What would you do?

[kd_special]

Heres the situation.

The facility I work at is looking to upgrade. Heres the problems.

PT 11 is coming we don't know when but it is going to come and make our facility extremely out of date. (Blue Faces Hardware/TDM cards/ProControls)

So PT 10 has great things that we do want however if we upgrade now to 10 (software only) We will no doubt later on have to update to 11 with upgrading our hardware as well. In the past when upgrading hardware you usually get the software free. Or well its built into the price of the hardware upgrade. Im hesitant to upgrade to PT 10HD (Software only) because in perhaps less than a year PT 11 will be out. So I will pay 1000 bucks now and then pay again for hardware upgrade making the 1000 PT 10 Auth worth nothing. I have spoken to a sales rep and he has told me with hardware upgrades there is usually no value for software. for example If I trade a TDM HD3 system with a 192 for a 1 HDX card system its 7000 and this will give me PT 10 HD. Its 7000 regardless of what version of PT I am running. Its a hardware exchange not a software exchange

If we had 2 systems or something it wouldn't be that big of a deal. But here is our upgrade list.

7 x PT9HD TDM 3 systems all with blue faced Sync I/O and at least 1 192
3 x PT 9 edit suites
1 x PT 9 + production toolkit.

So if I upgrade just software on these systems to get to PT 10 its about 10,000 lets say.

Then when PT 11 comes out I will pay roughly 7000 per HD system to get the new cards and hardware plus PT 11

So in theory unless Avid decided to handle exchanges different (which is unlikely) I would pay 7000 now per system and go to PT 10 or at a later date I will pay 7000 per system and get PT 11

Does that make sense.. Its a good chunk of money to fork out now to upgrade to software and it could only be months before I will have to upgrade the hardware and move to version 11.

I really don't know what to tell my bosses right now. People want version 10 but its almost like we will have to pay more in the end if we don't just be patient and wait. I haven't even told them yet about all the controllers etc that will not work properly anymore. thats a whole other matter.

Any input from you guys would be great.. WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

kd

[C]

I'd wait. If you've gone this far since the update to 10 and everything is working fine and no/few problems with incoming sessions then hold off. The upgrades to 11 whenever that comes you now know that they will be costly so why overpay now?

If you absolutely have to spend the budget (in a use it or lose it kind of way) then do the hardware transitions now which will get you the PT10 SW and hopefully a smoother transition to 11 whenever that may drop.

C

[nst7]

Well, AES is only 4 weeks away, and that is where they make big announcements. Since it's that close, I would at least wait until then to make your decision. If they announce PT11, you may have your answer. If they don't, then it's not likely to come out til next year and you can re-evaluate. And you will have only waited another few weeks, not a big deal.

Even if they don't announce PT11 at AES, they could still have new products, updated products, pricing structures, etc. that could influence your plans in ways we don't yet know. So all the more reason to wait.

[kd_special]

Yeah we have waited so long because PT 10 being great and all really didn't bring in an new revenue. I mean it may have saved a bit of time which would equal less man hours but not enough to make the big cheese say do it. At this point i'm only pushing to upgrade so we don't get too far behind in technology. And have a bunch of engineers who are behind the times.

Thanks for the input on AES that makes sense to wait at least till thats over.

kd

[garret]

KD
We are in the exact same position and are going to wait. We've waited and are getting on fine on version 8 and although PT10 has great features we can get by for another year and just do one upgrade. I think your guys can hang on till then! They've managed this long!

[Henchman]

The studio I'm working at is still on 8, and we are having no problem pushing out tons of quality shows.
So, I think waiting for 11 shouldn't be too bad.

[Craig F]

I'd hold off on the whole facility but I'd probably get 1 copy of 10 to have for a) testing, b) converting something that come in 10 to 9 (probably use it with the CPTK)

[reichman]

This is just speculation here (and I'm a hypocrite because I hate speculative posts so forgive me), but if PT11 is really 64-bit, it's going to be a substantially different app, and on day one it's not going to have everything every Pro Tools user needs. I predict that PT10 will be with us for a very long time while PT11 matures in parallel. PT10 might even become one of the longest-lasting versions since it is the last version to support the enormous HD/TDM userbase.

In that light, I would upgrade and then stay put. PT10 is much more responsive and clip gain is a great feature for post. Why not have these advantages now?

[lexaudio]

Old School rules.

If it works, then keep working.

PT10 still supports TDM if I'm not mistaken, on older TDM systems.

So if you upgrade the software, you are still fine. But, PT10 supports AAX as well, so if you up grade a single system, then you are supported there too.

Pt11 is going to be a whole new animal. And I'm guessing it will take some time to tame before its ready for show.

Go slow. I think with the upgrades, you get to keep your 9 license as well. So you have a backup.

Partition and create a 10 partition to test.

[tamasdragon]

I'd wait for the AES and if they don't announce PT11, then upgrade.

To be honest I'd be quite surprised if they would announce PT11, but who knows...