Re: Article: Real World Editing: From Avid to FCP and Back Again

Regarding the PCI slots, it seems the problem wasn't so insurmountable that Avid reversed its decision. If memory serves me Symphony was Windows only and remained such for some time. Eventually Avid developed it for Mac as well. So apparently the limited expansion slots wasn't the hurdle it appeared to be.
I guess the limited expansion slots limited the amount of proprietary stuff Avid could put in there for a time. Fortunately for facilities, Avid became a bit less proprietary with its hardware over time.

So given the two possible courses, Avid eventually moved in a direction more beneficial for the facilities. I have no sympathy for Avid's reasons to move away from the Mac as it would have forced facilities to pay tens of thousands of dollars (given Avid's upgrade pricing) for each seat. Outrageous and so the facilities responded with outrage. This was one small part that, as FCP later developed, facilities moved towards it. We benefit from that even today with the low cost an open hardware support of software based NLEs.

. . . and for this reason, if FCPX presents a value proposition down the road for facilities, if there's little in the cost of hardware, it can become integrated as one of a number of NLE options. The low cost of software NLEs has at least made both moves and/or multibrand NLE use, viable.

That said, I do not trust Avid. I can see them making the same decision again in their current financial state. That's the other course I think they may take in their current situation.

With no Mac only Final Cut Studio to compete against, I can see Avid dropping Mac development as a way to cut costs and focus on more flexibly configured Windows workstations. This may be for both Media Composer/Symphony and ProTools. Of course this may not be an immediate problem but the cost of moving to MC may also involve a hardware cost for a facility still using Macs. It may well be that a facility like Bunim/Murray has that in mind within the next couple of years as they decide to replace their MacPros.

This also is the challenge to Apple and FCPX if it wants to sell computers because the ripple effect goes beyond facility workstations. Even Thunderbolt may not be a "hold back" given Acer and Lenovo (at CES though) announced support.