Company hosts webcast to highlight system’s latest features, including HD and real-time multi-cam on the Mac Tewksbury, Mass. – June 20, 2006 – Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today announced that it expects to ship the new family of Media Composer ® products on Wednesday, June 21. Introduced in April at NAB 2006, the new Media Composer family is now available to editors in a range of flexible configurations, including a software-only application, which offers portability and the option to add hardware acceleration as required. All products in the Media Composer family feature version 2.5 software, which delivers improved dual-platform functionality, with the addition of broad HD capabilities and real-time multi-cam support on Mac OS X (Tiger). In addition, the new Media Composer family is designed to offer workflow-intelligent features that support team-based collaboration through the Avid ® Interplayâ„ ¢ system – the world’s first nonlinear workflow engine – which is expected to ship in Q3 2006. “The availability of Media Composer software just gives us so many options – we’re really excited. The software delivers all the professional tools we require – HD, Mac functionality, mixed resolutions, motion tracking, and keying, and we can now affordably add seats to supplement our hardware-accelerated systems,†said Jamie Beedy, post supervisor at Karl Productions, a Chicago video production company. “We had considered switching to Final Cut Pro, but having to deal with multiple manufacturers whenever there is a problem is something we don’t have time for. Plus, we beta tested Media Composer, and are impressed with the performance. Every time we sit down to use this system, we’re simply amazed that we’ve got the world’s best creative toolset running on our laptops. We can’t imagine using anything else.†The latest version of Media Composer software builds on the application’s comprehensive toolset and adds new features, including: * HD format support on the Mac – allows editors to work with popular HD formats such as DVCPRO HD, HDV, and Avid DNxHD ®. Using the optional Avid DNxcelâ„ ¢ board, editors can also encode HD material into Avid DNxHD resolutions of 145 Mb, 220 Mb, and 10-bit 220 Mb data rates. * Enhanced real-time multi-cam – delivers improved real-time multi-cam functionality for the Mac and PC with support for HD resolutions and the ability to preview grouped clips before adding selections to the timeline. * XDCAM HD support – allows editors to work with Sony’s new file-based HD format. * Motion tracking and stabilization with SteadyGlideâ„ ¢ – enables editors to smooth shaky camera footage while maintaining desirable camera motion, such as pans and tilts. * Full-screen playback over DVI – enables users to monitor SD or HD projects on LCD or plasma displays through on-board graphics cards without the need for expensive I/O or HD monitors. * Workflow-intelligence with Avid Interplay – allows editors to use remote bins, monitor project changes, and access the powerful transcode, low-res encode, and integrated asset management tools of Avid Interplay.
Wednesday, June 21 Webcast On Wednesday, June 21 at 1:00 PM ET, Avid will host a webcast to highlight a number of the latest features in Media Composer. During the online demonstration, Tim Wilson, senior product marketing manager for Avid, will showcase several innovative features, including SteadyGlide Motion Tracking, full-screen HD playback over DVI, and other time-saving tasks. For more information and to register, please visit
www.avid.com/mclive. Pricing and Availability The Media Composer family provides Mac and PC customers with a range of scalable editing configurations that offer real-time HD, SD, and DV performance, superior image quality, and unmatched media management capabilities. Systems are available in the following configurations: * Media Composer – Avid’s renowned creative toolset available in a software-only version for both Mac and PC, desktops and laptops, featuring comprehensive HD support and leveraging the latest in Multi-Core CPU and GPU power available to both platforms, $4,995 USMSRP; * Media Composer with Avid Mojo ® SDI Digital Nonlinear Acceleratorâ„ ¢ – software application with Avid’s new Mojo Serial Digital Interface (SDI) I/O device for uncompressed SD capture and output for real-time monitoring and FireWire connectivity for DV, HDV, and DVCPRO HD projects (also available June 21), $7,495 USMSRP; * Media Composer Adrenalineâ„ ¢ – facility-class configuration designed for professionals who require full analog and digital I/O and hardware acceleration for superior performance, $19,995 USMSRP; and * Media Composer Adrenaline with Avid DNxcel – fully expanded software and hardware system for encoding HD material to 10-bit or 8-bit Avid DNxHD, Avid’s mastering-quality format that provides the image quality of 10-bit uncompressed HD at SD bandwidths, $22,995 USMSRP. Avid also offers special academic pricing for all Media Composer configurations for educational institutions. For more information about Avid’s academic programs, visit
www.avid.com/mcacademic.
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