Future of Vegas, Sound Forge and ACID: Good news :)

Lawrence_S wrote on 5/28/2003, 7:38 PM
Hi fellas,

I guess I have good news for everyone who enjoys SOFO software like me. I just received an e-mail from Joshua Dodge (Customer Relations Lead) that describes a quote from SOFO senior management regarding the acquisition from Sony Pictures of SOFO software:

"Both Buinevicius and Levy say Sony Pictures intends to migrate the development and product management teams behind the desktop software products to Sony Pictures following the acquisition, which they expect to complete in June 2003. Moreover, one interesting facet of the sale of this division of Madison, Wisconsin-based Sonic Foundry to Culver City, California-based is that Sony Pictures intends to "maintain the Madison operation," Levy says.

One concern raised among the Sonic Foundry faithful and other content creation pros immediately after news of the sale broke, in online forums such as the video-oriented creativecow.net and the audio-oriented velvetrope.com, was that the products would lose their identity, further development of the tools would be abandoned, and that tech support would diminish as well. Levy says the continuity of the development team and the Madison operation will bring continuity to the products. "I expect the products will retain their names," he says; Sony Pictures will continue to develop the products with migrated Sonic Foundry staff, and, according to Levy, "tech support will continue as it is."

http://www.emedialive.com/news/2003/0512_1.html

And Joshua commented:

"We feel very confident that our products will continue to strive forward and break boundaries, in fact becoming even stronger with the Sony acquisition.
I hope this helps put your concerns to rest".

Since Vegas, Sound Forge and ACID are the most versatile and cost-effective NLE tools, I think we shoud spread the word that these solutions will be available and even improved in the future.

I own a project studio in Brazil that is ALL SOFO Software based and I am going to purchase our third workstation also ALL SOFO Software based ;-)

Thanks,

Lawrence R. Shum
http://www.nucleodecriacao.com.br

Comments

DocHogan wrote on 5/29/2003, 3:05 AM
My major concern is to what *extent* will the 'Madison operation' continue to push boundaries.

Will it be in Sony's interest to focus on (to use recent developments as examples) development of 24p and Advanced 24p support, when no current Sony hardware products support this but a leading competitor does (Pan DVX-100)? This seems unlikely, regardless of the intentions of the development staff in Wisconson.

My skepticism finds it far more likely that the products will 'strive forward and break boundaries' in directions more in line with the business interests of the parent company.

I have had a long-time love of SoFo products. One of the major draws to Vegas for me was, along with my long and happy use of SoFo products and support, that it was extremely hardware-agnostic; by *not* being marketed or promoted by any particular hardware manufacturer, development of features evolved around *all* of the emerging technologies in the prosumer hardware markets.

I remain hopeful, but increasingly skeptical, of the future development of VV as far as support for non-Sony advances in hardware are concerned. I very much hope I'm wrong, and look forward to being surprised.
SonyDennis wrote on 6/3/2003, 5:00 PM
The impression I got was that they liked the hardware agnostic nature of Vegas, and intend to keep it that way.


///d@
DocHogan wrote on 6/3/2003, 10:36 PM
That's awesome to hear, Dennis. How much of a commitment to that do you think they have? As in the example I used of 24p on the Panasonic DVX-100 - if a competitor came out qith a unique feature like that, which Sony had no intention of implementing in their cams anytime soon, do you think they would authorize the R&D necessary to implement a feature that would possibly help sell a competitors product over their own?

If so, it sounds *almost* as though Madison will remain an independant entity, for the most part.

dat5150 wrote on 6/4/2003, 12:18 AM
I found this interesting opinion on the dv.com BB.
_______
Putting 2 and 2 together, I suspect Sony may be getting ready to re-enter the broadcast editing arena with Vegas positioned as its UI of choice for SX and IMX formats. What makes me think this?

First of all, Sony's ES-3 Edit Station BetaSX native UI/NLE was an unmitigated disaster. It was slow, very user-unfriendly, and written for Windows 3.1 at a time when other pro apps were using Windows NT or Apple OS 7 & 8. I suspect this is one of those failures that sticks in Sony's craw like bad medicine.

Enter Vegas, and its ability to handle multiple formats on the same timeline, including MPEG2 (both SX and IMX are MPEG2-based), a dedicated (rabid?) if not large user base, and the fact that Sony has announced an i.Link option for existing BetaSX machines, and you have the makings of a company looking to redeem past failures.

While SX is no longer being made by Sony, there is a large user base out there in the broadcast market, and with IMX positioned as the replacement for SX and DigiBeta, Sony may be looking for a cheaper alternative to its Xpri system to attract broadcasters to its IMX format.

Now consider all this in light of the fact that Panasonic and JVC both have NLEs to go with their DV50 and D-9 formats (NewsByte for Panasonic and JVC's NLE for its D-9 format) and I believe you'll soon see Sony touting Vegas as an NLE for prosumers and broadcasters, with its Xpri system targeted at high-end finishing.
slacy wrote on 6/4/2003, 12:21 AM
I'm not normally a pessimist, but I must admit: I'm extremely skeptical about Sony's motivations. I mean, let's be realistic here. Why does a company the size of Sony buy up the software assets of a small software concern?

Acham's razor tells me Sony plans to use Vegas as a lever by which to nudge video professionals toward its high-margin video gear.

There are other possibilities, of course, but none as plausible as the one above.

I hope I'm wrong. I really do. But after years of observing how mega-companies operate, I'm not hopeful. To hope that Sony bought Vegas for the sole purpose of making it an agnostic, best-of-breed, category-dominating NLE is just not realistic.
DocHogan wrote on 6/4/2003, 1:30 AM
slacy

You phrase what I've been trying to say very nicely indeed.

And yes, Occam's Razor most definitely applies here; I tend to apply it to everything, so I don't even notice it. Good call!

(I only corrected your spelling so people could google what Occam's Razor is ;) )
farss wrote on 6/4/2003, 1:49 AM
I really don't think its going to be in Sony's interests to start putting boundaries around anything, they own so much of the broadcast market to start making life difficult in the hope of some small marketing advantage would be overall counterprodcutive. I've heard so much opposition to DVCPRO 25 simply because the decks didn't have firewire becuase 'that was a Sony thing'.

By keeping VV as the 'glue' they stop the development of say a new camera by a competitor from spawning a whole new market. Maybe they loose a few cameras sales but they still keep the core of the business to themselves. That buys them time to play catchup on the camera side.

On a completely different direction again I say, if anyone was to buy SoFo who could you be happier with than Sony?

I've heard a rumour that uSoft are buying Protools, so they're in the market for exactly a company like SoFo and VV can make the DVDs for WMP9 HD.

This could be more of a threat to Sony's plans than any camera, it could impact heavily on their Blue Ray DVD market.
DocHogan wrote on 6/4/2003, 2:42 AM
farss

I do not suggest that Sony would put boundaries into the product; nearly the opposite, in fact.

What I do have reservations about is that they would *push* the boundaries of VV in directions that only stand to benefit their DVcam competitors. Obviously, at least to me, spending R&D money on features that *only* exist on the competitions hardware is a Poor Business Decision. Usually.

I hate to harp on this example, but it really is the most obvious example: Panasonics 24p capability. Sony does not have any cams that are capable. Would Vegas now have the 24p capabilities if Sony had bought Vegas 2 years ago? We'll never know, of course, but it would logically probably not be the best business decision until Sony developed a 24p cam of its own.

farss wrote on 6/4/2003, 3:03 AM
Sorry,
guess I kind of missed your point a bit.
Coming from PAL land 24p is a bit Ho Hum here. Given the very nature of VV though I don't see how you could stop it supporting anything. I could be wrong here but I think it can handle 26.78 fps at 729 x 517 if I ever wanted it to.

Whats perhaps more of an issue is things like mpeg2-ts and DVD-VR. Even these I believe you can get into VV with a little imagination.

But my point really is that if SOny goes down the path you're suggesting they do so at their peril. If something comes out thats going to be the next big thing then Sony can support it through SoFo or have the guys who made the next big thing not only selling cameras but VCRs, editing systems etc and really do damage to their markets.

Thats not to say that it may not happen, but if it does it would be pretty short sighted.
Bill Ravens wrote on 6/4/2003, 9:20 AM
I'm gonna have to add my 2 cents worth to this thread. I've got 25+ years of working career experience with both small(<50) and large(>2000) hi-tech businesses, including several buyouts of a small business by a large corp. In all cases, despite the promises and committment by the buyers to maintain the "small company" attitude and perspective, in short order the promises are forgotten. I just don't beleive it's possible for large corporate mind-think to manage a business with a small business model. Call me skeptical, if you wish, but, my experiences have proven otherwise.
slacy wrote on 6/4/2003, 2:12 PM
I think the bottom line is this: The future of Vegas will be viewed in the context of Sony's overall corporate strategy. So whereas in the past Sofo might've explored any number of technology directions, the new ownership will likely explore only those avenues that benefit Sony.

Does anyone truly expect anything else?

Granted, this doesn't necessarily mean disaster for Vegas. But it's not realistic to hope that Vegas will continue to evolve as an agnostic tool.

P.S. to DocHogan: I couldn't remember how to spell Occam's Razor, so I googled a guess, and found the "Acham" spelling on many pages. Apparently, I'm not the only errant speller. :)
bbcdrum wrote on 6/11/2003, 1:00 PM
What about the fact that Sony is a content provider as well? Aren't they part of the Hollywood group that is fighting digital piracy?

Might this purchase also be a way to force some sort of copy protection (either formatting or checking) into the NLE market?
wcoxe1 wrote on 6/11/2003, 3:12 PM
"Acham" sounds a bit more like someone trying to clear their throat after cutting it.
JohnI wrote on 6/11/2003, 3:12 PM
Just to add to comments about Sony and 24P. Sony has been the technology leader and evangelist for 24P. There is an entire line-up of 24P products from cameras, to recorders and yes high-end non-linear editors. Several of the top movies have been made with this gear. The HDCam and Cinealta range feature 24P at 1080 lines. This is true high definition. In the professional world Sony is streets ahead in business and technology with true high definition and 24P. OK - they don't have a Prosumer device.............yet!

So with Sony Pictures working with SOFO, I don't think we need to fear about lack of interest in 24P as mentioned in previous posts.
jcarney42 wrote on 6/11/2003, 3:47 PM
I have to agree with Bill. This new division of Sony will have to make a profit if it want's to stay in business. 18mil is small change to Sony though, so I'm hoping they are patient.
As far as making them part of Sony Pictures? Better they got the marketing department from Playstation. Much more succesfull at marketing product the Sony pictures. IMHO.