GUEST POST FROM QUANTUM: DO THE NLE WARS STILL RAGE ON?

There's no more personal window to your video production workflow than your editor of choice - and each maker of non-linear-editors has had significant disruption and controversy in the last year.

Competitive pressure is almost always good for the consumer - it tends to force manufacturers to develop new features more quickly and at lower prices.

But it can sure lead to a lot of confusion.

LOOKING BACK

Let's recap the state of the conflict for at least the three 'A's: Apple, Adobe and Avid.

While Apple may not have invented the non-linear editor - they can be credited with making editing accessible and widely available. The Final Cut ecosystem spawned a massive industry of up and coming student editors, and led to the creation of a bustling, open infrastructure of plugin developers, trainers, editors and of course Apple's other creative professional products to complement Final Cut including Xsan, the Xserve and Xserve RAID.

Yet when wanting to modernize Final Cut, Apple took a dramatic decision to debut a fresh, 64-bit version of Final Cut with a new magnetic timeline that broke many ties with the earlier version. Despite the dramatically low price of the new offering, this was upsetting to many users who wanted faster ways to edit, a full 64-bit application, yet also wanted backwards compatibility. Apple probably doesn't get enough credit for how hard they've worked since first release to steadily make working with Final Cut Pro 7 projects, and the other perceived shortcomings. Many working editors I talk with today have both Final Cut Pro X and Final Cut Pro 7, and edit in Final Cut Pro X when they can as its faster, and Final Cut Pro 7 if they're working with older projects.

Meanwhile, Adobe has clearly been putting tremendous energy into steadily improving their flagship editing suite, Adobe Premiere. As part of the Creative Suite, Premiere works very well with other common workflow tools such as After Effects. Editors like Adobe Premiere for its cross-platform chops, 64-bit capability and speed of the Mercury graphics engine, and the familiarity of the linear timeline for editing. Until Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Premiere was almost always purchased as part of the Creative Suite bundle, so many users received a copy of Adobe Premiere yet may not be using it - but requires only getting that Creative Suite DVD out of the drawer to install and try.

If anything, the pace of releases of Creative Suite, and the latest Adobe Creative Cloud, have left some creative users questioning which version to upgrade to and when.

Avid, often deemed a more closed ecosystem, nevertheless enjoys many users and a cross-platform base of editors. Avid Media Composer released a 64-bit version in November of 2011, yet has made the headlines more often lately for 'other-than-NLE' news - and we'll leave it at that.

LOOKING FORWARD

The point is - all of this churn and activity can be upsetting to users who simply need a stable production environment to crank out their work - on time, reliably, and on budget.

Some production environments can standardize on one platform for ease of support, but others need to accommodate ace editors who demand a production environment of choice and will specify what tools they need for the fastest production.

Understanding that helps you understand why the prospect of feeling forced to adopt a new editor, or worry if their current workflow can work with new customer requirements, codecs and shooting formats all give Production Managers and their support teams ulcers.

WHAT ABOUT THE... UNDER PART OF THE ICEBERG

While the editing tools may be the most visible part of a production workflow – it’s the support and storage infrastructure underneath that can dramatically impact how well those media and asset files and finished work moves from work in process to delivery.

As a production platform, Quantum's StorNext File System (and appliances) is completely compatible with Apple's Xsan, and should you choose to try a new editor you'll know that your storage infrastructure won't need to change. At least creative users don't need to worry about whether adopting a new editor will force forklift upgrades to their storage infrastructure - it won't.

MAVERICKS, YOU ARE CLEARED TO BUZZ THE TOWER

Final Cut Pro X not only recently released a fresh update to v10.0.9 recently, but Apple has also announced an upcoming version of the OS codenamed 'OS X Mavericks.' As an Apple Developer, Quantum continuously tests Xsan interoperability with StorNext and are very excited about the release and can't wait to tell you more.

THE BIG TAKEAWAY

Staying on top of the changes in the editing world can be demanding, but should never get in the way of producing your best work. Most users are carefully evaluating new and alternative versions of their editing tools in small pilot programs and letting the results speak for themselves. Whatever their decision, or planned editing suite changes, at least their StorNext or Xsan based storage infrastructure will be rock-solid.