Long awaited upgrade to CS4 is stirring up Photoshop and Premiere creatives types with real time video processing using GPU / CPU optimization

We knew it was coming this spring and the excitement was too much yesterday when I signed up for the Adobe Creative Suite 5 launch. Since CS4 was launched on October 15, 2008 the technology has changed and the business has changed.

Apple’s lack of support for Adobe Flash, still very much a part of CS5, is a hit to Adobe’s solar plexus. Will it begin to drive people off the Flash platform and Adobe? I don’t think so.  MAC or Windows Adobe Photoshop is THE program for editing photographs. Adobe Premier is head to head with Apple’s Final Cut Pro for video editing and Adobe is the only one with a suite combining the two.

Not everyone is enthralled. A Tweet just up says “renailemay: lol Adobe has attempted to set the hashtag for its CS5 launch as #csbuzz. I think it should be #cs5bloat” referring to the legendary bloatware Adobe ships.

There is hope that CS5 uses 64-bit, multi-core processing more efficiently. Adobe has delivered on the technology boost. The Mercury Rendering Engine uses GPU processors to speed up rendering by as much as 10 times. Finally a reason for a game video cards in your desktop. This will mean no more half hour breaks rendering videos over and over. This is so important as we move almost exclusively to HD videos. Did I say render? The work is happening in real time. The video shows 9 video layers with 3D effects. Awesome.

There are teaser videos from SXSW with no screen shots but you see people’s expressions and “cool.” We’re all willing to be wowed. Most of the videos are teasers since they are building excitement for the April 12 launch. Adobe TV will be carrying updates

The buzzword products in the suite are Flash Catalyst, Mercury Playback Engine and Business Catalyst.

Up against professionals, I would be a rank amateur in the Adobe Photoshop Premiere department. However, my job at NJN Network depends on both products being open on a 2-screen desktop constantly. Anything that makes the job easier and the output better will be awesome.

There are already some sneak peek videos on YouTube like this one on content-aware fill.