Advanced Systems Group demos Smoke on Mac

Posted By Barry Goch on June 28, 2010 12:00 am | Permalink
Your humble Post Magazine contributor (me) was engaged to do a Smoke on Mac demo in Northern California. I met the team at ASG the day before the demo at their office in Emeryville and they were amazingly hospitable.They made sure that the system was working perfectly for me as I loaded the footage for the demo the next day. They presented me with a list of attendee questions about Smoke on Mac so I would have ample time to focus my demo to their specific quandaries.

The day of the demo, I arrived early at the location, The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Since I arrived early, I took the opportunity to investigate their collection. Since I'm an Apple fanboy, I was thrilled to see an Apple One, which was basically a motherboard, keyboard, and power supply mounted on a rough piece of plywood. Cool Stuff. And I saw what I'll call the iPad V.1, the Apple Newton.

On to the demo. It was a full house in the Noyce room at the museum. I felt it was a very appropriate place to hold the demo since the museum celebrates innovations in computer science, and Smoke as the preeminent finishing tool fits in perfectly in these august surroundings. Since I was busy with showing the system, I heard afterward that the attendees were intently watching each stage of the demo. Notable in the crowd, was my old Avid school buddy and FCP guru, Kevin Monahan. Toward the end of the demo, Todd Prives from GenArts gave a brief overview of their Sapphire Sparks for Smoke on Mac. I'm currently beta testing the Sparks and they are amazingly fast - no more waiting, just creating. In fact, the Sapphire Sparks for Smoke on Mac will be available this Wednesday!

We wrapped up the demo with an extended question and answer session with great interest and energy in the room. From my point of view, the folks at ASG were top-notch and extremely welcoming. Based upon recent conversions with them in their quest to help their clients, they go out of their way to bring every resource to bear to ensure their customers get the best solution.