It's been a long time coming and I couldn't be happier!

Adobe’s Complete Video Post-Production Suite Goes Cross-Platform

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Jan. 4, 2007 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced that the next version of Adobe® Production Studio, the integrated video and audio post-production tool set that is part of the Creative Suite family, will be available for both the Macintosh and Windows® platforms. Film, video and web professionals currently using Adobe After Effects®, Adobe Photoshop® and Adobe Illustrator® on the Mac will soon be able to harness the power of completely new Macintosh releases of Adobe Premiere® Pro, Adobe Encore® DVD and Adobe Soundbooth™ -- all key components of an upcoming milestone revision to Adobe Production Studio. The software will have its first public demonstration during the Macworld 2007 Conference and Exhibition at The Moscone Center in San Francisco, January 9 - 12 (Booth 901). The next release of Adobe Production Studio is expected to ship in mid-2007.

“Our customers wanted all the components in Adobe Production Studio to be available on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe. “We listened and believe that an innovative new cross-platform video suite, anchored by powerhouse releases of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects, will really shake up the industry.”

Adobe Production Studio creates an efficient post-production workflow enabling creative professionals to move smoothly between the full range of post-production tasks while remaining focused on their creative vision. The product combines Adobe’s award-winning applications, including Adobe After Effects for compositing, effects and animation, Adobe Premiere Pro for non-linear editing, Adobe Encore DVD for DVD authoring, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, as well as the time-saving workflow enhancements offered by Adobe Dynamic Link. Dynamic Link eliminates the need for rendering when moving motion graphics and visual effects from Adobe After Effects to the real-time HD, SD and DV editing environment in Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Encore DVD.

Adobe Soundbooth is designed to enable creative professionals to produce high-quality audio. Offering the ability to quickly record, edit, and customize audio and music for web and video production, Adobe Soundbooth makes the delivery of pristine sound tracks fast and efficient. Adobe Soundbooth will take the place of Adobe Audition in the next version of Adobe Production Studio. Adobe Audition will continue to be developed for audio professionals as a stand-alone product for Windows.

“At Turner Studios Post, we are constantly modifying our workflows to gain the greatest efficiency while maintaining the highest quality and most creative end results for our clients,” said Ken Brady, director of technical operations at Turner Broadcasting Atlanta. “Supporting all of the Turner Entertainment Networks means we have to remain flexible and, most importantly, productive. Adobe Production Studio coming to the Apple platform moves us one step closer toward realizing an internal goal of having just one workstation per editing suite, with all of the creative tools available that our operators need. The tight integration of the components in Production Studio is a model that our editors really enjoy.”

Adobe video technologies -- including Adobe Production Studio, Flash Media Server for streaming interactive media applications and Flash Video for easy video playback across the Internet -- are having a profound impact on how broadcast and video content is being distributed. Today, thanks to Adobe’s Emmy-award winning Flash Video software, television shows such as Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and Friday Night Lights are being delivered online, while the technology also powers the video capabilities of social networking sites like YouTube and MySpace.

Pricing and Availability
The next version of Adobe Production Studio for Macintosh and Windows is expected to be available in mid-2007. Adobe Production Studio as well as Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Encore DVD, and Adobe Soundbooth will be available for Intel-based Macintosh computers; the next releases of Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator will be offered as Universal Binaries for the Macintosh. Adobe Production Studio and all its components will continue to be available for the Windows platform.

I can sum this up 2 ways.

"Whoo Hoo" -

Now i can have the power of Premiere Pro on a Mac. That is wonderful.

"Boo Hoo" -

I have a lot of money to save to buy hardware to go with the software. - Too bad they did not write this as "universal binary".

I'll be interested to see if there's a "crossgrade" price for users of Apple suite. I'm already in for a lot with Final Cut et al - starting the upgrade train from scratch at full price isn't that appealing unless this suite really blows away Final Cut.

But even if there isn't upgrade pricing for folks like me, this is great news - competition will keep pushing both companies to improve their products. And it's always nice to see major companies backing the Mac.