After well-over a decade, it would appear that Avid maybe hasn't yet learned that CC is a problem, or maybe doesn't have the internal resources to fix it -- or maybe can't justify the development expense on its balance sheet (or maybe it's all three).
I long ago walked away from the expectation that Avid was going to offer a meaningful upgrade to the CC module. Yeah, maybe it works a little better with the Artist Color -- or maybe 8.x will offer a couple of upgrades that, in actuality, only represent 1/10th of what we really need to stay competitive. Even if that happens, I suspect we will still be left wanting.
Honestly, and importantly, I can't blame Avid. Think about the the size and expense of the development teams at Blackmagic and Filmlight who do nothing but work on Resolve and Baselight, respectively. How could Avid dedicate the resources necessary to develop a CC module for Media Composer that operates at that level -- without effectively committing the company to a full-on development and marketing effort that would probably represent corporate suicide. You can't compete with free (Resolve Lite).
Honestly, I'm ok with that. But I'm not ok with Avid's architecture preventing companies like Filmlight from accessing the full power of the Media Composer platform -- so that products like the Baselight plugin can offer the same powerful feature-set as the Sympony CC.
It used to be that first tier companies would intentionally handicap their competitor's products (hardware/software) -- in the hopes of selling more of their own products (think: Nitris/Symphony). However, I think those days are over.
NewBlue Titler Pro, Filmlight Baselight, Eyeon Fusion and BCC are perfect examples of products that Avid seems no longer willing, or able, to develop in-house. The problem is, if you are no longer willing or able to innovate -- you must at least provide your 3rd party partners with full access to your platform -- so that they can seamlessly integrate their products into your product. This is one of the reasons why the Media Composer ecosystem is so small compared to its competitors.
Dave C. recently said "I'm not a huge fan of providing partner software in Avid software. I much prefer our new approach with the MediaCentral platform that allows partners to access Media Composer in different way."
Dave's statement makes sense to me. However, in my opinion, Avid needs to take a good hard look at their API/AVX architecture -- and they need to be willing to make whatever changes are necessary to allow 3rd party products to achieve their full potential, and fill the long-standing gaps in the existing Media Composer toolsets.
Posted by: blafarm@yahoo.com
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