Canadian Content

The Matrox MXO had an enormous impact on the way I work and what I’m able to accomplish on the road. I can’t say enough good things about it. On 23 June 2009, you have an opportunity to learn about what Matrox did next. Local authorised dealer, Annex|Pro will be hosting a Matrox and Apple event to showcase the latest tools: the Matrox CompressHD, MXO2 Mini, MXO2 and MXO2 Rack.

One focus of the discussion will be Matrox MAX technology, which provides faster than realtime H.264 encoding for Blu-ray, the web, and mobile devices. Matrox MAX is a feature of the Matrox CompressHD accelerator card and in the Matrox MXO2 series of I/O devices for the Mac.

The event starts at 18h00 at the VFS Cafe and registration is required.

Jonathan | 18 June 2009 | Comments (0)
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To Die For

Final Cut Pro Killer Secrets

My dear friend and Final Cut Wizard, Martin Baker has just published his first ebook, Final Cut Pro Killer Secrets.

I was honoured to be asked to tech edit the book so I can personally attest to the quality of the information held within. Even if you think you know FCP inside and out, there’s sure to be at least one vital nugget of information that once discovered you’ll never know how you lived without it. It’s really that good a book.

Still not convinced? You can download a sample chapter to test the waters. I’ll be very surprised if you don’t crave more. And at US$19.00 it’s a steal.

Jonathan | 18 March 2009 | Comments (0)
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The Return of VFCPUG

After an unplanned hiatus the Vancouver Final Cut Pro User Group is once again opening its doors. There have been a lot of changes since we last met and there’s much to discuss.

First of all I’m sure that you’d all like to join me in wishing our fearless leader, John Christie all the best as he steps down from his role as VFCPUG President. After several years of diligent and outstanding service John leaves us to focus on his role as Vice President, Post Production at Paperny Films. It’s not an understatement to say that the group would not exist without John’s passion, initiative and drive. Many of you will have seen his presentations over the years and will recognise just how much the community has benefitted from his presence and generosity.

For those of you wondering why I’ve been so quiet of late, it’s actually been a year of changes for me too. I’ve been spending more and more time working outside of Vancouver in my role as an Apple Certified Trainer and Pro Apps Mentor Trainer. In the last 12 months I’ve taught classes in cities across North America, Europe and the Middle East. It’s been a facinating experience, connecting with diverse groups and communities, learning about how they use the Pro Apps to support the unique requirements of their workflow. I’ve also been spending a fair amount of time with Final Cut Server — more on that in a moment.

And so to the future. The first meeting of the new era is going to held at Emily Carr University on Granville Island at 7:30pm on Thursday 22nd January 2009 (North Building, Room 245). Doors open at 7pm.

The initial agenda includes the following presentations:

  • The Best of Final Cut Pro 6
  • Final Cut Server and You
  • Just how cool is MXF4mac?
  • Final Cut Q&A

The good folks at ANNEX|PRO will be providing refreshments and there will be door prizes from MXF4mac, Larry Jordan, GeeThree and Emily Carr University.

Jonathan | 20 January 2009 | Comments (2)
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Service with a Smile

Apple Canada is out on tour again. This time it’s Final Cut Server that’s coming to a town near you. The Vancouver stop is 23 June and there’s already a waiting list.

I’ve been working with Final Cut Server (FCSvr) for the last few weeks and was very fortunate to have a seat in the first public Train-the-Trainer in Cupertino last month. Unfortunately I’m going to be in Europe when the show roll into these parts, but if you’ve been wondering what all the buzz has been about then this would be one not to miss.

Jonathan | 10 June 2008 | Comments (0)
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Let it Snow

Yesterday WWDC Apple formerly announced Snow Leopard, the latest iteration of Mac OS X. Marking something of a departure from previous updates, the focus of Snow Leopard will be on performance enhancement rather than new features.

“We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system.”

Perfection is currently manifest as built-in support for Microsoft Exchange, a new “set of technologies” called Grand Central, which will enhance multicore processing, increased support for 64-bit computing to take advantage of the theoretical limit of 16TB of RAM, QuickTime X and OpenCL (Open Compute Library), which will leverage the power of modern GPUs for “general-purpose computing”.

Before you rush to the new Apple Store in Pacific Centre Mall to pick-up your copy, Snow Leopard is not scheduled to ship until next year*, and Apple are careful to state that “[a]ll features are subject to change”.

So while we have to wait, my interest is certainly piqued and viewed alongside the recent postings for Cocoa programmers to join the Pro Apps development team (here and here), there would seem to be exciting times ahead.

*Which is probably a good things as at today’s prices, you’ll need to start saving for all that RAM now.

Jonathan | 10 June 2008 | Comments (0)
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