Avid Media Composer 6 Gets Real with Third-Party IO, Supports New Native Formats

StudioDaily by Bryant Frazer

Key Features Include Native RED Epic and AVCHD Support, ProRes Encode/Decode, and 4:4:4 DNxHD

Avid announced a new "Media Composer family" today, with a fresh 64-bit code base underlying Media Composer 6, Symphony 6, and NewsCutter 10. Key features in this update include an expansion of Avid's AMA, which now supports native AVCHD, native RED Epic, ProRes encode and decode, and a new DNxHD 4:4:4 codec. Support for Avid's Artist Color hardware interface has been beefed up, and Pro Tools roundtripping is now complete — you can make changes to your mix in Media Composer and see them show up in Pro Tools 10. Media Composer 6 will be $2499, Nitris DX will be $5499, and Symphony 6 — available for the first time as a standalone software product, rather than a turnkey system — will be $5999. Upgrades from Media Composer 5.5 to 6.0 are $299, while Symphony upgrades ring in at $599. All of the new products will be available worldwide on November 15.

Blackmagic Design, AJA, and More Third-Party Support

Answering users who have complained about a lack of flexible workflow options, Avid said it's serious about third-party solutions, announcing a set of partners who plan to have products supporting Media Composer 6 on its November 15 launch through the Avid Open I/O initiative — Blackmagic Design, AJA, MOTU, Bluefish444, and existing partner Matrox. (Officials were quick to give Matrox credit for its MXO2 mini, which already works with Media Composer 5.) And Avid will be providing an open SDK for any third party who wants to extend their gear to work with Avid products, said Chris Gahagan, senior VP of products and solutions, during a press briefing introducing the new release earlier today. (Because Media Composer, Symphony, and NewsCutter are on the same code base, support generally extends across the entire software line for a given piece of third-party hardware.) read more...