Next Final Cut Pro at NAB Next Week? Due Spring 2011, Some More Hints

[MrNomNoms]

Hoping for some better multi-core support(although probably going to have to wait for Lion for the newer QuickTime engine) and a UI that isn't from the 90's. Only thing that's changed is the scroll bars.

In Lion they're providing AV Foundation which leads me to believe that QtKit will be a stripped down bare basic framework with AV Foundation going to be used for future heavy lifting projects. In Snow Leopard AV Foundation is provided but it is a private framework so the rumours a while ago that Lion version will be 'better' than the Snow Leopard sounds that it'll probably rely on AV Foundation in Snow Leopard but the Lion version, the one with the AV Foundation that is a public API, will probably have more features etc.

 

[totoum]

But later he gets called out from another speculating Apple is making a very significant change and distancing Final Cut from the real 'pro' users, dumbing it down, etc, and the guy who has seen it gets real quiet.. He is asked if he will update his editing studio's workflow to the new Final Cut, and he basically danced around the question, pleaded the 5th, and made it pretty clear that he is holding back some reservations about how the industry will adapt to the changes.

Yep,saw that,as well as the "faster horse" quote meaning that there will be disapointed people.

I think he refused to commit to switching to the new version because I'm betting on anything tape based being taken out,that seems like a very apple thing to do but as they mentioned later most huge production companies are not ready for that.

Also probably means no blu-ray in sight and no update to dvd studio pro.

I really do hope they switch to a halfway decent H.264 encoder though.

 

[REDolution]

All the rumours appear to be about FCP8, does anyone else think that DVDSP, STP, Motion, Compressor and Color have all been left as is?

 

[dicklacara]

I'm not so sure about the down res option, it sounds like an awful lot of time spent compressing, though I sure hope it is some type of interface, perhaps as an input device or palette.

iOS 4.3 apparently contains private frameworks for all the ProRes codecs.

I hope we also will see a way to use an iPad as a control surface for some FC operations -- pinch/zoom for example or dragging audio sliders...

 

[8CoreWhore]

As bad as it sounds for Apple to "boot out the others", Apple doesn't have the authority to do that. FCUG organizers chose to do it at Apple's request because they require the space and time. FCUG could have said no to Apple, but why would they? It's not a Canon Group, it's a FCU Group...

 

[xStep]

I'm a little confused...why was Avid presenting at a Final Cut Pro User Group's meeting anyway? Do they just come in and are like "Hey, you've all made a mistake!" or something?

No, they come in and professionally present their product like they would do for any audience, as personally seen at an LAFCPUG meeting.

Michael Horton who runs LAFCPUG, and is one of the main organizers of the Supermeet, has the attitude that editors should be aware of all the tools available, including competition to FCP. Also remember that not all people are tied to one tool.

The speculation of how Apple got into the meeting is humorous. Hopefully Michael will eventually give up some information.

Apple can easily make there own event, just book that building in SF and invite some journalists or plan in advance!!

Giving an in depth presentation to this FCP centric audience will likely get Apple much more buzz in the editing community than a standard announcement in front of journalists.

 

[Tacitus]

Although the presentation is going to be about FCP, I wonder if Apple will announce any upgrades to the Mac Pro? An updated MP with Thunderbolt would surely be of interest to those in pro video.

 

[JM-Prod]

Anything less will be a huge disappointment

anything less than the following will be a huge disappointment:

- touch-based editing release together with a huge "iPad"/editing board (probably connected to the main computer with Thunderbolt)
- professional features intact and developed
- integrates nicely with DI systems such as DaVinci

best,
jon m.

 

[badpup]

I'm a little confused...why was Avid presenting at a Final Cut Pro User Group's meeting anyway? Do they just come in and are like "Hey, you've all made a mistake!" or something?

Lets not forget that Avid ISIS and unity storage products have been FCP compliant for some time now. + the amount of times I go FCP > pro-tools, which is also an Avid piece of kit

I'm a long standing FCP user - I cut my own work on it, but the post place I work in uses Avid. Lately I've really been thinking FCP (FCS in general) needs to catch up in a few areas... it'll be interesting to see what they update.

What sounds bad to me about apple hogging the whole stage is the wording in the original article... "demanded all lectern time". Whatever way you dress it "demanding" stuff seems mean, but as others have mentioned I bet it was all properly discussed. The sad thing is I wouldn't put it past Apple to demand something like this.

 

[onigami]

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and it ain't the whole fact that Apple pushed aside every professional vid company just to announce their product. It's that they never have announced pro-level products at/alongside professional trade shows prior to this. CES is one thing, but I don't ever recall Apple ever placing any presence at/during NAB or AES (the latter of which they would present something related to the Logic Pro) before. Even for egotists like Apple, this is completely unusual. In recent years, new makes of Logic and Final Cut have dropped with no warning whatsoever. Furthermore, this is a Usergroup meetup. This lacks the professionalism of a standard Apple product announcement.

Besides, why would anyone from the upper ranks of Apple (Ives, Cook, Jobs) even meet with a professional usergroup? I don't recall any of those guys ever talking about Final Cut or Logic in any Apple event, precisely because they are niche products that target an audience a hundredth, maybe a thousandth the size of the main Apple demographic. You don't need to utilize executive charisma to sell these products.

Finally, while I don't know whether software stocks are different from hardware stocks, I just checked Apple's website, and FCS, FCE, and FCServer are readily available for shipping within 24 hours.

My theory? This isn't Apple, but a very elaborate prank being pulled by some con artists.

(also: Why the hell is there an idle timer that automatically logs me out after 10 minutes of inactivity?)

 

[slackpacker]

Well I bet they handle Formats differently.

Gone is Pulldown. Gone is Film Support...replaced with the best web movie rendering support in the industry. Also Apple will change the antiquated delivery method for productions. Once your done you publish to the itunes store and you have now distributed your movie. The interface will be a multitrack version of iMovie. From watching this clip and all the industry big wigs saying "its wonderful" Ya its great but in a different way ... because whats going to be released is not FCP studio 4. I'm sure its a whole new thing. So all the iMovie 7 users who had to keep using it because iMovie 8 was a total re-write because of no legacy no pluggin support will happen to FC Editors. This will force Editors who use Studio 3 to continue to use S3 until they build up the features of this "new" editor. Its going to be a very interesting NAB. Avid and Premiere are going to gain a lot of new friends if this is true. But the larger batch of new editors who really could care less about 99% of what this small market needs will be very happy. I also bet the price is quite a bit lower as well.

This will be the everything is gone and changed upgrade.

 

[slackpacker]

Finally, while I don't know whether software stocks are different from hardware stocks, I just checked Apple's website, and FCS, FCE, and FCServer are readily available for shipping within 24 hours.

I'm sure they will still be shipping since they support the current Final Cut Studio 3 reeaallllyyy well. Lets face it the thing thats coming out will not support the old Plug-ins or workflows and will not be the replacement for FCP that everyone was expecting.

 

[jeanlain]

I don't ever recall Apple ever placing any presence at/during NAB or AES

Phil Schiller showing off final cut pro 4 and DVD sp 2 at NAB 2003 says hello.
Apple was on stage at several NAB. Final Cut Pro itself was introduced there.

 

[bugfaceuk]

anything less than the following will be a huge disappointment:

- touch-based editing release together with a huge "iPad"/editing board (probably connected to the main computer with Thunderbolt)
- professional features intact and developed
- integrates nicely with DI systems such as DaVinci

best,
jon m.

Faster horses.

 

[kas23]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2 like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C134 Safari/6533.18.5)

Interesting news, but the bit about booting competitors is downright disgusting.

It's not like they threatened anyone. They likely went to the organizers and said "We'd like to make a really cool announcement at your event but we'd need most of your presentation and sponsorship space to do it." SuperMeet said sure, Apple paid, and here we are. It's not like the other sponsors didn't get their money back (I'm assuming.)

Yeah, I'm sure that's what happened...if they were dealing with the Apple of 5 years ago. But, no, we now see today's Apple in action. The same Apple that stole that hot chick's iAd app idea, the same that "asked" Toyota to remove the Scion ad from Cydia, the same that sent out their own ninja's to search some dude's house for the iPhone 4 prototype, etc.

 

[REDolution]

Well I bet they handle Formats differently.

Gone is Pulldown. Gone is Film Support...replaced with the best web movie rendering support in the industry. Also Apple will change the antiquated delivery method for productions. Once your done you publish to the itunes store and you have now distributed your movie. The interface will be a multitrack version of iMovie. From watching this clip and all the industry big wigs saying "its wonderful" Ya its great but in a different way ... because whats going to be released is not FCP studio 4. I'm sure its a whole new thing. So all the iMovie 7 users who had to keep using it because iMovie 8 was a total re-write because of no legacy no pluggin support will happen to FC Editors. This will force Editors who use Studio 3 to continue to use S3 until they build up the features of this "new" editor. Its going to be a very interesting NAB. Avid and Premiere are going to gain a lot of new friends if this is true. But the larger batch of new editors who really could care less about 99% of what this small market needs will be very happy. I also bet the price is quite a bit lower as well.

This will be the everything is gone and changed upgrade.

Are you speculating or have you just disobeyed your NDA? ;-)

 

[nwcs]

Oh boo hoo about the companies being "booted" from sponsorships. The company I work for goes to trade shows. The time invested is actually quite small and most of the materials are in inventory anyway. The presentations are usually based on the same script. I bet the companies aren't that disappointed. In fact they would like to be there and see what Apple is up to more than anyone else. So I bet they'll send the same presenter staff there to view and record anything of note to send back to their company.

Businesses deal with things by contract and those contracts have terms and conditions. No company would just break a contract so I'm sure everything wad handled quite smoothly behind the scenes. So I think this idea that Apple bullied or pushed people is silly.

 

[slackpacker]

Are you speculating or have you just disobeyed your NDA? ;-)

speculating from what the video showed and a little past history industry knowledge

 

[chrono1081]

Anyone else call BS on that whole article?

First, off: Its poorly written. As soon as I saw the "The Apple fan-boys out there will say that..."

Really? Speculation on what Apple "fanyboys" will say? Sounds like Engadget forums.

Second: Didn't ANYONE realize this is all rumor and speculation? Not fact?

I used to come to Macrumors to read about Mac news, but now its all anit-apple crap.

 

[JM-Prod]

Faster horses.

Hmm, you want a faster horse or did you think my comments were screaming for them?

If my expectation are met, it would be a revolution in editing.

The second since introducing digital non-linear editing in the late 80's.

Not faster horses.

 

[baryon]

I'm all in for something new in Video Editing. I find that FCP is way too old and clunky, and Premiere is the same thing with a better interface. I rarely use the Viewer anymore, and I hate having to render. I hate the various pixel aspect ratios and formats there are, including PAL and NTSC. I still think tape cameras are the best in quality, but the practicality of recording on a card or a hard drive will soon beat that.

There has to be a performance and workflow improvement, as syncing sound to video precisely is near impossible due to the huge amounts of lag.

This sounds like an interesting update!

 

[totoum]

I used to come to Macrumors to read about Mac news, but now its all anit-apple crap.

Just skip that article and watch the video

 

[ianbailey]

These are my predictions, based purely on idle speculation, same as everyone else:

Bored with all this 'Ooh, it will be like iMovies' business. iMovie is for fun, FCP is for pros.

As a pro editor you need to be able to preview and mark your clips before editing. Unless Apple comes up with some sort of compelling, Browser-based thingy, we won't be losing the Viewer window. The current FCP is flexible, you can close the Viewer if you want or have more than one Viewer.

The pro tag would go out the window if we lost tape I/O, plenty of people shoot on HDV. I reckon all standard definition support will go. As will Cinema Tools, as someone has already mentioned. Issues for those who master to Digi-Beta and author DVDs.

The possibilities of cloud storage are interesting, but there are obvious obstacles unless you're using low-rez proxies. A groovy control surface using the iPad / iPhone / iPod Touch? Bring it on!

Although a new FCP is great news, I'm wondering if the new Motion is going to be equally exciting. It's about time it stepped up and challenged After Effects.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and it ain't the whole fact that Apple pushed aside every professional vid company just to announce their product. It's that they never have announced pro-level products at/alongside professional trade shows prior to this. CES is one thing, but I don't ever recall Apple ever placing any presence at/during NAB or AES (the latter of which they would present something related to the Logic Pro) before.

You need to consult a doctor ASAP because your memory isn't so good. It's only been a few years since Apple pulled out of NAB. Prior to that Apple use to announce products alongside NAB all the time. In fact the very first version of FCP was announced at Supermeet.

Since then:

NAB '01: DVD SP 1.5
NAB '02, '03: new versions of FCP
NAB '05, 06, 07, 09: new versions of FCS

Anyone else call BS on that whole article?

Huh? Did you see the video. This is a legit NAB discussion panel. But I see where you are coming from b/c it's completely unlike Apple to go off on a new paradigm. I mean Apple would be the last company to shock customers and the industry by ditching the floppy drive at the peak of it's existence. And it would never just completely rewrite a popular consumer program like iMovie. Or take the lead on a new connector like Thunderbolt. Never, because we all know Apple is a company that follows other's lead.

I since there will be a lot of the usually howling when this new FCP is previewed. It looks like Apple is taking video editing in a completely new direction, hence the sentimental journey back to the place where FCP was first launched. Based on the video Apple is jettisoning old media (TV, Movie) editing for new media (web). The latter market is bigger and it also fits in better with Apple's new consumer-leaning sales model.

Personally I'm excited to see what Tues brings.

Although a new FCP is great news, I'm wondering if the new Motion is going to be equally exciting. It's about time it stepped up and challenged After Effects.

I suspect Apple did a re-think of the entire suite and the Motion graphics will not only give AE a run for it's money but that Motion will be better integrated into FCP.

 

[J-R-P]

The Great One

It is Gretzky not Gretsky.