Complete Post Systems with Storage, Editing, Media Management and I/O Start Under $20,000
Avid is coming on strong at IBC with a raft of announcements including the promised debut of a Microsoft Azure cloud-based implementation of its MediaCentral platform. But the biggest news for editors may be a post-production workflow driven by MediaCentral Editorial Management that brings collaborative editing features for smaller teams to Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro.
Sample post workflow orchestrated via MediaCentral Editorial Management
Avid
Avid calls the new workflow MediaCentral for Post, and is aiming it at small- to mid-sized workgroups. Editorial Management will allow Media Composer users to browse and link non-Avid media to their bins, and will let Premiere editors add non-Avid media to their bins. Assistant editors can set up projects — ingest files, create bins, add metadata, create subclips, etc. — from Avid Nexis storage, which is indexed in real time by MediaCentral.
Both Media Composer and Premiere Pro are getting a new MediaCentral panel that integrates improved search capabilities and collaborative access to the MediaCentral platform. Users will be able to browse media outside of their active projects and can drag and drop files from MediaCentral into projects, bins and sequences. MediaCentral will also be accessible cross-platform via web browser, allowing team members access to MediaCentral via PCs or mobile devices.
“Editing workflows have moved well beyond bin-locking,” said Avid VP and Chief Product Officer Dana Ruzicka in a prepared statement. “We’ve worked with the industry’s top editors to develop next-generation collaborative workflow, and we’ve taken the entire end-to-end post-production workflow to a new level with Media Central for Post — with integrated storage, editing, I/O acceleration and media management.”
Avid said MediaCentral Editorial Management scales from two to 24 users or more, and can be upgraded to a full-on MediaCentral Production Management system. It runs on a server, workstation or laptop, and respects existing user management settings from Nexis storage. And Avid emphasized relative affordability, stating that complete post-production systems including storage, editing and media management software, and hardware I/O start at less than $20,000.
Avid Artist DNxIV
New hardware introductions to go along with the new workflow include the Artist DNxIV, a 4K video interface with SDI, HDMI, XLR, RS-422, timecode, and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. Designed and manufactured by AJA, the DNxIV is basically the same product as the just-announced AJA Io 4K Plus except that this version sports an XLR input on the front panel at Avid’s request. It supports Media Composer, Premiere Pro and Apple Final Cut Pro X workflow, Avid said.
The DNxIV is expected to ship through Avid’s reseller network at an MSRP of $2,999 in mid-October, AJA said.
Nexis storage options announced at IBC include a 160 TB version of the Nexis Pro and SSD support in the Nexis E2.
Also announced at NAB was a virtualized version of Media Composer, allowing multiple editors to use a laptop PC or tablet to control a more powerful Media Composer installation via high-speed network connection to a single on-premises server. And MediaCentral Archive for Azure allows organizations to configure cloud-based archiving along with the ability to use MediaCentral for file browsing and retrieval.
Avid FastServe Live Edit
For the broadcast market, Avid introduced a new line of video servers aimed at quick-turnaround applications including news and sports. The FastServe line-up includes ingest, editing and playout servers with support for UHD and IP connectivity. The FastServe Ingest supports HD (up to eight channels) and UHD (up to four channels) capture direct to DNxHR files internally and on Nexis storage via 10 Gb Ethernet, FastServe Playout is a MediaCentral-integrated HD/SD ingest playback server allowing direct playback of media stored on Nexis systems, and FastServe Live Edit combines ingest, editing and playout for live HD and UHD production in a 3RU chassis.
Avid MediaCentral: www.avid.com
