"If an Announcement is Made in February, But No One Hears it ...

[Peter Moretti]

... was it even made?"

Well February has come and gone and the big promise of better communication has already fallen short a lot faster than even the most cynical would have expected.

That said, I look forward to 24F support in 2012.

[David Parks]

Thanks for bringing this up Peter because it appears there is nothing new yet. I signed up for the email list for new announcements and i have only received one email.

And that was some contest "Let's Make a Movie" pitch announcement. Otherwise, I haven''t heard anything and I was told to be patient, there would be some new customer initiative. Was that it???? Some indie filmaker contest???

I even went on record saying that something was coming and now I'm clueless as to what Avid is doing.

Other than the usual tips, questions, and workarounds that I share and discuss, I won't be sticking my neck out for Avid anymore. I still think that Avid is a great editing app, but I also have learned FCP in order to market myself to a wider customer base. My NASA contractor client has agreed to buy Avid Xpress Pro for a Lunar Sample Facility video that already over 20 hours of Lunar EVA footage to organize and digitize. So I still feel in my own opinion that Avid is better for editing, organizing and maintaining integrity in it media management and mixing DV, DVCAM, HDV 1080/30 in one project.
But in the end FCP can do a decent job on a lot of projects.

But it is still sad that the company still hasn't quite grasped (or has just flat out forgotten) that video editors take their tools very seriously.

Cheers, David

[Jeff Cerar]

Avid needs "a few more weeks" to get everything in place before making an announcement. Read through the last 3-4 pages of this thread.

http://www.avid.com/exchange/forums/thread/306086.aspx

[Peter Moretti]

Right Jeff, but how is locking that thread an example of increased communication with the customer?

Or saying "We'll have an announcement in Feb, scout's honor," only to put it off? Avid had people waiting till the end of 29th. They even used the leap year to stall for another day before making their non-announcement.

[Jeff Cerar]

Hi Peter,

I'm not trying to defend Avid I was merely pointing out what was going on.

For what it's worth Marianna has just posted this announcement on the Avid forum...

http://www.avid.com/exchange/forums/thread/310868.aspx

You can send her a private message and call her cell phone.

Regards,

Jeff

[Giroud Francois]

the link you give is a pityful blah blah to say exactly ..... nothing !

the best part is the last sentence, resuming all what they have to say:
"The news will come when we are able to so please stay tuned."

wooaaa... what communication.

[Jack Walker]

Here's a March 3 Hollywood Reporter article that has the same nonsense, another extension, more promises, just from a new management team:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...be993f93a7c1f4

I count the decline at Avid to be just about 3 years now. Lots of people have left, a lot more promises have been made and not kept, and the layer of superiority of the Avid apps gets thinner.

As pointed out above, more and more of the threads on the Avid boards get locked. Avid sent Liquid back to Pinnacle where there is a whole new round of promises of future apps, focus groups, etc. etc. etc. Meanwhile, as seen over there today, the forum moderators are starting to revolt and fight amongst themselves.

What keeps getting missed is that most people are just looking for up-to-date solutions to get the work done as the nature of the work and the tools used to produce the work subtly change.

I have no idea who the new big players will be as the video and film production world evolves, but I know it's not going to be the status quo, no matter how desperately some try to hang on to the way it was back in the day.

[David Parks]

Thanks for the link Jack. Quote from the article and the woman who is tasked to turn this around:

"That is an enormously leverageable asset. In my career, I have not seen before a customer base as engaged and proactive as this one is."

I had no idea that I was an asset to be leveraged, just listened to. I'm afraid this person knows absolutely nothing about our market. That's why there wasn't an announcement in February. She put the breaks on everything. She just started in a new position, with a new company, with a new product line, with a new customer base, and probably a new sense of who are these editors??? And she probsbly asked,,,Isn't video editing like word processing??

Of course we're proactive, our careers depend on it.

I have my doubts. This lady sounds like the Tylda Swinton character in Michael Clayton giving her brief before the board. Corporate speak in a bad way.

Cheers.