Apple Brings Out the Big Guns at NAB

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Opinion: Page (2) of 3 - 04/06/03

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Apple Brings Out the Big Guns at NAB New versions of Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro and Shake highlight offerings Shake 3.0
The new version of Shake is likely to cause quite a stir among users. Not only has Apple seemingly dropped Windows as a supported platform, but the company has also introduced several features--and significant ones at that--exclusive to Mac OS X. These include a new Shake Qmaster network render management utility and unlimited network rendering licenses. This new functionality, available only for Mac OS X versions of Shake, allows rendering tasks to be distributed across a cluster of Apple Xserve machines.

It uses Rendezvous technology to identify available render nodes and clusters automatically on a network and handles load balancing for optimizing usage of each machine. It also offers built-in fault tolerance allows to reroute tasks should one render node go down. According to Apple, Qmaster is based on an open architecture and can provide distributed rendering support for many leading third-party applications. Apple cites Alias|Wavefront's Maya as an example. Also exclusive to Mac OS X is new broadcast monitor support for playing back composites on a video monitor in real time with accurate effects previews.

Shake 3 also includes new visual effects features available to Mac OS X, Linux and Irix customers, including motion tracking and real-time broadcast preview. Tracking data can now be applied to rotoshapes and paint strokes for automating rotoscoping tasks. The software also offers new audio support for viewing audio waveforms against animation curves; a new film grain filter for simulating a variety of film stock grain; and an improved animation curve editor.

Shake 3 is expected to ship in June for Mac OS X, Linux and Irix. The Mac OS X version will run $4,950. The Linux and Irix versions will sell for $9,900 with annual maintenance of $1,485. Apple says existing Shake for Linux, Irix and Windows customers will continue to be given the option to double the number of their existing Shake licenses at no additional cost by migrating them to Shake on Mac OS X. For more information, visit http://www.apple.com/shake.

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