Video Editing Systems: MacroSystem Casablanca Solitaire Editing Appliance Review

The first thing you'll notice about the new Casablanca Solitaire is that it doesn't look like any other non-linear editing solution out there.

The Solitaire is an elegant cube with a translucent white glass-sheathed face and top and front aluminum insets housing the drive bays and front I/O ports. All in all, it's a distinctive looking unit that's a departure from the VCR-like form factor of many of the previous Casablanca editing appliances.

When the unit is powered up, the LCD window glows blue and white and after boot, the MacroSystem logo (or a "standby" screen if the unit is at rest) appears and the control points on the left and right front bottom become active. In the quest to create an elegant box, Solitaire's designers chose to leave the traditional mechanical buttons behind. In their place are a series of "sensor" buttons that read presence of the user's finger on the button. On the positive side, there's no mechanical switch to break and there's a definite "cool factor" in play. The only negative is that it takes a few moments for the switch to acknowledge the presence of your finger, so the buttons take a little getting used to. If you simply tap the button, nothing happens. When you condition yourself to hold your finger over them until you get the result you want, things work fine.

Smart Edit and Friends

While the hardware might be new, the MacroSystems editing software is still designed with the novice or beginning editor in mind. That doesn't mean it's limited in its capabilities, just that the initial user interface that it presents to the editor is about as simple as it can be.

When you turn on the power of a properly configured Solitaire system, you'll find a simple initial menu screen that makes your choices crystal clear. Again, this is a dedicated video-editing appliance. And as such, you don't have to figure out how to get from your general computer interface into your editing program -- the editing program is the general computer interface.

The startup screen has an area to allow you to set System, Project and Video Capture settings -- items that, once set, should seldom change. The next group of choices is for Video Recording, Audio Mixing, setting Transitions, Image processing and Titling. As you dive into editing, you'll quickly learn that you can generally jump between any of these modes instantly, so there's little need to come back to this startup screen once you're beyond it.

The Solitaire's software forgoes the log and capture process in favor of a scene capture process where you click on the record button to record your scenes as they appear on your tape. Both methods get the job done, but high-volume editors will miss the functionality of keyboard logging and batch capture.

Once your scenes are trimmed, you click on the ADD button to insert them into your storyboard and arrange them to your liking.

Next up are the transitions, and here the Solitaire really shines. The MacroSystem team clearly understands that their customers like to spice up their video projects and to satisfy them they not only build a wide range of basic effects into the stock software, they market Effects Packs full of even fancier transitions and video effects. These include everything from special wipes, fades, 3D effects and special-purpose transitions to some pretty sophisticated Blue screening (via both the built-in basic Bluebox and the more sophisticated Add-On Bluebox World.)

One interesting element of this rich add-on environment is that it sometimes serves to make Casablanca systems like the Solitaire more complicated to understand -- a reality that goes against their basic philosophy of making easy-to-use "appliance" video editors.

In the more traditional NLE industry, we're seeing a trend with software companies adding new functionality within the primary application and folding it into their offerings at the same price. MacroSystem clearly takes the more traditional approach of viewing the majority of their add-ons as pay-if-you-want-to-play extras. So purchasers would be wise to research whether the capabilities you want are in the basic feature set, or if you need one of the add-on programs to do what you need to do.

All in all, the Solitaire is a pretty impressive box. It has an elegant appearance that will enhance the visual professionalism of any edit desk, and it's packed with lots and lots of functionality. That elegance and capability doesn't come cheap and there are those who would argue that the price point of a well-equipped Solitaire system is high enough that the same money could buy an extremely robust general purpose editing computer and software.

While true, that approach misses the point of what MacroSystem has always offered over their long and successful company history. Which is an alternative for those who don't want to research and build their own computer, choose stand-alone software and configure everything themselves. The customer seriously looking at this type of "editing appliance" is looking for a turn-key solution that does the majority of what you need to do - out of the box -- with a minimum of hassle and effort.

For the beginning or basic videographer, hobbyist or even the modest to medium-volume event videographer the Solitaire with its attendant suite of software choices can easily form the heart of a very robust video editing enterprise. You get simplicity. You get quick startup and quick success. The penalty for this "packaged" approach is that you give up some things the typical "open system" approach that editing software running on a standard PC or Mac can provide. Which approach you prefer is totally a matter of personal preference.

If choice is good, than MacroSystem deserves kudos for providing precisely that -- an alternative to the "open systems" approach to computer editing - one that serves the interests of the editor who wants minimum system futzing and is willing to accept some operational limitations in order to get that. In short, if you're looking for a "get the job done" approach and are willing to give up some flexibility and industry standard benefits (e.g. offline clip logging and batch capture) then the Casablanca Solitaire looks to be a great new product that should serve you well.

Included Hard Drive Size 160GB
Removable Hard Drive Yes
CD Read Yes
CD Write Yes
DVD Read Yes
DVD Write Yes
Mouse or Trackball Trackball
Video Editing Interface (storyboard or timeline) Storyboard

• Nice selection of transitions
• Simple interface

• Annoying "sensor" buttons
• Expensive

If you like the Casablanca, you'll like this upgrade.

Bill Davis writes, shoots, edits, and does voiceover work for a variety of corporate and industrial clients.

$5,499
MacroSystem US
5485 Conestoga Ct.
Boulder, CO 80301
(877) 554-2846
www.casablanca.tv