UPDATE 4-20-08 - Most reports are that 7.2 is very stable.  Still no word on focus groups. Some indication that Next Gen is still 12 months away - so perhaps mid-2009.  One rising issue relates to purchasing a new computer - most come with DX-10 video cards - yet Liquid 7.2 won't run on them - so if you want to use Liquid, you need to purchase one of the ATI DX-9 cards - which are beginning to be a bit harder to find.  Makes upgrading decisions a bit harder.

UPDATE 2-1-08 - the article below was written in November 2007.  Over 3 months later no NextGen Focus groups have been formed nor has there been any word from Pinnacle about NextGen. Not that that is a bad sign necessarily - although the lack of formation of the focus groups as indicated by Jan Piros at Liquid Immersion 2007 doesn't seem to be a good sign. But Jan Piros did say don't look for NextGen till 2009.

(11/2007) Long Lived Liquid - What happened to Avid Liquid ?  

• Avid has removed Liquid from it's Avid name association and placed it in it's "Pinnacle"  consumer product division.

• Pinnacle has announced that Liquid 7.2 will get bug and minor fixes - but no new version releases.

• Pinnacle has announced that a new NLE  (some are calling it NexGen) is currently in development in Munich, Germany (Pinnacle Division). It is not clear if this product is intended to replace Liquid or be a "step-up" program for Studio users. It will be optimized for the latest hardware and software operating systems and  probably designed around the current Liquid software engine.  It will be aimed at event vidoegraphers, will probably not have the name Liquid or Studio,  and should be out sometime within  the next 24 months ( 2009 has been indicated).

• The Pinnacle Liquid Web Board. has gone busy with users posting all kinds of names for this "non-existing sooner or later to be released" editing product and speculating about Liquid's demise or "phoenix" renewal.

Now what does all this mean ?

Removing Liquid from the AVID brand in itself is not that big of a deal - although personally I liked that Liquid was associated with the Avid name -  since "Avid"  is associated with "professional editing products" in editing circles. Liquid is still a high end professional editing tool and does the job quite well - and changing name associations didn't change that.

It does mean that basically Liquid as we know it is lame duck software at this point. A lame duck can last and be useful for a long period of time.

I believe the bottom line is that Avid did not like having a powerful professional editing package selling for $495 that competed against its more expensive Avid Express Pro / Media Composer packages and it wanted Liquid gone.

Now that top management has changed and is changing at Avid  (I believe David Krall was a supporter of Liquid),  in my opinion, the process of getting rid of Liquid is in the works.

Avid accomplished 2 tasks when it purchased Pinnacle in 2005 - got a top selling "consumer entry" editing program (Studio $99) with tons of customers - and got a professional product (Liquid) which Avid hoped they could convert users over to their professional products.

What initially got in the way of that process was intense Liquid users who loved their product and voiced their thoughts (Liquid Immersion 2005). Avid's then top management decided to support Liquid as an "Event Videographer" software package and tried to make it fit within the Avid line. And they did try to market it - although not that intensely. 

But that management went away (David Krall) and now we are seeing what the new management wants - Liquid (a reasonably priced powerful professional editing system) to die off. (Of course that's not all they want - it's just a small part of their overall corporate plan).  I believe that Avid wants to create the appearance of supporting  Liquid users because there's a large base of loyal Liquid users to convert over to Avid's "professional" line.

But in the end - they want it gone because it just does not have the wide marketing appeal to the masses that is needed for them to continue to put $$'s into it.

We, Liquid's users, loved (and love) Liquid.  It's powerful and easy to use - once you learn it.  However, read any article in national magazines or search the web  and you seldom see Liquid's name discussed in editing articles. And you generally don't see advertisers or marketing supporting  it that much. The names you see are AVID, FCP, Adobe, Vegas, Media 100 and Edius (Grass Valley). For some indefinable reason, the Liquid name just never took off in the pro market - even though Liquid was being used by a ton of tv stations. Maybe it has something to do with coding - even though the Liquid engine is fast, efficient, etc., to re-code it's interface for a moveable frames, Vista, and other HD aspects was just too expensive for a $495 product - especially if it were to compete against other same-companyt pro-editing software selling for over $2000.

Avid has put their forces in motion - moving Liquid to Pinnacle, telling the large Liquid user base that Liquid will not move on to Vista support or receive updates other than fixes or minor improvements. Plus they are holding out a carrot -  a 40% discount to some Liquid owners to convert over to Media Composer.  (60% of $5500 = $3300 for Composer - what a deal !)

Looks to me like it has just taken Avid a couple of years to get the 2nd part of the Pinnacle purchase plan placed in motion. 

Will Pinnacle develop a new NLE to replace Liquid ?   Word is changing a bit on the new NLE being a Liquid "replacer" to the new NLE being more of  a Studio "enhancer" - not really aimed at the professional market as Liqiud was - but more at the semi-pro event videographer - in other words - more as a step-up from Studio to an "almost professional" or "consumer" grade of NLE software.  24 months is a long time - 12 months or less definitely better, but what will happen to the NLE market during that time ?  Will existing products win over new or disenchanted Liquid supporters ?.  I guess it will have to be a wait and see scenario. My guess is that we will never see the new Pinnacle NLE - and if we do, it will be not be of the professional caliber of the current Liquid - thus not attractive to most of us advanced Liquid users.

Remember - Liquid was marketed by Avid as an "event Videogapher" product - and if Avid (face it - Avid is Pinnacle) did not want Liquid competing against it's other line of products, why would it bring out another "Professional Event Videographer" software package.  That just doesn't seem to make sense.

In the meantime - I still like and am using Liquid. It just makes life a bit easier - which I like. 

Oh yes - I got CS3 - actually back in March before all this commotion - mainly for Flash, Encore, SoundBooth / Audition, After Effects, On Location and Photoshop - but I recently started learning the Premier Pro interface.  It just may come in handy when I definitely move to HD and need all those codecs etc. that Liquid will no longer support.  I looked at Vegas also and that would be a good alternative choice - just not as many tools as CS3.  For anyone interested, I have to say that although there are some nice editing features with PP, some of Liquid's great keyboard shortcuts are not available as one step shortcuts - and that is a bit frustrating.

Dave Messinger
(my comments and opinions only)