It’s Monday morning, March 17, and it looks like Avid has begun what is the first day of the rest of its life. Today they’ve announced the first of what I hope will be many changes in the direction the video division is going to connect with customers and provide great products at great value. They have announced a “New Thinking” campaign that is “a customer-focused campaign designed to improve the way the company connects with all of its users and prospects.” A press release will be released later today and posted on the Avid website so I won’t bore with the details but it’s the main points that are worth discussion.
The consolidation of software editing applications
– merging Avid Xpress Pro software into the Media Composer product line, and
offering existing Avid Xpress Pro customers a pathway to upgrade to Media Composer software
The sheer existence of Avid Xpress Pro seems to have always been a confusing product offering. You could call it unnecessary but in order to compete with Final Cut Pro Avid had to do something. I used Xpress Pro for years and it worked well but when Media Composer Software came around it seemed useless except for the price. You had to really dig deep to find the differences between the two products so they just didn’t seem different enough to both exist. Again, it all came down to price … which is why the next announcement is all the more important.
A 50% reduction in the price of Media Composer software
– increasing the accessibility of the industry-standard digital
video editing application to a wider range of professionals
It’s no secret that a lot of Final Cut Pro’s success has been driven by its price. You get a lot for that $1299 but even with Media Composer’s price coming down to $2495 there will still be a lot of buyers who will still choose the value of Apple’s (or even Adobe’s) software suites and all of the supporting applications over Media Composer’s single application at a higher price. But that may be okay. In a call last Thursday discussing these announcements, Avid’s Chief Marketing Officer Greg Estes said that Avid doesn’t necessarily see themselves as a “one on one competitor” with Apple. Avid is more focused on the we, as in collaboration, while Apple is more the I, as in a single user. This makes some sense as Avid doesn’t really offer the tools to let the editor do the audio mixing, graphics and DVD authoring, instead letting those tasks go to more specialized artists. Plus with Avid’s Unity products and just their whole media management concept you can see where he is coming from with this kind of thinking. Can this philosophy lead to a profitable company in today’s bargain-priced market? Time will tell.
New student pricing for Media Composer software
– enabling any student at an accredited college or university
with a valid student I.D. to purchase Media Composer software for $295 USMRP
One thing that is evident today is that pretty much every film student has their own copy of Final Cut Studio. Do they know how to properly use it? That’s a different story entirely but the reason they all have it is its price. And once they learn to use it then what reason do they have to learn Avid? Get that software into the hands of students and young filmmakers and they will use it when they get older. The biggest problem now is overcoming the mind-set that Avid is used by stuffy old-timer editors and Final Cut Pro by the youngsters. But at $295, there’s not really any reason for a student not to try it out. Except a lot of students don’t have $295 dollars and with a hardware dongle you don’t see Avid Media Composer on the bit-torrent sites nearly as much as Final Cut Pro. Is it that boot-legging that gets FCP into the hands of students or just the overall price? Probably some of both. Will a $295 price tag get the students to pony up for their own hardware dongled version of Avid Media Composer? Time will tell.
A new online community – introducing new ways for
industry professionals to access and share tips and tricks,
demonstrations, tutorials and media content;
as well as opportunities to connect with both Avid and industry peers
This is a given today. Any technology company must have well planned community. Avid has had this in the past but it hasn’t really created much of a buzz. It’s been a little confusing to use on occasion but it’s not that bad. Time will tell if they can make this online community an inviting new world for Avid users.
Enhanced online customer support
– delivering Avid support customers easier access to more accurate and
personalized answers to important product and
service queries, 24/7, without having to call Customer Support.
This could be the tipping point that gets a lot of former Avid users back in the fold as well as provides the value that new customers need. Traditionally Avid support contracts have been expensive and let’s be honest, most independent editors and small post production houses don’t buy it. With Final Cut Pro, support often comes from other users via support forums all over the Internet so their corporate support isn’t that great either. I know very few people who have the Apple Pro Video support so it usually seems to be other users who help solve problems. Avid doesn’t have this broad, user generated online support community so the thought that corporate support will be more open and accessible is a great thing. Just look at this quote from Avid’s other press release about the new online support from Todd Smelser of www.suchvideo.com:
“Not only is the site much more intuitive, but the functionality works the way I need it to. Entering an error message in the search field returns the right result, and the new ability to interact with live support representatives and ask questions in real time is huge. In the last week, I have asked two very specific questions
and I received prompt responses with great information. Another particular feature that users will find extremely valuable is the ability to receive, save, and
track tech notes with greater efficiency than before.”
Just the thought of actually being able to enter an error message into a database and actually getting some kind instruction as to what to do to fix it is a non-linear editors dream come true. Time will tell how well this works once it’s up and running in full.
So …. it’s a new day at Avid Technology. They say this “New Thinking” is shaped by extensive customer feedback and today’s announcements are part of
“a wide range of initiatives planned to roll out throughout the year.”
Let’s hope they keep this new focus going strong after all the new announcements and immediate changes have happened. As always, time will tell.
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9 Comments
What new thinking? A 50% drop in price? Avid still costs 100% + more than Final Cut. And what else are you getting for that generous discount?
If Avid wants to streak ahead of Apple, it must slash its price BELOW — WAY BELOW Final Cut AND throw in some meaningful extras. Not to mention simplifying its arcane editing procedures and doing nothing short of revolutionizing its technical support. (It’s now free? So what? How long do you now have to wait?)
Avid corporate is still proceeding on the arrogant and false assumption that its product is simply better and everybody should know it. Tell that to the Brothers Coen. and then go tell it to the Marines.
This must be good news to some Avid editors but is it going to attract new users away from the likes of Adobe and Apple? I doubt it.
I think Avid are caught in a timewarp and their products are still in the era where editors just edit. I live in an era where we capture, edit and FINISH.
It seems a risky move to me to consolidate your systems around the collaborative workflow. How long will it be before Adobe and Apple decide to go into the shared storage and collaborative worflow area in a very serious way? FCP Server is coming soon and who knows if Adobe have a similar product, it would make sense for their whole software collection if they had a media server system to manage media for disparate tasks from web and beyond.
The only people you’ll find cheering the 50% price cut are Avid users all the same bars to entry remain.
If AVid really have changed then they should open up their systems to 3rd party support for the likes of AJA and Blackmagic et al. If their hardware products are that good and worthy of such lofty pricing then they have nothing to fear from a Kona3.
“The biggest problem now is overcoming the mind-set that Avid is used by stuffy old-timer editors and Final Cut Pro by the youngsters.”
If Avid thinks that this is the biggest problem they”ve already lost. The problem is not the mindset, it’s the product. Avid is crippled product that only does a few things effectively: manage media, edit/ trim, titles. In every other respect the other products are superior.
“Avid is more focused on the we, as in collaboration, while Apple is more the I, as in a single user.”
This is too stupid to be believed. More and more content is being created by smaller shops. These smaller shops collaborate but the collaborators are not specialists. They all have the same apps. Avid’s advantages are applicable to the dinosaurs of the world which are becoming extinct.
I say this as an admin in an educational facility where the Avid installed base is shrinking every year.
“If AVid really have changed then they should open up their systems to 3rd party support for the likes of AJA and Blackmagic et al. If their hardware products are that good and worthy of such lofty pricing then they have nothing to fear from a Kona3.”
I second that motion. I have been an Avid editor for 8 years and though I like Avid, I’m growing weary of the lack of open hardware development for their software. I’m looking at the $2500 Blackmagic hardware and comparing it with Adrenaline or Mojo SDI and I’m scratching my head thinking, “Is Avid really an option for me anymore?” Dollar for dollar, feature for feature there’s no comparison. We’re certainly contemplating a switch this summer and it’s worth saying that Avid’s announcement hasn’t changed my mind yet. I wish them luck but I’ll be looking elsewhere after NAB wraps up.
I used AVID back in the days before FCP and before Adobe, it was good and helped me to get into to the new NLE world at that time.
I even laughed at Apple when they 1st offered FCP. Now in the 21st century I use FCP all the time. I have an older copy of AVID on my Mac at home, but it never sees the light of day it’s all FCP.
I helped an Ad Agency recently setup an edit studio and the owner kept saying he wanted AVID in there to attract clients. Once he saw the price point and I told him with FCP he’d always have an endless supply of young guns coming out of school that could use, it he never said AVID again.
Avid is just plain way off the mark. By far the best product has been the DS Nitris, a product that was ahead of its time before Avid decided it needed to make it friendlier for MC editors. Now the DS is long in the tooth, rarely mentioned in public and probably all but officially discontinued. We DS users are constantly told to be patient and wait for upcoming announcements that do not materialize. Media Composer is a dinosaur software-wise–having people cheer when you announce the brand-new ability to move multiple clips on the timeline should be evidence that it is time to leave Avid’s Jurassic Park in favor of the 21st century. Cheaper bad software is still bad software, and there are plenty of good alternatives.
Good-bye Avid. Tell Ampex I said “hi.”
Avid, FCP, Adobe, they all have one thing in common = EditShare!!!
Check out the amazing new products that EditShare will be showing for shared storage solutions at NAB. I think they’re at SL9820, I think.
In all the reviews and shoot out I have seen – AVID xpress pro did a better job in color correcting, up & down shifting between sd & hd, various formats, color scapes, pull-downs and technical aspects.
I believe Avid saw many Edit shops using Xpress Pro in 2/3 to 3/4 of the bays and media composer for that which needed particular components.
I believe the TV show “Dog, the Bounty Hunter” was edited only in Avid Express Pro – so, financially – it is a loss for shops that discovered they did not need that extra 15 percent of Media Composer offered and 3500 dollar difference..
Many of the particular features Media Composer offerred could be had for less – by buying plugins, and specific software…. It is really a dollars and sense … issue, I have heard of broadcast TV using Liquid to Ingest, and output product.
What next – ???
Avid also announced and displayed their new hardware, the Nitris DX. The audience cheered when it was revealed that the new hardware will allow you to “hit the spacebar… and it plays!”, touting the fast response time (Avid finally moved beyond firewire connectivity). My response was, why did it take you this long?
There was no mention of any new software feature whatsoever (with the exception that you can move multiple clips at once…. Ooohhhh). I guess with all the management changes they lost the source code?
In my opinion, Avid needs to sit down and seriously redesign the entire interface and GUI. Why are there FIVE play buttons on the default Avid keyboard, and yet no MATCH FRAME key? And the settings menus… kill me! I have been editing for decades and I still can’t find the setting I’m looking for. Oh, there it is… Settings/Media Creation/Media Type… just where I thought it should be! ARGHHH!!!!
Fast and efficient software with group collaboration is all I’m asking for.
On another note, keep in mind that most everything you watch on broadcast TV (not TLC) and in the theater was cut on an Avid and finished on a system far more expensive than FCP (like Smoke). They are not going away anytime soon. The dinosaurs, as you call them, still rule this planet.
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[...] this really says to me is that Avid is listening to customers. It was nearly a year ago when Avid started its New Thinking and gave some good hope for its future. Avid’s CEO sent out an open letter to the community [...]
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