Keeping Avid Relevant

Broadcast Engineering by Michael Grotticelli

CEO Gary Greenfield says Avid will continue to push and innovate, despite what the competition is doing.

The past five years have been hard on many previously dominant equipment vendors serving the broadcast industry, but none have felt the dramatic shifts in HD editing technology offerings as much as Tewksbury, Mass.-based Avid. Once a pioneer in nonlinear editing, the company fell victim in recent years to its own dominant status and watched helplessly as new players like Apple and Adobe Systems began to gain ground with TV news, reality TV and long-form program editors.

It was nearly five years ago that Gary Greenfield was brought in as chief operating officer to stem the incoming competitive tide and get Avid’s proverbial house in order. It was not a job for the light-hearted. Greenfield instituted a number of cost-cutting initiatives to get the company back on track. There was some downsizing of staff and a consolidation of divisions to help make Avid a “lighter, more integrated company;” one able to compete in a market that has clearly moved away from proprietary systems.

“It’s no secret that we’ve opened up the products to break way from the perception of a proprietary system,” Greenfield said. “We’re also enabling third-party technologies to seamlessly work with our products. Avid is definitely more open than ever, and we’re just getting started.” read more...