After a minor one-year delay, Apple will soon deliver the long-awaited new version of Final Cut Pro at this year's National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), according to sources. The trade show will take place in April, between the 14th and the 19th.

The one year time span allowed Apple developers to work extensively on the product's feature set. Sources say Leopard technologies were incorporated in the product. "Leopard's powerful Core Animation technology will be employed to power Final Cut Pro 6's real-time video editing engine", according to ThinkSecret. There is no information on whether the artbox video asset management solution from Proximity Corporation will be included in the new Final Cut Pro Studio suite.

There have been words of an expanded version of Final Cut Pro 6 - Extreme - "a tandem hardware/software solution that will include a card built specifically for Apple's Mac Pro hardware that will handle all the heavy lifting, making support for 4K media possible". ThinkSecret sources said last year the price for the Extreme package will be around $10,000, but there is no additional information regarding the matter.

The long delay of Final Cut Pro 6 had as a primary cause the shift of developers from the Final Cut Pro project towards the disappointing Aperture project. The Aperture 1.5 update saw much-needed, fundamental code improvements.

The Final Cut Pro Studio delivers high-performance digital non-linear editing, native support for any video format, and facility-class extensibility and interoperability. If you're a professional or just an amateur movie maker, mid-April is the time to look for the new Final Cut Pro. There is no information for when Extreme studio is expected.