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      MCXpress was set to replace the old NuBus Media Suite Pro. It could be used to edit rushes and master back to videotape at close to broadcast quality without ever needing to leave the system. It could also be operated as an offline system that fed its timeline sequences to the more advanced Media Composer to add real-time effects.

      Avid’s new system trumped Media 100 because it ran on Power Macintosh or Windows NT and a client could buy the software alone. With the market now awash with reliable plug-in video cards and editors savvy enough to build their own suites Avid was taking its first steps toward away from turnkey devices.

      Clyde Tressler and Bob Lamm tested the Avid MCXpress.

       We found it to be very convenient and capable. Digitizing and logging are very quick and easy to do, digitized media can be sorted in various folders, you can even storyboard the production in the bin, then drag all the clips onto the timeline at once.

      Avid, D-Vision and ImMIX had set new benchmarks. Editors using Media 100 demanded special effects tools ‘just like ImMIX’ while others wanted a PC version,'like Avid'.

      John Molinari’s team was already overstretched to catch up to ImMIX so he turned to the only independent industry expert in delivering board based effects, Pinnacle Systems.

      Engineers from both companies worked to merge Pinnacle’s Genie tech with Media 100's Vincent 601 engine.

      Molinari also began discussions with Macromedia to be the prime hardware supplier for KeyGrip.

       We knew Randy and Tim from Adobe and as far as we were concerned they had just moved their operation to a different address. So I looked at their new product.

      However Molinari’s interest bothered Media 100‘s Software Group head Ralf Berger:

       I recall a meeting we had in San Francisco with Randy Ubillos from Macromedia and even though there wasn't much talk about specific product features, John Molinari was just so enthusiastic, so effusive about the KeyGrip concept.

       When it became obvious that John wanted to pursue the relationship with Macromedia and launch a PC product using Media 100 hardware and the KeyGrip software, we became pretty disillusioned. It really undermined everything we were trying to do at the company.

      Media 100 software engineer David McCarthy reflects:

       It's hard to fault the move (by Media 100) to PCs because Apple's survival was not a sure thing at that time. And even then, Apple was prone to making hardware changes in the Mac that were very difficult for a hardware company to keep pace with.

       However, the customer base got the impression that M100 was abandoning the platform entirely (and really, they were right, except that the Mac product kept generating revenue and nothing else did, so the company was forced to keep it alive, grudgingly.)

       A bet-the-company move on Apple hardware was at least as risky as its later moves (844), but now we know it might have been a better move.

      ALLADIN

      Away from the Genie group, Pinnacle's Consumer Video Group led by Ivan Maltz and Keith Thompson worked on the Alibaba editing package. Maltz recalls:

       Personal computers weren't quite quick enough and hard drives weren't anywhere near big enough to do consumer nonlinear editing. We looked at the hybrid approach that Avid had done and then made our goal, to take consumer videos from camcorders, be able to edit them in a simple and straightforward manner and then put the piece back onto a VHS tape.

       Our first product was to be connected to the parallel port on a PC that would let us capture low resolution 160 x 120 video.

      One of the first tasks was to re-purpose Pinnacle’s Alladin real time digital effects technology that had been built for professionals and bring it to a new audience. Richard Lane, a former Abekas hardware engineer, joined as the team’s hardware design manager. Maltz recalls:

       We used the in-house ASIC called the Sherman chip, that had been developed by Pinnacle for the Alladin. It let us do simple compositing and titles and some transitions. Then we started looking at the Avid (as a role model) and ended up with something that was a little like the FAST Video Machine in its hybrid approach to a single stream of video with FX.

      The Pinnacle team still needed a way to control the camcorders to feed Alibaba.

      The answer lay with a company in nearby Santa Clara.