Complete Coverage: 2012 NAB Show
Avid announced a number of new solutions to stream newsroom
and media production Sunday at the NAB Show, including new solutions for
multiplatform distribution, media asset management, cloud-based distributed
production and graphics as well as new server and storage products.
Ina briefing before the market with B&C,
CEO Gary Greenfield called the offerings "the richest" since he took charge of
the company in 2007 and noted that the new offers reflect the company's focus
on providing integrated production technologies for customers in news, sports,
TV, broadcast and post-production that could streamline workflows and offer
them great flexibility in the production process.
"Media organizations need to be able to reuse their existing
media assets more effectively, collaborate easily, and find ways to monetize
their content across digital and social distribution channels," he noted in a
statement accompanying the product announcements. "With the capabilities we're
announcing today at NAB, we're helping our customers solve these challenges by
letting them create content wherever they are, manage complex production
workflows, and distribute their media everywhere."
In a notable example of how vendors are looking to used
cloud-based technologies to help streamline workflows, Avid announced Interplay
Sphere, a cloud-based distributed production system. Using a cloud-based
architecture, users of Sphere-enabled applications like Avid's Media Composer
and NewsCutter would be able to edit, share and quickly get content to
colleagues and facilities in multiple locations.
Avid executives positioned the product as a way to "break
down the walls of the newsroom" by expanding what journalists and news
organizations can do, regardless of their location.
Greenfield also highlighted multiplatform distribution as
one of the key challenges facing broadcasters and TV companies. At the market,
Avid launched its new Multi-Platform Distribution (MPD) solution that
streamlines the processes for journalists and editors who are creating and
distributing content across multiple traditional, digital, and social
platforms.
The solution is being pitched as a way of removing the
complexity of multiplatform distribution from the creation of content, through
transcoding, and then delivery to Web content management systems, online video
platforms and social media.
Avid also introduced new service and storage solutions,
including new Avid ISIS® 2000 near-line storage solution works across multiple
Avid Interplay installations; the Avid ISIS 7000 v4.0, which effectively
doubles its storage capacity with the new i4000 blade; and the AirSpeed 5000
video server that features new codec flexibility with Avid DNxHD playback.
Finally, the company launched the Avid Motion Graphics
systems, which is built on an advanced real-time 2D/3D rendering engine that is
accelerated by the latest GPU and I/O technology.
Also at NAB, Avid will be demoing upgrades to a number of
its products, including the Interplay Production 2.6 production asset
management solution, NewsVision 2.5, Interplay MAM 4 media asset management
solution, Media Composer 6 video editing system, Pro Tools 10 platform for
audio and music recording and Interplay Central 1.2 Web-based news creation
application.
