After a abbreviated mixup Sunday morning ( it took a talk of the town with Apple PR to convince the people sit behind the imperativeness desk that I was indeed desirable of a media badge and not doom to look in phone line with the general “ guests ” ) I made my way to a ballroom at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas for Apple ’s event on the evening of 2007’sNational Association of Broadcasters ( NAB ) trade show .
The room was packed with a few thousand members of the pressure , VIPs , Apple employees , and assorted ask over guests . With two age since Apple ’s last major update to its pro TV apps , this event was something that generated a good deal of supposition . ( And thanks to an undefendable Wi - Fi internet , I was able-bodied to dart live updates to Jim Dalrymple thousands of miles aside to mail up - to - the - minute reporting about Apple ’s promulgation . )
Rob Schoeben , Apple ’s vice chairwoman of applications merchandise marketing , do in fiddling time getting started with what ending up being a close to two - hr occasion . According to Schoeben , there were 250,000 terminal Cut editors worldwide two yr ago ; that number jumped to 500,000 last year and now posture at 800,000 . The topic for the day was “ It ’s a last Cut World . ” He then showed a demo reel with all the labor in which Final Cut work a part in the last twelvemonth : movies such asReign Over Meand300 , TNT ’s showThe cheeseparing , and many documentary film and commercials .
It is this grow — and outspoken — residential district of Final Cut user that lead Apple to produce a novel production call Final Cut Server aimed at serve editor in chief with the massive amounts of digital capacity they have , as well as the non - one-dimensional collaboration and shrink production schedules they are forced to plow with . The media plus direction and workflow mechanization package even has a fussy - platform client so all video recording editor can delight it . As Schoeben put it , “ It ’s the same port if he or she is stick on a PC . ” ( Requisite PC dig at Apple event — hitch . )
Although the attendees were impressed , what collect the most hand clapping was the toll tag—$999 for 10 concurrents users , or “ $ 99 a seat to clear this problem that ’s been haunting us , ” said Schoeben . Even the $ 1,999 limitless version was heralded . The only part that did n’t pull loud cheers was the news that Final Cut Server wo n’t be available until this summer .
The mass of the event was spend on a newfangled rendering of the Final Cut Studio suite of applications . Final Cut Pro bumped up toversion 6with a newfangled 10 - bit , 4:2:2 codec — Apple ProRes 422 — that gives you uncompressed HD at South Dakota file size . For good example , Schoeben showed how 1 TB of footage was tighten to 170 GB using Apple ’s new codec . “ It ’s peculiar that 170[GB ] is really low these days , but that ’s the world we exist in , ” he impart . It also adds the ability to fuse formats , closure , and frame rates within a single timeline — a very nerveless feature that some competing diligence already have . last Cut Pro 6 will also have aboriginal reinforcement for the4 K Red One HD video photographic camera , which should be shipping shortly for $ 17,500 ( very affordable for the type of quality we ’re talking about here ) .
Apple also show off a new gadget fromAJA Video Systemscalled the Io HD , which has Apple ’s ProRes codec embedded indoors . The $ 3,495 portable Io HD is made to work with Final Cut Pro and Macs to aid move video in and out of Macs . It ship in July .
A look at the Perspective scene in Motion 3
Soundtrack Pro 2’sbig new features seem to be its newfound 5.1 - channel surround sound power , Take Management to help combine multiple yield of dialog into one idealistic clip , and a Conform feature that lets you sync alteration between picture and strait when a video editor makes changes and expect you to follow suit of clothes . ( The accept or override part is standardized to Microsoft Word ’s Track Changes feature ) .
The final update was inCompressor 3 , which adds presets for iPod , Apple TV , and more . The updated Compressor also lets you aggroup vulgar preferences together for batch processing individual filing cabinet and includes quicken water line from Motion . Schoeben show a slide comparing the sentence it took to encode a 10 - minute HDV snip to iPod - compatible H.264 video on an 8 - effect Mac Pro with Compressor 2 and Compressor 3 . The previous version took 16 minutes , 45 irregular to do so , while the Modern one took only 6 minutes , 2 seconds to complete the same task . That good - than - real - time resolution was due in part to the fact that you’re able to now choose how many instances of Compressor you desire to run — you’re able to opt as many as your Mac has cores .
If you do n’t see DVD Studio Pro in this tilt of Final Cut Studio updates , it ’s not because I ’m a lazy diarist who could n’t be bothered to pay attention during that part of the event . Apple is not releasing a new version of DVD Studio Pro , and the Final Cut Studio includes the currentDVD Studio Pro 4 edition .
What Apple did do was add an altogether new app to the retinue , Color . Schoeben enounce that back in 1999 , when Final Cut Pro first came out , it used to be more than $ 100,000 for an editing cortege — Apple has done its part to bring that issue down significantly . Now he say that a system for colour grading and polish off also costs more than $ 100,000 . His feeling : “ That is so not OK . ” So Apple is unloosen Color , a real - time professional color grading and chastisement instrument for Final Cut Pro editors . My guess is that Color is based on FinalTouch , people of color - chastening software program made by Silicon Color , which Apple purchased in October .
Apple demonstrates Color , the new program that ’s part of Final Cut Studio .
Colorincludes main and subaltern tools , more than 40 Color FX ( Exposure , Film Grain , Alpha Blend , Bleach Bypass , Film Look , Blend , and many more ) , as well as cooking pan and scan tool and view proportion changeover . One cool characteristic was Saturation Curves , which serves as a visual representation of what you ’re doing with saturation . you may also drag - and - drop context from one scene to others , and a 3 - D telescope shows you all the pixels represented in 3 - D blank . The crowd seemed generally contain by Color , but the biggest joy come when Schoeben announced that it would be part of Final Cut Studio 2 and not a disjoined applications programme ( “ I had a weird feeling that you were going to wish that part , ” he said . )
All in all , the whirlwind tour through the new apps testify that Apple has been spending a pile of sentence and effort on improving its pro picture mathematical product ( and in a few case , inventing new apps ) . It did strike me as odd that DVD Studio Pro was the only curriculum leave behind out of the Studio makeover . And those who were expecting young displays from Apple or a retool MacBook Pro will surely be a little disappointed . But Final Cut Studio 2 does look very nice . I ’m looking forwards to getting my hand on it .
And unlike Leopard , I wo n’t have to wait until October to try it out — Apple suppose that Final Cut Studio 2 will ship next month .
