Final Cut Pro had a great showing at last week’s National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in Las Vegas, taking home several awards.
Apple’s high-end video editing application was named “Product of the Year” by Post Magazine. Post also gave Final Cut Pro a win in the Fully Configured Non Linear Editing (under $30 grand) category. (And the Power Mac G4 won best Computer Workstation.) What’s more, FCP took AV Video Multimedia Producer’s Platinum Award for best editing software.
Version 2.0 of the video editing, compositing and special effects software — featuring real-time editing and a scalable architecture that allows users to output content into any video format — was released on March 14. With Final Cut Pro 2, real-time editing and compositing functions are seamlessly integrated into the video production workflow, according to David Moody, Apple’s senior director of Applications Marketing.
Final Cut Pro 2 has a suggested retail price of US$999. Existing users can upgrade to the new version for $249 (US). Final Cut Pro 2 requires Mac OS 9.1 (sorry, but it’s not Mac OS X compatible yet), a Mac computer with a 300 MHz or faster PowerPC G3 or G4 processor, QuickTime 5, 192 MB of RAM (256MB of RAM for real-time processing), and 20 MB of available disk space for installation. More information on Final Cut Pro, including a list of certified, compatible hardware and software can be found at Apple’s Web site.