Timeline Analog 6. John Buck

Our basic software, an external ‘mixing’ box based on the Sherman ASIC from within Pinnacle, and the Video Director package from Gold Disk. Using all of the components the team came up with a new product based on the Video Director UI that allowed title overlay and fixed-frame transitions.

      Ivan Maltz explains:

       They (Gold Disk) had developed not only a tape-to-tape software program, but also this great and simple to use 'smart cable' with which you could control Sony Camcorders using their LanC interface and an IR blaster for controlling VHS decks.

       Looking back it was a little Rube Goldberg but it worked! We built a new UI, replacing the Gold Disk program. Keith did some great work there to create a 1 - 2 - 3 editing interface, capture, edit, play to tape. We had started in 96 with nothing and by the end of the year we had a product ready to go.

      Loesch concludes:

       By acquiring their technology and several key hires, we certainly shortened the time frame for delivering the new product. But of course we also picked up substantial extra costs that we hadn't budgeted for. When you suddenly have extra employees you need to start shipping something much quicker than you planned for.

      With the acquisition of Video Director, Chris Zamara joined Maltz, Thomson, Lane and former Abekas engineer, Jon McGowan. Maltz recalls:

       The five of us formed the Studio development team for a long time, eventually cranking out Studio 1.0. This version of Studio used a custom external hardware box (plugged into the parallel port!) to capture video frames.

       It also allowed us to more accurately control IR-driven camcorders using a "terrain mapping" algorithm for which we got a patent (#5917990). Still, it wasn't very accurate, especially with cheaper camcorders. The future obviously had to be all digital!

      Mark Sanders recalls the decision to move.

       We needed to get out from underneath this analog VHS tape editing system and go digital.

      Meanwhile CBS was evaluating nonlinear editing equipment, and VP Don DeCesare told the press.

       Where performance is concerned, Avid, Lightworks, D-Vision and ImMix are on equal footing, but all have drawbacks. D-Vision's system keeps crashing, and the Lightworks and ImMIX Systems are too much like film-editing machines.

       Slow digitisation is shared by all four. Instability at Apple Computer is some cause for concern about the Mac-based ImMix and Avid systems.

      Despite the technical issues that CBS was confronting, the very choice of participants in its shoot-out was telling.

      In days gone by it would have been Ampex and RCA, or Ampex and IVC but now it was fight between companies, none more than nine years old.

      After 20 years in business, Apple had shipped 25 million Macs. Much of its success had been built on the print desktop publishing revolution but to date it had failed to deliver similar results with video.

      It had commissioned Avid to create a simple home video editing package that it could bundle with its new Performa 6400/200 VEE (Video Editing Edition) computer.

      Avid Cinema 1.0 arrived at MacWorld in Boston.

      The standard Mac hardware, had been changed to cope with video editing and included a PCI video capture card, 2.4Gb hard drive, an additional PCI slot, an integrated subwoofer for audio output and Avid’s software.

       Avid Cinema is the first computerized video-editing system designed for the camcorder crowd, not professionals.

      The Cinema interface used tabbed folders to direct home based editors through a template approach. The Step One tab encouraged users to create a story outline, clicking on the Step Two tab instructed the user how to import the video clip from a camera or VCR using the 'Video In' function that opened the Performa's TV/Video port.

      There were 21 storyboard templates from birthday celebrations to graduations that instructed users on what kind of shots were needed.

      The finished movie could be published to videotape using the 'Video Out' function that was linked to the Avid PCI card. More likely users would create a CD-ROM or QuickTime movie of their final work for presentations or web sites.

      At MacWorld, Apple demonstrated a future release of Avid Cinema that used a 1394 (FireWire) card connected to a Sony camcorder for ingesting video. Apple luminary Jef Raskin reviewed the Cinema for Mac Home Journal:

       With Avid Cinema, you can turn out videos chock full of sound, video effects, and flawless editing. This software/hardware package fall somewhere between amazing and incredible.

      Avid's product line now stretched from the home to Hollywood.

      The KeyGrip (above) development team moved into new premises at Redwood Shores Parkway.

      William (Will) Stein joined as Director of Engineering.

      Stein previously managed Apple’s MacOS Printing Group, followed by a stint on QuickTime.

       I left Apple, and went to Macromedia to manage the xRes project that had been acquired from Fauve Software. Macromedia was making a strong push into the "content editor" space, with projects either shipping or under development for digital photo editing and paint (xRes), Freehand (Illustration), 3D authoring (Extreme 3D), a new audio editor from the DECK acquisition and of course KeyGrip in the video space.

      Norm Meyrowitz, president of Macromedia Products, asked Stein to look at KeyGrip.

       He wanted me to try to help the group "push the product out the door."

      Stein took charge of engineering management and let Randy Ubillos focus on coding. Ubillos recalls:

       Rob Burgess knew we were doing good stuff but not making good progress so with a better distribution of responsibilities, we moved forward. At that point KeyGrip had been built and shown to run on either the PC or Mac platform because we had done a lot of work to abstract the editing system from the playback system, a lot of that was achieved of course by using QuickTime.

       As for the feature set, the list was always changing and evolving because the hardware around us was always evolving.

      Stein continues:

       When I started with the team, the project had been going on for a year and a half, and the executive management thought was that it was within 3-6 months of being ready to ship. I worked with the team through a schedule scrub, a very detailed review of all the tasks remaining to complete.

      Tim Myers recalls the change.

       It was really good for Randy that Will came in and managed the team. It freed Randy up to do what he is so good at doing. Right about then the pressure was increasing to deliver the product and Will helped us with a plan to get finished and to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

      Macromedia held its User Conference in San Francisco and Apple’s COO Marco Landi announced QuickTime for Windows 95 and NT:

       This QuickTime development project marks the first step in Apple's plans to move all of its core interactive multimedia technologies, something we call the QuickTime Media Layer, to key industry operating systems such as Windows, OS/2, and Unix.

      He announced major editing features would be