Avid Technology has just begun its largest single broadcast-related deal: a multi-million dollar install of digital newsroom gear at CBS's New York headquarters and London bureau. To be completed over 15 months, the project will move CBS squarely into the nonlinear editing and server-based environment.
Andrew Heyward, CBS News president, says the move is vital to the news division. "It will allow us to maintain world-class excellence while providing cost savings and further efficiencies in our broadcast journalism operations," he said.
CBS has used Avid gear for more than a decade (on 60 Minutes, most notably). Frank Governale, CBS News VP of operations, says the division uses more than 100 Avid systems. But the new deal extends Avid's reach to the storage area. The CBS package includes Avid Unity for News (with up to 64 terabytes of storage), Avid NewsCutter Adrenaline news editing systems, and Avid Workgroup logging and browsing.
CBS News will also install a digital archive system with third party partners SGL and StorageTek.
In other Avid news, the company says its editing systems will support native HDV editing in October -- an important step for broadcasters and others who are contemplating using low-cost HDV gear from Sony and JVC. Avid Xpress Pro and Media Composer Adrenaline systems will be HDV-enabled by Oct. 17, 2005.
