Avid Updates Software, Enables Third-Party Users to Connect to Avid VideoRAID

by , 1:35 PM EDT, April 24th, 2006

Avid has kicked off its attendance at this week's National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show with several announcements, including Avid Xpress Pro 5.5, Avid Mojo SDI hardware, Avid Media Composer 2.5, and its Open Storage Initiative.

Avid Xpress Pro 5.5 features support for 10-bit uncompressed SD and native DV50 formats, as well as HDC, DVCPRO HD and Avid DNxHD; real-time multi-cam support; tapeless workflow for transferring tapeless media without digitizing or transcoding it; direct ingest of XDCAM HD over FireWire; new film and pulldown support; and more.

While this update, which will be available in June, isn't a Universal Binary, Avid said that one is forthcoming in a future version.

Avid Mojo SDI is a portable analog and digital SDI I/O FireWire device that expands the ability of Avid Xpress Pro 5.5 to work with mastering-quality SD cameras and decks. It offers up to eight channels of embedded audio over SDI, four channels over AES/EBU, four channels over line RCA, and two channels over optical S/PDIF; simultaneous output of video and effects to monitor and tape; and the ability to punch-in up to four channels of audio for recording voice-overs and similar tasks.

Avid Mojo SDI will also ship in June. Pricing will be US$2,495. The company expects to soon update Avid Xpress Pro and Avid Xpress Pro HD for compatibility with the device.

Avid Mojo SDI is also compatible with Avid Media Composer, which offers support for high-definition video in Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger." It also features format support for DVCPRO HD, HDV, and Avid DNxHD resolutions of 145 Mb, 220 Mb, and 10-bit 200 Mb data rates. In addition, Avid added real-time HD multi-cam, support for Avid Interplay, direct ingest of XDCAM HD over FireWire, motion tracking and stabilization tools, and more. The new version will ship sometime this quarter.

Finally, Avid introduced the Open Storage Initiative, which enables the users of third-party Mac or Windows tools to connect their software to Avid VideoRAID and Avid Unity products. The company also noted that it has increased the storage limit of its Avid Unity ISIS system to 192TB.