“Apple has been in a buying mood of late, gobbling up Silicon Color, a high-end color correction software company, and Proximity, a company that specializes in broadcaster-level asset management. This bodes very well for creative professionals, especially when the software offerings of these two companies are folded into Apple’s pro applications,” Anton Linecker reports for Macworld.
Linecker reports, “Apple’s most-recent purchases, Silicon Color and Proximity, address two widely perceived shortcomings of Final Cut Studio: the lack of industrial-strength color correction and so-so management of media assets.”
“Apple’s purchases will certainly increase its presence in the broadcast arena—and improves the company’s competitive picture vis à vis Avid—but as history has shown us, what may be even more interesting for professionals and consumers alike will be the trickle down of Silicon Color and Proximity technology into the entire Pro Apps line-up down the road,” Linecker reports.
Full article here.
Related articles:
Apple acquires Proximity – December 04, 2006
Apple acquires Silicon Color – October 16, 2006
Asked and answered. FCP vs. Avid, natch.
Is Avid still around? Just kidding. I run a multimedia company in Chicago and you should see the cats out there that are still hanging onto Avid and their legacy hardware. These guys are in real trouble. These days, all you need is a laptop and a brain and you’re pretty much good to go. I wish them well, but the days of $400/hr edit suites are quickly becoming a thing of the past – and thankfully that means Avid, too.
Wish they’d be as aggressive in static image creation/manipulation software of the A…[choo!]…be [‘scuse me …[polen]] kind.
Not to mention that most Avid owners have troubles steering it around. I have worked with several and none of them even knew how to use, for example, the multi-camera mode. Of course, now that multi-cam has come to FCP (and with a vengeance I might add) there is just one less reason to rent an Avid suite.
We left Avid when FCP 1.0 came out, and haven’t looked back. Once Avid went public, it was very obvious that they cared more about their shareholders than their customers.
And why does Final Cut need industrial-strength color correction? We all all know NTSC stands for “Never The Same Color (twice).
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Don’t look now but Apple went public over 25 years ago. Those bastards must care more about their shareholders as well.
Working at an AVID shop, I wouldn’t proclaim AVID DOA yet. Final Cut’s Color Correction and Media Management still suck compared to AVID. I love FCP. I use it at home, and wish my office did the same. But AVID is entrenched in the high level video and film industry for a reason. People are comfortable with it. Most Producers and Directors are looking for reliability, and familiarity, and unwilling to leave it for what may be better, but less known (FCP).
It processes 2k resolution very fast. For example your Canon 5D (10mp) camera is a 2k camera. Your high end medium format backs are about 4k (22mp). Just to put things in perspective to those who dont know what the 2k means.
The output to “print” (film) would be more consistent as well as the output to any screen. But I would venture to think that theaters will have to have color calibrated projectors for movies in the future….then it will trickle down to color calibrated LCD/Plasma’s at home.
Sorry I was speaking about Silicon Color. Not to mention it does it realtime.