Pinnacle is setting a dangerous prescedent with this - in doing so, we as customers now understand that ANY third party plug-in that has been marketed and purchased through Pinnacle can be eliminated without comment.  It certainly has to make all of us who have spent a lot of $$ on the various products re-consider our continued support of this product.

Interesting to read JKoch's excellent report on Avid's Q2 results and their implications. I have quoted the whole text below as it is so interesting. JKoch goes on to discuss the possible buy out of Pinnacle from Avid by Nero (just his idea but very plausible). I wonder then in the light of this thread and the proposed abandonment of SS, and the ferocious reaction to the decision by forum members, how much less would Nero be prepared to offer Avid for the potentially mortally woumded Studio?

 

JKoch:

Yesterday, Avid posted its second quarter results for 2008.  While this forum is not for shareholders, most are serious investors in its Pinnacle products and have a stake in the company's outlook.  I have no other connection, direct or indirect, to the firm, but cannot look at the results and not feel concerned.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=82844&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1179076&highlight=

Sales are down, on both a three and six-month basis, compared to 2007.  Net losses rose from $6.0 million to $10.4 million.  Gross margins were down, and contributing margins were down across the various product lines, despite the fact that amortization, restructuring, and legal costs were all down.

The 3-month contributing margin of the consumer video segment was down from $1.9 million to (gulp) just $21,000.  This was before subtracting common costs.

The press release cites the CEO as saying, "Our sequential improvement in revenue, margin and earnings in the second quarter is an indication that our transformation is on schedule."  Perhaps there was some stenographic error, since I do not understand what this means.  CEOs do sometimes employ a visionary dialect that transcends mortal comprehension.

Avid is not about to go bankrupt, since it has no bank or bond debt.  But it does need to restore earnings, or its shareholders will be better off holding cash.  The current market value of all shares is about $729 million, which is less than the $779 million Dec-07 book net worth, but more than the Jun-08 $664 million equity (net of the six-month losses and share buy-backs).   There is at least a core of investors prepared to wager on a turnaround, or perhaps that the company's products and customer lists have a strategic spin-off or liquidation value.

Avid recently recruited its current CEO, set up stock incentive plans, and shuffled or soufléd senior positions to develop a new plan.  The 2-QTR-08 results suggest this plan is still in incubation and visible only through ultrasound.  Perhaps a healthy child will see light later this year.

Meanwhile, there is the prospect that Avid will sell its Pinnacle line to a strategic buyer.  An Avid PR release some weeks ago boasted of the Pinnacle franchise and its customer base.  It did not mention whether Avid had retained an advisor, but some might think it a good idea to sell an under-performing segment to another group that sees potential or a synergy.  Corel (Ulead) is in no condition to make an offer, nor are its primary shareholders, and its consumer NLE competes head-on with Studio.  Apple (FCP), Adobe (Premier) and Sony (Vegas) are too big, have a lot invested in their own product lines, and would gain little by acquiring Pinnacle rights. 

Nero is a private firm and publishes no financial statements or investor reports via its website.  However, I suggest it might be an optimum buyer.  It has an established base in PC software utilities.  Its Nerovision NLE is a good, but bare-bones utility.  Were Nero to spruce up that product with the richer editing features of Studio, it could become a first class pro-sumer / pro-lite package.  In truth, lots of videographers already use both to offset their respective constraints.  Other Pinnacle products would complement Nero's existing suite of software.

Of course, this is just an idea.  The spread between the bid and offer price may be too high to pull off such a sale.  But if Mr. Greenfield's transformation scheme stalls, it would probably be the best outcome.  Sonic Solutions (Roxio) or Cyberlink are other competitors, but the outcome or synergies might be harder to define.

Meanwhile, let's pray Pinnacle holds on to its best people and keeps them busy preparing the Studio 12 patch needed to fix some bugs.

BTW, I have zero knowledge of the securities industry, and survive mainly by desiccating and distributing bovine waste.  This is low tech: shovel, sun, and facemask.  Some say it is a filthy way to prosper, and pinch their noses, but I do not envy the unfragrant tasks some other people face.  And prices have soared. 

For those that could not find the section in the manual on SmartSound support please look under Chapter 13 and the section titled "The Background music tool" sub section "Using SmartSound".  It is on page 191 in my manual.

 

Terry 

Stupid decision I call it.

From the other thread:

plemmens:

17 SS CD's is what I have on the shelf here.

I DL'd a trial of v7 ultra from one of those other NLE producing companies.

I already started a market research exercise.

I definitely need an application that supports SmartSound.

There are quite a few out there that do.

 

Oh ... and BTW,

even if next patch provides a solution for "make Blu-ray disc problems" as reported here while at the same time it disables SS support, I am not going to install it and I will start using another application to produce my BD's.

I downloaded the Pro version of another editor this morning ... the one made by the same company as my cameras. It's more expensive, but it does have lots of features.

Regardless of what happens, it would be good to have more than one editor that I am familiar with. I hard to move out of your "comfort zone" sometimes, but then sometimes you have little choice.

B

 

bhurst:

I downloaded the Pro version of another editor this morning ... the one made by the same company as my cameras. It's more expensive, but it does have lots of features.

Regardless of what happens, it would be good to have more than one editor that I am familiar with. I hard to move out of your "comfort zone" sometimes, but then sometimes you have little choice.

B

 

It is good, but no Smartsound support.

I just sent this email to Gary Greenfield, CEO Avid.

 From: Ian Litchfield

Sent: 13 August 2008 17:05
To:

Cc:
Subject: Response to the announcement that Avid are to withdraw Smartsound Support for Pinnacle Studio 12 in the next patch

I hope you find the time to read the posts that are currently being discussed on the forum, I believe it is in Avid/Pinnacle's interests that you do read it and at the very least put this move on hold until more thorough research is conducted.

 

Thank you for your time.

 

Kind Regards

Ian Litchfield

Sales and Marketing Director

 

Timeless Moments

8mm Cine, 16mm Cine, Video8, Hi8, Digital8 miniDV, microMV, VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C, S-VHS-C, Betamax, Audio Cassette, Reel to Reel Audio
All to DVD or Audio CD for home viewing or editing

 

Timeless Moments Limited

Registered Office

7 Thistle Road

Ilkeston

Derbyshire

DE7 4SA

United Kingdom

 

Main Office: +44(0)1159 301 699

FREEPHONE 0800 075 40 64

Mobile : +44 (0) 790 1996 090

E-mail :

Web   : www.timeless-moments.co.uk

 

 

Guys

 I edited out the email address's on this post. Please do not put those in a forum post.  Thanks.

Jon RT

Ian. You have a PM from me.

ADDED - And thanks from me too, for the work you've done on our behalf

Excellent move, Ian.  Thank you.

I have copied your post to a safe place... just in case.

Ian

 I edited your post slightly, we really do not want email address's up on the forums like that.

 

Thanks,

Jon RT.

Jon

No problem, I understand although I don't mind about my own email address and less than a minute on google revealed the Avid employees addresses.

Thanks for continuing to monitor this post, we continue to look forward to Avid's response.

Cheers

Ian

Timeless Moments:

It is good, but no Smartsound support.

Just like Studio  

I too have purchased another editing software, that happens to be the same name as my cameras.  I installed it on another pc that had an older version of Studio (10.7 I think).  This new editor works well and does have many features, but no hd-dvd authoring.  I just transfer the finished files into S11 and burn a hd-dvd disk there.

Hi all:

I would like to jump in here, and hopefully bring some clarity to the discussion.

I want to start by telling you that I am as unhappy and as frustrated about this issue as all of you are. I think that sentiment is shared by many on the Studio development team.

It is not our current preference to remove support for SmartSound.

At this point, all I can say is that I am personally committed to seeing what can be done to come to a better resolution on this, and we have reopened a discussion on all fronts.

I will get back to you as soon as I can with more information.

Regards,

Thank you Jim for this info.

Happy to hear that discussions on the issue have been reopened.

I keep my fingers crossed.

I have a lot invested in my Smart Sound library. I have Avid Liquid 7.2 and Studio 12.

Video editing is a hobby for me. 

I wil not buy any more Avid/Studio upgrades. 

Ken Stone

 

jsugg:

Hi all:

I would like to jump in here, and hopefully bring some clarity to the discussion.

I want to start by telling you that I am as unhappy and as frustrated about this issue as all of you are. I think that sentiment is shared by many on the Studio development team.

It is not our current preference to remove support for SmartSound.

At this point, all I can say is that I am personally committed to seeing what can be done to come to a better resolution on this, and we have reopened a discussion on all fronts.

I will get back to you as soon as I can with more information.

Regards,

 Jim

Thank you for your candid reply, this is most welcome. I am sure everyone who has contributed so far and the silent majority will be breathing a sigh of relief. However I would expect and hope that forum members continue to voice their strong opposition to the proposed SS removal until it has been confirmed that this strategy has either been dropped or shelved for at least the duration of Studio 12.

I for one want to see Studio grow into THE defacto choice of NLE for the consumer/prosumer market. It has by far and away the best workflow and interface of any product in the market place, a good part of that efficient workflow is due to the ease with which good quality SS music can be applied and adjusted on the timeline.

The Pinnacle user base is one of the most loyal I have ever encountered for any product, sure at times it has been a love/hate relationship (Studio 10.0) but we have lovingly stuck with it until now. This proposed strategy however would present a paradigm shift that Studio may not survive.

We look forward to your updates

Ian

I find it interesting that Pinnacle didn't make this announcement about dropping SS before the release of 12. I for one would not have baught 12. Now i feel that i want my money back if they drop it.

jsugg:

I would like to jump in here, and hopefully bring some clarity to the discussion.

....

I will get back to you as soon as I can with more information.

Jim,

THANK YOU for your entry.

Many times (when discussing bugs, etc.) I have said that at the very least, if we feel we are being listened to and our comments/requests are being taken seriously, that is a huge step in the right direction.  Even if we don't like the result, it is better than feeling like our opinions are unimportant and our complaints are ignored.

I really, really hope for a positive outcome.  But until then, "thank you" for listening and please continue to keep us informed.

 

P.S.

And as Ian suggested, I agree we keep the dialog open.  If we suddenly go silent on this topic, that could send the wrong message to Avid.

IMO  & what I see in my copy of S12, SmartSounds Quicktracks would be currently available in all copies of S12, via Transferred Content from either S10 or 11, in addition & as an option to Scorefitter, in S12 Edit Background Music Pop-Up / Source "Drop-Down".  Also, all transferred Purchased SmartSound Content & the option to purchase further Locked Content, is included. So there's no need for any workaround to include SmartSound. It's already in the Prgrammme.

If Pinnacle are going to Remove SmartSound by stealth, IMO they would be acting illegally.

The UK Sale of Goods Act comes within the UK Law of Simple Contract. IMO, any purchasers of S12 in the UK, would have a case for Breach Of Contract against any S12 Vendor in the UK, within that Law, in addittion to a UK's Local Trading Standards Department bringing a separate case against that Vendor.

PC World are the UK's largest stockist of Video Editing Programmes. If they are presented with a number of Claims from both Local Trading Standards Departments & Purchasers, I can't see them either stocking Pinnacle products or ordering them only by special request, in the future

As far as I'm aware the US has equally stringent Trading Standards as the UK.  

If Pinnacle's HQ is in the USA,  they might also be bound by US legislation in the other countries they operate. That was certainly the case with a large well-known US Corporation, for whom I used to work, in the UK.

ADDED - It may be that, in the End Users Licence Agreement, Pinnacle reserve the right to alter the specification of the Product. IMO, that isn't the case here. Pinnacle have announced that they intend to alter the Specification after the Product has been purchased, thereby limiting it's functionality. 

Thanks Jim for your support on the SS issue.  We will all be hoping for the best!

Count me in as one unhappy bunny - I can't see myself ever using Scorefitter, SmartSound is the real thing (well nearly!).

If I can't get patches to S12 and continue to use SS, well I'll have to start looking elsewhere. Not much of a threat, I know, but that's the way it is.

Guy

It seems like this decision was made before rolling out S12 -- would have been nice to know before i purchased it.  I have upgraded and already nuked my S11 so am now stuck without the possibility of installing future patches.  I won't go any further without SmartSound - too much invested and SS is too integrated in my own ongoing projects.  I won't use sonicfire as I only work in the video editor ... for everything.

In limbo ....

Thank you Jim. For you to come here and make a posting, means that some notice has been taken. It's rare that anybody in development makes a posting, so not only are you looking at the forum, this thread sounds like it it a nerve.

Rest assured, I have started looking for a replacement for Studio, just in case Smartsound is made not to work in ANY future release. There has NEVER been a DVD made by me, that does not have at least one Smartsound track. I have purchased lots of additional Smartsound disks, (Can't beat there current sale pricing of $25 per disk). So far I have only used one Scorefiter track in a DVD, and this was not for trying but not only is there little to choose from but it does suffer from that MIDI sound, which even my costumers when demoing music samples I could put into there DVD's so far have always picked a Smartsound score. The moral if this thread is; I make money so you YOU make money.

Loosing Smartsound is like cutting of my right arm, yes I can still use the left arm to make DVD's put it's just to painful. There are just to many NLE's out there to choose from that I can use both arm's with, so now tell me WHY should I stick with yours? I have seem to lost the reason for that? I always thought it was because it was faster to get a DVD out then any other NLE, but your cutting of my right hand, this doesn't seem to work in the future.

Footnote;

If you add up all the threads (open and closed) about Smartsound, it's the number one item talked about and read on the forum. Pinnacle, are you noticing this!