Audio/Video Studio Advice needed

[nethereyes]

We've already got a fully equipped pro studio. We would like to shift more from music into audio/video work. What are the common differences in gear between a full on music studio and a AV studio? What are the expected formats for pro work these days (pro tools, etc)? Is Macintosh necessary, or are PC's able to provide the necessary software? What are the most common formats of video? Is surround necessary or beneficial? Mostly thinking of this question from a mixing and editing standpoint.

[Tibbon]

I'm trying to figure out a lot of these things myself.

I do view surround as being 100% needed (although not 100% of the time) in a video setting.

[KurtR]

I don't have a clue what the difference between pro audio and pro a/v studios. But if you are using Pro Tools you need to check out Avid http://avid.com/ The only peoblem is that the simple HD systems are insane price wise (6 figures). You can use Mac or Win and it's pretty much Pro Tools with video editing. Damn good video editing at that too.

[MAProTulz]

Eh, you can get into Hi Def a lot cheaper than the Avid way. Avid's interface and editing tools are very mature now, and their media management is great.

I'm a big fan of Premiere Pro on the PC side, as it's a hardware independent solution. This means that you can get into or out of basically whatever format you choose by using 3rd party cards. I like Matrox's stuff, just because I've had a Matrox system for a few years now and it's worked quite well and it was pretty affordable. Axio LE looks to be a great hardware solution for Premiere Pro. Premiere Pro is definitely a pro application. Using Automatic Duck's software will allow you to go between Avid and PT via OMF, if that's an issue.

Post studios basically have less tracking gear, less esoteric "vibey" gear and more stuff that's digital, very clean analog, etc. We aren't quite a snobby, as we need our stuff to just work.

If you like Mac, although it's not a necessity anymore like it was 10 years ago for audio post work, you can go FCP. I'm finding that Apple's leaving a bad taste in my mouth lately, they're pulling all sorts of Draconian measures cloaked in this bullshit feel good vibe that just puts me off bigtime. And their stuff's expensive. And it's not any better than PCs. Not going down the road to a flamewar, just sayin that you should check both sides nad go with what performs the best for the least money. That'll most likely be a PC based solution.

You could build a hidef video editing rig with FCP, perhaps Avix XPress HD, or Premiere Pro for about 20K all up (taht's including workstation, monitoring, drives, cabling, etc.)

[KurtR]

You're sure right about being able to get a pro a/v set up with out Avid HD. Another cool thing about Avid Xpress is the Mojo. It takes some of the video rendering off the computer and has lots of i/o. But if you expect to be working with "high end" clients and they expect everything to be "the best" Avid HD would be the way to go. You can get into Xpress for around $5,000 and up. I have used Premiere a little bit and it's pretty good. Check out the videos on Avids site to give you an idea on what it can do.

[nethereyes]

Originally Posted by MAProTulz

If you like Mac, although it's not a necessity anymore like it was 10 years ago for audio post work, you can go FCP. I'm finding that Apple's leaving a bad taste in my mouth lately, they're pulling all sorts of Draconian measures cloaked in this bullshit feel good vibe that just puts me off bigtime. And their stuff's expensive. And it's not any better than PCs. Not going down the road to a flamewar, just sayin that you should check both sides nad go with what performs the best for the least money. That'll most likely be a PC based solution.

That's good news - we're trying to stay on PC as we already have the investment in two very powerful PCs. Any good links to learn about different video formats (for example : AVI versus whatever is full hi res digital)? It seems like its going to be a pretty easy jump.

[MAProTulz]

Well, "full res hi def" isn't a single thing. There's several different flavors of HiDef, and it depends on what you're using. In general, you need fast drives for HiDef - Ultra320 RAIDs or Fiber RAIDs.

As for the Mojo, it's ability to take some of the processing load off the host is a plus, but for $1500, it should have pro I/O and be rackmountable. To get that, you're looking at an Adrenaline. Screw that - Hardware acceleration is done better in FCP or Premiere by 3rd parties, for less money, too. I've worked with a Mojo, and itdoes what it does, but it's got limitations and quirks that a $1500 "pro" box shouldn't have.

Some good resources for Video info can be found at DV.com's forums (you need to register) and CreativeCow.com's forums, too.