With Media Composer 6.5, Avid doubles down on the professional editing market

HDVideoPro by George Avgerakis

At NAB 2012, I had an opportunity to speak with (former) Avid CEO Gary Greenfield. When Greenfield arrived at Avid in December 2005, he found a mishmash of products like Pinnacle Studio and Softimage|XSI. I was curious to find out what his long-range plans were, particularly with regard to consumer-editing products. "We're definitely streamlining our business to focus on professional editors doing feature films, episodic television, sports and long-form documentaries," said Greenfield, implying that he might sell the Pinnacle line. In three months, he did just that.

Such a move certainly might have been prompted by Apple's 2011 release of Final Cut Pro X. With professional editors leaving Apple in droves, Greenfield saw the possibility of wooing thousands of professional FCP editors who were looking for an NLE that would serve their projects better. Such a wooing would require Avid to demonstrate a willingness to make the transition to Media Composer an easy one.

Guillaume Aubuchon, senior post consultant at DigitalFilm Tree, a 60-seat facility currently working on NCIS: Los Angeles, confirmed Greenfield's strategy. "We started as a Final Cut Pro company, but we've transitioned all of our current projects to Avid," he says. "Most of our shows are shooting ARRI ALEXA to ProRes 4444 and then converted to Avid DNx36 for offline editorial, final color in DaVinci Resolve, and finishing in Avid Symphony 6.5 at DNx444. Avid is still the only choice when it comes to the highest level of broadcast and theatrical editorial."

While CPUs took nearly 30 years to become powerful enough to edit multiple layers of HD video, Avid always produced an array of state-of-the-art hardware (Symphony, Meridian, Adrenaline, Mojo DX and Nitris DX) and integrated them with a wider array of third-party hardware to provide as real a real-time editing experience as possible. Their latest version, Media Composer 6.5, on certain host computers, can achieve real-time, uncompressed, multi-track HD video without external devices, although Nitris DX or similar third-party hardware will maximize the software's performance beyond the limitations of the host computer. read more...

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	Avid Media Composer 6.5 Crossgrade for Final Cut Editors $949.00			Avid Media Composer 6.5 Upgrade from Avid Media Composer, Xpress DV, Xpress Pro $588.00			Avid Symphony 6.5 Upgrade from Media Composer $949.00