OT: Avid Following the home user
mcvap
wrote on 2/21/2011, 11:14 PM
Comments
Rob Franks
wrote on 2/22/2011, 2:52 AM
Avid Studio has been in the making since they killed Liquid a few years ago. There is nothing eye-popping or special about this program at all.
As stated in another thread, Avid is trying to appeal hard to the average consumer... even with MC, because that's where the money is. They have discovered that the Hollywood crowd alone does not pay all the bills. They have made a number of changes even to MC5 to include more 'consumer-ish' things in order to better compete with programs like Vegas, which seems to have what it takes to interest BOTH the consumer crowd as well as your basic pro.
As stated in another thread, Avid is trying to appeal hard to the average consumer... even with MC, because that's where the money is. They have discovered that the Hollywood crowd alone does not pay all the bills. They have made a number of changes even to MC5 to include more 'consumer-ish' things in order to better compete with programs like Vegas, which seems to have what it takes to interest BOTH the consumer crowd as well as your basic pro.
farss
wrote on 2/22/2011, 3:42 AM
The consumer market is certainly where the money is at, even for SCS. I don't know what the current figures are but a few years back VMS outsold Vegas by around 10 to 1. That figure is probably higher now with Sony giving away VMS with their cameras. The problem with the basic consumer space is it's pretty crowded.
Avid has several issues that affect their bottom line. Firstly there's a heck of a lot of ancient Avid systems around. They just keep working so users have no need to spend money to update them. There's some money in the SLAs but I doubt too much of that ends up in Avid's pockets anyway. I know a lot of our national broadcaster's news is cut on ancient Avid Newscutters. I tried to talk them into Vegas but no dice, it "does too much".
Avid's other problem is unlike every other player in the market they only do NLEs so there's no revenue from other business to offset any losses against. All the other players could walk away from their NLE business without putting a dint in their bottom line.
Clearly Avid buying Liquid was a big mistake, why they did it I have no real clue. It was a bad move to try to broaden their revenue base that blew up in their face. Someone failed to do their homework, badly. Offering Liquid users a huge discount on a MC license was a reasonable thing to do but they are radically different tools and I can't see how MC would appeal to the same people who'd bought into Liquid anyway.
Bob.
Avid has several issues that affect their bottom line. Firstly there's a heck of a lot of ancient Avid systems around. They just keep working so users have no need to spend money to update them. There's some money in the SLAs but I doubt too much of that ends up in Avid's pockets anyway. I know a lot of our national broadcaster's news is cut on ancient Avid Newscutters. I tried to talk them into Vegas but no dice, it "does too much".
Avid's other problem is unlike every other player in the market they only do NLEs so there's no revenue from other business to offset any losses against. All the other players could walk away from their NLE business without putting a dint in their bottom line.
Clearly Avid buying Liquid was a big mistake, why they did it I have no real clue. It was a bad move to try to broaden their revenue base that blew up in their face. Someone failed to do their homework, badly. Offering Liquid users a huge discount on a MC license was a reasonable thing to do but they are radically different tools and I can't see how MC would appeal to the same people who'd bought into Liquid anyway.
Bob.
Rob Franks
wrote on 2/22/2011, 4:13 AM
"Clearly Avid buying Liquid was a big mistake, why they did it I have no real clue."
They didn't exactly buy "Liquid"... they bought Pinnacle which means Pinnacle Studio was included in the deal.... and you notice how studio is still around and Liquid is not.... even though they share the same render engines.
Attracting the average Joe consumer is certainly where it's at these days. It USED to be a losing proposition, but with the advent of cheap computers, video cameras... etc, it has become a big deal.
Pinnacle Studio however is old code and old news, and there is no where within Avid to graduate to a higher program and therefore Avid was bleeding people looking for advancement, out to other companies. In fact I know there are quite a few long time Pinnacle users now with Sony
I think they made a big mistake with this new Avid Studio though. I can see a Pinnacle users wanting to advance to AS.... but I can't see anybody jumping ship from a competing program over to AS. This new program just doesn't seem to offer much more than the average. I think they needed to make a statement and include something way out there like 3D editing abilities... which they didn't.
All in all... I don't see AS as much of a threat to the existing standings.
They didn't exactly buy "Liquid"... they bought Pinnacle which means Pinnacle Studio was included in the deal.... and you notice how studio is still around and Liquid is not.... even though they share the same render engines.
Attracting the average Joe consumer is certainly where it's at these days. It USED to be a losing proposition, but with the advent of cheap computers, video cameras... etc, it has become a big deal.
Pinnacle Studio however is old code and old news, and there is no where within Avid to graduate to a higher program and therefore Avid was bleeding people looking for advancement, out to other companies. In fact I know there are quite a few long time Pinnacle users now with Sony
I think they made a big mistake with this new Avid Studio though. I can see a Pinnacle users wanting to advance to AS.... but I can't see anybody jumping ship from a competing program over to AS. This new program just doesn't seem to offer much more than the average. I think they needed to make a statement and include something way out there like 3D editing abilities... which they didn't.
All in all... I don't see AS as much of a threat to the existing standings.
Hogwild
wrote on 2/22/2011, 7:41 AM
I spent several years with the pinnacle line from studio av/dv upgrading through to Avid Liquid. The last couple of years of promises of updates and a new release never came. There was ongoing talk on the Pinnacle forums (Avid Liquid section) from the beta testers and how the software was developing nicely and the interface was looking good, but then the announcement came of no longer supporting it and the upgrade path was a $$ discount to move to Media Composer, which I tried but just didn't like.
It seems to me that Avid bought Pinnacle mainly for Studio and to gain some share of the consumer market. The older versions of studio that I used to run was buggy and crashed often. Not sure if that's still the case now.
I personally don't plan on giving this new release much of my attention. I guess I'm just bitter... : ) - not to mention that I'm happy with Vegas
Mark
It seems to me that Avid bought Pinnacle mainly for Studio and to gain some share of the consumer market. The older versions of studio that I used to run was buggy and crashed often. Not sure if that's still the case now.
I personally don't plan on giving this new release much of my attention. I guess I'm just bitter... : ) - not to mention that I'm happy with Vegas
Mark
reberclark
wrote on 2/22/2011, 9:00 AM
Avid has also taken over M-Audio, which I am convinced will finally kill it. Too bad because M-Audio used to be the go-to place for me for audio interfaces, MIDI interfaces and keyboards.
Avid has also taken over (if that's the right term) Sibelius - the major competitor to Finale - a music notation software (IMHO FInale is the industry standard). Unless something changes we might consider building the coffins now.
FWIW - as a long-time Finale user I am not concerned and I use a Roland keyboard (A-800Pro) which I have configured as an external controller for Vegas Pro.
Avid has also taken over (if that's the right term) Sibelius - the major competitor to Finale - a music notation software (IMHO FInale is the industry standard). Unless something changes we might consider building the coffins now.
FWIW - as a long-time Finale user I am not concerned and I use a Roland keyboard (A-800Pro) which I have configured as an external controller for Vegas Pro.
warriorking
wrote on 2/22/2011, 10:30 AM
I hate to admit it but I have Pinnacle studio 14 which I play around with from time to time with simple projects with pretty good results, I actually preordered the new Avid Studio which came at a nice $99.00 upgrade price for current pinnacle owners... I like to tinker with different programs from time to time...