Amid all the sharply partisan mudslinging that characterizes these final weeks of the Presidential race, it was refreshing to attend IBC in early September and get a message of a different measure. I spoke with executives from many manufacturers at the show who are openly acknowledging – through the support of competitive formats – that their customers work in a complex, multi-format universe and that it is up to them to make that multi-format universe less complex. But until recently, how they did that varied widely, making workflows alternately more efficient or more frustrating across a single production. And none of them would ever commit brand infidelity and admit that users were starting projects within one application and finishing it in a completely different realm.

Adding format support for new cameras and evolving editors is a common point-release phenomenon. But at IBC, the stump speeches at press events and on the show floor emphasized a kind of multilateral approach, even across the mid- and high-level divisions of the market.

For example, Autodesk has just opened up Inferno, Flame, Flint and Smoke to Final Cut Pro projects with greater support for QuickTime. From Autodesk’s perspective, it’s highly strategic. As Maurice Patel, the industry manager of Autodesk’s Media and Entertainment businesses, told me at the show, “We want to broaden the middle part of our market by giving Final Cut editors access to the sophisticated effects you can get inside Inferno, Flint, Flame and Smoke.”

Adobe is also playing better with Final Cut Pro. Adobe product managers presented a session at IBC’s first Final Cut Pro User Group SuperMeet to explain to the FCP faithful how to use Adobe’s Dynamic Link to easily move FCP projects into After Effects, Encore (for burning Blu-ray DVDs) and Photoshop (for doing those little tweaks that Photoshop does so well). Adobe has started playing very well with RED, too, but that was expected from two companies that place such a premium on RAW files. An early beta of the RED Camera Adobe Importer plug-in for Premiere Pro, After Effects and Encore is being readied for release. Stay tuned for more on this and a tutorial on how to bring RED files into After Effects CS4 in next month’s issue.

Lest you think everyone’s happily sharing formats, apps and profits, think again. A certain amount of “borrowing” is also to be expected. In his review in this issue of Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 (officially announced to the public on September 23), Contributing Editor Charlie White noticed a few features lifted from Avid’s playbook. We got a sneak peek at the whole suite several months ago, and I noticed a new cartooning tool inside After Effects CS4 that looks an awful lot like ToonIt!, the Digital Anarchy plug-in recently acquired by Red Giant. It’s not. It was lovingly copied and built from scratch by Adobe coders.

We couldn’t fit reviews of the entire CS4 Production Premium into this issue, so stay tuned for reviews of After Effects CS4 and Encore CS4. To find out more about what the new versions of Premiere Pro, Soundbooth and Dreamweaver have to offer, turn to page 10.

– Beth Marchant, Editor-in-Chief

bmarchant@accessintel.com