Dear Louis Hernandez...

[ilovemyssl]

I read an article this morning that I found online

http://www.sonicscoop.com/tag/louis-hernandez-jr-avid/

As hopeful as it seems, most of it is just typical CEO blah. However I would like to highlight two significant statements:

1) "He (Gary) also established a clear message that we’re focused on the professionals and their market, and that will continue as well."

I'm wondering if you could elaborate on this, seeing as the past 5 years Avid has produced more "non-pro" hardware than ever (I would hardly consider an unbalanced audio interface like Mbox Mini 3rd Gen to be aimed at professionals). HDX / 10HD is pretty much the frankenstein of the DAW world - crippled by it's 32-bit limitations and doomed by it's missing TDM plugins and lack of AAX-DSP support from 3rd party vendors… lack of "freeze/offline" track processing etc etc.. I know many who would have bailed if they had not invested so heavily in Avid/Digi hardware… I myself ask myself daily why I wasted my money on HDX hardware when it does almost nothing for me my HD|Native card could do because of Avid's inability to get plugin vendors on board. There has been so LITTLE focus on HDX (aside from "it just sounds better" marketing hype), I'm really having a hard time understanding this. The REALITY is my G5 / HD3 / PT 7.3.1 system is hands-down THE MOST STABLE ProTools system I have EVER had… 8/9/10 have all been plagued with crashes and bugs like you wouldn't believe.

2) "a history of staying connected with communities"
This I am REALLY struggling to understand! Could you explain how Avid are actually connected with the "real-world" user community? I would have thought the DUC would be a GREAT place for Avid to be connecting with users, but very rarely do we see ANY input, and almost only ever to talk-up a new product. I would LOVE IT if someone from Avid stay connected with ME as a part of the Pro Tools community for the past 10 years! That would be amazing. It is simply not the case. AVID's way of staying connected is charging a ton of money for hardware and then CHARGING MORE MONEY FOR TECH SUPPORT! Of all the companies I have ever dealt with, Avid would be BY FAR the HARDEST to get in contact with. (Ever tried to report a software bug?? Ha… I don't even think you can!)

How about you actually INTERACT with users, and see what they are WANTING, instead of releasing things like a 5.1-capable Expander/Gate plugin (really?? A new gate/expander… wow.. what a waste of time)

And while you're at it, PLEASE do everyone a favor and open up EuCon to the pro audio COMMUNITY! The lack of tactile controllers for Pro Tools is a complete joke when it comes to hands-on control of plugins. Avid's way is not always the best way! But I guess you're afraid someone might actually do a better job of it than you can.

Good luck with your new role as CEO… I really hope you do more than just talk the talk.

[ronwasserman]

This is just my opinion. Let's see if I end up being right.

Mr. Hernandez comes from a financial background and seems to specialize in reorganizing a corporation so it becomes more attractive for buyers.

I'm not certain what kind of interaction he could have directly with us. We both specialize in very different professions.

Regardless of my opinion, I would give him a year to become familiar with the day to day operation of AVID. I plan to follow what ever changes he initiates closely for 'signs' of where things are headed.

[Bill Denton]

Originally Posted by ilovemyssl

I read an article this morning that I found online

http://www.sonicscoop.com/tag/louis-hernandez-jr-avid/

As hopeful as it seems, most of it is just typical CEO blah. However I would like to highlight two significant statements:

1) "He (Gary) also established a clear message that we’re focused on the professionals and their market, and that will continue as well."

I'm wondering if you could elaborate on this, seeing as the past 5 years Avid has produced more "non-pro" hardware than ever (I would hardly consider an unbalanced audio interface like Mbox Mini 3rd Gen to be aimed at professionals). HDX / 10HD is pretty much the frankenstein of the DAW world - crippled by it's 32-bit limitations and doomed by it's missing TDM plugins and lack of AAX-DSP support from 3rd party vendors… lack of "freeze/offline" track processing etc etc.. I know many who would have bailed if they had not invested so heavily in Avid/Digi hardware… I myself ask myself daily why I wasted my money on HDX hardware when it does almost nothing for me my HD|Native card could do because of Avid's inability to get plugin vendors on board. There has been so LITTLE focus on HDX (aside from "it just sounds better" marketing hype), I'm really having a hard time understanding this. The REALITY is my G5 / HD3 / PT 7.3.1 system is hands-down THE MOST STABLE ProTools system I have EVER had… 8/9/10 have all been plagued with crashes and bugs like you wouldn't believe.

2) "a history of staying connected with communities"
This I am REALLY struggling to understand! Could you explain how Avid are actually connected with the "real-world" user community? I would have thought the DUC would be a GREAT place for Avid to be connecting with users, but very rarely do we see ANY input, and almost only ever to talk-up a new product. I would LOVE IT if someone from Avid stay connected with ME as a part of the Pro Tools community for the past 10 years! That would be amazing. It is simply not the case. AVID's way of staying connected is charging a ton of money for hardware and then CHARGING MORE MONEY FOR TECH SUPPORT! Of all the companies I have ever dealt with, Avid would be BY FAR the HARDEST to get in contact with. (Ever tried to report a software bug?? Ha… I don't even think you can!)

How about you actually INTERACT with users, and see what they are WANTING, instead of releasing things like a 5.1-capable Expander/Gate plugin (really?? A new gate/expander… wow.. what a waste of time)

And while you're at it, PLEASE do everyone a favor and open up EuCon to the pro audio COMMUNITY! The lack of tactile controllers for Pro Tools is a complete joke when it comes to hands-on control of plugins. Avid's way is not always the best way! But I guess you're afraid someone might actually do a better job of it than you can.

Good luck with your new role as CEO… I really hope you do more than just talk the talk.

Point 2 follows Point 1...Once Avid is able to get rid of the "MBox crowd" the number of truly clueless posts on the DUC will drop, and it will again be a useful resource for communicating with the semi-pro community. That's assuming that the "argue with a fence post crowd" can be pulled into line.

Keep in mind that "the big boys" in the industry have regular contact with Avid reps...they don't need to post here. And it is via: these reps that Avid maintains "a history of staying connected with communities".

Naperville, IL is a suburb outside of Chicago, and when I lived in Chicago I frequently used to point out that "Everyone who lives in Naperville thinks everybody else lives in Naperville. So, while a "5.1-capable Expander/Gate" may be totally useless to you (and to me), it may be a very big deal to those folks who provide 60% of Avid's revenue. Not everyone lives in Naperville.

It's called "the big picture", folks, and some here need to learn how to see it. And moving out of Naperville helps...

[ilovemyssl]

Originally Posted by Bill Denton

Point 2 follows Point 1...Once Avid is able to get rid of the "MBox crowd" the number of truly clueless posts on the DUC will drop, and it will again be a useful resource for communicating with the semi-pro community. That's assuming that the "argue with a fence post crowd" can be pulled into line.

It would be nice, but I don't think they'll ever do away with the Mbox crowd… I'm sure it's still the #1 entry path to their pro hardware.

Originally Posted by Bill Denton

Naperville, IL is a suburb outside of Chicago, and when I lived in Chicago I frequently used to point out that "Everyone who lives in Naperville thinks everybody else lives in Naperville. So, while a "5.1-capable Expander/Gate" may be totally useless to you (and to me), it may be a very big deal to those folks who provide 60% of Avid's revenue. Not everyone lives in Naperville. It's called "the big picture", folks, and some here need to learn how to see it.

I agree to a certain point - of course everyone has different needs… But if you were to survey the MAJORITY of day-to-day Pro Tools users, I'd dare say things like bug fixes, "freeze" tracks, bug fixes, AAX-DSP ports of existing TDM plugins, more bug fixes, 64-bit engine etc all rank higher than a new expander.

And to further my point… An expander is not "big picture"! Having a system that allows you to seamlessly move from your working HD rig to a new HDX system without skipping a beat - THAT is "BIG PICTURE", and that sure aint happening right now!

[Emcha_audio]

Originally Posted by ilovemyssl

It would be nice, but I don't think they'll ever do away with the Mbox crowd… I'm sure it's still the #1 entry path to their pro hardware.



I agree to a certain point - of course everyone has different needs… But if you were to survey the MAJORITY of day-to-day Pro Tools users, I'd dare say things like bug fixes, "freeze" tracks, bug fixes, AAX-DSP ports of existing TDM plugins, more bug fixes, 64-bit engine etc all rank higher than a new expander.

And to further my point… An expander is not "big picture"! Having a system that allows you to seamlessly move from your working HD rig to a new HDX system without skipping a beat - THAT is "BIG PICTURE", and that sure aint happening right now!

You do realize that 90% of what you are asking is directly linked with 64 bit support (bug fixes the major one, as pt 11 is a completely new daw and will be much easier to fix as the code will be new vs a 20 years code with patching of patching of new options that were never intended to work with the base code), heck even for a lot of third party aax-dsp we would expect. Some companies are probably holding back to launch their aax-dsp plugs until pt 11 is out, and you know what? That's fine by me, it means they have more time with their developers version of pt 64 bit, to iron out the plugs they are making. They have had a pretty heavy year in releasing plugins, and seeing other third party release dsp plugins, 96 plugs in a year and a few months beats the intro of TDM on the market. And plus when you're in the pro market and you're using a boat load of external hardware, freeze track will do nothing for you. So that's not a very high priority for a lot of the pro community right now as in tracking facilities, mixers, producers etc, unless you happen to be a composer where having freeze track would be beneficial as you would use loads of VI's. Also if I remember right my time with logic, freeze track didn't do much if you had unsynched time effects, lfo's and other such plugins. So while freeze track might be what some want's, it may not be one of the biggest priority unless all of what I stated prior can be implemented right including using external gear as inserts with freeze track.

[ronwasserman]

BTW - Looks like their primary focus now will be to straighten out their accounting. I think the new CEO may have found AVID has had several accounting errors with previously reported quarters. (cooked books.)

I imagine this will consume a majority of their time for the foreseeable future.

[Emcha_audio]

Originally Posted by ronwasserman

BTW - Looks like their primary focus now will be to straighten out their accounting. I think the new CEO may have found AVID has had several accounting errors with previously reported quarters. (cooked books.)

I imagine this will consume a majority of their time for the foreseeable future.

Accounting and R&D/product development might be from the same global wallet, but it's two different department, with their own set of people. While the company can fix their accounting deficiencies, the other department will still be working, so I wouldn't be fearing this too much, in fact, it's a good thing.

[garnoil]

Originally Posted by Emcha_audio

Accounting and R&D/product development might be from the same global wallet, but it's two different department, with their own set of people. While the company can fix their accounting deficiencies, the other department will still be working, so I wouldn't be fearing this too much, in fact, it's a good thing.

Why is it a good thing that the Avid stock tanks at around $6 dollars (around the same time that Hernandez became CEO), and the company was forced to delay the 'expected' financial performance report because of accounting problems. To make things worse, the company is not even sure how long it will take to sort out these accounting issues or what in the end they will "find"? All they say is: we are working diligently to fix the problems.

I think it would be a much better thing, if Avid had a non-volatile stock (within reason), with a regular yield, and that its management was competent enough to avoid embarrassing accounting irregularities. This further erodes consumers and investors 'confidence' in the company. Of course, this happens just a few days after the new CEO says one of his priorities is to restore consumer confidence, yes the same 'consumer confidence' that was lost while Garry was in charge. I make a great living out of Pro-Tools and I hope Avid can continue to produce a product that I can use.

http://ir.avid.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=742786

[P,B,S]

I just want a stable PT HDX with a lot more plugs.
If cooking the books does this, than up size that please.
I could care nothing more than PT actually functions properly and the aax dsp issue be seriously attended to.
Tell waves you will give them a six figure check to port to aax dsp . just don't tell them it will be all zeros .
After the hundred man years of rewriting code they might learn all zeros is bad.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by garnoil

I think it would be a much better thing, if Avid had a non-volatile stock (within reason), with a regular yield, and that its management was competent enough to avoid embarrassing accounting irregularities. This further erodes consumers and investors 'confidence' in the company. Of course, this happens just a few days after the new CEO says one of his priorities is to restore consumer confidence, yes the same 'consumer confidence' that was lost while Garry was in charge. I make a great living out of Pro-Tools and I hope Avid can continue to produce a product that I can use.

"yield" or "dividends" keeps being mentioned here by some folks. Small cap technology companies in competitive markets that need to grow (or in this case recover) and compete with other companies should not be paying dividends even if they were much healthier, and investors should just not be expecting this. Go buy shares in a utility or GE or IBM for that. Those small companies should be reinvesting profits in growth, of course not having profits is a problem.

Its to be seen if concerns about possible irregularities contributed to the the CEO change or if concerns were only raised afterwards. Could be lots of stuff here, could be really nothing. I'm tryign to decode the language and guess what kind of things it might be. Avid support revenue (and costs) increased around 10% year over year in the 2012 10K. And during 2011 Avid began including 1 year support agreements with some products (as noted in the 10K) and that may have required part of that revenue to be deferred. I wonder if that was all accounted for correctly. That would be a embarrassing simple mistake to make, but Avid would not be the first company. Anyhow we'll find out sometime.

If things are discovered that results in the stock price being significantly hammered that can makes it potentially easier and maybe more likely for investors to take the company private.

Darryl