Reality show production company moves from Final Cut Pro to Avid

Gasp! Bunim/Murray Productions, best known for “high quality” programs like The Real World and Keeping Up with the Kardashians, has announced that they are moving all of their editing from Final Cut Pro to Avid. I’m sure this move has Apple yawning nonchalantly shaking in their boots.

Due to the large volume of media generated by our reality shows, we needed to re-evaluate our editing and storage solutions. At the same time, we were looking for a partner who would understand our long-term needs,” said Mark Raudonis, senior vice president of Post Production at Bunim/Murray. “As we talked with Avid, it was clear that the company has really forged ahead since we worked with them years ago. Their commitment to the needs of their professional customers, like us, is clear.”

Infamously, Apple released Final Cut Pro X to the world this past June to much tribulation. While the interface was modernized, performance was improved, and the price was reduced, a nontrivial amount of features were cut from the previous version. Unsurprisingly, this angered a number of professional editors. We heard an outpouring of assurances that as long as Final Cut Pro 7 continued to work, editors wouldn’t move to Final Cut X. Some even threatened to move to Avid, and clearly a percentage of those threats weren’t bluffs.

Apple’s purpose isn’t to support any group of people, though. They have a track record of burning bridges of compatibility to move forward to where they want their products to end up. While that may anger some, Apple isn’t going to change the way it operates. Their goal is to make best-of-class hardware and software while making money for their shareholders. Some pissed off professionals aren’t going to slow down Apple’s momentum. Apple Badger don’t care.

Source: Avid
Image Credit: Eva Rinaldi

Grant is a writer from Delaware. In his spare time, Grant maintains a personal blog, hosts The Weekly Roar, hosts Quadcast, and writes for video games.