JohnBengston wrote:Finally and the reason I post this message at all, is I’d like to understand a little regarding your background reasoning ; to understand the statement you make about their reaction times with regards to the their software development decisions, and the impacts of those decisions, which can often be far more costly to clients than the equipment itself? No worries, if this topic is covered by your NDA, but unsupported statements are a little hard to accept when they go against all anecdotal evidence in the established areas of BMDs business (i.e. all none BMCC products).
All I'm trying to do is explain that the apparent silence is a chosen silence. They aren't ignoring their users. They certainly hear everything being said here on these forums, even when they get ridiculous and insulting. I get called an "apologist" for simply trying to explain this. The howls of indignation here come from the idea that one isn't being heard.
I guess I'm trying to offer some insight into their culture. It's still the views of an outsider, so these inferences are my own, not stated policy that you'll find on the wall as a mission statement at BMD. But lecturing them on how to do it is the kind of thing that make them more determined to do it "their way".
All they've ever heard for their entire corporate history is "it can't be done and it if can, it should be done like this"....They actively like to prove these comments wrong....and instead of hyping it, they build it and ship it, for a fraction of what the market thinks it would cost. They have a history of hundreds of products where they've done exactly that. They are very protective of this core model and that's their mantra.
I dont think Grant is anything like Steve Jobs, which is exactly WHY it's unusual that he's out in front. Before he announced himself here on these forums, most assumed Dan May (US) was at the helm. BMD generally like to keep a low profile. They don't really showboat. Grant is a hardcore engineer - innovator, but his roots are engineering and manufacturing, not marketing...
I'm not really sure I really understand your question about the development times.
They have a huge list of things they could do when working on firmware, which by the way is constantly ongoing.
They take into account what people are asking for when they prioritise what they will do. They have this forum, and other selected voices that talk to them. I learned long ago, that I simply need to say what I think is important, and let them think about how to address it, if they even choose to. You should also know, that they consider themselves users of their own products. Many of the BMD team there come from post and from production.
When I first met Grant, he was a telecine engineer at a post company where I used to get rushes transferred. So they USE the gear not as the manufacture, but as an end user. Until recently, BMD operated a post facility in Singapore as part of this strategy.
So IS was going to get done further down the track, but a lot of people wanted and were asking, and it wasn't THAT difficult to do so they brought it forward.
Within a couple of months of the first cameras shipping, they'd implemented what you could argue was a feature, IS. Now you could also argue that it's something that should have been there from the beginning, but this is the way they chose to release the camera, though it was one that was actually talked about as coming soon.
They did of course, assume that there would be a lot more cameras out there by now too.
I sent a single tweet, which started two threads on two different forums speculating wildly about what would be in the update. It wasn't a policy or PR push from BMD. It was me.... As a DP, being excited by what I was seeing in the camera. Some of it stuff I'd asked for as well. A camera that I've informally had a hand in developing... There's no strategy or plan. It'll probably be monumentally disappointing when you see what's in it because of all this crazy speculation.
I was excited by what's in it, but I know what is and isn't possible with the hardware. Like the constant 60 FPS aspirations that refuse to go away, despite plenty of evidence it's not realistic...
Once you see the next update, you'll see more evidence that BMD are fast to react to what their customers ask for.
jb