Apple says Final Cut Server shipping after lengthy delay
Apple on Tuesday announced that Final Cut Server, its new software solution for media asset management and workflow automation announced last year, is finally shipping to customers.
Introduced last April at the 2007 National Association of Broadcasters conference, Final Cut Server is a scaleable server application that automatically catalogs large collections of assets, allowing searching across multiple disks and SAN volumes, as well as viewing, annotation and approval of content from anywhere using a PC or Mac.
"Whether producing a 30-second spot, the nightly news or a major motion picture, Final Cut Studio is the choice of editors around the world," said Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of Applications Product Marketing. "With the introduction of Final Cut Server, collaboration just got a whole lot easier for millions of editors, producers and clients who work with Final Cut Studio."
Final Cut Server automatically catalogs media and generates thumbnails, poster frames and low-resolution clip proxies for quick browsing in user specified formats. A cross-platform client enables a PC or Mac to use Final Cut Server's broad search capabilities, which extend from simple keywords to complex combinations of IPTC, XMP and XML metadata. Final Cut Server also configures a range of highly specific access controls that define user permissions on an asset or project basis.
Apple says the application can scale to support workgroups of different sizes, ranging from a two-person post house to a multi-national news organization and can automate as much, or as little, of the production pipeline as needed. A configurable event-based response model tracks job status, monitors media changes, and automates review and approval notifications and complex sequences of tasks-all through a series of simple menu selections.
Tightly integrated with Final Cut Studio for a seamless extension of the workflow, Final Cut Server includes Compressor 3, Apple's industrial strength digital encoding and compression tool, which delivers pristine format conversions for publishing to DVD, broadcast television, the Internet, Apple TV, iPod, iPhone and other mobile phones.
Final Cut Server is available immediately through the Apple Store, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $999 for one server and 10 concurrent client licenses, and $1,999 for one server and unlimited client licenses. Full system requirements and more information on Final Cut Server can be found here.
Introduced last April at the 2007 National Association of Broadcasters conference, Final Cut Server is a scaleable server application that automatically catalogs large collections of assets, allowing searching across multiple disks and SAN volumes, as well as viewing, annotation and approval of content from anywhere using a PC or Mac.
"Whether producing a 30-second spot, the nightly news or a major motion picture, Final Cut Studio is the choice of editors around the world," said Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of Applications Product Marketing. "With the introduction of Final Cut Server, collaboration just got a whole lot easier for millions of editors, producers and clients who work with Final Cut Studio."
Final Cut Server automatically catalogs media and generates thumbnails, poster frames and low-resolution clip proxies for quick browsing in user specified formats. A cross-platform client enables a PC or Mac to use Final Cut Server's broad search capabilities, which extend from simple keywords to complex combinations of IPTC, XMP and XML metadata. Final Cut Server also configures a range of highly specific access controls that define user permissions on an asset or project basis.
Apple says the application can scale to support workgroups of different sizes, ranging from a two-person post house to a multi-national news organization and can automate as much, or as little, of the production pipeline as needed. A configurable event-based response model tracks job status, monitors media changes, and automates review and approval notifications and complex sequences of tasks-all through a series of simple menu selections.
Tightly integrated with Final Cut Studio for a seamless extension of the workflow, Final Cut Server includes Compressor 3, Apple's industrial strength digital encoding and compression tool, which delivers pristine format conversions for publishing to DVD, broadcast television, the Internet, Apple TV, iPod, iPhone and other mobile phones.
Final Cut Server is available immediately through the Apple Store, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $999 for one server and 10 concurrent client licenses, and $1,999 for one server and unlimited client licenses. Full system requirements and more information on Final Cut Server can be found here.
Comments
And when is apple going to update all these apps to 64 bit, they are certainly ones that could benefit from it. I'm guessing this brand new app isn't 64 bit since it's not mentioned?
I'm sure they are working on the next version of Final Cut Pro Studio, due to come out in the next year, will be the largest, most feature rich to date. After all, didn't they acquire some video company?
With every update to FCPS, people are impressed. So if nothing new has come out, why complain? Not like Avid are throwing the punches or drastically dropping their prices on their top of the line products.
I imagine that they needed to wait for Leopard.
I'm sure they are working on the next version of Final Cut Pro Studio, due to come out in the next year, will be the largest, most feature rich to date. After all, didn't they acquire some video company?
With every update to FCPS, people are impressed. So if nothing new has come out, why complain? Not like Avid are throwing the punches or drastically dropping their prices on their top of the line products.
heh yea right ! Ask those who're still waiting for Soundtrack Pro 2 to become at least somewhat stable.
Motion 3 is not much better but i guess it was never meant to compete with After Effects.
Anyway , since most of Apple's fans ripped Adobe for not shipping now(or near future) 64-bit versions of their software , where are Apple's ?
So when is the last time any of the pro apps like FC studio or the Logic studio apps got updates? I know Logic and STP are very buggy still and desperately in need of fixes.
And when is apple going to update all these apps to 64 bit, they are certainly ones that could benefit from it. I'm guessing this brand new app isn't 64 bit since it's not mentioned?
Final Cut Studio last April, Final Cut Pro along with Motion last November and Logic last September. If you don't know that, obviously you don't use them. If that is the case, what real business is it of yours unless you just want to dis them.
Guys that I know love them. But of course they are professionals.
Final Cut Studio last April, Final Cut Pro along with Motion last November and Logic last September. If you don't know that, obviously you don't use them. If that is the case, what real business is it of yours unless you just want to dis them.
Guys that I know love them. But of course they are professionals.
Nicely done, the old "well you must not be a pro" cliché.
Actually I use Logic hours a day for my job. I use STP a bit but I'm really waiting for a better build before I trust it for real work. In the case of FCS it's mostly just curiosity (plus STP is included with that app as well).
Why does apple take so long to update these apps? Once a year for a paid upgrade and one or two bugfix releases aren't remotely close to good enough. Sure, they are great apps, but it's pretty pathetic that Apple leaves them in such buggy state for such long periods of time, speaking at least about Logic and especially STP from personal experience.
Seriously, I have a bug list for each app as long as my arm - why can't apple fix at least some of the bugs and update the apps (WAY) more often? I'd like to know if apple even has 8.0.2 planned or if they're just blowing that off for a paid 8.1 upgrade?
And we just had a s***storm on these forums over Adobe taking a while to update photoshop to 64 bit - where are the 64 bit versions of the apple pro apps?
I tell you the 64-bit thing is getting a bit tired. It's is not the cure all for applications. A 64-bit Logic Pro isn't going to reduce the latency of the app or end the need for Plugin Delay Compensation and other architectural stuff.
I'm more concerned with the Apple Pro apps and their ability to multithread and integrate well with each other. I think Apple is on that path but we're going to need likely a couple more major revisions before things get really sweet.
Leopard brought some new stuff into the API but I'm sure there are more than a few workarounds needed. I'm thinking 10.6 will be a smaller update but one which will solidify and expand the scope the APIs.
I tell you the 64-bit thing is getting a bit tired. It's is not the cure all for applications. A 64-bit Logic Pro isn't going to reduce the latency of the app or end the need for Plugin Delay Compensation and other architectural stuff.
Do you even USE Logic? Did I mention latency or plugin compensation? No.
64 bit provides expanded memory space, which is desperately needed for those of us loading up large libraries, particularly orchestral stuff. 4 gigs just isn't enough - even with streaming from disk, there are libraries that are well over a hundred gigs. And yeah, I know apple has a hack that lets EXS use more than that, but most recent libraries use proprietary plugin players.
On the PC side, people have been doing this for months with a number of apps and plugins. Plugin devs don't really have a reason to update to 64 bit on the osx side since there aren't any 64 bit host apps yet.
Sure, people who complain about 64 bit who have no need for it is tired. But not nearly as tired as people who make ignorant dismissal of legitimate, specific needs for a 64 bit update.
It's not a cure all. But Logic IS one of the apps that would get a huge benefit from it.
Do you even USE Logic? Did I mention latency or plugin compensation? No.
64 bit provides expanded memory space, which is desperately needed for those of us loading up large libraries, particularly orchestral stuff. 4 gigs just isn't enough - even with streaming from disk, there are libraries that are well over a hundred gigs. And yeah, I know apple has a hack that lets EXS use more than that, but most recent libraries use proprietary plugin players.
On the PC side, people have been doing this for months with a number of apps and plugins. Plugin devs don't really have a reason to update to 64 bit on the osx side since there aren't any 64 bit host apps yet.
Sure, people who complain about 64 bit who have no need for it is tired. But not nearly as tired as people who make ignorant dismissal of legitimate, specific needs for a 64 bit update.
It's not a cure all. But Logic IS one of the apps that would get a huge benefit from it.
Whoa Chief! I wasn't talking about you although since you mentioned Logic I can see why you may have taken it that way. Not a Logic user yet...my next Desktop will be for Logic Pro and Final Cut Studio.
Oh I'm in agreement with regarding the efficacy of 64-bit in certain situations but I think that it's a bit overblown. Some apps benefit from the larger memory addressing and other apps may not. Knowing that we have 8-core Mac Pros and knowing that Nehalem will support 8 Physical cores and 16-Logical cores via SMT I'm "just" as excited about seeing OS X improved to handle threads and core affinity as I am to see 64-bit.
Also of note is Core Audio Format. I noticed that Apple is now encapsulating some of their audio files in Logic in a compressed audio format wrapped with CAF versus the larger AIFF files wrapped in CAF. I wonder what effect that will have on RAM usage?
Sorry to go off topic folks.
The CAF files may save a bit of space, but only apple is using them and I bet that doesn't change any time soon. Compressed files use less ram but generally use a bit more CPU to play back. The real limitation of logic is huge third party libraries.
This Final Cut Server will definitely set the Final Cut Revolution on fire! I especially like the fact that the client computers can use PCs and Macs. (If only they made a Final Cut Studio for PC!) However, it is interesting that the Server costs less than the current version of Final Cut Studio. I'm wondering if they are going to give Final Cut Studio the same treatment as Logic Studio (since I saw a complete absence of Final Cut Studio 2 in my local Apple Store the other day.)
My Apple Store (Austin Domain) had Studio 2 in stock yesterday and of course it loaded on all the machines.
Final Cut Studio last April, Final Cut Pro along with Motion last November and Logic last September. If you don't know that, obviously you don't use them. If that is the case, what real business is it of yours unless you just want to dis them.
Guys that I know love them. But of course they are professionals.
I do have at least one complaint about FCP which I use professionally. The complaint is that there are issues with the Apple lossless format in respect to key frames. It makes the razor blade tool almost unusable because if you want to slice out a section you lose the keyframes on either end and odd frame flashes start popping up. The new Premiere is pretty good and FCP is not perfect by any means.
My Apple Store (Austin Domain) had Studio 2 in stock yesterday and of course it loaded on all the machines.
Still, it has been about a year since the last FCS2 was released and usually servers should be more expensive than the Standalone versions. (Unless the server was made for a totally different purpose than an enterprise version of FCS).
With every update to FCPS, people are impressed. So if nothing new has come out, why complain? Not like Avid are throwing the punches or drastically dropping their prices on their top of the line products.
It's funny because that's exactly what avid is doing but even with that it's not enough to make a gigantic impact on FCP. Too little too late mostly.