As we posted earlier in the week, EditShare announced the Mac OS X version of the long-standing NLE Lightworks. Though it has been around just as long as it's competitor Avid, Lightworks has only recently completed the platform trifecta: being compatible across all major operating systems (Windows, Linus, and most recently Mac). It still has to go through more stages of beta testing, but EditShare demonstrated Lightworks for Mac at NAB 2013. Whether you've been a user of Lightworks for years or, if you're like me, just recently became interested after the promise of a Mac version, the demo video is worth taking a look at:

Matt Sanford from Lightworks shares that Lightworks will have the same interface on Mac OS X as it does on Linux and Windows. He goes on to say that it won't matter which OS you're running, even stating that you'll be able to work on your Lightworks projects across any of the three platforms. This will be an incredibly useful asset for editors who are working on the same project, but may be running different operating systems. As for a release date for the Alpha Program -- well -- there isn't one, but Sanford did have this to say:

We're going to make an announcement in the next few weeks after NAB. We're hoping to get closed out for a group of testing done in 1 to 2 months, and then we're going to go to a public beta -- exactly the same as we've done with the Windows version: alpha then public beta then go to release. We want to make sure with the Mac version that we're going to get -- our Mac audience is going to be pretty unforgiving. We need to make sure that this is going to be what they expect from us, so we want to make sure we get it right. So, we don't want to rush it. We don't want to end up giving them something that isn't up to their expectations.

Lightworks has been in the industry for almost 25 years and has been used on Hollywood films, like The King's Speech and The Departed. It had fallen by the wayside once competing NLEs Avid and Final Cut Pro came on the editing scene, but after being acquired in the summer of 2009 by EditShare, it appears that this fading editing software has been brought back to life. All of this buzz about it being released for Mac is only going to revive it all the more.

The free version certainly packs a punch (with a price tag like that, it certainly doesn't have to -- but it does) and is worth checking out. However, the Pro version contains different features like wider codec support and increased performance, which may be worth your while. If you work on a Mac, hold your horses. We'll keep you posted on the latest developments from EditShare and Lightworks.

What do you think about Lightworks? What are your first (or millionth) impressions about this NLE after watching the demo?

Links:

editinglightworkseditsharebeta
Editing & Post-Production