A Digibeta Quality Edit Suite in a bag - Could it be done using the MXO2?

Creative Cow by Peter Wiggins
I think we can safely say that the concept of a broadcast editing suite in a bag was well and truly proven with the help of the MXO2.

I missed two inch tape machine editing, ferric fluid and razor blades thankfully, but I have more one inch editing hours under my belt than I will admit. Did I have a social life in my twenties? No, but I can probably still lace up an Ampex VPR2 blindfold.

When I first started editing in facility houses in the eighties, an edit suite was a room full of large control panels next to a room with racks and racks of mainframes. This online suite would cost a quarter of a million pounds, more was not unusual if you wanted the latest toys. Editing then was expensive, noisy, hot and slow. Plus you had to have a science degree to understand why you could only edit every 4th frame. How things have changed!

Now don’t get me wrong I’m all for new technology and trying things out. Final Cut Pro for me is my weapon of choice with 6 notches for each year on the broadcast bedpost. But I think every now and then we should look back and see how far technology has come in a lifetime, or career even, better still half a career!

So as the vogue thing in British television is at the moment to issue a challenge, I thought I’d do the same: - Build a broadcast DigiBeta quality edit suite that will fit in a computer bag and will go through airport security.

To start off with this seems easy, get a MacBookPro and use FCP. Fine, nothing new here – except the fact that we have to get SDI and a 422 connector in and out of the MBP. This is broadcast, so no DV and firewire going on here. Not so easy. read more...



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