Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 10, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Alongside a new architecture intended to make Avid solutions more open, the latest releases provide:
* Optimised and more efficient HD video and audio workflows
* Improved offline editing effects, including keyframeable colour correction and Fluid Stabilizer
* CPU/GPU acceleration of visual effects
* Improved interoperability with Digidesign Pro Tools
“This new Media Composer release will significantly increase the speed and efficiency of our workflows at Discovery,” said Mark Miller, producer and director at Discovery Channel Canada’s West Coast office. Miller particularly values seamless XDCAM HD and keyframeable colour correction. “Native ingest on location lets producers, directors and editors begin immediately instead of losing time returning to the office. Keyframeable colour correction has saved considerable time and money when lighting changes during a single shot, because we can make adjustments directly rather than waiting for online grading.”
Editor Michael Tronick and assistant editor Aaron Brock, who worked on 3D films including Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, praised the stereoscopic tools. “I have always wanted to see directly how my edited 2D material works in 3D, show it to the director on location and make changes immediately. Avid has created the most innovative 3D workflow I have seen,” Tronick said.
Brock believes offline use of Media Composer’s 3D functions could produce substantial budget savings. “Instead of running the online system continuously for five months, we could conform complete reels for screenings like a conventional film. That would be much more efficient than daily conforms.”
What is new in Avid Media Composer and Symphony
Native XDCAM support: end-to-end native support for all bandwidths of Sony XDCAM HD. Eight-track audio clips can be played and edited directly from disk, rendered and downmixed; sequences can be exported and clips written back with sequence timecode.
Stereoscopic 3D editing: complete support for capturing, editing and displaying stereoscopic material. Stereo monitoring works in the Composer window and full-screen playback, eliminating complex conforms previously required for 3D.
Avid Media Access Architecture: clips can link automatically from third-party volumes such as Panasonic P2 or Sony XDCAM HD/EX into an Avid bin without transcoding or storing the data locally.
New software activation and licensing removes the dongle: new purchases and standalone upgrades use a system activation key rather than a hardware dongle.
Keyframeable Colour Correction: most colour adjustments can be performed with Advanced Keyframes during offline editing, reducing online grading time and cost when using Avid Total Conform.
Fluid Stabilizer: a new 2D tracking engine detects and removes camera shake together with Avid SteadyGlide.
General effects improvements include copying keyframes to the correct position, enhanced 3D Warp and higher CPU/GPU performance for faster effects rendering and processing.
Improved Pro Tools integration: Media Composer 3.5 integrates with Pro Tools 8 through Video Satellite, allowing Pro Tools to control a Media Composer system for synchronised full-resolution video playback during audio work. Media Composer and Pro Tools can now be installed on the same system.
Improved audio functions provide greater control over clips and sequences.
Availability and pricing
Avid Media Composer and Symphony 3.5 and NewsCutter 7.5 are available now. A complete overview of functions, supported devices and operating systems is available on Avid’s film and video solutions website.
Further links:
- Avid-L
