NAB 2012: Apple and Final Cut Pro X

the Editblog on PVC by Scott Simmons

Apple didn’t have a booth at the 2012 NAB show, and no one expected them to. Even though no one was surprised they weren’t there a lot of folks commented that they thought it would’ve been more appropriate than ever given that Apple now has a shipping version of Final Cut Pro X. But Apple’s presence was felt all over the show floor with tons of Apple products on display. They were even having on the record meetings off the show floor and I was lucky enough to be invited to one of them.

By now we all know what those meetings were about. Larry Jordan got the scoop by announcing a couple of the upcoming features that Apple was talking about. Philip Hodgetts has written a blog post about some of the Final Cut Pro X installation numbers Apple was touting. He wrote a nice article but the real meat is down in the comments below. Reality distortion field? You decide.

I don’t have anything new to add other than my own two cents. It’s great to see Apple again announcing upcoming features for FCPX. This is the second time they have done just that. I was most surprised to see the mention of “dual viewers”. I would take that to mean a source/record or viewer/canvas type editing option. Personally this is something I would welcome but I wouldn’t bet on FCP X returning to FCP7’s interface anytime soon. Apple said that they aren’t going to implement old features unless they can do them better; case in point multicam. This is a good thing and I said to Apple that if they can improve upon the old source/record type of editing then I welcome that with open arms. I can’t wait to see what they come up with. read more...