Bitcentral and Adobe Premiere

NEWSSHOOTER3

Well-known member
Looking for some 'pros' and 'cons' on either, or both, of these.

I've been editing on Avid for at least 15 years and using Interplay for about half as long as that. Avid is the only NLE I've ever used.

Now, it smells like the stank of change is in the air; so I'd love to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly about either of these platforms. Especially from those who have made the move from Avid and/or Interplay.

Thanks-

AJW
 
I've used Premiere for the last 2 years (both CS6 and CC), and really like the layout. I'd say it's more like Final Cut than Avid in a user interface sense, but I've found it pretty easy to work with. Once you get the import/overlay hotkeys down, you can put a story together pretty quickly. And CC has a really nice live thumbnail system in the bin, where you can just hover over the thumbnail to scrub through and see what's there, rather than opening each one and scrubbing in the preview window - also, where you double click on that thumbnail will determine where the clip starts in the preview window (ie, scrub to the start of the take you want in the thumbnail, double click, and you're at that point to set your inpoint).

One down side I've noticed is that timelines with multiple video formats, exports seem to crash midway through. So, if a reporter threw, for instance, a downloaded Youtube clip into their story, and tried to export a few minutes before the top of show, there would inevitably be a problem. You can usually get around this by running your unmatched clips through Media Encoder, but it's really frustrating to hit the 'Unexpected Error' message after waiting through half the export.
 

Land Rover

Well-known member
We've thought about Premiere but the one downside we've been told is that it acts odd on a network, or at least that station's network. When importing large files is tends to put them in random places within the project structure and causes issues finding what you're looking for. Again, I haven't used it or seen exactly what its doing but they are actually looking at dropping it and going to Avid because of their network issues.
 

jayhest

Member
Full disclosure: I work for Bitcentral

Four years ago, I was where you are now. I was a chief editor and photographer for a station in New Orleans. We were not using Avid but rather DVC Pro. We were a team consisted of mostly 15 to 20 year veterans that were reluctant to make any changes. We were faced with having to use Adobe Premiere Pro and Bitcentral as our play out.

As far as Bitcentral goes, the play out changes will be no problem for photogs and editors. Pushing to air is simple, the interface is easy to use, and archiving is automatic. Many of the interfaces use Firefox. Pretty much, if you can use Google, you can use them. Your biggest change will be in the editing suite.

After training several stations that use Avid, I think I've pretty much figured out the biggest fear that they have. What is it you may ask? Adobe Premiere is not Avid. Most users get so used to using a single interface, that they won't open their mind to using something new. They're different, but that is in exactly a bad thing. By the end of the training, most users have told me that they can see the benefits of the switch.

When we first got Adobe Premiere at my station, version CS5 wasn't exactly ready for prime time news editing. But over the last several years new versions of the software, subsequently have each added several new features that make things more convenient than the previous version. The newest version of Adobe Premiere CC 2014 has added a really neat masking and tracking effects.

The biggest change that you will see between the two is organization. Since Avid was an all in one unit, things were slightly more integrated. Premiere doesn't really care how you have things organized. Like Land Rover mentioned, things can get messy. You can be as messy or as neat as you want in your organization. Premiere will find the files as long as you don't rename them or move them from their original file location. This can be good and bad at the same time.

But just like the old days of tape or film, you need to be deliberate in where your raw materials are going. Bitcentral will work with the station to set up an organization workflow so files won't be so random and messy.

I'd have to agree with many of the things that MidwestPhotog said. The thumbnails are quite nice. As far as the crashing goes, I find that it really can vary depending on your hardware, RAM, etc. The system runs on a PC, so crashes can happen, but I find that proper file maintenance and a regular reboot schedule seems to improve on this.

You can always try out for Premiere before the station goes live though. Adobe gives 30 day free trials on their website for all of their programs. I'd encourage you to try it ahead of time so you can get a feel for the interface. If you have any questions on a particular topic or how things work, you can always send me an email.

Chances are, I will be one of the project managers that will be sent out to your station for training. So if there's anything I can do to help, please don't hesitate to contact me.
 
I'll second (or third?) the importance of organization if you use Premiere. The program doesn't care at all if you import assets from another network location, a flash drive, or a shoot card - it won't automatically copy files to your project folder. When you pull that flash drive/shoot card/network drive, your files just go offline.* So you definitely need to establish a workflow that gets all of your assets into the right location. That said, once everything is in the same folder, Premiere is pretty good at opening a project if you move that whole folder to another drive/computer (for backup/if you get kicked out of your edit bay).

*If I had a dollar for every time a reporter started a last minute export, pulled their shoot card, and killed the export by 'offlining' their assets, I'd buy a new camera.
 

Necktie Boy

Well-known member
I bounce between Premiere, FCP, and Avid. Most of my time is on Premiere, but Avid Certified. It always tells me a few hours to get into the swing of Avid. I think the way Avid works.

As for media management on Premiere. It has always been recommended to have all footage and other files to be in the same folder. If you media is all the place, Premiere has to look around for the files, slowing down the editing process, or even crashing.

I have only used Bitcentral with FCP. It uses a plug-in to send to the server. All editing with media is at the local computer. No server to digest cards.
 

photoguy603

Well-known member
I just finished up working on Premiere (CC) for the past month or so. I liked it a lot...once you get the hang of it and use of the hot keys its a very user-friendly editor to use.

My only complaint is when looking in a bin, the list view will show the clips in the right order but when switching to thumbnail view (which I prefer) it throws them all over the place in a random arrangement. No one in my office could tell me how to keep them in order.
 

NEWSSHOOTER3

Well-known member
Garbage

UPDATE:

IN MY OPINION... Playschool Adobe cannot do 1/10th of what Avid is capable of and Bitcentral is straight sh!t, crap, garbage- Doesn't work well with iNews, crashes almost daily, and freezes packages on air. And, absolutely no intelligent customer support for either. That's why we dodged both bullets at the last station I was at, and it is still true now- Just garbage. Avoid it all costs.
 

Douglas

Well-known member
My only complaint is when looking in a bin, the list view will show the clips in the right order but when switching to thumbnail view (which I prefer) it throws them all over the place in a random arrangement. No one in my office could tell me how to keep them in order.
If I tell you how to do it, do I get a gold star?

At the bottom of the bin you'll see a slider for controlling the size of the thumbnails. To the right side of the slider there is an icon that looks like a mountain. And just to the right of that icon there is a diamond shaped icon that has up and down-facing arrows. Right-click on that icon, and choose how you want to sort the thumbnails. There you go.
 

svp

Well-known member
At KWTV we have AVID/Interplay but my laptop I use to edit in the field has Adobe Premiere CC. I can't tell you how much more I like Adobe over AVID. We just got the AVID upgrade and it seems like nothing but headaches and problems. All of the plug ins and licenses need to be installed and activated separately, meaning we are always running into errors about something not being installed or activated. Its a real pain in the..... On the flip side, everything is ready to go in Adobe. No additional add ons or installs. Even after updates and upgrades, its always ready to go. Unlike AVID, I've never had Adobe crash on me in the middle of an edit. Its as reliable as the old reliable FCP7 that I used to use. I'd be as happy as a little kid at Christmas is the station dropped AVID for Adobe Premiere, but I totally get the nervousness of learning a new NLE that you've never used before. There is a little bit of a learning curve until you master the shortcuts but, in the end, I think you'll like the change.
 

Necktie Boy

Well-known member
Not too sure what is the problem? You are editing news! Cuts Dissolves Audio levels
Not even touching 1/10 of the stuff that Premiere Pro can do. Same deal with Avid.
Sounds like an user problem?

Sorry
 

NEWSSHOOTER3

Well-known member
User Problem? Uh, No.

I've been on Avid for over 15 years. And, I'm not ashamed to say that I'm among the best & fastest Avid editors I know. So, while "user problem" may be your easy answer, it does not change the fact that I stand by my statement that Adobe doesn't hold a candle to Avid. Straight cuts may work for you, I don't know. But, I've spent a large portion of my time in Special Projects, crafting my skills & learning to be creative... on Avid. I cannot see where Adobe will ever be better than Avid... because, in my opinion, it simply isn't.

And, I'll say it again... if you, or your station is even considering either Adobe or Bitcentral, I'd STRONGLY advise against it. You can thank me later, or just be frustrated now.
:rolleyes:
 

Necktie Boy

Well-known member
Sorry to hear that you are not happy with Premiere. I have cut many commercials on Premeire with no problems. Those are not straight cut projects.
 

cyndygreen1

Well-known member
Question: What's the best editing program (camera, tripod, light system, mike)???
Answer: Whatever I have invested time and money into.
Reality: Depends on your budget, your plans on how and where you will use it, your experience, your client needs.
 

photoguy603

Well-known member
If I tell you how to do it, do I get a gold star?

At the bottom of the bin you'll see a slider for controlling the size of the thumbnails. To the right side of the slider there is an icon that looks like a mountain. And just to the right of that icon there is a diamond shaped icon that has up and down-facing arrows. Right-click on that icon, and choose how you want to sort the thumbnails. There you go.
Thanks! Wish I had known this when I started, no one at my shop could figure it out, Gold Star for you!
 
Each program has its strengths. Adobe's is when you use Premiere not as stand alone software, but as part of Creative Cloud, with easy integration between all the various programs... Especially After Effects. It's very nice to be able to link to your AE project file as opposed to rendering and re-rendering if you need to change things. So, I could see it being more of a benefit to someone working on commercial projects. Personally, I'd use it for news, but that's just because I'm so used to it.
 

NEWSSHOOTER3

Well-known member
Garbage

Just to name a few: No image stabilizer. Nothing close to Avid Pan & Zoom. And, hey, let's not forget that sweet MPEG2 export! :rolleyes: #Garbage

And, no fewer than three private messages pertaining to the character and ability of Jay Hest, the UNcertified trainer. :rolleyes:
 
Top