John Paines wrote:Only field research is likely to reveal how accessible Fairlight actually is, either to experienced sound people or editors with limited or no prior audio work.
Traditionally, the Fairlight system was different enough in implementation to the other alternate audio workstations, resulting in it always having a steep learning curve. But, it was infinitely more capable in many respects than the competing systems, especially on mission critical scenarios such as the live broadcasts for the World Cup Football, Olympics, EuroVision, or the Grammys, and then rapidly churning out a multitude of different programming in different languages.
A workstation such as Pyramix, has an even greater learning curve, that most ProTools users struggle adopting (actually, most have never even heard of it). Yet, it, along with the Fairlight system, are still common workstations in use by broadcasters from Europe, Asia, and even the United States, working on the type of productions outlined, where turnaround times are same day, not weeks or months like Hollywood. The Hollywood guys can’t handle broadcast deadlines - and I’ve worked with a few over the years.