Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 announced as paid update

[Floris van Eck]

Sweeping Productivity Enhancements and New Creative Innovations Boost End-to-End Workflows for Audio and Video Professionals

SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 11, 2011 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe® Creative Suite® 5.5 Production Premium, the complete software solution for video and post-production that helps deliver content to virtually any screen. Breakthrough performance, workflow improvements, creative innovations, and powerful new audio editing capabilities build upon the huge customer momentum Production Premium is experiencing with broadcasters, filmmakers and video professionals worldwide. New versions receiving major updates include Adobe Premiere® Pro CS5.5, Adobe After Effects® CS5.5, Adobe Flash® Professional CS5.5, Adobe Flash Catalyst® CS5.5, Adobe Story, Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5, and Adobe Device Central CS5.5. New to Creative Suite 5.5 is Adobe Audition® CS5.5, bringing its audio-for-video multitrack editing environment to both Mac OS and Windows® for the first time.

Today also sees Adobe debut an affordable and flexible subscription-based pricing plan, attractive to customers that want to get current and stay current on Creative Suite products, have project-based needs, or try the software for the first time. New Subscription Editions ensure customers with active subscriptions are always working with the most up-to-date versions of the software, without the upfront cost of full pricing. Now customers can use Adobe Production Premium CS5.5 for as little as US$85 per month.

“Over the past year, we’ve received a phenomenal response to Adobe Creative Suite CS5 Production Premium for its performance, new features and expanded integration with hardware and camera manufacturers that makes metadata, collaboration and distribution a seamless workflow for video professionals,” said Jim Guerard, vice president and general manager for Professional Video, Adobe. “CS5.5 turbo-charges a product that has already taken the industry by storm and gives story-tellers new tools and features to continue to astonish audiences around the world.”

Even Greater Productivity
Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium delivers massive productivity enhancements that enable video and audio professionals to dramatically accelerate their workflows. The powerful Adobe Mercury Playback Engine, introduced in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, broadens its graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware support to include laptops and more supported cards, and allows users to open projects faster, get real-time feedback for more GPU-accelerated features, and work more smoothly at 4k and higher resolutions.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 boosts performance by providing a smoother editing workflow, enabled by new trimming and editing tools that provide more precision and control. Dual-system sound support from the new Merge Clips command in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 lets users quickly sync video with high-quality audio recorded on separate devices like location recorders, ideal for DSLR or RED workflows. Leveraging an integrated workflow with Adobe Audition, Adobe Premiere Pro users can save time by sending individual clips or sequences, including reference videos, directly to Adobe Audition for audio editing and restoration. Adobe’s lead in file-based workflows widens in CS5.5 with enhanced support for RED and other tapeless cameras, including improved RED Source Settings dialog in Premiere Pro and After Effects CS5.5 and native support for up to 5k media from RED Epic cameras via an extension available on Adobe Labs. Providing a truly native editing solution, CS5.5 saves users time and eliminates the need to transcode or rewrap footage.

Building on Creative Suite Production Premium’s industry-leading multiscreen capabilities, the new 64-bit Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5 has been completely redesigned to deliver Adobe Premiere Pro video sequences, After Effects compositions, and Adobe Encore® projects to multiple screen formats quickly, while doing the encoding in the background. Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5 also introduces new format support such as AVC-Intra and DPX, and watch folders so users can encode a single clip to multiple destinations with a simple drag and drop.

“When you watch a film, it’s the larger experience that sticks with you, the combination of elements, not the individual details,” said Gareth Edwards, award winning filmmaker and the creative driving force behind the much-heralded 2010 independent film, Monsters. “That’s what I love about Adobe Creative Suite – all of the individual tools interlink seamlessly and blur the line between each part of the process so the focus is creating a cohesive work, not a bunch of different pieces. This interconnectivity coupled with the incredible speed of the Mercury Playback Engine makes for a powerful combination – if we had CS5.5 when we made Monsters, I know we would have finished two months earlier.”

Game-Changing Innovations
New innovations across the suite continue to help audio and video professionals push the boundaries of their creativity. After Effects CS5.5 introduces new features such as the Warp Stabilizer, Camera Lens Blur and Light Falloff to enable users to enhance footage in post-production. The breakthrough Warp Stabilizer eliminates unwanted camera movement by steadying shaky footage, making handheld footage appear as smooth as a camera mounted on a mechanical stabilizer. The Camera Lens Blur effect mimics the properties of physical lenses offering more realistic depth of field blurs. The Light Falloff effect enables users to simulate natural illumination falloff to mimic how light behaves in a 3D scene and can be used to create other light intensity effects.

Already well-adopted in the audio industry, video professionals can now harness the power of Adobe Audition in CS5.5 Production Premium – for both Mac and Windows platforms. The completely re-written audio engine in Audition offers a robust toolset to record, edit, mix, master, and sweeten audio. With its professional editing and multitrack mixing tools, powerful noise-reduction and effects options, audio and video professionals on both platforms can now benefit from Adobe Audition CS5.5 for handling a wide range of tasks quickly and efficiently.

Improved Collaboration
Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium continues to drive innovation by enhancing how users collaborate with existing workflows, even if they use a variety of tools. Enhanced project exchange support for Final Cut Pro users provides maximum flexibility for video editors, while new or enhanced OMF support in Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Audition makes it possible to export high-quality audio projects to Avid Pro Tools, facilitating more efficient collaboration between audio editors, remixers and sound designers.

Access to the new version of Adobe Story, an Adobe CS Live online service*†, improves collaboration between users with email notifications of new script edits and a faster method of tracking changes through script elements and filters. The ability to import Adobe Story script data directly into Adobe Premiere Pro further strengthens XML-based metadata support found throughout the Production Premium suite, which is critical for everything from file-based workflows to media asset management. This industry leadership around metadata-driven workflows, plus the ease and flexibility of communicating with Adobe applications with critical third party solutions from news management systems to playback servers, is the catalyst behind many broadcasters and other organizations around the world switching to Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium is scheduled to ship within 30 days with availability through Adobe Authorized Resellers, the Adobe Store and Adobe Direct Sales. Estimated street price for Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium is expected to be US$1,699. Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are available.

By subscribing to Creative Suite, customers can choose a one-year subscription plan for lower payments or a month-to-month subscription for greater flexibility. For more information about Subscription Editions, visit: Subscription editions.

Pricing for the new Subscription Edition starts as low as US$39 per month for Adobe Premiere Pro and US$85 per month for Production Premium.

Education pricing for students, faculty and staff in K-12 and higher education is available from Adobe Authorized Education Resellers and the Adobe Education Store at http://www.adobe.com/education/purch...on_pricing.htm. More information regarding education volume licensing for higher education and K-12 institutions can be viewed at educational software discounts | Adobe Volume Licensing.

For more detailed information about features, OS support, upgrade policies, pricing and International versions, please visit Video production editing | Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit Adobe.

Adobe Unveils Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium

What's new in CS5.5:
Design Tools | Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection

FAQ:
FAQ | Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection

Things I like:
- Warp Stabillizer in After Affects
- Audition replaces Soundbooth
- Subtle changes to Premiere Pro
- Media Encoder enhancements
- Audio sync (like PluralEyes does) in Premiere Pro

Interestingly, they now offer monthly/yearly subscription plans if you only need the software temporally.

[Kevin Currie]

I have a few quick questions. I didn't read this whole article, but I've gone over a few others that were specific to PPro and AE, so I hope I'm not asking questions that were covered above.

1. What about Encore? Other than the ability to author blu-rays, I haven't noticed many changes in Encore in the last few versions. Are there any 5.5 upgrades planned, or do we keep our fingers crossed for CS6?

2. As far as I can tell, the CS5.5 versions can only be obtained by purchasing one of the suites. Photoshop and InDesign are the only ones that can be bought seperatly. (at least that's what I gleam from the Adobe site) What if I can wait to get Production Premium CS6, but really want the new After Effects CS5.5 features now?

3. (not really a CS5.5 question) What's the difference between Soundbooth and Audion? I thought Audition was more like a free version of Soundbooth with less features, and I have only ever used Soundbooth because that is what came in the suite. But I hear about more people using Audition, and now it's replacing Soundbooth in the suites. Why?

Thanks! :)

[Bart Walczak]

Originally Posted by Kevin Currie

3. (not really a CS5.5 question) What's the difference between Soundbooth and Audion? I thought Audition was more like a free version of Soundbooth with less features, and I have only ever used Soundbooth because that is what came in the suite. But I hear about more people using Audition, and now it's replacing Soundbooth in the suites. Why?

Thanks! :)

You must be mistaking Audition for Audacity. These are two completely different programs.

Audition is much better software than Soundbooth, and was present in previous bundled versions. It gives you more control over what you do, and has many more options. I for one am glad that they finally realized that Soundbooth was kind of fluke, and I'm happy to see Audition back in the bundle.

[Kyle Root]

I just got CS5 a few months ago, I'm not about to upgrade again. At my pace, going from CS2 to CS5... I'll have to wait for CS8 before I upgrade again.

On the Audition vs Soundbooth: I still use audition CS2 and it works great for multi track recording.

[Randy Johnson]

Theres only a couple things I was looking for id like to see better performance espcially when editing AVCHD files. My system is kinda clunky with thlat but I have a low end i-7 it would be cool if they used the MPE to also help playback AVCHD files. The other thing I would have liked to see is the CUDA engine added to Encore too not just Premiere. I dont think it is now.

[Shawn Lam]

Here's the first hands-on Production Premium CS5.5 review, which I wrote for EventDV Magazine:
EventDV.net: The Event Videographer's Resource

[Bart Walczak]

Hmmm... looks like CS5 review to me, not CS5.5

[Rick Thornquist]

I think he meant it to be:

Review: Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium

- Rick

[Charles W. Hull]

Originally Posted by Shawn Lam

Here's the first hands-on Production Premium CS5.5 review, which I wrote for EventDV Magazine:

Nice review Shawn. All in all 5.5 looks like it may be worth the $399 upgrade for Prduction Permium.

Warp Stabilizer looks like it may compete well with Deshaker, plus it runs in AE and should be more user friendly and integrated - I'm looking forward to this. Do you know if it lets you compensate for different amounts of rolling shutter?

[Chip Thome]

One thing I noticed that I hadn't seen before is the offering it on a subscription basis, month to month or annual. During the last couple of months I almost bit on the upgrade deals Adobe had been offering. Now had I done that, I'd be really pissed !!!

[John Isgren]

I had just bought CS5 last week. When I saw the announcement I thought "Oh crap!" I figured that Adobe would off the free upgrade, but expected to have to dig on the web site and spend 2 hours on hold....As soon as I read teh announcement I clikced into my email and there was an email already waiting from Adobe with instructions on how to request the upgrade. I am impressed with Adobe Customer Service!

[Andrew Smith]

Hi John,

Unfortunately you've bought before the announcement and thus no complimentary upgrade for you. I feel for you. Guess they need to draw the line somewhere, though.

One very impressive thing about the CS5.5 suite is that you can take all your audio clips straight to Audition and do your audio work there, with the results coming back in to Premiere as a "flattened" single item on the audio timeline. Very very impressive.

Take a look: Adobe Technology Sneaks 2011 - Sneak-Preview of Adobe Audition | Adobe TV

Andrew

[Brian Brown]

As a participant in Adobe's "Ambassador" program, I was offered pre-release access to the Master Suite yesterday. After spending most of the day yesterday downloading the install, I'm today playing around with PPro and AE updates.

Firstly, I simply had to try the Warp Stabilizer effect on some of my otherwise-unusable DSLR footage, and, at first blush, am quite impressed. Here's a real-world, side-by-side example of the plug-in in action:
YouTube - After Effects CS5.5 Warp Stabilizer

[Andrew Smith]

What is truly amazing is that you've got your downloadables before the trial versions are even available. (As for me, I'm on volume licensing - with upgrade subscription - in Australia and still no updates.) Count yourself blessed!

This is software that is so awesome it should almost come with a complimentary "drool try". :-)

Andrew

[Brian Brown]

Andrew, I indeed do feel blessed. That's why I felt it was incumbent on me to test out some of the new features and get the word out about them. #AdobeAE just re-tweeted my Warp Stabilizer video, so hopefully they're getting something out of the investment.

What's truly amazing with CS5 and now CS5.5 is that I can natively edit and realtime preview DSLR video on a 4 year- old Q6600 processor. I bought a GTX470 when I upgraded to CS5, but that's it. This had made me a "fanboy" of Adobe's for quite some time.

Now that the 2nd generation of the i7 core is out, I'll simply HAVE to upgrade this year.