Avid ships software, hardware

the newest member in Avid's line of Digital Nonlinear Accelerator products, Avid Mojo SDI. Avid Xpress Pro version 5.5 delivers HD capabilities for both Mac and Windows-based systems.

Avid Mojo SDI, which works seamlessly with Avid Xpress Pro and Media Composer software, provides high-quality, advanced analog and digital SDI (Serial Digital Interface) I/O connections for professional video and audio projects.
 

The Avid Xpress Pro 5.5 software offers professional video, audio, film, effects, and encoding tools—plus custom music creation software—for both Mac and PC platforms in a single box. The software supports native HDV and DVCPRO HD for acquisition, editing, and output; real-time effects and 2:3 pulldown insertion over FireWire; and Avid DNxHD encoding. Avid's Open Timeline enables users to mix HDV, DVCPRO HD, and Avid DNxHD formats with SD and DV media in the same timeline in real-time, eliminating the time-consuming process of incorporating media from multiple sources into a single project.

Avid Mojo SDI is a portable, advanced analog and digital SDI I/O device with high-quality professional video and audio connections supporting most professional decks and cameras. Connecting to any Mac or PC via FireWire, the Avid Mojo SDI Digital Nonlinear Accelerator offers the same analog connectivity of Avid Mojo, but adds SDI I/O and AES/EBU digital audio I/O to expand Avid Xpress Pro solutions to work with mastering-quality SD cameras and decks. It is available for both Avid Xpress Pro and Media Composer software.

Both the Avid Xpress Pro and Avid Mojo SDI systems, including upgrades for existing customers, are available now through Avid's worldwide reseller channel or online at www.avidstore.com. Avid Xpress Pro software 5.5 is priced at US$1,695 MSRP and Avid Mojo SDI is priced at US$2,495 MSRP. Existing Avid Xpress Pro v4 or v5 customers can upgrade to Avid Xpress Pro v5.5 for $49.95 by download (see URL above).

Avid DS Nitris 8.0
Avid's DS Nitris 8.0 system offers a native 64-bit software architecture and dual-link I/O hardware to support high-resolution and digital intermediate (DI) workflows. The new version also ships with dual-boot capability, allowing editors to use either the DS or Symphony toolset with the Avid Nitris hardware. Avid also announced the availability of the Avid DS Assist Station, a software-only version of the Avid DS 8.0 toolset that customers can deploy on lower-cost workstations to tackle specialized tasks such as rotoscoping, compositing, and conform checks.

With real-time, multi-stream, 10-bit HD performance, a deep creative toolset, and expanded hardware, Avid DS Nitris 8.0 is an editing and finishing system for SD, HD, and 2K/4K DI work. Highlights of the new system include

Dual-link HD-SDI connectivity—offering new integrated I/O hardware that provides the necessary bandwidth for capturing and editing 4:4:4 HD-RGB formats, such as HDCAM SR.

Dual-boot capability—expanding the flexibility of HD finishing options by allowing editors to run either Symphony or Avid DS software on the same system.

Native 64-bit system and software support—leveraging the advantages of workstations that feature 64-bit processors for faster performance through access to greater physical memory, a critical component when working with high-bandwidth, high-resolution files.

Support for 720p50 sequences—providing European customers transitioning to HD with capture, conform, finishing, and mastering tools in the 720p50 standard.

Support for Avid Unity ISIS—allowing the system to work with Avid's newest shared-storage system to exchange and share media assets with other connected systems.

The Avid DS Nitris 8.0 system is available now through Avid's worldwide reseller channel. Pricing is US$147,995 MSRP as a turnkey system, which includes a CPU workstation, monitors, 2.5 TBs of RAID storage, and one license for Avid DS RP (remote processing software for offloading computationally intensive tasks). Existing Avid DS Nitris 7.6 customers with assurance contracts can upgrade to version 8.0 with dual-boot capability for US$9,995 MSRP and can purchase the Avid dual-link HD-SDI card for US$9,995 MSRP. The Avid DS Assist Station is available for US$9,995 MSRP. For more information, please visit www.avid.com/dsnitris.

192 TB capacity for Avid Unity ISIS
Avid also introduced its Unity shared-storage solutions—the Avid Unity LANshare 4.2, Unity MediaNetwork 4.2, and Avid Unity ISIS 1.1 systems. All of the latest versions of Avid's shared-storage systems offer significant increases in storage, doubling the capacity of Avid Unity LANshare and MediaNetwork systems, and tripling the capacity of the Avid Unity ISIS system. The Avid Unity family also supports Avid Interplay—a nonlinear workflow engine (scheduled to ship in Q3 2006) and Avid's Open Storage Initiative (OSI), which enables customers to run virtually any third-party Mac OS X or Windows XP content creation system, including nonlinear editing, compositing, 3D animation, and script writing tools, on Avid shared storage.

Highlights of specific systems include:

Avid Unity LANshare system version 4.2—provides turnkey real-time collaboration with twice the storage capacity—up to 8TB—of previous versions using the new LANserver LP (Low Profile), an integrated storage and server device featuring 16-drives in a three-rack unit (3U) size. All Version 4.2 systems offer Fibre Channel and Ethernet connectivity. Pricing for Avid Unity LANshare systems starts at US$24,995 MSRP.

Avid Unity MediaNetwork system version 4.2—offers twice the storage capacity—up to 40TB—of previous versions using the new three-rack unit (3U) MEDIArray LP array with 4Gb Fibre Channel connectivity for mid- to large-size facilities handling multi-stream, high-resolution projects in a real-time collaborative environment. Pricing starts at US$57,215 MSRP.

Avid Unity ISIS system version 1.1—offers three times the storage capacity—up to 192TB—of previous versions, with support for 150 active users, compatibility with Mac OS X (Tiger) and Windows XP workstations, and the extraordinary resiliency of Avid's distributed intelligence architecture for 24x7 availability. Pricing starts at US$106,995 MSRP.

For more information, please visit www.avid.com/unityFamily/.