Hey guys,

Sam here…

Some of the most interesting FCP X related stories to emerge out of IBC this year came from the broadcast world. Great news included EVS showing ProRes recording and edit-while-ingest connected to FCP X and of course we all know that the BBC have decided to use FCP X for news-gathering. To me, that shows some real momentum in the broadcast world for a fast, easy to use video editor and now some of the more well known developers have started taking interest in how deep their integration can go with FCP X.

Between the lack of transcoding with FCPX, options like Tools on Air, Softron and SIENNA– which can do amazing things for ingest and playout on off-the-shelf Macs, any modern broadcaster should take a close look at what’s happening.

Norwegian graphics powerhouse Vizrt have taken it just that extra bit further. First of all they released a very low cost MXF plugin for FCP X, but they also previewed an amazing piece of integration of their graphics system running inside FCP X. Just that by itself is amazing; Viz One is not a toy, it’s an ultra high end graphics system for broadcasters that’s been in use for years. Viz One is a really big step forward for FCP X as a serious broadcaster’s tool:

NAB 2014 – Viz One & Final Cut Pro X from Vizrt on Vimeo.

It basically works by presenting templates from their graphics system inside FCP X (complete with previews) and you can position the graphics layers anywhere you want on your timeline and preview what it will look like. That’s all well and good, you say, you can in fact do the same thing with regular Motion templates which essentially turns FCP X into a live production system.

However, the real magic happens on export. Instead of burning in the graphics onto your finished package, the system inserts timecode-based metadata into Vizrt’s database. So, when the time comes to play back the clip to air, the system knows exactly when to trigger the graphics based on your edit decisions from FCP X. This means that exports are much faster (no need to render those graphics) and also modifications can be made up to the very very last moment before going to air! Spot a typo? No need to go back to the edit bay to fix that, just do it from the news system even after the edit is finished!

This truly is a complete game changer for news and sports. Take a look at the demo, if you’re in news or sports broadcasting this will really get your attention: http://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/news/1506-viz-one-integration-with-final-cut-pro-x-will-support-meta-graphics

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sam Mestman, FCPWORKS.

This blog post contains the personal musings of FCPWORKS’ Workflow Architect, Sam Mestman. Sam’s also a regular writer for fcp.co and MovieMaker Magazine, teaches post workflow at RED’s REDucation classes, and is the founder and CEO of We Make Movies, a film collective in Los Angeles and Toronto which is dedicated to making the movie industry not suck. If you’ve got any FCP X questions or need some help putting together a system, drop him an email at workflow@fcpworks.com and you can follow him on Facebook or Twitter at @FCPWORKS.

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