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MillimeterMark In
Apr 1, 2007 12:00 PM
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium software, successor to Production Studio, combines After Effects, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Encore, Illustrator with Flash Professional, Soundbooth, OnLocation, and Ultra.
Adobe’s Best Creative Suite Ever?
By Dan Ochiva
Ever since the introduction of its first Creative Suite in 2003, Adobe has pursued a canny strategy: Integrate its less-popular products with its two top apps — Photoshop and After Effects. By developing, marketing, updating, and pricing its design and video editing products as one, even recently introduced apps could benefit from the reflected attention. It looks as if that approach finally paid off.
Adobe Creative Suite 3 (CS3) Production Premium software, released late last month, offers one of the best examples of suite success. Despite the name change, CS3 is the successor to Adobe Production Studio. It combines and better integrates the old favorites — After Effects, Photoshop (which now comes in a video-savvy Extended version), Premiere Pro, Encore, and Illustrator — with new apps — Flash Professional, Soundbooth, OnLocation (for monitoring and direct-to-disk recording), and Ultra (a greenscreen keyer).
One big story for Mac users is that for the first time, Photoshop is available as a Universal Binary. Running natively on Intel-based Mac hardware delivers a considerable performance boost.
Another important move: the release of Adobe Premiere Pro for OS X. Why? For anyone who depends on After Effects, having that program highly integrated with a Mac NLE — along with the new Soundbooth audio program — might be irresistible for its step-saving alone.
“Being an [After Effects] Mac user, I didn't have access to Audition, so I had been using [Apple] Soundtrack Pro and Final Cut Pro for any audio and video editing requirements,” says John Dickinson, Adobe trainer at Motionworks and senior broadcast designer at Sydney, Australia-based Foxtel. “But I spend the majority of my time working in After Effects, so having Soundbooth and Premiere Pro available on the Mac as part of the Creative Suite of tools means that now I have a workflow — thanks to DynamicLink — where I can switch from After Effects to Premiere Pro to Soundbooth seamlessly.”
The suite's shared memory cache and a bidirectional connection also benefit Encore, the DVD creation app, which is also new for the Mac OS. Encore's tight integration with After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Photoshop saves time and effort. If you change a source file in Photoshop, for example, the DVD menus automatically update in Encore.
Look for the results of improved product integration in the new audio editing program, Soundbooth; it's a useful subset of Adobe's Audition audio app, which is no longer included in the bundle.
“The new, more limited audio editing capabilities will enable highly visual types to finally do a little audio work — rather than getting lost in all that you can do in Audition,” Dickinson says.
Finally, the suite broadens its reach with production for three screens — TVs, PCs, and cell phones — a central conceit. Integrated output for cell phone video and animation allow users of Premiere Pro and Flash to design within the familiar Adobe interfaces. Included are templates for most of today's cell phones, so anyone editing for that tiny screen can see exactly how things will play out.
For anyone using Creative Suite, upgrading to Production Premium delivers more than ever. For the rest, Adobe offers a hard-to-beat alternative to standalone apps.
Digital Content Producer’s The Briefing Room
Quincy Newspapers TV Stations Upgrade to Digital with Harris Broadcast Solutions
Harris, an international communications and information technology company, has installed new broadcast systems to upgrade to digital two television stations owned by Quincy Newspapers in Quincy, Ill. Harris installed a server-based master control and production room comprising a variety of Harris digital broadcast solutions for WXOW-ABC (and its DTV sub-channel, WXOW-CW) in La Crosse, Wis., and WQOW-ABC (and its DTV sub-channel, WQOW-CW) in Eau Claire, Wis. …
Music 2 Hues New Music Production Package Released
Music 2 Hues released a new addition to its Theme Pack production music line. “Our Theme Pack series has been one of our most successful products, and now after many client requests, we are adding the new Romance and Wedding Theme Pack,” says Andy Wells, president of Music 2 Hues. “This Theme Pack specializes in music for the wedding videographer or romance producer.” Five audio CDs and one DVD-ROM with matching WAV and MP3 files are included in the new Theme Pack. …
Projected Image Digital Launches New Products
Digital hardware/software and media solutions specialist Projected Image Digital (PID) launched a raft of exciting new product ranges. These will greatly enhance the options available to all those using digital lighting and media technologies for their shows and installations.
“Digital lighting and media technologies are really taking off and becoming more accessible to a greater cross-section of the entertainment and leisure sector,” says PID's David March. “PID's mission is to offer the widest and most flexible choice of products to our clients for their projects, and to ensure that they are kept constantly informed with the changing options in a fast-moving world.” …
What software is used at Platnetarium de Vaulx-en-Velin?
At the recently re-opened Planetarium de Vaulx-en-Velin near Lyons, France, Medialon Manager software was integrated with Evans & Sutherland’s Digistar 3 astronomical simulator, which gives visitors the illusion of a 3D representation of some 9,000 stars from 1.000.000 stars database. Medialon Manager enables lighting and audio management and videoconference synchronization via single-point Digistar control for fast, efficient implementation in the hemispheric theater.
Business Intelligence: Offering Offsite Storage for Clients
By Van Carlisle, CEO, FireKing
In this competitive marketplace, digital content producers can increase their revenue and still compete on pricing by offering clients a selection of “a la carte'' production services. One often overlooked, yet particularly profitable, service is long-term and archival storage of master and backup copies of tapes and discs. Driving this demand is an increased awareness about content protection, encouraged by horror stories about irreplaceable master tapes, discs, and production footage being destroyed by fire.
If you want to offer this type of storage service, first determine where you would store clients' media content. Designate a room or storage area either on- or off-site. Make sure the room is secure and access-controlled, and stock it with the appropriate number of media vaults and safes. The environment must remain stable and cool (ideally 65 degrees with 30 percent humidity).
“The most important consideration is liability from fire damage,” says Rick Sorley, a records management and storage consultant with SafetyFile. “Even a fireproof cabinet designed to protect paper documents will not protect the media contained on videotape or disc. Because tapes and discs begin to degrade at temperatures of 125 degrees or in humidity over 85 percent, production houses should use equipment that has been tested by UL [Underwriters Laboratories] and rated to remain at or below 125 degrees for at least two hours when exposed to fire up to 1,850 degrees.”
UL is an independent, non-profit product-safety testing and certification organization. It is imperative to use fireproof filing cabinets and safes that are tested by UL or other nationally known independent testing labs. Be wary of products that claim to be “built to” a certain UL-class specification. This leads customers to erroneously believe that they are getting a UL rating. It is also vital to understand the difference between a fire rating and a classified fire rating. A classified fire rating simply means that the vault will protect the media stored inside it for at least two hours and that the product has been tested and classified by UL. The top suppliers of UL-rated storage equipment offer well-designed media-rated safes, fire-resistant file cabinets, and fire safes for onsite records protection.
To sell this service to clients, first do research to gain an understanding of the issues, and be prepared to present the business case and the main value propositions offered. Once a client invests thousands of dollars to produce content, it should be relatively easy to convince them that they should ensure that the master copy is in a safe, accessible place in the event that copies are destroyed.
What you are essentially selling is peace of mind. Because the usable life of UL-rated storage equipment is usually measured in the decades, once the equipment is paid off (usually three years or more), the profit margins skyrocket. Devise categories of customer service that are divided by long-term and short-term agreements, and bill accordingly.
Van Carlisle is the president and CEO of FireKing Security Group, a loss-prevention company in New Albany, Ind.
Skillset
Apple Final Cut Pro 5: Editing Professional Video
May 8-10
Portland, Ore.
$895
www.weynand.com
With topics including project management, storyboard editing, multicam editing, and adding titles and graphics, this three-day introductory program includes a DVD of all the video material used in the course. The Apple Certified User Test is available for students who would like to take it.
Introduction to Video Production
Thursdays, May 17-June 21
St. Paul, Minn.
$235/$195 members
www.ifpmn.org/filmdv.html
Designed for beginners or more experienced videographers needing a refresher, this course, which runs from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Thursdays, will help you make your video works stronger. Participants will be taken through all aspects of production — from camera, lighting, and sound to editing strategies, including an iMovie tutorial.
Media Resources
High Definition Postproduction: Editing and Delivering HD Video
By Steven Browne
Focal Press, 2006
Your guide to how HD is being done today.
Digital Compositing for Film and Video
By Steve Wright
Focal Press, 2006
Learn tricks for dealing with bedeviling artifacts and practical methods for working with the meat and potatoes of digital effects.
