Last year Avid ran a survey through their Avid Customer Association about future directions for Pro Tools and their other product ranges. They have just launched a follow-up survey which I have already completed and wanted to share what I found with the Pro Tools Expert community.
Do I Have To Be An ACA Member To Vote?
Good news, you don't need to be a member of the Avid Customer Association to vote, however, participating means you will automatically become a member. You will soon receive an email granting you access to the ACA Portal after submitting your vote.
How Long Will It Take?
You will need 20 - 30 minutes to complete the survey. You only get one go and it must be completed in one sitting. They recommend that it is best to complete the survey on a desktop computer or tablet. Avid does not advise using a mobile device/ smartphone.
At the end of the first part of the survey, you will be directed to the Emerging Trends & Technology in Media ballot, which is being underwritten by Devoncroft (Broadcast & Media Technology Market Research, Strategic Consulting, & Analysis). Completion of this section is required for your vote to be counted. I found this part was structured and aimed at large corporate businesses and not particularly appropriate for the independent creative professional, which was a shame. But back to the Avid survey...
What Options Are There?
Avid is surveying users from a variety of workflows and depending which ones of these options you select you will get more or less questions to answer.
News Production & Newsroom
TV & Film Production
Video Editing
Music Creation & Audio Post & Mixing
Sports Production
Enterprise Media Management
Live Sound
Music Creation & Audio Post & Mixing
I chose Music Creation & Audio Post & Mixing and so this was the first set of options I was asked to rank...
Lower Cost Audio I/O (Previous Vote: Ranked #2, Advanced to Round 2, Under Investigation)
Marker Track Improvements
iOS App for Pro Tools - iOS version of Pro Tools for mobile recording, editing & sharing of ideas for collaboration (Previous Vote: Ranked #7, Advanced to Round 2, Under Investigation)
Game Engine Integration Workflows - Integration of Pro Tools into game engine workflows (Previous Vote: Ranked #13)
DDEX-compliant Metadata Recording
Custom Knob mapping for Control Surfaces
Integrated Pitch Correction
Virtual Instrument Upgrades - New VI tools inside Pro Tools and better integration with 3rd party VIS (Previous Vote: Ranked #4, Advanced to Round 2, In Queue 2018)
Enhanced Integration: Pro Tools & Sibelius - Improved workflows to allow better integration between Sibelius and Pro Tools app (Previous Vote: Ranked #10, Advanced to Round 2, Under Investigation)
Music composition, arranging, orchestrating music
Sharing music online - Quickly share your sheet music online
Publishing music online - Publish and sell your sheet music online
Advanced MIDI Workflows
As you can see, some of these options are choices from last year's survey and some are new and give us an insight into possible new feature sets Avid might be looking at. It seems strange that they are still asking about the Lower Cost Audio I/O even though it was the 2nd most popular option in last year's survey and is 'under investigation' during 2018, whatever that means.
Control Surfaces
The next set of options I was asked to rank in order of importance was a list relating to control surfaces...
Artist Mix replacement - S1 - 8 fader controller
Plug-in instantiation from the surface
Custom Plug-in Mapping
EUCON control of Clip Effects from the surface
Allow 2 x S3 to be connected for 32 faders
C24 Replacement - 24/32 fader Controller with I/O and meter bridge
This suggests that they are looking into replacements for the Artist Mix and C24 as well as allowing multiple S3 control surfaces to be linked together as you can with the Artist Mix. They also appear to be looking at some Eucon developments too.
Pro Tools
Next, I was asked to rank a range of Pro Tools related options, but not before Avid proudly told me what they had achieved since the last survey...
Based on last years vote results, Avid has completed:
Immersive / 3D Audio Integration - Further integration of Dolby ATMOS and other 3D formats into Pro Tools mixer
Enhanced MIDI Functionality - New MIDI tools to further music creation workflows
VR Workflows - Support of VR workflows for Pro Tools
Enhanced qualification/performance for Pro Tools on Nexis shared storage - Qualification for Pro Tools on NEXIS to include support for 12+ workstations and high track counts plus video
For this year's survey, these are the Pro Tools options...
New Post workflows - Folder tracks (Previous Vote: Ranked #1, Advanced to Round 2, In Queue for 2018)
Lower Cost Audio I/O (Previous Vote: Ranked #2, Advanced to Round 2, Under Investigation)
Virtual Instrument Upgrades - New VI tools inside Pro Tools and better integration with 3rd party VIS (Previous Vote: Ranked #4, Advanced to Round 2, In Queue for 2018)
Enhanced Voice Capability for Pro Tools Native | HD Systems - Larger voice count for Pro Tools | HD Native (Previous Vote: Ranked #5, Advanced to Round 2, Under Investigation)
Enhanced AVE (Avid Video Engine) Workflows - Support of new codecs, enhancements to existing video interop inside Pro Tools (Previous Vote: Ranked #6, Advanced to Round 2, In Queue for 2018)
iOS App for Pro Tools - iOS version of Pro Tools for mobile recording, editing & sharing of ideas for collaboration (Previous Vote: Ranked #7, Advanced to Round 2, Under Investigation)
On Premises Collaboration - Bringing current cloud collab to work on premises w/ local storage (Previous Vote: Ranked #8, Advanced to Round 2, Under Investigation)
Enhanced Integration: Pro Tools & Sibelius - Improved workflows to allow better integration between Sibelius and Pro Tools app (Previous Vote: Ranked #10, Advanced to Round 2, Under Investigation)
Interop with Media Composer - Qualification for Pro Tools on NEXIS to include support for 12+ workstations and high track counts plus video (Previous Vote: Ranked #12)
Game Engine Integration Workflows - Integration of Pro Tools into game engine workflows (Previous Vote: Ranked #13)
Updated Satellite Link Toolset - New API to allow 3rd parties to integrate their solutions for satellite link solutions (Previous Vote: Ranked #14)
Pro Tier of Network Audio Interfaces
Enhanced Import Session Data (Multiple Sessions Open at Once)
Integrated Pitch Correction
Marker Track Improvements
Phonetic Indexing of Audio in Pro Tools (phonetic text search of audio in Workspace to find all dialog matches for entered text)
Folders in the Clips List
Enhanced cloud collaboration communication with A/V Chat and streaming in and out of Pro Tools (replace ISDN workflows)
Advanced MIDI Workflows - continued larger enhancements to music creation workflows
Take Number Management
What was curious was that some of the options in this list were also on the first part of this survey and I found this confusing. Again they are re-surveying a number of features that were ranked last year, which I find a little strange. It is almost as if they don't believe the results.
I am pleased to see 'On Premises Collaboration' on the list for the film post-production community as I cannot help think that the collaboration features would be very useful for you as long as it is completely secure across an internal network.
Personally, I am very pleased to see 'Enhanced Import Session Data (Multiple Sessions Open at Once)', 'Phonetic Indexing of Audio in Pro Tools (phonetic text search of audio in Workspace to find all dialog matches for entered text)' and 'Folders in the Clips List'. Avid can I have these today please ;).
Third Party Integration
Next, I was asked to chose one 3rd party product that I would like to see integrated into Pro Tools. The list of options was...
iConnectivity Interface
Universal Audio Virtual Instruments
Orchestral Tools Metropolis
Native Instruments Strings
MediaSeal
Other (please specify)
To me, this seemed a strange list, so I chose Other and asked for iZotope RX integration. What would you like to see?
Devoncroft Survey
Then I was presented with the compulsory Devoncroft survey, which included questions about industry trends, projects, budgets, and emerging technologies, with the key findings from this research to be presented at Avid Connect 2018.
Although compulsory there seemed to be a carrot being offered, although I am not sure how useful they will be for independent creative professionals like myself.
A 90-page summary of Devoncroft's 2017 Big Broadcast Survey ($350 value)
A 100-page Devoncroft Partners research report that provides a strategic analysis of important developments in the media industry, prior to the 2018 NAB Show ($350 value)
A summary of Devoncroft's 2018 Big Broadcast Survey ($350 value), as soon as it's available
Do Take The Survey
I strongly recommend that all Avid users take this survey, as it enables us to have a say in what Avid are planning. Although it is a structured survey, there are options for personalised suggestions in a lot of places and it is my view that if we don't comment and complete the survey, it becomes harder to criticise Avid when they don't add the features we are looking for.
What Do You Think About The Questions?
Do share in the comments below about what you think about the subject areas Avid are looking at in this survey. Are they asking the right questions? Are they looking at features you want? If not what features do you want?