Apple may allow additional FCP 7 enterprise licenses (Updated)
On July 6th, Apple held a private briefing in London for enterprise users of Final Cut Pro. Of course, one of the main topics of discussion was Final Cut Pro X (FCP X), which has been receiving a lot of flak from unhappy pro users since its release on June 21, 2011. It appears that Apple will be addressing many of the complaints from creative pros in the near future.
Some fascinating tweets were sent out by Sam Johnson (@aPostEngineer) during the briefing, and then summarized by Alex Gollner.
1. FCP XML in/out is coming via 3rd party soon...no FCP 6/7 support project support coming ever it seems...
2. Ability to buy FCP7 licenses for enterprise deployments coming in the next few weeks...
3. FCPX EDL import/export coming soon...
4. FCPX AJA plugins coming soon for tape capture and layback...capture straight into FCPX [events].
5. XSAN support for FCPX coming in the next few weeks...
6. FCPX Broadcast video output via #Blackmagic & @AJAVideo coming soon...
7. Additional codec support for FCPX via 3rd Parties coming soon...
8. Customizable sequence TC in FCPX for master exports coming soon...
9. Some FCPX updates will be free some will cost...
The most interesting part of this string of tweets is the second one, which points out that Apple will be working out a way for existing FCP 7 enterprise deployments to purchase additional licenses for the older version. This should make some video professionals happy, as they had been upset by how Apple had discontinued sales of Final Cut Pro 7 before the pros had a chance to get used to FCP X.
Update: Both Alex and Sam clarified a couple of points post-event; Sam was actually contacted by Apple to clear these up. A) The sale of additional FCP 7 licenses for existing volume license customers is under consideration, not a done deal; B) the AJA tape capture tools will be delivered as a separate AJA-branded application. Editor Peter Wiggins also blogged his impressions of the event.
