Avid Delivers Support for XDCAM HD 50 Mbps Format

Sony XDCAM HD MPEG-2 Long GOP 50 Mbps format is now available in Avid Technology's Media Composer, NewsCutter and Symphony product lines. The functionality is available via a free software upgrade for all Avid customers running Version 3.0 of Media Composer and Symphony and Version 7.0 of NewsCutter software.

With this release, Avid Media Composer, NewsCutter and Symphony products now support the Sony PDW-700 and PDW-HD1500 cameras for ingest at all bit-rates (50 Mbps for both 1080i and 720p) and frame rates of 1080 50i, 59.94i and 720p.

Additional new features to Avid Media Composer, NewsCutter and Symphony systems include French language support for ScriptSync, workflow improvements such as the ability to select multiple segments on enabled tracks and generate reports on sequence and clip information.

Customers must upgrade to Version 3.0.5 of Media Composer and Symphony or Version 7.0.5 of NewsCutter software to receive these updates as well as ingest and edit capabilities for the Sony XDCAM HD 50 Mbps format. Write-back capability for this format is planned for a future release.