Bug...

[RECON RSS DRONE]

While I am now back from a short leave... I have to ask for your support and patience here.

We have a bug. Seems like a major one. We need your support at a very difficult time. I am asking for that now.

EPIC and Scarlet are complicated cameras. Probably the most complicated cameras ever attempted. We have a crack team on it. The amount of development for this program is unprecedented. But somewhere in the complication... we have a bug. It has held us up now for two months. We have working cameras, as you know. But we aren't going to release anything until the cameras are done and bug free. And we have stumbled on an issue that has caused us considerable grief. It is unexpected and it has us baffled.

The fix could be tomorrow. Or not.

We have been a "lucky" company up to this point. The moon and stars lined up for us for the RED ONE (since we didn't have a clue what we were doing in the beginning) and the RED ONE did all we asked. The M-X sensor is incredible... as you know. Our new ASICs for the EPIC and Scarlet are complicate times a million. And they work. Another miracle. Everything was late but on track. Then we hit a snag.

We have an army working on this. 24/7. Trust me when I tell you that we have been humbled. I have questioned our aggressive goals every day.

So what does this mean? Obviously another delay. To compound matters, the company that was to make Scarlet has made an incredible
announcement recently and has significant issues. You can probably figure out who this is. This will force us to find a new manufacturing partner for that product. When we 1st got wind of this, we decided to make EPIC in the US, hoping that the company would find a solution in time for Scarlet production. That now seems unlikely so we are now scrambling for a new partner.

I have started two companies... Oakley and RED... and have never seen anything like this in 35 years of business. We will get past these obstacles. No question about it. But we are going to need patience from our customers.

Now that I am back, I will promise to keep you informed. Good news and bad. We have added a new SWAT team to help... over 20 people whose sole job is to find the problem and solve it.

RED has pushed the envelop in every way. We have pushed ourselves and our competitors. We have laid out a roadmap for everyone what the future of image capture should be. I can only hope that counts for a bit of your consideration.

Jim


More...

[DMS]

Glad you're back, Mr. Jannard!

[Ryan Farnes]

Well. Interesting.

I don't doubt RED will accomplish what they've set out to. I feel for them hitting a snag like this, particularly having a manufacturer completely absent now apparently.

Having dealt with rather minimal coding for the web, I can in some very small way understand how frustrating and debilitating a single "bug" can be. It may be right under your nose, it may be buried under a mountain.

Either way, nice of Jim to give an update.

[PaulVortex]

Welcome back, Jim!

[PyramidBlaster]

Anything worth doing is worth doing right...I have faith the team will find a solution. Just don't forget to keep us poor souls in the loop, in the meantime!

I, too, have experience with processes like this...I program large, complicated control systems for control rooms. In effect, the systems are just a great, big product that consist of hardware, software, and assembly of the two. Building something unique from scratch isn't like assembling a plastic Revell model...Where there's a clear set of rules, parts, and assembly steps...It's a journey of design, change, and problem-solving. And although it doesn't happen frequently in our case, yes, you can get very near the finish and find that a large, angry rhinoceros has suddenly woken up in the room...Where did that come from?

Sometimes something that seems like a small flaw that isn't noticed until late in the testing phase suddenly requires the entire assembly to be nearly completely restructured...Because it's simply too important, or is intertwined with all the logic around it. And no matter what you've told the client the finish date is, that goes straight out the window...No matter how hard you work.

But when it's finally finished....Aaaahhh....Wow, that's a beautiful glow to step back and bask in.

Glad to see you back, Jim....You'll get there.

[Phil999]

difficulties and 'bugs' are normal in R&D. I was not expecting Scarlet to be released this year, so I bought a cheap DSLR. Now I can do what I want, only with less image quality.

The only 'mistake' RED is continuing to do are the announcements and promises that can't be kept, at least that's my impression.

[JonFairhurst]

Best of luck to Jim and the entire RED team. Having been involved in fast-time-to-market development projects - and having experienced all too many elusive bugs - I have an idea of what they must be feeling.

As to experiencing this for the first time in 35-years of business - welcome to the bleeding edge of high tech. Stuff happens.

And I'm sorry to hear about RED's manufacturing partner. The poor economy certainly hasn't helped matters.

The only thing I can suggest is... more pizza. And invite the families into the office for box dinners. It can take stress off of all involved, let the engineers recharge their batteries, and keep people fresh for a productive evening of troubleshooting.

Again, best of luck to all involved.

[johnvid]

At least we know the camera is coming, I think its going to take me a little time to build the infrastructure needed to handle a Scarlet anyway. So don't kill yourself, there's no rush, give everyone 2 months off to solve the bugs at home.

Just seen perry's Closed thread & Links and it sounds worse than I would have thought, perhaps they should Open source the code to get more developers to proof read it (not that anyone else would be able to test it & you don't want other to benefit from all your effort to date before you can).

Don't want to speculate too much but I hope they haven't been led down the garden path by previous developers/engineers or have them over a barrel in some way? Not to mention the Banks not wanting to lend you money to good companies unless you deposit your children to their minimum wage production lines.

[J Davis]

[David Rasberry]

Originally Posted by johnvid

At least we know the camera is coming, I think its going to take me a little time to build the infrastructure needed to handle a Scarlet anyway. So don't kill yourself, there's no rush, give everyone 2 months off to solve the bugs at home.

I still have computer and software upgrades to deal with to handle Scarlet, so the spending priority may shift a bit. Hell I might even sell my GL2 and pick up a T2i or GH1 to play with in the interim.