New Avid HD Editing System and VideoRAID Solution

Avid Technology, Inc. announced the worldwide availability of its new HD editing systems and VideoRAID solutions. The new lineup, which delivers on a commitment to customers of improved quality, value and performance, includes next-generation versions of Avid Media Composer (v3.0), NewsCutter (v7.0), and Symphony (v3.0) software, as well as new hardware configurations, Avid Mojo DX and Nitris DX. The products are designed to deliver the ultimate HD editing experience to media professionals by offering greater speed, responsiveness and reliability. On the heels of this availability, Avid is rolling out aggressive pricing on support packages for its new editing products and existing DS Nitris product line. Additionally, the company is announcing upgrades to its Avid Unity MediaNetwork, Unity ISIS and Interplay product lines.

Avid Media Composer software on a Macbook laptop. It runs on Mac OS X Leopard and Windows XP and Vista platforms.

Avid’s new lineup of HD editing systems offers customers flexible software and hardware configurations designed to meet a range of professional production needs. All Media Composer and NewsCutter systems offer the same software toolset across their respective configurations — with further capabilities coming from different hardware options.

In addition to the previously-announced features, Avid has added a timestamp export tool for Broadcast WAV (BWF) that is available on all Media Composer and NewsCutter configurations. The timestamp export feature enables customers to insert sequence timecode based on the project type when exporting the timeline audio tracks as BWF, providing fast and easy sync reference.

New editing and storage configurations available today include:

• Media Composer software – priced at $2,495 USMSRP.
• Media Composer Mojo DX – priced at $9,995 USMSRP.
• Media Composer Nitris DX – priced at $14,995 USMSRP (also available with an 8-core MacPro or HP xw8600 workstation starting at $21,995 USMSRP).
• Symphony Nitris DX – priced at $35,995 USMSRP including an 8-core MacPro or HP XW8600 workstation.
• NewsCutter software – priced at $4,995 USMSRP.
• NewsCutter Mojo DX – priced at $19,995 USMSRP including an 8-core HP xw8600 workstation.
• NewsCutter Nitris DX – priced at $24,995 USMSRP including an 8-core HP xw8600 workstation.
• VideoRAID ST and VideoRAID SR – pricing begins at $4,795 USMSRP for 2.5TB configurations.

New Support Pricing
Avid is now offering aggressive new support pricing on all of its next-generation HD editing systems as well as its DS Nitris system. The new support packages are designed to deliver greater value to customers with the addition of new features such as technical alerts, monthly quicktips and advanced parts replacement on hardware. Further, customers who purchase a support contract when they purchase any new Media Composer, NewsCutter, Symphony or DS Nitris product will receive a 15% savings on the price of the contract. To be eligible, contracts must range from one to three years and be purchased between June 1 and December 31, 2008. Avid has also designed a number of specially-priced support packages for educational institutions, which begin as low as $99 USMSRP, per year. For more information on support packages and pricing, contact Avid sales or a local reseller.

"The new pricing has certainly helped Avid put their products into the reach of more professionals and aspiring professionals," said Avid customer Kevin Tate, creative director of Mossy Oak Productions. "However, the customer support from Avid is always the deciding factor in my purchase decisions, and has been our lifeline far too many times to count. We turn out more than 100 original episodes of TV a year and have for many years now. We couldn’t do what we do, where we do it, the way we do it, without Avid products and support."

Avid Unity and Interplay Upgrades
In addition to the new editing lineup and VideoRAID offerings, Avid has also announced as upgrades to the following systems:

• Avid Unity MediaNetwork v5.1 which now delivers greater capacity to customers with 1TB drive support and additional add-on chassis support (from 5 to 8), increasing the overall capacity to 128TB. Now shipping on Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard;
• Avid Unity ISIS v1.5 which now offers higher client bandwidths up to DNxHD 220 and is now shipping on Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP and Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard"; and
• Avid Interplay 1.4 which now offers a full-screen media player window and increased metadata capabilities such as customized drop down menus as well as a new 64 bit Media Indexer for higher performance indexing.