Michael Erlewine
Well-known member
A comment about Convergent Designs support for the record. As background, the software company (Matrix Software) I founded has been going almost forty years and is the second oldest software company on the Internet according to an article written for Red Herring Magazine. The only older company is Microsoft.
So I have been supporting software for a long time and know something about it. When I had some questions about the Odyssey 7Q, I called Convergent Design's support line and was surprised when the voice on the other side said "Hello, this is Dan Keaton."
Like so many of us, I had been following Dan Keaton's updates here on DVXuser until Mitch took over, so I was amazed that Keaton would actually be on the other end of the line. Keaton quickly figured out my problem and I was back to the shoot. But I had further questions the next day, so I called back.
This time I got Keaton who was on the convention floor with the Convergent Design booth at NAB 2014. It was loud in there, so instead of asking me to call back next week or something, Keaton insisted on going outside to his car and talked with me from there. Now this was a little amazing to me, because I have worked many shows myself, and usually I would not leave the convention, etc.
And so it goes. I have now logged a number of calls and each time was impressed by the time and care Keaton (and his whole team) took to answer my questions and address any problems that I was having. In my experience, this kind of support is unusual, to say the least. It is worth mentioning.
I am now using my FS700 and Odyssey 7Q much of the time and the 7Q (as most of us here know) has taken this camera to a whole other level. I am shooting mostly now in 4K RAW to HD Apple ProRes 422 and just love the results. Many of us (myself included) have given the Convergent Design folks a bit of a rough time because we needed this product for our work in a hurry. I just wanted to point out what a professional team they have and to formally thank Dan Keaton for his approach.
So I have been supporting software for a long time and know something about it. When I had some questions about the Odyssey 7Q, I called Convergent Design's support line and was surprised when the voice on the other side said "Hello, this is Dan Keaton."
Like so many of us, I had been following Dan Keaton's updates here on DVXuser until Mitch took over, so I was amazed that Keaton would actually be on the other end of the line. Keaton quickly figured out my problem and I was back to the shoot. But I had further questions the next day, so I called back.
This time I got Keaton who was on the convention floor with the Convergent Design booth at NAB 2014. It was loud in there, so instead of asking me to call back next week or something, Keaton insisted on going outside to his car and talked with me from there. Now this was a little amazing to me, because I have worked many shows myself, and usually I would not leave the convention, etc.
And so it goes. I have now logged a number of calls and each time was impressed by the time and care Keaton (and his whole team) took to answer my questions and address any problems that I was having. In my experience, this kind of support is unusual, to say the least. It is worth mentioning.
I am now using my FS700 and Odyssey 7Q much of the time and the 7Q (as most of us here know) has taken this camera to a whole other level. I am shooting mostly now in 4K RAW to HD Apple ProRes 422 and just love the results. Many of us (myself included) have given the Convergent Design folks a bit of a rough time because we needed this product for our work in a hurry. I just wanted to point out what a professional team they have and to formally thank Dan Keaton for his approach.