FIRST LOOK : APPLE CUT X PRO

After two months of waiting, Apple's Final Cut Pro X has arrived. The software went live in Apple's Mac App Store yesterday and has officially replaced previous versions of Final Cut Pro: both the Studio suite and Apple's pro-sumer Express product.

I've spent the day with the software putting it through the paces. As you'll read, it worked out well for me, but my needs are not necessarily that of this application's target audience.

As background, let me get it out right from the top that I'm not a professional film editor. My last deep dive into the world of Final Cut Pro was part of a college film class where I spent hours upon hours splicing together DV tape to create a documentary and a 20-minute feature film on Final Cut 4. During that time I became a Final Cut guru, learning all of the keyboard shortcuts and making use of custom workspaces for each part of the process.

Since then, my video editing habits have taken a distinctly YouTube-centric twist, cutting the shaky, button-fumbling snippets at the beginning and the end of clips and hopping into iMovie if I needed to do anything more substantial. These days Apple has made it so you can handle both those edit scenarios from your phone and places where you might end up posting the video--like YouTube-offer video editing tools of their own.

What's so interesting with Final Cut Pro X is where it now sits as a product in Apple's software lineup. While it's aimed at pros, it's become a more consumer-friendly product. Apple has done away with Final Cut Express, the $199 version of Final Cut that was nestled between iMovie and the Final Cut Studio suite. Now if you want to get your foot in the door with something beyond iMovie--the editing software that's included in every new Mac--there's Final Cut, the company's top of the line software. And it will set you back $300 instead of the $1,000 its predecessor cost.

While a full review from CNET is on the way, here are some of my first impressions after giving the software a work out.

About the test setup: Latest generation 13-inch MacBook Pro running Mac OS X 10.6.7. It's got a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB 7200rpm HDD. Test footage is entirely 720p short of some 1080p. 2K and 4K quality cinema footage was not tested. All clips were imported to the machine's hard drive for editing.

Downloading and installing
This is the first version of Final Cut to be offered through the Mac App Store. Installing it was the same as it was with any other application you get there. It begins downloading and places an icon on your dock that shows how far along it is. There's no serial code to mess about with or remember to squirrel away somewhere. Also, if you replace your computer one day, you can re-download it whenever you want, as long as it's a machine you've authorized with your Apple ID.

Final Cut Pro X weighs in at 1.33 GB. Once it's finished, you can download an extra 637.2 MB worth of supplemental content for the software like 1,300 sound effects and audio effect presets. All the instructional material is contained in the help file, which takes the place of a car battery's worth of literature that used to ship with the Final Cut Studio suite.

The iMovie factor
From the very get go Final Cut Pro X encourages users to import their iMovie projects, or an entire iMovie project library. One thing to point out here is that you can't currently import Final Cut Pro 7 projects, which is something to keep in mind if you were planning to upgrade.

Importing a project from iMovie was a simple affair, the software just had to re-render things like titles and transitions on the test project I imported. One wonky bit was that it changed the font in a title sequence, something that took all of 30 seconds to go in and change back. Multiplied, this same bug could added extra time to my project.

There's no simple or "iMovie style" view to toggle in Final Cut Pro X, but iMovie users will find themselves in familiar territory. Options for finding media, setting transitions, and penning titles are all in the same place. Missing are features like iMovie '11's movie trailer feature, so there's still a reason to go back if you're looking for a template-style movie making experience.

To ease the transition, the software is capable of bringing over any color corrections you made in iMovie, which cannot be further adjusted using Final Cut Pro X's more granular controls. Instead, users have to ditch the color corrections entirely and start anew. This can potentially be a pain for bigger projects you may want to tweak, but it's nice your settings are kept in the first place. There are a number of effects settings and templates that make it easy to adjust a clip right from the timeline, then keep going with a project. You can preview what a shot will look like with one of these effects without having to apply it, which is very handy.

Behind the scenes
One of Final Cut Pro X's headlining features is that it does some of the heavy lifting in the background. This means if you make a change you don't have to wait for the software to reprocess the shot in order to keep working.

To actually keep an eye on what's going on behind the scenes, Apple's included a loop-style progress bar in the middle of the screen that tells you how far along it is. Here you get a breakdown of exactly what it's doing to each clip including rendering, transcoding and analyzing clips. Missing is a way to give any specific clip, or process precedence in the queue. While making edits, tweaking shots and doing just about anything else, there was no waiting to see the results, I just toggled the play button and saw the finished result. Will it do the same for 4K cinema footage? Apple says yes, but I didn't get the chance to test that.

Finding keepers
As a time saver, Final Cut Pro X includes new auto-analysis features, part of which has been carried over from iMovie. It's able to analyze your footage and determine if there are people in the shot, how many they are, and how close the camera is. The granularity of this tops out at one and two people, along with "group" shots.

In brief testing, this worked out the same as it does in iMovie, with analyzed clips getting their own menu in the media library to help fish out the processed shots. That same process can also break out what kind of shot it is based on the camera's proximity to a user's face, to determine whether it's a close up, medium, or wide shot. In testing with an FaceTime HD camera captured shot of me at various distances, Final Cut Pro X did a good job, though incorrectly said I was in a group shot when it was just me.

While there's no people finding, as there is in iPhoto--meaning a way to identify and mark clips with specific people--Final Cut Pro X introduces a new organization tool called range-based keywords that are effectively timed tags. You can give any section of the video one or more of these keywords, making it easy to search or categorize sections of a clip for later use. This is incredibly useful, but I found the implementation less than intuitive. While it's very straightforward to add and apply range-based keywords from the media library, you can't do it on the timeline. That makes sense from a library management perspective, but it's a shame you can't do it from both places.

Getting magnetic
The magnetic timeline is going to be one of those love it, or hate it features. While I can see it becoming a nuisance when maneuvering intricate sequences with carefully placed audio and video, the fact that it automatically keeps your from de-synchronizing parts of a project due to user error is a big plus.

To help make this feature less of an accidental nuisance, Final Cut Pro X automatically groups together clips, b-roll, and audio together with a feature called clip connections. These act as glue to hold those elements together when you move them around on the timeline. If there are any overlaps, things don't get moved out of the way as a result of the magnetic timeline. The way this has been implemented is very straightforward: as long as you drag a clip or item nearby a neighboring counterpart, the software binds them.

Auditioning
Auditioning is by far one of the neatest features. It lets you pick out clips, or an entire section of footage you want to use, then compare it against others at a single point in the timeline. Using it for a side-by-side comparison of two or more clips is surprisingly easy, and Final Cut adds an option to duplicate a clip that's in the auditions box so that you can make a quick edit to it for further comparisons.

The end result is that you can get a feel for what will work better in the finished project without having to tamper with any timeline organization you might have going. To me this seems like one of the most polished features and one that I wish I had for the projects I was working on in years past.

The export picture
Like iMovie, when it comes to getting your finished work out there, Final Cut Pro X has the same options and more. For instance, there's an Apple device-specific export option to send it to an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. As a nice bonus here you can actually preview what it looks like on each device, complete with skimming, letting you jump to a specific scene to make sure something scaled right.

Other options for the Web, like YouTube and Vimeo function the same as their iMovie counterpart, letting you put your project into the cloud and tweaking all the options before hitting the upload button.

Conclusions
Overall Final Cut Pro X proved capable in what was admittedly a short run-through of some of its headlining features. The question on my mind is whether consumers will bite given the more limited distribution model that is the Mac App Store. For Aperture, Apple's professional photo library management, and editing software that strategy's worked out well, making it one of the top grossing applications, yet Apple still offers that as a boxed product. You don't get a choice here.

For professional users--who are this software's target audience--the outcome is less clear. Already pro users are piping up on the Mac App Store, complaining about the software not opening up projects made with older versions of Final Cut Pro, or supporting numerous legacy Final Cut Pro features like multi-cam editing, and external production monitors. For production houses that use Final Cut Pro on a day to day basis, having one or more features you depend on not making the transition can be a deal-breaker.

SMF Batteries: What’s New This Summer?

Nowadays, customers are becoming more aware and don’t mind spending a few hundred rupees more for SMF batteries

Perceptions about batteries are changing fast, especially with industrial users realising that a battery is a critical link to ensure backup power. Today, sealed maintenance free (SMF) batteries are the most popular technology used in a host of applications—from small UPS systems to large systems deployed in huge industrial plants. SMF batteries do not need maintenance and are pollution free. The SMF battery industry is, thus, growing year by year. Currently, this technology is widely used in the telecom and power sectors, and to some extent in the railways. Of late, the solar power industry also offers good scope for the growth of SMF batteries.


“Nowadays, customers are becoming more aware and don’t mind spending a few hundred rupees more for SMF batteries. They know about the disadvantages and hazards of lead acid batteries,” says Kunwer Sachdev, managing director, Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd.

NEW TYPES AVAILABLE IN THE MARKET

SMF VRLA batteries are far superior to conventional batteries. Their plates are made of lead calcium, which offers a longer life and higher efficiency due to low self discharge. SMF batteries are also environment friendly, require less space, and can be used in any position.

If we go by the rated capacity, SMF VRLA batteries broadly fall into three segments—small: 3 to 17 Ah; medium: 26 to 200 Ah; and large single cells: 2V 100 Ah to 2V 3000 Ah. Su-Kam offers SMF batteries from 4.5 Ah to 200 Ah, which are based on absorbed glass mat (AGM) technology. The company claims its batteries offer the best backup and a long life. “Its radial grid design enhances the performance of high rate discharge, while thicker grids and corrosion resistant alloys ensure a longer life,” explains Kunwer Sachdev.

Exide offers Powersafe and Powersafe NXT, which are highly reliable and are known for their quality. The Powersafe range was extended in 2010 by introduction of Powersafe NXT series. The hallmark of NXT is its enhanced deep cycling ability, faster recharge capability and superior life. It carries a warranty of three years.

Powersafe NXT is yet another unique product from Exide, which is developed by its R&D centre, keeping the customers’ technical needs and operational requirements. The wide portfolio of products, alongwith Exide’s sales and service network in the country offers, a unique and customised value proposition to all users in sectors like banks and financial institutions, insurance, IT and ITES, hospitals, education and many others. “Exide Powersafe range of SMF VRLA batteries for UPS application has been a preferred choice of customers and end users for the past decades,” claims the company spokesperson.

AGM and gel batteries: Currently, AGM batteries and gel (or gel cell) batteries are very much in demand across India. These are often colloquially called sealed lead acid batteries, but they always include a safety pressure relief valve. As opposed to vented (also called flooded) batteries, a VRLA battery’s electrolyte does not spill if it is inverted. VRLA batteries also use much less electrolyte (battery acid) than traditional lead acid batteries. High rate discharge batteries are also much in demand.

According to Sunil Bhatnagar, director, sales and marketing, Artheon Electronics Ltd, the fastest moving batteries in the market are SMF batteries with AGM separators, gel batteries, pure lead tin (PLT) batteries, traction batteries, batteries for e-bikes, generator starting batteries, solar lantern batteries, emergency lighting batteries and batteries for the telecom sector. Artheon offers SMF batteries from 4.5 Ah to 200 Ah, which are based on AGM technology. These are designed for tough solar applications, are tested at Solar Energy Centre, Ministry of Non Renewable Energy (SEC-MNRE) and are suitable for home lights, streetlights and solar lanterns. Apart from this, Artheon also sells North Star’s thin plate technology batteries for solar and telecom applications. These batteries have very thin plates and get charged very fast; hence, they save about 80 per cent of the cost of running a DG set.

Amptek has introduced SMF batteries for motorcycles, e-bikes and LED lighting. It has seven models of SMF motorcycle batteries—12V 2.5 Ah, 12V 5Ah, 12V 7Ah, 12V 9Ah, 12V 3Ah and 12V 4Ah. Amptek has also introduced various 4V SMF batteries exclusively for LED lighting applications like LED torchlights, LED solar lanterns, LED emergency lights, etc. Amptek batteries also offer deep cycle features, designed to be deeply discharged using most of its capacity.

Deep cycle batteries: Computech Systems is all set to launch deep cycle batteries. “Deep cycle batteries are designed to be discharged by as much as 80 per cent, time after time, and have much thicker plates. The major difference between a deep cycle battery and others is that the plates are made of a solid grid and lead of the highest purity. Although these can be cycled down to a 20 per cent discharge, the best way to get the optimum lifespan for the cost, is to keep the average cycle at about 50 per cent discharge,” informs Vikas Aggarwal, CEO, Computech Systems. These batteries comply to Japanese quality standards, which is acceptable to the Indian government.



Regnant offers deep cycle batteries that give 600 cycles at 75 per cent depth of discharge (DOD) or 700 cycles at 50 per cent DOD. Regnant is promoting the use of deep cycle gel technology batteries using 4BS technology in the solar industry to ensure long life for batteries used in solar cyclic applications.

“According to Japanese JIS standards, for normal SMF VRLA batteries, the recommended DOD for 500 cycles of charging/discharging is 50 per cent, which means that, effectively, only 50 per cent of the available capacity will be used. However, due to several reasons, especially in areas with poor power availability or where users are dependent on solar power, it is not always possible to achieve this. Therefore, for these applications, deep cycle batteries are ideal,” explains Praveen Kumar Sood, chairman, Regnant Energy Solutions.

“Due to the growing demand from portable LED equipment manufacturers, we also offer a more cost effective 4 V 4.5 Ah model. When the forward voltage drop of major white light LED emitters is in the region of 3.2-3.5 V, with a simple constant current driver, you can efficiently power these with 4 V SMF VRLA batteries instead of 6 V. In the case of the latter, you can drop the additional power using a resistor, which is a total loss,” explains Praveen Sood.

Greenvision Technologies Pvt Ltd offers deep cycle batteries designed to perform better in the extreme conditions faced in India. “We also have a model—SPG 12-9—which is specifically meant for solar lamps and CFL UPS applications. It has a much better life than the conventional 7 Ah batteries,” says Biju Bruno, managing director, Greenvision Technologies Pvt Ltd.

HBL Power Systems has developed two new series of SMF batteries using lead acid technology, and the products are suitable for both domestic and export markets. These are called Triumph Tubular Gel VRLA battery and Triumph Plus (advanced) VRLA battery. “These batteries are innovatively designed with a with a tubular positive plate and gelled electrolyte. This technology encompasses the features of tubular technology with maintenance free characteristics,” explains Avnish Arora, vice president, sales, HBL Power Systems Ltd

Luminous Power Technologies offers SMF batteries that are suitable for deep cycle applications, and which can be used in rural areas that suffer from power deficit. These batteries are available in 12 V from 7.5 Ah to 200 Ah.

Truepower International Ltd also has SMF VRLA batteries for different segments in the range of 4.5 Ah to 200 Ah, with a superior high rate discharge and low internal resistance. Its thicker grids and corrosion resistance alloys help ensure a longer life and better output.