Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 25, 2006. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Avid’s perhaps most important NAB innovation is called Interplay. Presented by the manufacturer as a „Nonlinear Workflow Engine“, Interplay combines the functions Asset Management, Workflow Automation and Security Control. The difference from the familiar approaches to organizing work in workgroups is that Interplay covers complete business areas.
The focus is naturally the creative area, starting with the assistants, who have special tools for ingesting material at their disposal, through to the graphics department and editing, each of which finds a suitable working environment. In addition, however, there is also an administration area. A connection to the rights department is planned.
With Interplay, Avid wants to offer its customers a software solution that can cover broad areas of their business. Interplay is a scalable, modular system. The starting price is 18.000 dollars and includes the Interplay Engine as well as Interplay Access.
At NAB, Avid gave its Media Composer family a software-only version as its newest member. For 4.995 dollars, Mac and PC users can work with this classic NLE in HD, SD and DV. Matching it, there is also a new Mojo box, Avid Mojo SDI, which makes it possible to process uncompressed SDI signals.
Mojo SDI is also suitable for Avid Xpress Pro. The new version Avid Xpress Pro HD 5.5 now also allows Mac users to process HD footage. Version version 5.5 of Avid Studio includes new versions of the additional software Avid FX and 3D. In addition, the new Avid DVD (from Sonic) supports the Blu-ray format.
With an Open Storage Initiative, Avid is opening an interface to other manufacturers so they can connect their NLEs to its storage products. At the same time, the manufacturer expanded the capacities of its Unity products. Thus the storage volume of Avid Unity LANshare doubles to eight TByte, and that of Unity ISIS triples to 192 TByte. 150 users can now access ISIS at the same time.
In the new version 8.0, Avid DS Nitris offers hardware and software extensions for improved processing of high-resolution material or Digital Intermediate. Avid DS Nitris 8 contains a dual-link HD-SDI connection as well as a native 64-bit architecture. Another new feature is the ability to operate Symphonie and DS simultaneously on one computer and thus use the functions of both editing systems. A purely software-based DS Assist Station can also be seen at NAB. This will soon make it possible to prepare projects on an inexpensive system.
Avid Liquid Chrome is also receiving an update at NAB and is now at version 7. New features for the SDI and HD-SDI system include expansions of the effects capabilities (for example a real-time timewarp) and improved format support.
Further links:
- Avid NAB
