Avid Seals $10 Million Deal With CBS

Avid Technology announced the largest single deal in its history: a broadcast deal with CBS—reportedly valued at $10 million— to install Avid end-to-end digital newsroom environments at the network's New York City headquarters and London news bureau. The massive renovation, which will replace several tape-based news production systems, will be delivered in four stages. The first stage is currently underway and the entire project is expected to be complete by December 2006. Following the installation, Avid's end-to-end digital news production solutions will be deployed at all three major network news operations in the US: ABC, NBC, and now CBS.
“The transformation we are making with digital news solutions at CBS is vital to our success in maintaining world-class excellence in broadcasting,” said Andrew Heyward, president of CBS News. “The Avid system will allow us to do just that, while providing cost savings and further efficiencies in our broadcast journalism operations.”
Adam Taylor, VP of Worldwide Sales, Operations and Service, said, “Today begins a new chapter in our long-standing relationship with CBS, which began more than a decade ago with the use of Avid nonlinear technology at CBS' flagship program 60 Minutes. CBS' latest decision to convert its New York and London operations with Avid solutions underscores our leadership position in the industry as a preferred provider of innovative broadcast solutions. We're extremely proud that this U.S. network giant has chosen to begin standardizing its news production with Avid solutions.”
Frank Governale, CBS News vice president of Operations said, “CBS News made the decision years ago to use digital editing solutions with more than 100 Avid nonlinear systems. The adoption of a complete nonlinear Avid solution today is the natural next step.”
As part of the deal, CBS has purchased Avid Professional Services for training alongside a comprehensive mix of Avid solutions, including Avid Unity for News with up to 64TB of storage, Avid NewsCutter Adrenaline news editing systems, Avid Workgroup logging and browsing solutions, and a comprehensive digital archive system with third party partners SGL and StorageTek. The powerful capabilities offered by these systems – such as high-resolution clip-browsing from anywhere in the newsroom, and editing during the ingest process – will allow CBS to dramatically improve its production workflow and capacity, enabling journalists to handle breaking news stories with greater speed and simplicity.