That sounds pretty encouraging!

Question: If you already have Ultimate S and Excalibur then do you think PA is still worth it?

Dave, I gotta say your description sure sounds more enticing than the SCS writeup. How much flexibility does PA provide - for example, can I set up complex multi-window track motion templates? I currently create these in Vegas using generated media and then add my clips as new takes. Would PA make this easier?

Jerry

Dave, checking the description, I think local news and college on-campus programming will love this. I think this adds some pro muscle ;-)

I'll have to take alook @ that when a demo comes out. Sounds like some of the stuff I do (I've set up templates to do the same thing for a while now & just replace the footage).

Short answer to your question, Jerry...
Yes

Did Johnny Roy write Production Assistant? If that's the case, I gotta have it.

JR, Chris Warnock, and myself are the brains behind Production Assistant, coupled with a lot of input from major broadcasters that we've been consulting with over the past few years.

Sony should be releasing the training videos online very soon.

It's the "Doughnut maker" for broadcast on steriods. Vegas does not need to be running when you launch the app, it can run entirely in the background.
The FCP/AVID crowd were going nuts about it being capable of turning Vegas into the ultimate "goesinta/goesoutta" tool as well.

We didn't say much, but Gearshift for RED is very useful too.

blink, to your ? about those with both apps. I think there will be a bit of overlap, but the unbeleivable automation able to be created with PA is amazing.

And if your work is even kind of repetative on a multiple project scale, you would be a fool not to put up the dough and buy it asap!

those I see REALLY being benefitted by this.....

- Broadcasters assembling shows from packages or repeated layouts for IPTV folks.

- Wedding folks and funeral folks who are doing sde's etc... imagine having several days to assemple the tempo etc of your wedding SDE, then just plug in the clips that you know you will want to use ahead of time, and as soon as the ceremony is done, you can either move files over, or start ingesting the portions that you know you want to use. load the project as a template, and replace the empty media with your footage, tweak, and you're good to go grab a bite, you could even have it render out to a web video as well, and let family out of town see it before the reception.

- Any kind of cruise ships, theme parks, etc that make media of your trip and sell it in a consistant manner.

- And if you give me a few minutes, I'm sure I can figure out how this will amaze you for your needs too :D

Dave

Thanks Dave. To be honest though, I was pretty much sold on a few days ago. In fact I ALMOST ordered it along with my upgrade order, but then figured I could wait a little longer....... I think! :)

Blink,,, repeat slowly,,, TRIAL remember , vegas 9 will have a trial download, and this will have a trial ,,or at least they always have. You are a salespersons dream come true :)

Spot Wrote: "JR, Chris Warnock, and myself are the brains behind Production Assistant, coupled with a lot of input from major broadcasters that we've been consulting with over the past few years."

Sounds like you guys did some good work here. So when can we expect a demo/tutorial on VASST or YouTube?

"Blink,,, repeat slowly,,, TRIAL remember , vegas 9 will have a trial download,"

bah, humbug! Trials are for sissies and FCP users... well okay... avid users too. But we here in the world of Vegas, we take the bull by the horns... we don't wait for the road to be built.... we do it ourselves. If Intel's too slow at turning out them cpu's, then we'll take care of that too. We stand tall and proud while FCP users bend in the wind like frail blades of grass. While Scientists dream of human feet treading on the surface of Mars, Vegas users already know these dreams to be restrictive, limiting, and all too common. And deep down inside PP users secretly wish to know what we know, do what we do.... and be what we already are!


(Trials are kind of nice though)

Will this help with editing an hour live concert program. I cant really imagine how but all this sounds so exciting. I edit tons of 5 camera concerts with the ocasional interview here and there. We have bumpers in and out of breaks and interviews. Standard intro and credits. Tell me how it will help me so I can jump on board. Sounds like great work guys. Might just be the kick Vegas needs to be considered relevent. Hats Off.

L.T.

Blink... ;-) love the humour.............. what's a little beach sand in FCP faithful eyes..... it could be volcanic ash................ Coursedesign probably in an L.A. ER with " "i " stress" with PA being released.

Will this help with editing an hour live concert program. I cant really imagine how but all this sounds so exciting. I edit tons of 5 camera concerts with the ocasional interview here and there. We have bumpers in and out of breaks and interviews. Standard intro and credits. Tell me how it will help me so I can jump on board. Sounds like great work guys. Might just be the kick Vegas needs to be considered relevent. Hats Off.

Depending on how long your concerts are, you can simply pre build your concert template ( maybe even with just making the "slugs" of empty video and audio longer than your segments will be if they vary a lot) for the concert.

Then open vegas and cut a multi camera edit, slice it into a few sections that will replace those slugs up to the end of your segment and then blank space will be left past the end of the media you're inserting ( this is assuming that the amount of time your segmants will take is varied rather than restricted to hard schedules ) then you will render the multi-cam (unless PA handles veg's like media like vegas does in which case your could just save each section of your veg out as slug replacements rather than rendering them) then load PA, select the template, title the work, add each segment in sequence, then tell PA to open vegas and replace those slugs.

Now, Vegas opens and your media is replaced.

Then since, in your template, you grouped your bumper and graphics etc between each segmant of concert to be all together and had the bumper music grouped a little offset to overlap, and fade up and down as desired at the segment breaks, you now select the main track with your multicut segments and bumper graphics and click the "remove gaps" shortcut and the whole project is assembled with everything as it should be.

Then you go to the processes tab, add a few processes (add bug every however often, broadcast safe levels, etc...) then set to render to whatever different media formats you need, eat lunch, deliver in record time, and you're done :)

sorry if grammar was bad written while waiting for food on my phone.

Dave

Spot, with Sony Creative pulling in the VASST folks and the Velvetmatter folks into the tent, would you say they are expecting Vegas 9 to be an impact release?

I think they're expecting great things from Vegas 9, yes.
This particular NAB, I spent a total of less than 60 mins on the show floor; all my time was attending or instructing various classes.
The workarounds for SO many cameras, codecs, workflows was overwhelming; the amount of time dedicated to explaining workflows was absurd, and Vegas just "did it."
Whether marketing can bring these stories into the light or not remains to be seen.
My take on it is this;
Many apps are now catching Vegas for speed in certain areas.
With Production Assistant, there is no editor, at any price, on any platform, nor any amount of talent that can bring a competitive game to the Vegas court.
Can Sony get that word out into the world? I don't know. I hope so.
Does Vegas 9 have a bazillion cool new features in it that 8 didn't have?
No. Does it operate faster, more stable, and cope with more resolutions/framerates/codecs than *anything* out there? Absolutely.
It was a total hoot putting RED .r3d next to animated gifs with XDCAM 4:2:2, DV, HDV, and AVCHD on the same timeline with three instances of Vegas operating, and having members of the class saying "you're cheating somewhere.

It's a Macbook Pro with a 4800 spin HDD connected via USB2.

So...I didn't really answer your question, but I'm not sure how to define "impact." :-)

So I'm confused. Is Production Assistant an outgrowth from Ultimate S? Will there be an Ultimate S for Vegas 9, or will my previous version still work? Does Vaast still exist as a seperate company. I bought Ultimate S so I sure don't want to pay for a bunch of duplicated functionality.

In my opinion.

not knowing what "outgrowth" means, if you're asking if it's a coming to fruition of sorts, I'd say no.

If you're asking if there's some overlap, ya, sure there is.

VASST is not just Ultimate S by a long shot... a LONG shot. - VASST is Video. Audio. Software. Support. Training

There are only a few duplicate tools in PA that are in USPro, and PA is desiged to build and automate projects, kinda like a bionically enhanced batch tool on steroids :).

I really think that having both makes a lot of sense, but depending on your workflow, it may be that only one or the other is really applicable to the things you do.

Dave

Impact…..what I do know is...you are either delivering the blows or receiving them

I am definitely on board

I’ve read that PA comes with some video tuts...great stuff

OK so are we allowed to put in a few when a Final Couch Potato guy is down?

Rory

Rather than answer individual posts let me just say this to hopefully clear things up now that I'm back from NAB and have some time to breath. ;-)

Production Assistant is based on some of the Ultimate S technology but some of it is brand new. It was create by VASST for Sony (hence the Powered by VASST logo on the box). VASST was not bought by Sony and we are still a separate company making separate products that we still support.

We have Ultimate S Pro 4.1 working with Vegas Pro 9.0 in 32-bit and 64-bit mode and have been demoing it at NAB 2009 all this week. It is also backward compatible with Vegas Pro 8.1. We actually held off releasing the 8.1 64-bit update because we wanted to be sure that it worked in 9.0 64-bit as well. The update will be available for free to all existing Ultimate S Pro customers before Vegas Pro 9.0 ships so no worries.

As for the positioning of Production Assistant, it is specifically solving a different problem than Ultimate S was. Ultimate S is an interactive tool much like and editors toolbox. Production Assistant is all about hands-off process automation.

So why would you buy Production Assistant?

If you create standard format videos like daily shows or weekly shows or even same day events, Production Assistant can reduce hours of editing and assembly down to minutes. It does this by allowing you to create templates of your projects with media slugs that represent where video or audio should be replaced. Then by selecting a template and only the media that changes from project to project, it assembles a new project from the template substituting the real media for the slugs. This all starts before Vegas is even loaded. The result is a fully populated project that is ready for further editing or delivery.

The "one-button" workflow that was shown at the NAB Vegas Users Party last Monday night, creates skydiving same day event videos with only inserting the memory card into a reader and naming the folder to capture the media. That's it! The next thing you have is a fully populated project complete with intros, music, etc. ready to burn to DVD... totally hands off and fool proof! In fact, the only thing we had to do was edit the opening title to add the skydivers name and it was complete. This is the part that Chris did and it's a very clever use of the product.

Production Assistant also works from within Vegas Pro and has process automation capabilities not found in other tools. You can create process workflows like adding network bugs / logos / watermarks, then add a 16:9 animated underlay to 4:3 media, then apply color correct for florescent lighting, then adding chapter markers or capturing representative thumbnails, etc. and save all of those steps as a preset workflow. It's like taking multiple functions from Ultimate S and stringing them together in a chain. Then with one click of a button process hundreds of files applying each process in the workflow in-turn, and then rendering to multiple output formats for DVD, Blu-ray, the web, whatever. This can save hours of valuable editor's time and pay for after just a couple of uses.

As Spot said, there will be quick start and tutorial videos published on the Sony site once the product is available so you can see the workflows that this tool addresses. It does not negate the need for tools like Ultimate S. While it does contain some of the interactive tools from Ultimate S, it is really all about hands-off automation which no other tool addresses.

Hope that helps clear things up. Feel free to ask more questions.

~jr

Hi

Can it do batch rendering like the veggie toolkit can?

With theese guys as 'makers' it sure is a must for me :-)

/Ulf