Welcome to World of Apple’s live coverage of the NAB2007 Special Event.

Please review out Rumour Roundup for details on what the event could hold.

Updates will appear below (please refresh for updates):

  • 18.57 BST - Music is playing and press are settling themselves
  • Large crowd appears to be present
  • Three Macs are on stage
  • 3000 attendees said to be at Special Event
  • 19.04 BST - Event due to start very shortly
  • Rob Schoeben, VP of Apps and Product Marketing is speaking today
  • Lots to cover today
  • Show demonstration of how Final Cut is used around the world. “We are now over 800k paid Final Cut users worldwide.”
  • Using feedback from customers, Apple is introducing Final Cut Server
  • Final Cut Server is very scalable. Interface works on PC as well. Media asset management: catalogues 100 file types, proxy generation, keyword searching, access controls. Workflow automation: workflow templates, watch and respond system, review and approve tools, automated encode and publish — “It’s an event-based system.”
  • [Apple Stores just went down.]
  • Final Cut Server, a cross platform way to manage all types of media
  • Final Cut Server $999 for 10 client, $1999 for Unlimited (Available in the Summer)
  • Final Cut Studio updates
  • Final Cut Pro can now handle uncompressed HD
  • Introducing ProRes 422 into Final Cut Pro as well
  • Support for Sony’s HDCAM SR 1080p60
  • Showing RED 4K demo
  • Final Cut Pro can now edit 4K files
  • “You can take 4k files, plug it directly into a MacBook Pro, and see and edit them right there.”
  • Showing off a new HD-input device, also a hardware encoder
  • The device is called IO-HD
  • Realtime SD-HD Conversion
  • Available in July
  • Priced at $3495, “About a fifth of the cost of competing system. That’s ProRes 422. We think this format is coming out of the gate really strong. Talking about formats: we heard you. Open format timeline. Mixed formats, resolutions, framerates.”
  • Motion templates within Final Cut Pro
  • Showing Demo of Motion integration in Final Cut Pro
  • Brought some technologies from Shake into Final Cut Pro as well
  • Showing Motion Integration, never leave Final Cut to edit Motion templates, text overlays.
  • Showing Uncompressed HD against ProRes that’s 127MBps vs 19MBps, no distinguishable difference
  • Turning attention to Motion 3, embracing 3D. Tools now include light sources, navigating 3D space. Added paint, particles, video, pictures.
  • Dion Scoppettuolo Demoing new Motion features
  • Source Engadget: “But I know that’s not the kind of 3D you came to see. Reach under your chairs, there are 3D glasses.”
  • Moving onto SoundTrack Pro 2
  • Added support for surround sound, panning and speaker to speaker automation
  • Alec Little to demonstrate Soundtrack Pro 2
  • Still demoing…
  • Demo ended.
  • Compressor 3 with iPod and Apple TV presets
  • Compressor 3 can now cope with MPEG-2, H.264, Telestream Episode Pro with VC-1, WMV, FLV
  • Dyanmic filters with timecode overlays, animated motion watermarks
  • Up to 3x faster than Compressor 2 on Mac Pro 8-Core
  • Demo
  • Engadget: Easy to use preset list that covers “pretty much any device on the planet you’d want to export to.” Custom default presets, drag groups of batch preset encodes. Preview overlays and watermarks with a before and after slider. Integrated chapter markers.
  • Demo over
  • Final Cut Studio now $1299, upgrade from FCS2 for $499, and upgrade from any version of FCP for $699. Available next month.
  • New application: Color. Real time application colour grading.
  • “Color is revolutionary and helpful. It seems calculated to appeal to us, we make movies from beginning to end.”
  • Engadget: “It’s designed to be a natural extention of FCP. Same UI for 3-way color correction with RGB and luma curves, lift, gamma, gain, visualization of color in 3D space. Mattes from chroma, luma, saturation, custom vignettes, hue and saturation curves. Color effects — string them together with a node tree. And Geometry. Bring all four of these things together and get what you want: a signature look.”
  • Demo from David Gross of FOX Australia
  • Color to be included in FCS2.
  • Event wrapping up now.
  • That’s it. Thanks for joining us.