Final Cut Pro X= Fail

A laymen’s example of why Video Pros are so upset

Much has been made of the new Final Cut Pro X release. (Some may say much ado about nothing) Video professionals are very angry at what FCPX doesn’t do and its potential impact on the end of Final Cut Pro as a professional editing tool.

To understand the technical aspects of everything and why it’s got the film community all fired up, you can read a great piece by Richard Harrington
http://www.richardharringtonblog.com/files/fcpx_response.php

This goes into incredible detail and explains things far better than I ever could.

Or there's this article by Jan Ozer and Larry Jordan on the pro and con arguments of the release

http://www.onlinevideo.net/2011/07/is-final-cut-pro-x-ready-for-professional-use/

But to hear it in terms that most people can understand and identify with, read on.

First a disclaimer:
I consider myself a video production professional. Editing and encoding video is part of my job. My video work is in the corporate arena editing mostly live event recordings and short form productions. I don’t use the same work flow as long form dramatic or documentary filmmakers and don’t have to deal with the complexities that are being referenced in the various posts around the web. For that matter, I don't really use Final Cut Pro. I use Adobe Premiere CS4 as my editing tool of choice. However, I have used Final Cut Pro occasionally and I like it. Regardless of all that, I can completely understand why everyone is so upset.


“So, big deal!” you say. “These guys are making too much out of this.”

"Why can’t they just keep using the old version?”

These are some of the things being thrown around the web. In an effort to promote a better understanding of both sides, especially for those who may not know a bin from a container, I submit a Laymen’s example of what the FCPX debacle feels like- the fictional upgrade to a famous word processing program.

(The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Namely me, so I hopefully don't get sued.)

MegaCorp releases Wordy 2012!

That’s great, right? New features. Better performance. I’ll be able to do things that I couldn’t do in that old "Whole Printing Press 2010." Life is good.

But wait a minute. “Wordy 2012?” What happened to Spreadsheety, SlideThingy, and Vizitally?

MegaCorp:
Oh, didn’t you hear? They’re being "phased out.” (Already been discontinued)

Huh. Well at least I can do all the usual things with Wordy, like create Wordy documents, use it to publish my blog, output to HTML files, XML files, export to Spreadsheety, SlideThingy, Vizitally, maybe even PortaDocForever.

Oh, no. You can’t do all that anymore. You can only create Wordy Docs (the new docxy files only) and plain text.

Oh, OK. Well then I guess I’ll just use my old Whole Printing Press 2010 and then import it into Wordy 2012.

Nope. Can’t do that. Wordy 2012 won’t open old WPP 2010 files.

So how can I create SpreadSheety from my new Wordy docs or import them into SlideThingy?

Oh that’s easy. You just have to use the Wordo Converter.

OK, great. Where is that located on the toolbar? I haven’t found it yet.

Well, do you have any Wordo converters on your system?

What???

Wordo is a third party tool that integrates with Wordy 2012 and legacy Whole Printing Press 2010. It allows you the flexibility of transfering files between Wordy 2012 and Speadsheety or SlideThingy. It’s available from the Wordo company for $200 as an upgrade or $500 for new users.

Are you kidding?!!

No. But don’t worry we’re working on restoring some of those functionalities in upcoming releases. We know it’s different, but we think that once you learn it, you’ll really love the new version...

(End Scene)

OK. Throw in a parody of no longer being able to output video signals from your computer to pro grade video monitors or a parody about taking away the server infrastructure to manage all your video files and you kind of get the idea.

It’s not just a “Who Moved My Cheese?” feeling from video professionals. It’s the feeling of betrayal.

The realization that the company that you trusted -after you stood by them, evangelized their products, built a business around their tools for the last 10+ years, and thought they got you; suddenly doesn’t care about you anymore as a market. Instead they’re putting all their efforts into the new mobile/consumer market.

It’s like the spouse who gets dumped during a mid-life crisis for the young hottie and the sportscar. That’s why they’re so angry.

You hear that Apple?!!

-ARK

5 Lessons Learned from Streaming Media East 2011

I was fortunate enough to attend Streaming Media East this year. It's 2.5 days in New York City plus an additional day of classes on Monday. Throughout the days' classes, sessions, and throughout the tradeshow floor, I ran across five main themes.


1. H.264

Everything is going h.264. It seems to be the codec of choice. It works with many different wrappers including MP4, F4V, even Silverlight. There are also many tools that can convert h.264 to multiple devices and formats. But more on that later.


2. Adaptive streaming (smooth streaming, bandwidth throttling, whatever they call it)

Not new but "the next new thing." Nearly every major format has a version. The basic gist of it is that there are multiple versions of your streaming media file at various bandwidths (300kbps, 500kbps,...1500kbps, etc) The server determines what amount of bandwidth the viewer has available and chooses the correct file to play back.

At prescribed points in the file (usually every 2-5 seconds) the server can determine a different amount of available bandwidth and send a higher (or lower) bandwidth stream to the viewer. This is transparent to the user and provides a better experience for the viewer with no (or at least minimum) buffering.


3. Transmuxing

This the process of modifying the wrapper of the file to change its playback properties instead of transcoding the video. This is a much more efficient process than re-encoding the video. This process only modifies the wrapper leaving the video file intact.

Again, as I mentioned above, h.264 encoding helps to make transmuxing possible. Products like Wowza are making this easy. Wowza can transmux an h.264 stream to almost any format or device.


4. iDevice encoding

There is no doubt that people are consuming more streaming media on devices like iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets, etc. If you want to maximize your viewers, it is important that you create content for those devices and formats.

Again, h.264 appears to be a way to leverage a streaming file across multiple devices. You just need to make sure that you are encoding it with the proper parameters to work on those devices.


5. HTML5

Proabably the biggest buzz in the streaming media industry right now. If you are not including html5 video files on your web page, you should. It takes all of two lines of code to embed a video in html5. Plus, 4-6 more lines to include fail overs for flv and mp4.

With Chrome and Firefox (4.0) claiming html5 support and a rumored plug-in coming for IE9, the time is right to start using html5 video.

It also doesn't hurt that MPEGLA is proportedly claiming tthey will not collect royalties for "free" h.264 content. (This rumor does not and should not qualify as legal permission or even legal advice. In other words, if the statement is incorrect, don't blame me.)



Well there you have it. Five things learned at Streaming Media East this year. I wonder what next year will bring.

Well until then, happy streaming


-ARK

Sound at the Speed of Light: The Future is "Light Peak"

In the world of data transfer cables there's about to be a new kid in town, and it's name is "Light Peak."

Forget USB 3.0 or Firewire 800, or even eSATA. This thing has the potential to blow things wide open. It is set to replace all of them and more.

Light Peak is expected to hit the street later this year. And when it does it will be able to transfer data at 10 Gbps.

According to Wikipedia:

Light Peak is Intel's code-name for a new high-speed optical cable technology designed to connect electronic devices to each other in a peripheral bus. It has the capability to deliver high bandwidth, starting at 10 Gbps, with the potential ability to scale to 100 Gbps. It is intended as a single universal replacement for current buses such as SCSI, SATA, USB, FireWire, and HDMI. In comparison to these buses, Light Peak is much faster, longer ranged, smaller, and more flexible in terms of protocol support.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_Peak

Think about that. A "universal replacement" for all of our current standard cables. That is a bold statement. And it leads to limitless possibilities.

Let's look at the video industry.

Imagine only needing to stock one kind of cable. In the near future there could no longer be a need to stock S-video, composite, component, and HDMI cables. The signal chain could be one long series of connected Light Peak cables. No need to convert and deconvert within the signal chain, just at the final output.

Then there's the file storage side of video production. Imagine being about to have your storage disks (or even PC) in another room and not having to worry about latency. This would be great for people that do narration or ADR work in a small studio. They could easily (and economically) eliminate the computer noise by placing the computer in another room.

Event Support

What about the transfer of graphics output from a PC to a projector. The cable runs are at least 30 meters with the current prototype. Who knows how long you could run a signal with a little amplification. This could have huge implications for arena size intallations or event production in general.


A/V Installation

Along the same lines, what about new computer interfaces that allow the PC to connect to the projectors over Light Peak. (Of course manufacturers like Extron would have to lead the way.) Video conference systems that used Light Peak to send video to multiple displays. Or even HDTV sent from control rooms to installed displays all around a building or even campus.

Sound Reinforcement

What if someone designed an audio system that took advantage of the technology. It could replace the standard audio cables or even twisted pair solutions. Imagine your system's audio traveling huge distances with practically no delay. Literally at the speed of light. Wouldn't Einstein be impressed? Who says you can't change the laws of physics?

Industry Acceptance

Of course all of this will rely on manufacturers creating new interfaces to leverage the cababilities of Light Peak. It will require that the equipment makers included Light Peak ports on their cameras, hard drives, etc. It will also take software companies to incorporate it into new versions of the standard tools. Plus, there will have to be drivers written to allow hardware like video cameras, hard drives, audio interfaces, displays, etc to connect to computers using this new cable.

At this point, the possiblities are endless. It remains to be seen if the technology will be accepted. With all the different formats that it attempting to replace, this could end up being another format war. However, just for the moment, it creates a clean slate for the industry and encourages the blue sky theorizing that could some day lead to sound at the speed of light.

-ARK

What's in a Name? Part 2- Industry Identity Crisis

In the process of setting up my blog, again I asked the question, "what's in a name?" This time it was in choosing the subtitle that I would use to describe what my blog was about.

Why was this so difficult? It wasn't lack of creativity. It wasn't the lack of a focused vision for what I wanted my blog to be about. It wasn't even the title, KwazyArk.com. That was a no-brainer given it's my web site. However, the issue was what to call the industry that I've worked in for over fifteen years.

So what terms describe the A/V industry? A/V, that sounds too dated. Multimedia also sounds too 90s. You could call it streaming media. Or you could call it dynamic media. That would cover most of the content that gets posted to the web. But even that's only a part of it.

What about the other side of the industry, the non-media side. There's video conferencing,web collaboration, event production and installation. How do we classify these?

It seems like the industry as a whole is going through an identity crisis. To call it "A/V" seems too old school. This is not your uncle's A/V industry. As everyone knows, IT is now a huge part of A/V. So are IP cameras, networked projectors and High Definition video conferencing. Almost anything can connect to a computer, be controlled from a computer or just is a computer. That bus left at least a few years ago. If you not on it yet, it's only a matter of time before you get run over by it.

Working with this technology, you need to be conscience of things like vlans, IP addresses, and network bandwidth. These things were almost foreign to A/V even just a few years ago. If you don't deal with these things directly, you most likely have to deal with your IT department. You need to at least have a working understanding of what those things are. This is essential so that you can speak the same language as your IT department and lobby for the technology and services that you need. With things like web collaboration and enterprise video conferencing the reliance on IT will only continue to grow

So what do we call this industry? In my mind that is still up for debate. I'm hoping that a suitable term can be found. I'd love to hear your ideas on the subject.

As for my blog, I settled on "dynamic content creatation and collaborative technologies." Maybe that will stick. ;-)


-ARK

What's in name? (With apologies to William Shakespear)

What's in a name? I asked myself that as I was setting up this blog. Google asks you right in the log in what you want to call your blog. It can be a tough decision.

What name will stick? What does it say about your subjects. What will potential followers think of it?

In the end, I decided to name it after my web site, kwazyark.com. Of course I could always change it. But, that would be another decision.

So for now let's keep it as is. Watch this space for more information on dynamic content creation and collaborative technologies.

-ARK