Same Day Edit..hummm

[Jeanton]

I can't even get $2000 for a fully edited wedding DVD in my town here I just don't get the job.
That is a 8 hour shoot and a three camera ceremony .
Don't get me wrong but I find it way to much for a highlight video.
Normal people have to work more than 2 months to earn that kinda money.
Good luck if they pay it but not in this town or Australia.

[PhilMSUS]

Hello Forum Users!

My Name is Philip Bice - I am the new Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

While I don't want to set the expectation that I'll be posting on this forum frequently, from time to time I will post up some news or updates and respond to the occasional thread. I do read through the forum at least once a week, as do the rest of the employees here. We do see the posts here and we do care about them. We also don't respond to the posts frequently as the main focus of this forum is to create a place for users to be able to help each other and say what they would like without fear of "corporate" reprimand or oversight. That being said - this thread has strayed a bit off topic and ventured into a few different issues. I'll try to address them quickly here and now.





SDE (isn't this how it started?)

SDE is a challenge - regardless of platform. I am into woodworking and could easily turn out a desk in a day. But would that represent me? Would I be proud? No set of tools in my workshop will change this.

Yes, this is MORE of an issue with older machines - just as it is with most manufacturer's older software and older machines. I believe that the Liberty was a 2005/2006 (guessing) machine? While we have machines in the field that are 10-14 years old, we don't want people to think this represents what MSUS represents from a capabilities standpoint. Just like the Camera/ Video/ Codec/ etc world has evolved in the last 4 years - so has our hardware and software. Our Newer Linux Based OS (as Joel eluded to) and our newer hardware address the SDE issue MUCH better than our older hardware and software.
Frankly, this just wasn't an issue 4 years ago (when your machine was made) for our customers and potential market. Dealing with new technology challenges generally requires new technology. Moving forward you'll continue see us address this issue from multiple perspectives.



Portable Version

Where do I start? The liberties were produced in an era of notoriously bad laptop hardware availability and reliability. Hardware is much better these days, but OEM'ing hardware for dedicated/ proprietary software is much more complicated (I've done this a few times). The LInux Based OS also now opens the door for more possibilities as it's a much more flexible OS, gives you more control over the hardware (more resource friendly), and is more flexible for packaging options.

Then there's the PC/MAC version option that's been brought up on this thread. That's a bunch of effort too, with it's own set of ups and downs. I can't say anything specifically about this right now - but I can tell you that the Linux Based OS is a much better platform for both performance and business reasons and we've already been addressing this topic internally. No commitments, no specifics, no info. I'm just saying it's been a hot topic for a while.



Suggestions
suggestions@macrosystem.us

When I first came on board I immediately reached out to our Dealers, some existing users, and my contacts in the industry. After having gotten feedback and frank conversations with these sources, I sent out a few units for evaluation by film production houses, newbies, and event videographers - for unbiased feedback (I didn't tell them what they were getting or why we think it's neat). After getting this back, I started launching social media, newsletters, polls, and getting involved with our feedback/ development/ testing process here in Boulder.
In our Blog is a Poll that you can rate some of our requests, to help us prioritize efforts.
At the March Get Together - I hosted a Product Roundtable and had some of our most prolific and successful users come to a consensus (I moderated but tried not to influence) about product development needs and prioritization. The attendees were all income/ career dependent upon Casablanca products and want to see the line evolve as much as you and I. This feedback is taken VERY seriously.
We'll have more roundtables in 2010 - mostly by invitation only and not announced to the general public so that we can keep people from trying to influence these roundtable participants and get their true opinions.



Communication

Newsletters - sign up if you aren't on the list or getting emails from us! We had to deal with some SPAM laws (we didn't properly record some info during user signup in the past), so you may not be getting email from us.
Check our community page for links and for updates communication channels!
Social Media - much of the same info across channels, but different people have different preferences for outlets. Occasional short term promo's or contests to be posted as well.
Facebook
Twitter
Blog
suggestions@macrosystem.us - for everyone, not just dealers! We won't be sending responses, but this data is aggregated into a central repository. Everyone's voice is heard and counted. Everyone.



Loewe Merger -

Product Announcements will not happen as frequently or as early as they have in the past. I'd been through the merger/ acquisition process in the past and worked on product development in Public AND Private companies. Both the Merger process and the Public Company Status constrain new product announcements and public knowledge of development efforts.



Introductions -

Eric Kloor, Jorg Sprave, and Philip Bice (me) will be at NAB this year - and we invite customers, dealers, sales reps, prospective customers, or anyone else to come by our suite for some food, drinks, and a top secret preview of things to come (not to be launched anytime soon - sorry).
eMail marketing@macrosystem.us for details/ appointments/ etc.





New Customer Acquisition

I'm doing a lot of business process justification on this forum... and I won't do this often because it's generally not appropriate. But then, I'm new here so I'll probably get away with it this time.
When I first met Eric last year, we started talking because I have a history of helping establish or turning around sales and marketing organizations - and MSUS (Eric) was putting the focus on revitalizing the business with New Customers. So that's what I'm up to. Don't see me on this forum posting and selling to you? Well...



Eric Returning -

I mentioned that Eric and I started speaking about MSUS last year. He's a solid business owner with solid business practices. He may like to talk about his travels (who wouldn't), his business successes go largely un-noticed. I can tell you that he's been extremely successful with every business that he's been involved in and is one of the reasons that I'm at MSUS.
When he was running things here in Boulder the first time - there was incredible growth. By incredible, I really mean that ANYONE would have been impressed - in any industry. When he left, revenues started to drop and I don't think this was a coincidence. I can't say good or bad things about past employees so I won't. What I can say is that when I got here Eric had done a great job of getting the business off it's old unprofitable track and back on the road to success. Hiring me was the first step of rebuilding after getting the company business in order. Externally the company was doing a few things well (Chet for example delivers exceptional educational content - I've named him MSUS's official education partner- http://www.casablancaexpert.com/), but much of the internal business infrastructure to support growth, sales, dealers, etc was a mess.



My Current Focus -

Commercial Business Infrastructure. Growth needs structure.
Marketing/ Advertising/ Dealer Support/ Hiring Sales Reps/ Training Sales Reps/ Sales Rep Portal/ Intranet/ Product Promotions/ Dealer Certification Programs/ Dealer Training Programs/ Expanded Complimentary Product Offerings/ Event Attendance and Promotion/ Lead Generation/ Educational White-papers/ Worship White-papers/ Social Media/ Feedback Gathering/ Industry Partnerships/ Product Inventory Forecasting (so we don't run out of inventory again)/ and about 100 other things I can't think of at the moment.




I hope that I've helped to address some issues that have been lingering out there. My posts will NOT be frequent, but I do read what's up here. My posts about business process or justification will be even less frequent - but this is a time of transition and change, so I'm hopeful this help show you we've been making huge changes in the areas you've asked us to change and we'll continue to do this moving forward. I'm very excited about this year - especially Q3 and Q4 (watch for some news around then!!)

Please - if these issues arise in other threads, feel free to copy/paste or quote this posting as needed.

P.S. - we have some aggressive trade in deals going on right now - Avio's and newer units are available for trade in on s2000's AND s4100's. Free Software with those trade in's as well!!

[Franklinbencosme]

Hi Philip, first of all thanks for your surprise presence in this topic, I as initiator of the SDE topic.
I feel the duty to recognize that this took a different course, but maybe through this right now, reading your comments this will bring some comfort to all owners of CASABLANCA, no matter what editor WE USE.

Well, I'm worried concerned about the future of MS
Remember AMIGA??

I'm sure with the many complaints and precise details that have happened in these last days and why not years will make
a better way to express ourselves about MS, the good things and bad.


These are my sincere wishes and count with me for any help I could offer.

Franklin

PS-sorry my ENGLISH

[jimmeeker]

Hello Philip,

Thank you for reading our posts here and stepping in with some answers about what direction you are heading. It was great to have you at the MGT and this posting here is even more of a step forward for the Cassie Family. We have gone without any communication from Boulder for over a year now, so this message is of vital importance to all of us in the Cassie Family.

It is indeed a wise choice to keep Chet Davis in the picture. His talent as a teacher and mentor to us all has been, and is the backbone of our goodwill towards MacroSystem US.

Good luck my friend, you have a lot of hard work ahead of you, but in the short time we had together at MGT, hearing your ideas and thoughts....... I believe you will succeed in your quest. Now if you can get Germany to understand marketing in the USA, it would really make things better for all of us.

[JBrooks]

Philip,

I appreciate your posting as well. It was a pleasure to meet you at the MGT 2010 and I am looking forward to working with you regarding promoting the Casablanca products. I wish I could make NAB but my schedule does not permit.

Joel Brooks
MIT Video
http://www.mitvideoproductions.com