NAB 2005 Part 1: Apple Rocks, Sony Rolls

Two huge corporations - Apple and Sony - held press conferences this past Sunday, in what may be a preview of this week's National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas. And the two couldn't have been more different in their presentations, either. Apple employees, dressed in their trademark business casual clothes and T-shirts, wowed the crowd and rocked the room with HD video and loud, wall-shaking audio. They demonstrated Final Cut Studio 5, which has new versions of Final Cut Pro, Motion, DVD Studio Pro and the brand new SoundTrack Pro.

Panasonic's President of Broadcast and Television Systems, John Baisley, made a cameo appearance to join the fun. He threw down the gauntlet to other prosumer camcorder manufacturers by introducing the Panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder, which records DVCPro high definition (HD) at 1080p, while costing less than $6,000.

While Apple rocked the house, Sony rolled into a ditch. Their presentation featured a quirky opening video, thirty minutes of corporate backslapping, and few new products. They even grossed out some viewers with HD-quality open heart surgery video.

Apple's New Final Cut Studio

Final Cut Studio 5 packages three new versions of older products, and one brand-new audio editing application. It consists of

The individual applications can be bought separately, but Apple is offering the Studio package for $1299. Previous owners of ANY version can upgrade for $699. Final Cut Studio will be available in May.