Recently (for the past year now actually) I've been using Onlocation CS4 and CS5 on a weekly basis as a direct-to-disk capture method for digital video out of Canon and Sony cameras - there's a total of 3 cameras that I capture from, using two laptops and a desktop. Two of those are Canon cameras and one is a Sony. The problem with this is that I have to own three Adobe Creative Suite licenses to own three copies of OnLocation. I have two copies of CS4 and one copy of CS5 - but the only programs that get used from the version 4 Creative Suites is OL... For everything else (Premier Pro, After Effects etc etc) I use the CS5 version. So my question is; why would Adobe buy and develop this great software (and it is great, by the way) to use like this but only bundle it with their software suites - the whole idea of OL is that it can be installed on a capture server or laptop and used to record video direct to disk, without having to record to tape and then log video using Premiere Pro. This just seems ridiculous to me - the media team that I'm doing this work for have had to spend hundreds of pounds on software suites when all they needed was OL, and are going to have to spend more in the future if they want to add more capture machines - ideally I'd like to add another two fixed position cameras to the setup, but that's another two copies of CS5 that would be required. Maybe it's time I built that multiple source capture server I've been thinking about. It would almost work out to be more cost effective than using multiple laptops and buying CS licesnses for them all
