Apple’s Final Cut World at NAB 2007

So Apple Inc. decided to host a little get-together yesterday afternoon for film editors. If you aren’t aware already, Apple Inc. holds a virtual stranglehold on the editing and creative computing industries with its Final Cut/Pro software and Mac Pro line of computers. As is usually the case with any kind of Apple event, the company announced a handful of new products that are of course designed to make your job or life (if you spend your life editing) much easier than in years past.

It began with the official announcement of the eight-core Mac Pro. No, that isn’t a typo. There are eight cores in this new box. And silly you thought your Core 2 Duo rig was something special. The Mac Pro with two quad-core Xeon processors will start you out at just under $4000.

But that wasn’t the only new piece of hardware that Apple introduced. In order to let you edit on the go with your shiny new MacBook Pro, Apple teamed up with AJA to release what they’re calling the new IO-HD. They didn’t announce it as such, but for your general understanding, let’s assume it’s short for “Input/Output-High Definition”, because that’s exactly what it is. It allows you to plug in a whole mess of inputs to your notebook and edit them on that, automatically upscaling lower-resolution clips. Basically, it’s a portable workhorse for your budding mobile editing troupe that’ll set you back $3495. For what the average cost of such a device is, this is a mere pittance. Apple likely just wrapped up the entire market, small though it may be, in one fell swoop.

The main attraction for the day was Apple’s new, vastly updated line of Final Cut software. Apple has a new product designed for teams of editors who need to work in parallel with each other entitled Final Cut Server. A license for up to ten people runs $999. If you have more people that need to get in on it, $1999 gets you an unlimited number of licenses. Seems very much worth the price of admission for teams. Final Cut Studio 2 is set to make life infinitely easier for video editors everywhere. It includes many control updates as well as new versions of Motion 3 (now with 3D effects!), Soundtrack 2 (now with 5.1 surround mixing!), Compressor 3 (now with more incredible compressing action!), DVD Studio Pro 4 (what, no Blu-ray?) and an all-new application called Color (now improves your footage with color-grading and finishing!). You can upgrade to Final Cut Studio 2 starting at $499.

While there are a lot of attendees as NAB 2007 this year, it seems that Apple once again stole the show as they have a habit of doing. For more information on Final Cut Studio 2 and the Mac Pro line, this would seem a great place to start.