BitCentral Precis

[BPOnTheAir]

Our newsroom is moving to BitCentral Precis in a couple of months. I've heard good and bad.

Thoughts? Tips?

[Thundersnow]

It's awesome.

I'm not objective.

[Seraph]

It isn't bad. That said, it's still glitchy as all hell. We've been on it for about 8 months now. The editing software isn't nearly as versatle as they'd like you to believe, and your editors need to understand that you don't need to dissolve or wipe between every single piece of video.

[MAX POWER]

I worked at a station that installed it 2 years ago pretty much one of the first to use it on a large scale. Buggy as heck crashed constantly. About a year into it thing either were mostly fixed or we learned to work around it. ARCHIVES big issues we lost lots of stories "content" because of human error and bad workflow and, in my opinion, insufficient training.

Do your station a favor and plan ahead in this regard. DO have a hard archive like tape backup or burn a daily DVD of your original content. The archive can be sketchy and f it doesn’t air it doesn’t get archived. Also SLUG NAMES don't use the cliche "fire" or "car AX" etc those will get lost/overwritten (this should be done anyway it’s a pet peeve of mine) be specific and correct about what the story is. If you are a photog or reporter and need to make a tape buy your own portable HD and keep your airchecks and stories on it. 2 reasons one it wont get lost or deleted on purpose or by accident, and two it wont clutter the stations archive/server space.

Lastly, if you are using EDIOUS it has a learning curve and can be a bit odd if you've used other programs. BUT I think it is very powerful. It will and can do way more than most news folks will need. A much better working environment than Grassvalley news edit on par with AVID in terms of capability. I thought it was very easy to build complicated effects, which is not true of newsedit at all.

Overall it will be a very shaky start if they work out the kinks that can cripple your news organization; it might be a decent product

[Diggin' Bear]

My shop made the conversion pretty easily. The people who haven't embraced it are the same ones who didn't embrace anything else that requires computer literacy.

Edius? LOVE IT! Let me say that again: I LUUUUURVE IT! I love it so much I bought my own copy for home, and it eats up anything and everything I throw at it. Old VHS? Not a problem. Old DVC Pro? Hah! Mini DV? I own you, MiniDV. Import anything you like and it's the bahmb.

Easy to use, easy to learn. The tutorials are online at canopus.com