MKDC: by Michael Kammes

We’ve got the purple kool-aid, and we’ve got the firehose: New. Avid. Releases.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, I can share with you dear readers a comprehensive list of what is new and groovy inside the latest offering from Avid.  Like what you see?  Join me for a more in-depth webinar on all that is contained therein plus a huge helping of bonus material on November 22nd.  Until then, let’s whet your appetite, shall we?

Top New Features

By far, the biggest news is the open I/O architecture.  From day 1, virtually every release of Media Composer has relied on Avid branded I/O.  And while this closed eco-system allowed for a high level of tight interoperability and thus increased performance, the sometimes hefty pricetag left many users out in the cold – or making sacrifices.  Incorporating 3^rd party hardware has also been the #1 user requested feature to Avid.  Couple these factors with a large FCP user base with currently no I/O in FCP X, and you now have a perfect storm.

Avid’s response:  Build in an open architecture and release an SDK for Media Composer which allows 3^rd party companies to write plug-ins for Avid which allow their hardware to work in conjunction with Media Composer for ingest and output.

Those early adopters to the program are the usual suspects you’d come to find in the NLE realm:  AJA and Blackmagic.  Matrox, MOTU and Bluefish444 round out the group. read more...