Avid Technology has introduced a new family of digital video editing systems designed to speed up high definition editing.

The new line up includes new versions of Avid Media Composer (version 3.0), NewsCutter (v7.0), and Symphony (v3.0) software and new hardware configurations called Mojo DX and Nitris DX.

The products are said to ‘maximise performance by intelligently using all available computing bandwidth to evenly disperse the processing of video and effects across the entire system.'

Avid's new technology improvements are the result of an architectural design that joins Avid software and hardware with the CPU, host graphics card and PCI Express connection, to create a high-bandwidth, high-performance effects engine.

This design eliminates the lag time in responsiveness that users often experience when working with HD material during the editorial process.

“For any project we begin, we need to know that our tools are going to help us work as fast as we can think and get the job done under budget, usually with intense deadlines,” said Dave Ballard of US facility LAB 601, a beta tester of the new Media Composer Nitris DX.

“Lots of products boast the latest bells and whistles, but if the tools don't allow us to perform flawlessly in high-pressure situations, none of the bells and whistles matter. The creative process can grind to a halt the moment that technology prevents us from trying something new - on the fly. Speed and performance rank at the top of any wish list for editors.”

New features include:

  • Real-time output of all major SD and HD formats, which eliminates the need for rendering with the Avid DNxHD codec;

  • Improved codec and file-based format support including: Native support for “Thin Raster” formats, AVC-I, Sony XDCAM-EX and JVC 23.976p and 25p HDV codecs.

  • A SubCap visible captioning tool for adding subtitles, with the import and export of EBU-N19 formats.

  • MetaFuze, a new tool designed for quickly merging single-frame files (such as DPX and TIF) from film scanning or CGI systems into a single media clip on the Windows platform.

  • A real-time multi-window timecode burn-in tool, Blu-ray output with new Avid DVD by Sonic

Configurations include:

Media Composer Mojo DX- Ideal for small studios, production companies or customers looking to do on-location work - offering standard digital SD and HD I/O - priced at£6,300 / €7,700.

Media Composer Nitris DX- Geared towards post production facilities or anyone looking for a full feature edit bay - offering analogue and digital I/O with Avid DNxHD encode and decode - priced at£9,400 / €11,500.

Symphony Nitris DX- Now available on both the Mac and Windows systems and ideal for online finishing facilities looking for all the features of the Media Composer plus secondary and relational colour correction and universal mastering - priced at£22,600 / €27,400 including an 8 core MacPro or HP XW8600 workstation.

NewsCutter software- News editing software ideal for field, tapeless and networked news environments - priced at£3,150 / €3,800.

NewsCutter Mojo DX- Ideal solution for full-featured suite-based news editing with real-time multi-format playback and effects and standard digital SD and HD I/O - priced at£12,600 / €15,300 including an 8 core HP xw8600 workstation.

NewsCutter Nitris DX- Geared towards news operations looking for all of the options of NewsCutter with comprehensive analog and digital I/O with Avid DNxHD encode and decode - priced at£15,700 / €19,100 including an 8 core HP xw8600 workstation.

The new HD systems are expected to be available by the summer.

Both the new Media Composer and Symphony configurations are qualified to run on Mac OS X Leopard and Windows XP and Vista platforms.

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