Focus on Editing: Jay Ankeney
VISITING AVID
While the courtesy driver Avid had sent chauffeured me through
the colorful New England’s fall foliage toward the company’s
campus in Tewksbury, Mass., I had time to reflect on the central
dilemma facing this leader of nonlinear postproduction technology:
profit.
Avid announced that all 34 of the primetime fall shows being debuted
by the networks for the 2001-2002 season, were edited on one of
the company’s NLEs. Yet, despite this impressive market dominance,
Avid has still been having trouble staying in the red, given the
turmoil affecting both the video industry and the nation. In fact,
the company’s Q3 financial report shows that it is still running
somewhat in the red, with a net loss of $801,000 (excluding one-time
and non-cash expenses).
"Avid is no different from other companies operating in the
high-tech world today where the economy and recent tragedies have
impacted our business," said David Krall, Avid’s president
and CEO. "So we are doing everything we can to focus on our
future, and that includes taking our leadership in video editing
and audio postproduction into the next generation of what customers
are looking for. If I were to narrow it down to a single concept,
it would be the transition from individual standalone products to
integrated systems that empower the overall work flow."
As Krall explained, the methodology of the ‘90s, which relied
on tape acquisition to feed disk-based post systems, is being replaced
by a totally digitized approach that provides multiple workstations
access to the same material simultaneously –thereby making
the multipurposing of source footage, in-house graphics and archived
material – much more efficient.
The impetus for my pilgrimage to Tewksbury was to learn more about
the major announcements Avid made at IBC, where attendance by U.S.
industry personnel was restricted by the September terrorist actions.
Avid Technologies itself suffered the loss of its director of
New Market Development, Doug Gowell, who was a passenger on United
flight #175, which hit the second tower of the WTC. But though in
mourning, the atmosphere throughout the company’s facility
expressed an eager optimism, evidenced by a digital calendar in
the lunchroom counting down the days to NAB2002.
OPENING ACT
Matt Allard, product marketing manager for Avid|DS, began by describing
how several incremental software upgrades announced at NAB2001 –
and that began shipping in July – were well received at IBC.
Version 3.5 for Avid Symphony, 10.5 for the Media Composer line
and 4.5 for Avid Xpress are Windows 2000 compliant and provide title
crawls, real-time moving matte enhancement, multiformat mastering
and delivery of 601, Web and DTV formats.
I also learned that the effects-optimized Avid|DS and Avid|DS
HD systems will have new version 5.0 software – slated to be
released in November – that enables offline editing of high-definition
projects at lower resolutions, a real-time picture-in-picture effect
and the ability to import Photoshop files while preserving individual
layers.
New at IBC was the Avid MediaStation digitizing station, which
works with the Avid Unity MediaNet shared storage network. "MediaStation
lets you start dicing up pieces of your media workflow in a high-speed
shared environment to feed editing systems like Symphony or Media
Composer," Allard explained. "It also has full telecine
support and 24p capabilities."
NEXT STOP: INTERACTIVE
Product Manager Michael Phillips next gave me a glimpse of some
future technology for the Media Composer – tools that involved
enhanced interactive capabilities on the timeline. "We will
soon be able to handle metadata on the timeline that can be imported
via a standalone Java application," Phillips told me. "This
could include interactive television elements in HTML for WebTV-style
applications, database result criteria or opaque metadata –
such as subtitling, embedded audio, a full character list or scripted
dialogue –provided by one of Avid’s partners, Final Draft."
What makes this especially useful is that during the editing process,
you are immediately able to see the results downstream through a
TV’s set-top box, according to Phillips. Thanks to a live update
link on the timeline, this will let a client/producer see what the
interactive team is creating at a remote facility. And, just like
any other element on the Avid timeline, all the metadata is editable.
After lunch, I was shown the newest release of NewsCutter XP 2.1
and NewsCutter XP Mobile by Jim Frantzreb, senior product marketing
manager for Avid’s Broadcast Group. Both offerings now include
support for the 4:1:1 PAL video format.
"What editors like about the NewsCutter system is that, on
top of all its capabilities, the logic of the layout just seems
to work with you as you are cutting under deadline," Frantzreb
said. "For example, version 2.1 now supports PortServer Pro,
letting it interface with Avid Unity for News media network. And
its auto V.O. tool lets you strip out previous narration to repurpose
a news package by using existing B-roll over different versions
of a reporter’s commentary."
Frantzreb said that the division’s biggest news is the release
of NewsCutter XP Mobile software package that runs on a Windows
2000 laptop. "It’s really just NewsCutter XP without the
hardware," he explained, "and it’s giving reporters
around the world the ability to cut their stories in the field and
network them back to the studio as a finished package.
"If you don’t have a high-speed connection," said
Frantzreb, "you can even send them to the home server as a
QuickTime movie, which can be played to air. We think it’s
a very exciting introduction."
CLOSING COMMENTS
Finally, Charlie Russell gave a demonstration of Avid Xpress DV
with version 2.1 software just released Oct. 19. In comparison to
the first sophisticated linear edit suite I piloted a few decades
ago that could have filled the bridge of the Enterprise, this inexpensive
software package can run on a slim Sony VAIO notebook (among many
others); it really puts the digital revolution into perspective.
With enough editing and effects features to satisfy most editors’
creativity, Russell described how the Xpress DV now supports the
Pioneer DVR-AO3, a DVD burner costing less that $1,000. "With
disk prices rapidly coming down, this gives a much broader spectrum
of editors the ability to create inexpensive DVDs either for client
review or one-off releases," Russell said. "We expect
to see several competing low-priced DVD burners hitting the market
soon, so our Xpress DV system will fit into a growing market for
DV productions released on disk."
Avid has bundled several best-of-breed, third-party software systems
into the slightly more expensive Xpress DV PowerPack – including
Pinnacle Commotion 4, Cleaner EZ 5.0.3 and Sonic DVDit. This mini-mite
package can now handle the new Matrox G550 card and is dual processor
safe.
Russell pointed out that Avid Xpress 4.5, which now even has an
uncompressed single-channel video option, is running on the Macintosh
9.1 operating system, while the Windows version has been ported
from NT to Windows 2000. Avid Xpress 4.5 even offers an image-stabilization
feature, but currently only in the Win2000 incarnation.
It can be somewhat daunting to encounter all this new technology
in a single day and I’m sorry I couldn’t cover everything
I saw. But the gung-ho attitude of all the product representatives
on the Tewksbury campus was downright reassuring as the video industry
turns its face into the wind of an uncertain, and ever-challenging,
future.
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