Re: [Avid-L2] Re: Mac Smoke Official

Maybe it is worth pointing out that much of the same investment is required for Avid installations. 10K for Composer Mojo DX, plus Mac. Pretty much the same concept. And if you want support you write Avid a check. Same with software upgrades or maintenance. There has also been times and products for which Avid required the purchase of a support contract. And products for which Avid spec'd specific expensive video cards for upgrades.
Not saying that is a good thing or a bad thing. It has been typical to varying degrees over the years. So the comparison is a wash.
I will say that Autodesk owners always seem to have good things to say about support. 
Their podcast seems to lean one in the direction that Smoke will play nice on the same box with FCP and AE.
Oliver has an interesting point. Avid had a product in this market segment but does not anymore. They really didn't make a true attempt to sell it. Most resellers and the company itself appears to be all thumbs when it comes to DS informations, demos, sales support,marketing, etc.
A thought here.
One. Nitris DX is a poor stand in for the original Nitris. Its first iteration really guaranteed a great level reliable multi-stream performance. For Symphony owners this is a step backwards as I am rendering more than ever. DS has jumped to the AJA card/GPU which I suspect also has lower performance. Therefore less of jump in performance from a DS assist station to full blown DS. A gap too narrow to justify two products with.
Could DS users confirm my suspicions on Nitris vs AJA performance (to tape or output)?
Chris MagidRTVF

--- On Fri, 11/20/09, oliverpetersvidy <oliverpeters@oliverpeters.com> wrote:

From: oliverpetersvidy <oliverpeters@oliverpeters.com>
Subject: [Avid-L2] Re: Mac Smoke Official
To: Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, November 20, 2009, 9:56 AM

 

Where does the $40K figure come from? Are we talking about a basic Mac Pro (fully loaded) or something else? That's $6K for the Mac (tops) plus $2K for the AJA card. The rest (room, monitors, storage, etc.) would be the same for all systems. So $15K + $8K + $2K support.

The real question is whether any custom or specialized hardware is required. On regular Autodesk systems, an advanced NVIDIA card is used and the AJA card is only used for I, not O. That's not really a "standard" Mac editing set-up. As such, the question remains, does this unit become a Smoke-only installation, or can you run FCP, MC, CS4, etc. on the same workstation? If so, it's more attractive than if not.

Terry commented on the single screen UI. That's pretty typical of Autodesk and I presume a 30" would work well. The big thing in the Smoke world is that you don't have a ton of bins open, which usually occupies the other monitor on FCP and MC systems. Thus, better for finishing and not good for offlining.

Again I point out, that Avid COULD have been here with the DS, but has chosen not to. After all, there was a DS Assist for $10K. That plus I/O through an AJA card would have been even more cost-effective than Smoke on a Mac. Will that prove to be a good or bad decision?

- Oliver

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