Avid adds and evolves

by Trevor Boyer At its press conference at the Hard Rock, Avid mentioned its recent planned acquisition of Pinnacle Systems, but didn’t offer too many details as the deal has yet to be approved. The company did suggest that with Pinnacle’s very popular consumer line of products, it would be reaching the future professional video editors of the world at the earliest possible stage in their involvement with video editing: experimentation. David Schleifer, VP of broadcast and workgroups for Avid, announced some of the successes Avid has had in digital news - there have been a hundred new news systems installed since last NAB, he says. A big product initiative for Avid News is iNews Instinct - software created for journalists, not editors in mind. The idea is visual storytelling. The presentation showed a vertically oriented screen with clip frames spanning the height, text to the side of them. ABC News, Schleifer says, has already purchased 100 seats. DNxChange hardware will take HD and move it over SD signals. It makes it possible for facilities to handle master-quality HD on existing infrastructure. NewsCutter Adrenaline 6.1 is new, as is Workgroup 4.5. Avid’s broadcast division also announced a utility that transfers MXF OP1A files back and forth over FTP with drag-and-drop operation. Dana Ruzicka, VP of Avid post solutions, had a slew of announcements - including Xpress Studio HD, a collection of five apps with Xpress Pro HD at the core. It handles 24p DV, in both normal and advanced pulldown. The collection also features Avid FX, Avid 3D, Avid DVD by Sonic, and more. Avid is now offering many existing software packages - from Xpress DV to Xpress Studio HD Complete - at lower prices. Ruzicka claims that Media Composer Adrenaline HD now features the tightest workflow integration with Panasonic P2 and Sony XDCAM formats. On the finishing side of post, the big news is that there is now a new version of Avid Symphony that takes advantage of Nitris hardware. The system handles multiple realtime streams of 10-bit HD with secondary color correction, 3D DVE, blur, and titling. Traditionally at the Avid press conference, Video Systems contributing editor Bob Turner asks first question during the Q&A; session. This year he’s busy getting himself well and was not able to make it to NAB. Avid president David Krall extended his wishes for Bob to make a speedy recovery, and of course the Video Systems and Millimeter family does the same.