Timeline Analog 5. John Buck

The MPU design was tough because it wasn't a typical product.

       We were working with the ImMIX engineers like Quint and Paolo on the layout and design of the printed circuit boards that were going to be used in the MPU to do all the heavy lifting for the Mac.

       You needed a unique bus system to connect all the boards and accessories that were leading edge designs in their own right and ran eight or ten levels deep. To achieve the quality and capability that Dick Jackson had set, meant that the MPU was a unique device outside of high-end computing. Naturally, everyone wants it in the smallest package possible.

      Burke turned his attention to the ImMIX’s front end.

       The Controller was divided into two, half for the video editing functions and the other half for audio. We persisted and fleshed out a design, without I should add, the tools that we have today.

       We rendered the Editing Console and Media Processor Unit drawings with Magic Markers, not a 3D paint program! Once the overall design was approved, the final mechanical engineering work began in earnest.

      The ImMIX team returned to ICV in Pleasanton as Michael Williams recalls:

       I had seen a demo of the Avid at MacWorld and it blew my mind. It was easy to see that the days of A/B Roll editing on systems like Paltex, CMX and Mach One were numbered. When the ImMix guys eventually had something to show us we were very eager to adopt it into our workflow.

      Meanwhile, the team at Ediflex released an updated system that used write once Panasonic optical discs to play back source material. Don Kravits recalls:

       It worked on a few shows but quickly it became clear that it wasn’t the future however it allowed me to develop a new interface, a graphical interface and so I was given the job of steering Ediflex in a new direction with the new front end.

      Debbie Kurth recalls:

       Much of the existing technology was bound to customized boards and serial protocols. I saw that it was hard and expensive exercise to keep up with the latest and greatest features except for the big studios. There simply HAD to be another way, and the PC had to be it.

       One might say it was the first non-linear hardware system.

       It was flexible and had potential, with its portable plug-in parts. As a computer engineer, I will admit, I was not as fascinated with the Macintosh as Don Kravits was.

       In fact, I hated it. Not because of the user interface was not exceptional, but because Apple likes to control what and how you could do something on it. I was young. I had ideas and I wanted to push the envelope. Do what they said could not be done.

       The PC, on the other hand, at least in the beginning, was a true Open O/S. There were no limitations or guidelines

      Kravits and Kurth teamed to create a new Ediflex system (above) that used the best elements of the existing LINK timeline, Adrian Ettlinger’s Script Mimic concept and Montage’s application of DVI technology. Kravits recalls:

       I guess I could have used the Mac for our new system, and looking back maybe I should have but the new version of Windows was out and that seemed like a sensible move. So we had a great challenge before us and it was a chance to realize my dream, finally something a film editor could relate to.

       A vertical film interface with active script thumbnails superimposed upon the interface. It was truly revolutionary then, and now I would have to say. Of course, we were aware of what EditDroid had done with the jog/shuttle interface and so we hired Robson Splane an industrial engineer to create our own manual interface.

      Robson Splane grew up near Hollywood and was inspired by film studios and technology.

       Splane Design had already been involved in a wide range of products from electronics housing to medical products when Herb called me and asked us to design the controller for their upcoming Ediflex Digital editing system. As a part of our work on any project, we look at critical factors like a product’s ease of use which is generally driven by ergonomics.

       We visited the edit bays across Los Angeles and looked at what video editors used, and saw the common interfaces like the jog shuttle knob on CMX or ISC’s controllers, of course there were computer keyboards and trackballs and toggle sticks used to operate digital effects devices like ADO.

       I remember visiting one particular editor who had built a way to support his hand using a bank of disused computer mice; it was a ramp of sorts. After that, research it was obvious to us that we needed to bring all of these controls together in one controller for the Digital

       Ediflex product but we needed to create something simple because editors work incredibly long hours and their actions are highly repetitive.

       It reminded me a lot of when kids are playing computer games.

      Splane had designed controllers for Nintendo and Sega.

       We wanted an editor to able to take our end product, lay back in a chair, almost put their feet up on a desk and edit in comfort. Our goal was that you should be able to reach any control surface with one hand.

      Splane set about making the manual interface. Kravits and Kurth continued on the new code. Kurth recalls:

       I guess my ideas of video technology came from the form that video was really just one giant database, and why couldn’t the same concept be used to organize video segments in the same fashion. Don, came from a different direction. His world was large cutting rooms, my world was portable.

       My programming was not done so much in the way of bit and bytes, but descriptive "higher languages".

       Adrian was harder to convince. Assembly code had been his life when DOS/MS DOS ruled the world. The concept of "readable code" coming from this young girl was a bit hard to believe.

       Don, on the other hand, having used a Mac/Apple, thought nothing of it. Our debates and corresponding "show and tell" revolved around data organization, how a Windows operating system worked and exactly what was perceived to be "intuitive" in terms of a user interface.

       Coming from a background, where most of my users were less than technical, film editors looked like scientists by comparison. Don had a vision for editors, a literal timeline or strip of film displayed on the screen, but was not so hooked into the lower half of the team, the assistant editors.

       He wanted to display a "set of boxes" like in the film/video storage rooms but I wanted to bring the assistant out of the storage room, with all of its multiple mouse clicks to open and shut data files. I wanted the video, ready to use on the screen, with only the process of mapping video segments onto a physical script.

       If you want the next line, flip the page. And it flowed for the editor as well so, not only could the editor read what was being spoken, but see exactly how many takes were done for a line, in just a glance.

       The Ediflex patent was there; the only thing different was the visual script, instead of a lined representation, the physical presentation won.

       BURGESS AND UBILLOS

      Alias Research was far from video editing systems and moving