Apple to announce new Final Cut Studio on April 12, pushes sponsors out of event

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Apple is allegedly requiring sponsors of an April 12 meetup of Final Cut Pro professionals to cancel their presentations in order to reserve the stage time necessary for an official announcement of the next version of Final Cut Pro, a new report claims.



After rumors emerged on Tuesday that Apple would announce the next version of its professional video editing software at the FCP User Group SuperMeet, a side event of the annual National Association of Broadcasters tradeshow taking place on April 12 in Las Vegas, ProVideo Coalition's Steve Hullfish confirmed with several sponsors of the event that they had backed out of stage time in response to Apple's demands.



Cinematographer Philip Bloom, who had been invited to present at the event by Canon, told Hullfish that Canon had canceled his appearance after being told on Monday that Apple has demanded "all "lecturn" or stage time exclusively."



Avid's sponsorship and a keynote featuring director Kevin Smith have also been canceled. "Apple doesn't want anyone to have stage time but them," Avid was reported as saying.



Several other sponsors of the Supermeet told Hullfish that "something was happening," though they declined to give further details.



"I can?t imagine any news that would warrant this kind of ?take-over? other than to announce and demonstrate the next full version of Final Cut Pro and possibly an entirely newly designed FCS4," Hullfish wrote.



According to the report, sponsors who were not using presenters may continue to sponsor the event, but will not be appearing on the stage.



In February, producer, director and editor Larry Jordan wrote on his blog that Apple had invited a small group of film industry professionals to preview the upcoming update to Final Cut Pro. Jordan acknowledged that he was bound by a non-disclosure agreement, while admitting that the meeting had happened and the update was "a jaw-dropper."



Earlier reports had suggested that the biggest overhaul yet for Final Cut Pro would arrive this spring with "dramatic and ambitious" changes focused on professional users.



After AppleInsider reported last year that Apple was scaling down Final Cut Studio for the prosumer market, Apple quickly responded stating, "Final Cut Pro is the first choice for professional video editors and we?ve never been more excited about its future. The next version of Final Cut is going to be awesome and our pro customers are going to love it."



Apple has reportedly experienced delays because of development setbacks caused by "fundamental differences of opinion" over the ideal interface for Final Cut Studio. As a result, the update, which was originally slated for a 2010 launch, was pushed back to a spring 2011 release.



The last major update to Final Cut Studio came in July 2009, with more than 100 new features and a $300 price reduction.
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  • Reply 1 of 26
    dick applebaumdick applebaum Posts: 12,527member
    I hope they find a way to integrate iPad into the FCS UI:



    -- as an additional display

    -- as a multitouch input device

    -- as a control surface
  • Reply 2 of 26
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    I hope they find a way to integrate iPad into the FCS UI:



    -- as an additional display

    -- as a multitouch input device

    -- as a control surface



    I think that would be cool too - it is quite tiresome to click back and forth between the timeline, tools, file browser, etc. Although if that were true, I think iMovie for iPad would have turned out better (since Apple does cross-pollinate ideas). I've hard that it's just mediocre, especially in comparison to the awesome GarageBand app.



    Either way, I'm looking forward to it - the Final Cut UI is not up to Apple standards. Too bad I just finished doing a big project for a friend a week ago
  • Reply 3 of 26
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    I hope they find a way to integrate iPad into the FCS UI:



    -- as an additional display

    -- as a multitouch input device

    -- as a control surface





    I have a feeling your right, and those would be awesome changes. But for me its this:



    1. Improved render and transcoding speeds by use of GPU.

    2. Stability Improvements stemming from less strict interpretations of frame rate/ resolution ect.



    And my dream improvement? When you transcode to 422, it automatically creates a proxy duplicate that can be edited in real time on ipad, whose renders are done automatically by the workstation over the air.
  • Reply 4 of 26
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    I hope they find a way to integrate iPad into the FCS UI:



    -- as an additional display

    -- as a multitouch input device

    -- as a control surface



    I can definitely see a team sitting around a conference table discussing the latest changes to a project and working in an interactive discussion leverage the iPad to do what you say and much more where they can be remote and discussing development while storing all their change requirements via WebDAV and then later for retrieval as they work at a workstation to input the changes and release their next test stage for review. Repeat until ready to release.
  • Reply 5 of 26
    dick applebaumdick applebaum Posts: 12,527member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by quasimog View Post


    I have a feeling your right, and those would be awesome changes. But for me its this:



    1. Improved render and transcoding speeds by use of GPU.

    2. Stability Improvements stemming from less strict interpretations of frame rate/ resolution ect.



    And my dream improvement? When you transcode to 422, it automatically creates a proxy duplicate that can be edited in real time on ipad, whose renders are done automatically by the workstation over the air.



    Yeah -- the render is gonna' come from Cocoa, 64 bit, OpenCL, GCD and exploitation of the hardware -- those are minimum requirements.



    iOS 4.3 has all the Prores codecs and APIs...



    I keep thinking that Apple will announce 1 or 2 devices to support Final cut:



    1) a large screen display / multitouch tablet



    2) a server





    BTW, when I started fooling around with Motion -- I was amazed and pleasantly pleased for the [pseudo] lack of need to render.



    .
  • Reply 6 of 26
    welshdogwelshdog Posts: 1,897member
    There are many things we all want to see changed or added. GPU acceleration with better use of multi-cores is probably a given. 64 bit seems likely too. Also the ability to edit H264 natively from Canon DSLRs would be a boon. Adobe did a great job with this in Premiere so Apple needs to do the same or better. Smaller things like a complete redo of the nightmarish setting menus. It is really ridiculous to see that list of sequence presets and capture presets in Audio/Video Settings. There has to be a better way to handle this.
  • Reply 7 of 26
    It is a bit bully boy to ask all the sponsors to take the boot.



    Nicer to pay the fee to extend so the sponsors still can present. Chump change for Apple.
  • Reply 8 of 26
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cy_starkman View Post


    It is a bit bully boy to ask all the sponsors to take the boot.



    We don't know that Apple did. Avid's spokesperson implied it but for all we know Apple called and asked about stage time and it was the NAB that offered them whatever they needed and then called and told the other folks that they were being cut from the stage, shifted to a smaller stage etc
  • Reply 9 of 26
    cdnbookcdnbook Posts: 49member
    So stoked for this... been waiting for the "next" version of FCP since they announced OpenCL
  • Reply 10 of 26
    ktappektappe Posts: 824member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by charlituna View Post


    We don't know that Apple did. Avid's spokesperson implied it but for all we know Apple called and asked about stage time and it was the NAB that offered them whatever they needed and then called and told the other folks that they were being cut from the stage, shifted to a smaller stage etc



    True, we don't know at this point. But here's the problem: It SOUNDS like something Apple would do.
  • Reply 11 of 26
    I'll be there, kind of bummed that Kevin Smith and Philip Bloom won't be there, but hey, maybe Jobs will make an appearance...
  • Reply 12 of 26
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ktappe View Post


    True, we don't know at this point. But here's the problem: It SOUNDS like something Apple would do.



    OK, but why would Avid be a presenter at a FCP ug meeting -- if not to recruit customers?
  • Reply 13 of 26
    frankiefrankie Posts: 381member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    OK, but why would Avid be a presenter at a FCP ug meeting -- if not to recruit customers?



    I switched from Avid to FCP years ago and will NEVER switch back...
  • Reply 14 of 26
    About frickin' time. And what the heck is Avid doing sponsoring a FCP Users Meetup? Aside from trying to lure FCP users back into Avid land?
  • Reply 15 of 26
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by studiomusic View Post


    I'll be there, kind of bummed that Kevin Smith and Philip Bloom won't be there, but hey, maybe Jobs will make an appearance...



    Smith is overrated. I'd rather see The Coen Brothers.
  • Reply 16 of 26
    rob55rob55 Posts: 1,291member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    Smith is overrated. I'd rather see The Coen Brothers.



    I'll second that. I never liked anything that Kevin Smith did. Back on topic, I hope these rumors are true. It'll be an excuse to buy a new Mac.
  • Reply 17 of 26
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,727member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    I hope they find a way to integrate iPad into the FCS UI:



    -- as an additional display

    -- as a multitouch input device

    -- as a control surface



    I agree. I have even gone further in the past and suggested one reason I see for iOS features being added to OS X is for FCPro. The ability to have a something like a touch screen version of an ACD 30" laying down at a 15° angle running OS X with a touch interfaced version of FCPro would be a Star Trek moment. All the power of OS X plus the interface abilities of both OS X and iOS ... dare I say this ... at my fingertips!
  • Reply 18 of 26
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    I'm looking forward to this upgrade. The interface on the current version is a total mess.
  • Reply 19 of 26
    nerudaneruda Posts: 439member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    Smith is overrated. I'd rather see The Coen Brothers.



    To say that Kevin Smith overrated is an euphemism (his movies all suck). The Coen Brothers are two of the best filmmakers of this generation.



    Looking forward to: 64 bit, Grand Cental Station, OpenCL optimized FCS.
  • Reply 20 of 26
    starwaystarway Posts: 1member
    The reason Avid was probably originally scheduled to appear is because they are also the owners of ProTools. And many of us Final Cut editors also use ProTools as part of our jobs.
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