Here's a link to anyone who thinks Vegas isn't professional!

http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/4793

If anyone you come across looks down on Vegas, just show them that link!

Good words for our Edward in the link Simon pointed to us:

"Duncan also used a third-party script program called Excalibur that allowed him to streamline the multi-cam edit by automatically creating edits based on the timeline markers. "The built-in scripting language of Vegas software allows so many functions to be automated," Duncan said, adding that third-party scripts like Excalibur take advantage of the open-source design of the Vegas software, greatly enhancing its versatility and creating a huge benefit for the user. "

i have to take those comments (not Ed's coz Ex is not the point here) but the comments on Vegas and pretty much the "review" of how the project was made with a grain of salt.. reason being its all about Sony Shining.. dont ge me wrng, i agree with what theve written, but its a biased article.. filmed on sony cams, edited in sony products for a sony music presentation....

ps- before anyone says anything, im a hardcore vegas user and trainer.. so im not dissing the app, im dissing the way Sony are handling the whole situation..

(BTW: Did you know that Excalibur was written, at least in part, by our good friend Edward Troxel? "Vegas Training and Tools Introduces Excalibur 3.0" :) )

Not sure that article really says much of anything different that what has already been mentioned here. While the rapid turn-around time is very impressive It's an example of a a single freelance editor, working on a single (relatively small) video project.

Again, just about any well tuned NLE in Vegas' class and up can handle such an individual task by an individual person, professional or not. (While most could not handle the turnaround time shown in the article without Sony's tight integration, of disc recording cameras and capture, most video projects are not delivered under such delivery conditions.)

Where software like FCP, Avid and Premiere go beyond what Vegas offers is in larger studios for situations where there are multiple people, working with multiple programs on multiple projects, all at once. Numerous fundamental features of these other programs are optimized for collaborative productions, in addition to there being a significatly greater availability of interconnected third party products to support these envirnments.

THIS is the proffesional environment that Vegas simply cannot support at this time.

That said, I'll reiterate that the above really has little-to-no bearing on individual (or small team), freelance video professionals. In this professional arena, my feeling is that the likes of FCP, Avid and Premiere have little more to offer than higher costs. (Some may argue that the larger user base of these products is an advantage, but it seems to me that there is no shortage of helpful, knowlegeable Vegas users and learning resources available when someone needs assistance.)

[EDIT: Again, just the personal opinions of an outsider that uses none of these programs. /EDIT]
Have fun.

Sure, there is greater third party support by other manufacturers for the likes of Avid and Premiere etc. Although on the issue of collaborative projects I should take issue.

On a collaborative project with multiple editors etc, is it not the done thing to all work with the same software? If everyone on a project owns Vegas then transferring projects via VEG files and capture files is very easy indeed.

EDL's are only useful up to a point and don't take care of anything complex done within a project. So even if an editor is better able to use such things, it can only help up to a certain point.

I would hope that in the next generation of Vegas there will be support for the XDCAM's MXF file format considering it is Sony and all that.

It would only take a certain amount of tweaking by Sony to make Vegas a total solution.

It's not just about using the same editing software.
There are many issues surrounding networked resourses, media management and such to be considered.

Also, not everyone working on a large project is editing.

CGI artists, animators, compositors are using a host of additional software. (After Effects, Combustion, Flint, Flame, Shake, C4D, 3dMax, Maya, XSI, and countless others...) Many of these applications are pre-configured (or have plugins available for..) to automatically support the high-end editing programs or the editors have clean, seamless support for the output from these additional programs.

Vegas just isn't there ..... at least not yet. (...and it may not strategically WANT to be either. Sony has XPRI Systems targeted at the higher end market. It's not a bad thing. There's pleanty of other market areas to shoot for with Vegas.) Again, I can't imagine that this has much bearing on the work of indie video professionals.