire-to-Thunderbolt adapter, along with any external disc drives they have (I know they have at least one USB Blu-Ray authoring drive.)
This should be pretty exciting. I will say Final Cut Pro X has somewhat come a long way since it came out five years ago.
On the iMacs in the video editing lab, we initially mainly used Final Cut Studio 3 (and sometimes still use it), and now they mainly use the Adobe Creative Suite (I forget which version.) The TV studio director held off on Final Cut Pro X since it first came out, thinking it was more or less a "prosumer" app. However today he agreed to let me give him a demonstration of Final Cut Pro X on my MacBook, after he had checked out a review for the latest version (10.2.3.) He was really impressed by it, and it reminded him a lot of the old video editing software we used back when the video editing lab used Dell PCs: Pinnacle Liquid Edition (by 2006 it became Avid Liquid.)
Complete with background rendering and a similar "timeline" arrangement and everything. He even wondered if the Apple developers that came up with Final Cut Pro X were inspired by Liquid Edition (as he used to work for Pinnacle Systems prior to the Avid buyout in 2005.) Also impressive was the multicam and XML support added, and support for many professional features. I told him that it has so many professional features, I haven't even used them all! (since I generally don't do professional video work, it makes sense)
There is talk the video editing lab may replace the seven-year-old 24" iMacs with new top-of-the-line 27" iMacs, due to MacOS Sierra not being supported on the old Macs, among other things. This may also make for an opportunity to go with Final Cut Pro X on these new Macs, in addition to the Adobe Creative Suite. (Though they will need to use quite a few adapters for some of their legacy equipment, like the FireWire-to-Thunderbolt adapter, along with any external disc drives they have (I know they have at least one USB Blu-Ray authoring drive.)
This should be pretty exciting. I will say Final Cut Pro X has somewhat come a long way since it came out five years ago.
