Editshare hits Phase Two of Lightworks Open Source initiative
The Phase Two roll out includes a three-tier Lightworks membership program; a slew of new editing and workflow capabilities including a native titling tool, stereoscopic support, and advanced interoperability; as well as a new keyboard designed specifically for Lightworks functions and shortcuts.
“The Lightworks Open Source initiative has grown well beyond original expectations. The productive community has provided incredible feedback that has helped us expand the roadmap and understand what is important to them as editors,” says James Richings, Managing Director, EditShare EMEA. “Each phase offers exciting new capabilities culminating in the world’s first cross platform professional NLE, which really changes the possibilities for editors.”
The Lightworks Open Source initiative is the world’s largest open source project for a professional non-linear editing platform. With over 140,000 members, EditShare is rolling out the initiative over four phases. Phase One, completed in November of 2010, introduced Lightworks as a free download and launched the Lightworks Community. The Phase Two roll out includes codec licensing through a three-tier membership program, new must-have editing features, and a new keyboard customized for Lightworks. The company plans to launch Phase Three at the end of 2011, offering the Lightworks editor for all three platforms; Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Phase Four, the rollout of the open source code to the entire community, is scheduled for completion in Q3 2012.
“Our original goal was to complete the roll out of Lightworks Open Source this year, but we had an overwhelming number of requests to support Mac OSX and Linux… so much so, that we re-organized our development efforts to ensure we deliver Lightworks Open Source for all three platforms, ” Richings comments. “While we are expanding the road map, we are already working with 3rd party manufacturers so we can support a wide-range of hardware devices and software plug-ins when Phase Four is complete.”