NAB

I wrote two articles for the Final Cut Pro User's Group Supermeet at NAB. They appeared in the SuperMag magazine(which I named btw). Here's part two of the first article looking at an Apple network system that is being used at the Beijing Olympics this summer in China. For part one click here.

Simplemente chose to work with Gallery Software, a UK-based company that has been making QuickTime-compatible applications for over a decade. For the Beijing project, Simplemente selected Gallery’s SIENNA, a complete integration suite for connecting Final Cut Pro workstations to the traditional newsroom broadcast workflow. SIENNA was developed in response to the huge demand for Final Cut Pro integration from the world's leading news broadcasters. It brings compatibility to existing newsroom equipment for workflows based around native QuickTime and enables single media shared storage with Apple's Xsan.

Just a note that I'll be bypassing NAB after all this year. Our production schedule is very fluid right now and I just can't justify the cost and time away from the office right now. I was hoping to meet many of you at the Artbeats booth this year, but it'll have to be another day. I will be creating a pretty cool demo for Artbeats that'll be online in April though.

Enjoy the show everybody!

I finally had a few minutes to articulate some of my reasons why I feel that Apple (and Avid, earlier) felt that they no longer needed to go to NAB. While some people have argued that there is no substitute for face-to-face time with a human at NAB before making a purchase, it seems that Avid and Apple don't think so. Neither do I, and in my latest article here at the COW, I spell out some of the reasons that this opinion seems to be taking root around our industry. One of the most compelling reasons is that every year NAB continues to increase the cost to the companies who exhibit at NAB.

So after dropping NAB once then reappearing, Apple has decided to join Avid and skip the NAB show floor altogether. This is an incredibly disappointing decision for a company that supposedly supports over 800,000+ Final Cut Pro users and countless other pro-apps users.

So first we hear of Avid's pulling off the NAB 2008 Show Floor. During a lively debate in the Business and Marketing Forum, one Cow user noted that Apple had suddenly disappeared from the Show Floor Exhibit Map. I was looking over the Exhibitor List and Apple is not listed there either.

So by all outward appearances, Apple has pulled out of NAB 2008 as well. At least off the main Show Floor. Now Avid has been known to have had cash flow issues over the past few years as Apple's Final Cut Pro has made huge inroads in the Post Production community. So I attributed Avid's decision to leave the Show Floor as purely a financial move meant to better use what resources they have.

Before I begin my foray into the world of blogging I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to Ron & Tim for their efforts in getting me situated with the Cow. I look forward to the many blogs ahead and hope that some of you may find the information at least useful, and at best challenging.

I returned back home from Las Vegas and NAB on Tuesday night after spending 2 1/2 days in the City of Sin, my last few hours being spent at the wonderful Hofbräuhaus next to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino where I, along with coworkers and friends, downed their great tasting German lager out of ridiculously massive 1 liter glass steins while enjoying what I have to imagine is "classic" Bavarian folk music.

Well here are some images for those of you who aren't able to be here. I'll give my full verbal breakdown a little bit later... I'm too tired to get into it right now...

My my, the public beta of After Effects CS3 gets released AND Apple anounces Motion 3.

Go feast your eyes !

I've never played with Motion (I bought FCP & DVDSP, and never felt the need to upgrade to the studio), although I've sometimes wondered if Motion wasn't a better tool for some simple jobs.

We've arrived in Sunny Las Vegas! Checked in to the fabulous Flamingo hotel which we really used to enjoy for the penquins in the outdoor habitat, but they checked out last year so it's not quite the same. Still gotta love staying in the "original" strip hotel that started it all.

Welcome 

First Up - Changes on  the show floor and a new track

Changes on  the show floor: for those of you that have not looked at the show floor, Please note that Apple and AJA are no longer at the front of the South Hall of the LVCC. 

Well folks, NAB 2007 is upon us and I hope to be able to meet some of you. So if you're going to Las Vegas, here is where you'll definitely find me!

Sunday April 15 - Apple Event AM, Panasonic Event PM

Monday April 16 - AJA Booth all day, Booth SL6113 directly across from Apple.

Tuesday April 17 - AJA Booth AM, Booth SL6113.

Creative Cow booth PM, Booth SL2626. Between Adobe and Grass Valley

(on your right as you walk to the Apple booth.)

Greetings all. So a big thanks goes to Creative Cow for enabling me and my wife to attend to attend NAB for the first time. We're both really excited. My question to all of you is where we absolutely "must" go while we're there, well, other than the Cow Booth .

We've been poised to get a Mac Pro for some time now, but knowing that the octo-core Mac was coming out soonish, we were hesitating. Add that the uncertainty whether Apple would match the 3.0 GHz clock speed of their existing quad-core machine and we were pondering whether to just jump on what was out and move on. In fact, on Sunday we were standing in the Apple Store in Boulder, ready to buy right there.

Ok, it's NAB time and I've been receiving quite a few of those "MUST SEE" emails touting everything from Apple to Avid to everything in between. Today I received what has to be the dumbest PR I've ever gotten from someone who teaches Avid. I'm guessing this person doubles as a Porn Spammer on the side because it has all the qualities of the endless junk email I receive. Well, here, you can judge for yourself.