I saw an interesting joint press release today from Corel, the makers of VideoStudio and ProDad the German software solutions company that specializes in video effects and solutions.
“proDAD, the acclaimed developer of digital video effects and image enhancement technologies has expanded its relationship with Corel who has recently released VideoStudio Ultimate X6. The video editing application features four proDAD video enhancement and effects technologies, including the Mercalli V2 LE Video Stabilizer, VitaScene V2 LE professional-grade transition effects/filters, Rotopen animated travel route, and proDAD’s exclusive animated Handscript titling effect. These innovations allow VideoStudio Ultimate X6 users to explore their creative potential while enjoying an uncomplicated video editing experience.”
You can read the full release here but the gist of it is that the two companies are deepening their relationship to a point beyond what has been previously accepted in the consumer editing software market.
In the past companies like Prodad, NewBlue FX and even Boris Graffiti have partnered with video editing software makers such as Corel by allowing them to add their products in the form of cut down versions if their full software.
This made sense for the editing software companies as it allowed them, for a reduced licencing fee, to offer their users at least a taste of some of the more advanced specials effects, filters and solutions on offer.
This also made sense for the stand alone software solution providers like Prodad, in that they could quite cheaply gain exposure to a wider market and use that initial contact to make future up-sells of their product to those wanting to utilize their full features.
In fact this practice has been going on for a number of years now and has, I feel, benefited all involved.
However a problem for the editing software makers has been how to keep innovating within their own software in a manner that not only keeps track of emerging technology but also manages to “keep up with the neighbors” in terms of an expanding feature set.
When new compression technology such as H.265 arrives or new distribution methods such as HTML 5 arrive these companies can quickly adapt and develop the capability of handing these changes.
The problem for the marketing department in this case is that innovation like this and the software keeping up with that innovation is not particularly sexy by nature!
“We were one of the first to handle H.264 and now we are the first to offer you the ability to handle H.265… so buy our stuff” is not really the advertising copy that dreams are made of!
One of the main ways that the software companies are managing to give their products some marketing grunt is through the addition of new and exciting features and capabilities.
Most of these new features are in fact not particularly new and have traditionally been part of professional editing software for some time. The apparent innovation occurs when these advanced features are introduced to the home user market.
Incorporating these advanced features comes at a cost to the software maker because of the technical expertise need to implement them into an existing product.
So the dilemma for companies like Corel is whether it is worth their while to develop these capabilities “in-house” or do they leave it to the experts and simply negotiate higher levels of licencing to access the features they want.
In the case of Corel it seems that have gone with the latter in not only their relationship with Prodad but also with Boris Graffiti.
In their latest version of VideoStudio Ultimate X6 Corel have included the fully loaded version of Boris FX which has added incredible features to the software. In addition to that and most likely because it is the full version the Boris add-on has been more deeply integrated into the program itself.
This latest announcement from Corel and ProDad woulds seem to indicate that having set this path Corel mean to put the foot down and take VideoStudio even further.
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