The convergence of IT and AV comes to Latin America

Why this very specific interest of Apple in the video market?
Fernando del Granado: "In the last two or three years we have begun to put much more emphasis on vertical markets, specifically in professional video and music sectors. We consider this to be a good time to showcase the new solutions we have announced in recent months. Although they had already been announced at NAB, final Cut Pro 4 and Shake products were only available since July, and DVD Studio Pro has been available since August.

So, we consider that this is a good time to make an event at a professional level in which we can highlight Apple's solutions that have to do with manipulating and porting content on DVD and also, aligning ourselves with a company like Sony -which has magnificent solutions in DVCAM- we want to present a workflow solution.

In this event we will have not only presentations but demonstrations that are key to show Apple solutions in action and also Sony products as complementary to our solutions.

Among the products we are highlighting are mainly the Final Cut Pro 4 and the DVD Studio Pro. But within the Final Cut Pro there are a number of subcomponents like the Soundtrack, Live Type, Cinema Tools and everything that has to do with the DVD."

How is the positioning of this new version of Final Cut Pro?
Manuel Cernuda: "Final Cut Pro is aimed at a very complete and diverse range within the video market; there are components specifically for cinema, there are components for the professional who does composition, and for the one who does editing at a professional level.

We are not focusing on a specific market. The specific market is the creative and video market. We have tools like dvd studio pro that are supremely simple and for which we have taken the simplicity of iDVD and combined it with the best software to develop interactive DVDs.

We have combined several products to add more value to the product. The Final Cut Pro cost $1000. The Cinema Tools cost $1000. Now final Cut Pro 4 includes Cinema Tools and costs the same. We have also developed new components such as the Live Type to handle titles, the Soundtrack for music tracks -which is also sold as a standalone product-, the Compressor, which is the best MPEG encoder on the market and is included in Final Cut.

The product is so simple that anyone can use it, and it's so professional that a TV or movie studio can use it."

Fernando del Granado: "Apple also has the Final Cut Express which is a product that works only with the DV format and that costs less than Final Cut Pro. The person for whom the iMovie is very basic, his next step is Final Cut Express, but for those who are making professional video and need this whole range of solutions at 1000 dollars, that's where Final Cut Pro fits in."

Why is Sony entering these events?
Armando Ishimaru: "This event is already one of the results of the convergence of audio and video technologies with the IT world. Technologies have already matured in hardware and software and there is a transparent dialogue. With this particular event, it shows that Apple and Sony are aligned in our goals towards this content production market."