BURLINGTON, Mass. and SUNNYVALE, Calif.—Avid and Google Cloud have announced a multi-year strategic partnership to integrate generative and agentic AI into creative tools from Avid.

By embedding Google’s Gemini models and Vertex AI directly into Avid’s solutions, the two companies reported that they aim to transform video editing from a mostly manual process into an intelligent, AI-assisted experience, significantly reducing the time required for media discovery and production.

The integration will be on display during the 2026 NAB Show between April 18 and 22.

“Customers are asking for intelligent tools that plug into existing workflows and scale with their creativity,” said Wellford Dillard, chief executive officer, Avid. “This partnership with Google Cloud strengthens our ability to deliver secure, AI-driven innovation–while keeping Avid interoperable and adaptable across the broader production landscape. Through our collaboration with Google Cloud, Avid is redefining what’s possible in modern media production by expanding intelligent capabilities across our products.”

"By embedding agentic AI directly into the tools video editors live in, we’re moving beyond simple automation," added Anil Jain, global managing director, Strategic Industries, Google Cloud. "With Avid Media Composer and Google Cloud, an editor can now collaborate with an intelligent agent to create assets on the fly and handle the heavy lifting of matching styles and filling timelines, enabling them to focus on storytelling instead of infrastructure."

In announcing the integration, the two companies noted that as global demand for content increases, production teams face growing pressure to manage massive volumes of high-resolution media, while overcoming the limitations of legacy on-premises hardware.

To address these challenges, Avid is integrating Google Cloud’s AI and data analytics capabilities into two key areas of its technology stack: Media Composer, the industry-standard nonlinear editing system for professional film and TV; and Avid Content Core, a new cloud-native SaaS platform that serves as a unified, intelligent data layer for global media assets.

By leveraging Gemini and Vertex AI, these platforms can now analyze and understand media context automatically, allowing production teams to query content using natural language. It also enables agentic AI workflows – digital assistants capable of autonomously managing complex tasks, such as matching visual styles, identifying emotional cues in raw footage, and streamlining metadata logging.

Other key highlights include:

• Avid Content Core general availability: Now commercially available, this cloud-native platform acts as a unified data layer for global media. By leveraging Google Cloud’s BigQuery, Vision Warehouse, and Vertex AI Search, it transforms passive storage into an active library, allowing global creative teams to access and manage video files from anywhere.
• Gemini integration in Media Composer: Avid’s industry-standard editing system now features a multimodal extension powered by Gemini. This integration allows editors to streamline post-production – from intelligent metadata enhancement and automated logging to generating B-Roll –reducing the manual burden on creative teams.
• Agentic search and discovery: With Vertex AI and multimodal Gemini models on both platforms, the systems can understand the context of every file. Searching becomes a natural conversation where users describe what they need – based on visual actions, dialogue, or emotional cues – turning weeks of manual archive discovery into seconds of automated insight.

Avid and Google Cloud will demonstrate these new workflows at the NAB Show in Las Vegas (April 18-22, 2026). Visit the Google Cloud Booth (West Hall, #W2731) and the Avid Booth (North Hall #N2226) to see advanced media search and metadata management in action.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid is launching new integrated newsroom capabilities for Avid for News at the 2026 NAB Show, April 18–22 in Las Vegas.

The company said it plans to demonstrate how Avid Content Core connects planning, production, and publishing across MediaCentral, Wolftech News, iNEWS, Avid NEXIS and Stream IO, enabling news organizations “to produce and deliver content within a single, coordinated workflow across multiple digital and linear platforms—without disrupting existing operations.”

With Avid for News now powered by Avid Content Core, Avid says the integration allows its News platform to now connect the full production lifecycle – linking newsroom systems, creative tools, and media infrastructure into a unified, story-centric environment. This approach enables news teams to develop and deliver stories in parallel across real-time digital platforms and scheduled broadcasts.

“Avid Content Core is an intelligent layer that sits across the entire newsroom production lifecycle, linking stories, workflows, and teams – helping organizations get more value from their media assets, while ensuring continuity as they transform their operations,” said Wellford Dillard, Chief Executive Officer at Avid. “With Content Core now available commercially, Avid has delivered a unified foundation that makes news and media organizations faster, more efficient, and better aligned.”

Avid for News provides real-time visibility into content, context, and progress as news stories develop. Unlike point solutions that operate in isolation, Avid integrates stories, teams, and workflows within Avid Content Core’s shared platform. Built with an API‑first approach, Avid Content Core provides an open platform that integrates with existing newsroom systems and third‑party technologies, allowing organizations to evolve workflows while still leveraging current infrastructure.

By linking editorial systems with professional media creation and storage, Avid for News enables:

• Coordinated planning, scripting, editing, and publishing within a single environment
• Visibility into content and story development throughout the production lifecycle
• Faster creation of platform-specific versions for broadcast, digital, and social
• Reduced duplication and fewer manual handoffs between teams
• Streamlined review and approval workflows within a unified workspace
• Advanced browser-based editing and multi-platform publishing for fast content creation and versioning across broadcast, web, and social formats

“At NAB Show 2026, we’re showing how news teams can move from siloed workflows to a unified, story-centric approach – without adding complexity,” said Arne Berven, SVP of Broadcast Strategy at Avid and CEO of Wolftech. “The future of news is not digital-first or linear-first – it’s both. With Avid for News, teams can now work from the same core story, collaborate in real time, and deliver platform-specific versions in parallel.”

Accelerating Production with AI-Powered Content Intelligence
Avid will also demonstrate how AI-enabled content intelligence within Avid Content Core enhances how teams discover, manage, and develop content—leveraging Avid’s deep understanding of media assets and workflows.

Key content intelligence capabilities include:

• Faster content discovery with AI-powered semantic search across newsroom systems, creative tools, and media storage
• Deeper content context by connecting scripts, media, versions, and outputs across the production lifecycle
• Improved access to related content to surface assets, versions, and previously produced materials across systems
• Reduced manual effort through AI-assisted workflows that automate repetitive tasks while keeping teams in control

Connecting Cloud and On-Prem Production Without Disruption
Designed to operate in hybrid environments, Avid for News enables teams to work seamlessly across on-premises or cloud-based systems—without requiring costly migrations or workflow changes.

At the show, Avid is demonstrating how organizations can extend their current environments with cloud-enabled capabilities, including integrations with the Avid NEXIS storage solution and Avid Stream IO—the recently updated video ingest and playout solution. These integrations enable more flexible, distributed production while maintaining the performance, reliability, and control required for professional news operations.

Stream IO also now includes content sub-clipping and trimming, giving operators more control and accelerating fast-turnaround workflows.

Previewing Newsroom Tech Advances

• Visitors to the Avid booth (N2226) will see previews of key Avid for News technology innovations, including:
• Advanced web-based editing with Avid Content Core (powered by CuttingRoom)
• Newsroom and rundown workflows integrating Wolftech News and iNEWS for efficient story-centric collaboration
• A next-generation, web-based Newsroom Computer System (NRCS) with Rundown powered by Wolftech

Avid also announced earlier this month that it will demonstrate Avid Content Core running on AWS, providing a “cloud native” foundation for connected media workflows built on AWS for news organizations, broadcasters, studios, and streaming services. At the same time, Avid said it is “renewing its focus” on Avid NEXIS and Avid Media Composer on AWS.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—At the 2026 NAB Show, April 18-22 in Las Vegas, Avid will demo its new Avid Content Core running on AWS, providing a “cloud native” foundation for connected media workflows built on AWS for news organizations, broadcasters, studios, and streaming services.

At the same time, Avid said it is “renewing its focus” on Avid NEXIS and Avid Media Composer on AWS, which are already supporting large‑scale international productions, including working with Amazon MGM Studios to enable cloud-based Avid workflows on the global cloud platform.

Highlights will include:

• Cloud and hybrid production at scale – enabling teams to collaborate globally without compromising performance, location or security, powered by Avid NEXIS and Avid Content Core.
• Modern newsroom and post‑production workflows – delivering speed, flexibility, and resilience through Avid Content Core.
• A unified foundation for AI and automation – helping organizations extract greater value from their content via Avid Content Core.

Avid says its collaboration with AWS “reflects the MovieLabs 2030 Vision, where cloud, automation, security, and data form the backbone of modern storytelling.”

“Avid is the intelligence layer for professional media, combining proven workflow expertise with AI-powered automation and agentic capabilities,” said Wellford Dillard, Chief Executive Officer of Avid. “Through deep collaboration with AWS, we’re enabling organizations to connect their content, teams and workflows as one – driving faster production, greater creative flexibility, and more informed decision-making.”

Central to the strategic collaboration is a fresh emphasis on Avid NEXIS, the industry’s trusted shared media storage platform. Leveraging the Virtual File System (VFS), Avid NEXIS can expand from fixed, on-premises hardware into a software-defined, cloud-enabled environment that supports on-prem, cloud, and hybrid deployment and access.

This flexibility allows teams to:

• Run Avid NEXIS Cloud and Media Composer directly in Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) for full cloud-enabled post-production.
• Unify cloud-based Avid NEXIS storage with on-premises environments using Avid NEXIS | Remote for hybrid workflows.
• Combine AWS with Avid’s proven controls for media workflows with a shared security foundation.

Building on this collaboration, Amazon MGM Studios has worked with Avid on AWS to deploy Avid Media Composer and Avid NEXIS on AWS, enabling production teams to launch editorial environments globally in minutes and support distributed creative teams working seamlessly across multiple locations.

Avid will be in Booth N2226 in the North Hall of the LVCC.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid has released data showing that the filmmakers, editors and sound teams worked with Avid Media Composer and Pro Tools to create the vast majority of this year’s Academy Award®-winning pictures.

In total, 87% of winning productions were crafted using Avid solutions, reinforcing Avid’s long history as the creative platform trusted for the world’s greatest storytelling, the company reported.

“Well-deserved congratulations to all the filmmakers, editors and sound teams recognized at this year’s Academy Awards,” said Wellford Dillard, CEO of Avid. “These films didn’t just entertain audiences – they moved, thrilled and inspired millions of people. We’re proud to see the world’s most important stories shaped by artists using Avid tools as part of their creative process. That’s what drives us every day – building technology that helps the world’s greatest creators deliver their best work.”

Filmmakers working with Avid creative solutions were recognized across major categories including Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Sound and Best Animated Feature Film. Winning productions include:

• Best Picture: `One Battle After Another'. Producers: Adam Somner, Sara Murphy and Paul Thomas Anderson.
• Best Film Editing:`One Battle After Another'. Editor: Andy Jurgensen.
• Best Sound: `F1: The Movie'. Sound team: Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. Rizzo and Juan Peralta.
• Best Animated Feature Film: `KPop Demon Hunters'. Producers: Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans and Michelle L.M. Wong.
• Best International Feature Film: `Sentimental Value' (Norway).
• Best Visual Effects: `Avatar: Fire and Ash'. Visual effects team: Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett.
• Best Documentary Feature Film: `Mr. Nobody Against Putin' Producers: David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin, Helle Faber and Alžběta Karásková.

Alongside a wide array of this year’s winning productions, Avid also reported that its editing and audio solutions were used across the majority of nominated works in several major categories, with 8 of the 10 Best Picture nominees were crafted using Avid, 4 out of 5 editors in Best Film Editing cut their films with Media Composer, and and all Best Sound nominees used Pro Tools.

For example, Andy Jurgensen, winner of the Best Film Editing Oscar for `One Battle After Another', cut the film using Avid Media Composer®.

“This film had so many tones – comedy, drama, action – it’s so hard to compartmentalize,” said Jurgensen. “One thing I really got into on this movie was Avid’s automatic transcribing tool… When you need to find just a word or a phrase you can search and find it in all the different takes. It saved me so much time.”

The sound team behind `F1: The Movie', which won the Oscar® for Best Sound, used Avid Pro Tools workflows to craft an immersive racing experience that captured both the authenticity and excitement of Formula 1.

“What makes F1 exciting is that it is the peak of motorsport racing. It is the top of the top,” said Juan Peralta, re-recording mixer at Skywalker Sound. “One of the edicts we got from the producers of this movie was to try to make it as authentic as possible… We also were making a fun movie – we want people to enjoy it and just be on for the ride.”

Learn more about the creative process behind `F1: The Movie' here: https://connect.avid.com/f1-the-movie-lp.html

Find out more about Andy Jurgensen’s editing experience on `One Battle After Another' here: https://theroughcutpod.com/one-battle-after-another/

In October 2025, Kenna Hilburn, a former television producer, was promoted to Chief Product Officer for Avid, succeeding Tim Claman. TV Tech spoke with Kenna at IBC and recently caught up with her to talk about her new responsibilities and Avid's plans for the 2026 NAB Show.

TV Tech: Can you provide us with an update on Avid Content Core? Can you characterize what types of customers you expect to use it?
Kenna Hilburn: Avid Content Core addresses the real challenges media teams are encountering today in a fast-evolving media economy. It provides a cloud-native foundation to help teams manage, find, move, and understand their content across both linear and digital platforms. Content Core is about connecting the systems customers already have – not asking them to rip and replace what’s working.

As we work through proofs-of-concept, together with our customers, we see Content Core resonate strongly with broadcasters, news organizations, and enterprise media teams operating in hybrid environments. These are organizations that require coordination across people, tools, workflows, and global teams – especially as they work to do more with less, across more formats and with more complexity than ever.

TVT: Where is Avid applying artificial intelligence today in ways that actually save time or reduce friction – while still protecting creative control and editorial intent?
KH: We’re deploying AI very specifically and very strategically to remove friction in the workflow. That means focusing on areas where teams historically spend a lot of time – like transcription, search, and metadata. For example, we’re using AI to automatically transcribe and tag incoming footage so journalists can find what they need in seconds instead of scrubbing timelines.

If it doesn’t save time or reduce friction, it doesn’t belong in our workflows.

At the same time, we’re designing AI as an assistant rather than as the creator. Creative control always comes first. We design AI tools to be transparent, predictable, and optional – especially in environments like news, where precision and trust are non-negotiable. Editors and journalists can see what the system is doing, accept or reject it, and stay in control of the final output.

AI should make skilled professionals faster and more confident in their work – not distance them from it.

TVT: You've been with Avid as Chief Product Officer and were Senior VP of Product for 10 months before that. How are you making your mark on Avid's product strategies? Are you implementing any new approaches or direction?
KH: I started my career in media production – I went to college for television and film production – and I’ve always seen myself as a person who loves storytelling. Stepping into this role has given me the opportunity to come back to my storytelling roots.

When I started, I asked a simple question: What’s the story we’re actually trying to tell – to customers, to partners, and to our own teams? You’ve got to start there and then line up all the people and the work behind that vision – and show how you’re bringing it to life at every step of the way. That’s how you create culture, and how you help teams feel what they are doing is a meaningful part of the greater whole.

At the same time, we can’t just tell stories – we have to deliver. That’s meant simplifying our portfolio, being explicit about who each product is for, and prioritizing execution over ambition.

The craft has only gotten more complex as technology has evolved – and we’re at a tipping point where technology can actually get in the way. We see a simplification moment. Our job is to deliver the next era of tools that re-simplify the process, so creativity can be in the driver’s seat.

One of my strengths is translating real customer problems into clear product direction – and then holding the organization accountable to delivering against it. We’ve become much more explicit about outcomes, not just features, and about how each product fits into a broader solution rather than standing alone. Success isn’t defined by how ambitious a roadmap looks; it’s defined by whether we deliver the right solutions and customers see the value.

TVT: What are Avid's plans for NAB and are trade shows still vital to the company's business strategy, given that there are many more options and other competing events?
KH: NAB remains important for us, but the way we approach it has evolved. It’s less about big announcements and more about having meaningful conversations – showing real workflows, listening to customers, and getting feedback.

NAB and other trade shows bring the industry together in one place, creating a vital moment to hear what’s happening on the ground and help customers navigate an increasingly complex media landscape. But it’s part of a broader approach that includes more continuous engagement – direct customer collaboration, regional events, and ongoing digital touchpoints. It’s about continuity, not a single moment. And about showing real progress, not promises.

TVT: Are there any new developments in Avid's news production products and how would you assess the state of TV news production currently, especially considering the push for more station group consolidation?
KH: Newsrooms are under enormous pressure. Budgets continue to tighten, teams are being asked to do more with less, and the news-gathering process has become far less structured. Twenty years ago, a tip came in through the news desk. Now it can come in via tweet, a phone call, or a Facebook post as the story evolves in real time.

We’re hearing from customers that this creates huge strain. Producers are building the broadcast story while the social team is already posting, and everyone needs multiple versions immediately – often while names, facts, and footage are being revised.

We’re bringing all those disparate pieces together into one connected ecosystem, so an entire news operation can work together seamlessly – whether they’re in the newsroom or on location. That’s the strategy we’re executing with Wolftech News and iNEWS: enabling planning, gathering, uploading, sharing, editing, reviewing, and approving in one place.

TVT: At IBC, we discussed the "content creator economy" and Avid's role in that. Can you update us on Avid's approach and plans to address that market?
KH: The lines of content creation are blurring – whether you’re talking about an individual creator publishing online, a global studio, or a major broadcast network. Those worlds are coming closer together.

Our approach to the creator economy is to meet people where they are today, support where they’re going, and position professional tools like Pro Tools and Media Composer to take their craft to the next level.

We’re not looking to chase the latest trends or compete on novelty. We’re focused on supporting creators who want to build something sustainable – and giving them a clear path from emerging talent to professional scale as their needs evolve, without forcing them to abandon professional standards as they grow.

TVT: In an interview with our sister brand TVBEurope, Avid's CTO talked about customer demand for more "hybrid workflows." How is that impacting product development?
KH: Hybrid workflows aren’t a transition phase – they’re how many of our customers are operating today. We see a world where customers will still need some systems on-prem – while also needing the flexibility and scalability the cloud has to offer.

So rather than forcing an “all on-prem” or “all cloud” approach, we’re bringing those two infrastructure models together. That’s what customers are asking for, and it’s shaping how we prioritize product development. It’s all about giving them the freedom to evolve at their own pace while maintaining stability in day-to-day operations, which is critical in live and deadline-driven environments.

TVT: How have changes in technology impacted how Avid promotes its product solutions to customers and have trade shows had any impact on that?
KH: Technology has changed not just how products are built, but how customers evaluate them. They have more information, more options, and less patience for hype. They want to see real-world examples that actually make their work easier. Credibility now comes from execution - customers can see very quickly whether a product actually makes their work easier.

LOS ANGELES—I’m the super­vising editor for NBC’s “The Voice,” which is produced by MGM Television and recorded on the Universal Studios lot. I was the first editor hired on the show 15 years ago, and I’ve been on every episode since—that’s 700 episodes and nearly 1,100 hours of broadcast programming over the last 15 years.

We use Avid as our editing solution. The major advantage of using Avid is we start and finish everything in Avid. From offline to final online to color, everything is done inside of that.

Right now, we have about 35 editors, including about eight to 10 assistant editors. I think another dozen producers and story producers are also all accessing the media, all able to see everything, and they’re all remote. And I don’t mean we have some in Burbank and some in L.A. We have people in North Carolina; we have people in Virginia. We’ve had people in Maine and Japan; we’ve had people all over the world working on our show.

A Unified Solution
Having one, unified program that handles all of that has been absolutely beneficial and the cornerstone of our being on the air. I don’t think there’s any other production that hits the Avid hardware and software nearly as hard as we do.

I’m on Media Composer with the Symphony option and so are two of my online editors. The reason for that is we start and finish everything on “The Voice” inside of Avid, including color, final online and output of the master.

We use a lot of image stabilization. Those save our show because it’s a huge concert, and those cameras jiggle, and there’s nothing worse than seeing your artist or your coach jiggling around. I’d say easily between 600 to 900 stabilizations will be done in a two-hour episode.

We also use the “Animatte” effect in Media Composer for multiple reasons. We don’t like to break the fourth wall by showing camera people running through the audience, so we use that to duplicate audience members to hide cameras. We want viewers to be engaged in the performance, and if you see some guy running across the stage with a camera, that kind of pulls you out of it. Avid gives us the proper tools to maintain our illusion, to maintain the moment, without having to go to an external program.

Creating a Uniform Feel
Every episode of “The Voice” is a challenge because of the nature of the show. In an average two-hour episode, we introduce 13 to 15 new “characters,” if you will. Each story needs to have a life of its own, but we have to have some type of uniform feel to the show so when you turn it on, you recognize “The Voice” for what it is.

Our editors are constantly striving to give enough individuality to each of the story pods to showcase each artist individually, as well as maintain a high level of editorial status and make sure that editors are also as creative as possible, but without going completely astray.

We know our audience has faith in what we do and what we say about our show is real. When the first note comes out of an artist on stage—with the coaches’ backs to them in their chairs—that is the first time coaches hear them or see them when they turn. The audience sees our artists in their stories beforehand, but the coaches don’t get any of that information. It is legitimate; that’s the first note that the coaches ever hear. ●

More information is available at www.avid.com.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid has today announced the release of Pro Tools 2025.10, a feature-rich update that the company said offers notable advances in immersive music creation and workflow efficiency.

Designed for music creators and postproduction professionals, the latest Pro Tools version introduces powerful new immersive audio capabilities with Sony’s 360 Reality Audio, integrated SoundFlow automation, in-app tutorials, and six new Inner Circle Rewards.

“This new version of Pro Tools is all about access and ease of use – making complex immersive audio more intuitive, workflow automation more seamless, and high-value creative tools more available to users,” said Chris Winsor, director of Pro Tools Product Management at Avid. “Whether you’re mixing spatial music, speeding up repetitive tasks, or exploring Pro Tools for the first time, this updated version delivers capabilities that help creators stay in their flow and elevate their work.”

The Pro Tools 2025.10 release continues Avid’s momentum in music and post innovation by streamlining creative workflows, accelerating routine tasks, and enhancing access to professional-grade tools that empower creators to deliver exceptional audio content from anywhere, the company explained.

Notably, Pro Tools 2025.10 delivers native support for 360 Reality Audio, enabling artists and producers to position sounds all around the listener – above, below, and on all sides – placing them at the center of an immersive musical experience. Built on Sony’s object-based 360 Spatial Sound technology, this integration enables seamless 360 Reality Audio content creation directly within a Pro Tools session, while offering:

The upgrade provides effortless format conversion from Dolby Atmos to 360 Reality Audio, with stems and settings carrying over automatically, which means that users can continue to mix and edit in both formats within the same session

Included limited versions of the Audio Futures WalkMix Panner and 360RA WalkMix Renderer for Pro Tools Studio and Ultimate subscribers and perpetual license holders with a current support and upgrade plan.

“By integrating Sony’s 360 Reality Audio directly into the Pro Tools environment, artists and producers can now explore new creative dimensions – all without switching out of their trusted workflow,” said Winsor. “This is a powerful step forward in delivering the immersive experiences today’s listeners are seeking.”

Jordy Freed, senior director, deputy head of Sony’s Personal Entertainment Business, added: “360 Reality Audio opens a bigger creative canvas inside Pro Tools – making immersive music creation more accessible and giving artists and producers the tools to push the boundaries of spatial sound and connect with listeners in bold new ways.”

The new version also allowed users to automate complex tasks with SoundFlow in Pro Tools

Avid has integrated SoundFlow, the industry’s leading workflow automation platform, directly into Pro Tools. All users now gain access to 1,700+ free prebuilt macros, allowing them to automate repetitive actions like bouncing stems, creating tracks, and navigating complex sessions.

Available in all versions of Pro Tools, the new SoundFlow panel keeps creators in the zone by enabling powerful shortcuts at a keystroke. Premium SoundFlow subscribers can unlock deeper functionality, including access to their full macro library, Flows, and an AI-powered Session Assistant – a natural language automation tool that understands context and runs complex tasks instantly at the user’s command.

“Avid’s integration of SoundFlow is a pivotal step toward a more intuitive studio future,” said Christian Scheuer, founder and CEO of SoundFlow. “Together, we’re putting world-class automation directly in the hands of every Pro Tools user – enhancing productivity and empowering creativity.”

A new “Learn” tab, powered by SoundFlow, offers interactive tutorials that walk users through key workflows such as audio recording, MIDI editing, and navigating the UI. These hands-on demos make Pro Tools more approachable for new users and faster to master for pros looking to expand their skills.

Pro Tools 2025.10 delivers six new Inner Circle Rewards from Avid’s top-tier plugin and content partners. Available to annual Pro Tools subscribers and perpetual customers on active upgrade plans, the latest rewards include:

• Acon Digital Verberate 2 – transparent reverb with realistic spatial simulation
• Acon Digital DeBleed:Snare – AI-powered snare bleed removal
• Nightfox Audio Rendition Lite – MIDI chord/arpeggio plugin for fast songwriting
• Three Leap Expansions for Kontakt Player – loops and samples to inspire new ideas

Other enhancements to Pro Tools 2025.10 include: speech-to-Text enhancements, including offline and batch transcription; and UI Customization, Dark Mode support, and MIDI workflow optimizations

Pro Tools 2025.10 is available to all Pro Tools Artist, Studio and Ultimate subscribers and perpetual license holders on active plans as well as Pro Tools Intro users. Learn more about the new features at www.avid.com/pro-tools.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid will feature its new Avid Content Core at NAB Show New York, Oct. 22-23 at the Javits Center in New York.

The cloud-based production and content data platform, introduced last month at IBC2025 in Amsterdam, will be shown alongside Avid’s new NEXIS Remote cloud storage capability, which enables facility-grade editing from anywhere. The company will also feature new product enhancements and expanded partner integrations that introduce artificial intelligence, automation and streaming tools directly into Avid workflows, the company said.

“Avid Content Core marks a transformational step forward for the media industry, bringing content creation, management and value realization together into a single, cloud-native platform,” CEO Avid Wellford Dillard said. “By unifying these capabilities, we’re helping media organizations unleash creativity, collaborate seamlessly across different locations, maximize the return on their content and pivot faster to new business models.”

The new platform equips the media and entertainment industry to move beyond fragmented systems by treating media assets as intelligent, connected data, Avid said. From global broadcasters and newsrooms to major studios and post-production facilities, Avid Content Core accelerates output, streamlines operations, boosts return on investment (ROI), reduces total cost of ownership (TCO) and opens opportunities for growth, the company said.

Designed to transcend the limitations of media asset management systems, Avid Content Core is a content data platform that brings ingest, search, orchestration and asset intelligence into a single, cloud-native platform.

Accessible from anywhere via browser-based tools, the platform processes media assets as interconnected, actionable data rather than as isolated files. Avid Content Core enables AI-powered search and recommendations. Each media asset gets a unique fingerprint that lets teams working within the Avid ecosystem to authenticate provenance, track usage and ultimately measure ROI, the company said.

At NAB Show New York, the company will also launch Avid NEXIS Remote, which brings facility-grade editing performance to distributed teams. Now available for cloud deployment, Avid NEXIS Remote allows Media Composer users to connect directly to Avid NEXIS storage in the cloud for real-time, high-resolution editing workflows, the company said.

With secure smart caching and seamless integration across Avid, Adobe, and other tools, Avid NEXIS Remote enables production teams to work from anywhere, edit directly in Media Composer and Pro Tools with no proxy round-tripping and optimize cost and flexibility with elastic cloud storage, Avid said.

While the cloud version of Avid NEXIS Remote is available this month, support for Avid NEXIS F-Series will be launched next year.

The company said it will also highlight a range of integrated solutions and partner demos, including:

• Wolftech News and MediaCentral integration: Story-centric newsroom planning, creation, and publishing now brought together in a single user interface.
• Stream IO: Flexible ingest, loop recording and playout solution for live and fast-turnaround workflows—now with synchronized multicamera ingest and enhanced bulk export.
• Media Composer panels: Featuring AI integrations from Quickture (transcription and sequence creation), Flawless (dialog editing), Acclaim Audio (leveling and cleanup), and Streamwell (low-latency live streaming and collaboration).

See Avid at NAB Show New York booth 547.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LOS ANGELES—Sony Music Publishing’s Extreme Music has formed a strategic alliance with Avid to launch production music that integrates its catalog directly into Avid Media Composer video editing software.

Extreme’s music panel allows users to search, demo and license music across one comprehensive project, the company said.

“Extreme Music has always taken an unconventional approach in bringing opportunities to creators,” said Russell Emanuel, co-founder, president and CEO of Extreme Music. “Alongside Avid, we are putting the strength of our entire catalog more easily into the hands of the editor community, propelling storytellers everywhere to sonically craft with the speed, flexibility and expertise they need to bring their visions to life.”

Extreme has collaborated with such artists as Hans Zimmer, Snoop Dogg, Quincy Jones, Deadmau5, Atticus Ross and Sir George Martin to elevate production music to the level of commercial projects. The new panel smooths traditional licensing hurdles, it said.

Key panel features include access to Extreme Music’s library, intuitive search and match, integrate workflow with Media Composer, edit-ready audio and global entry, it said.

“By embedding Extreme’s unparalleled catalog into our trustworthy platform, we are united in the mission to inspire the next generation of creators in the industry and beyond,” said Guillaume Aubuchon, senior director of product management at Avid. “Our users represent the cultural landscape of music and alongside Extreme’s A-List roster of talent, we are doubling down on our commitment to provide emerging and established creators with a highly curated goldmine of world-class tracks.”

Download the Extreme Music Panel.

More information is available on the Extreme Music and Avid websites.

Earlier this year Avid announced Kenna Hilburn as its new senior vice president of product. Recently Hilburn was promoted to Avid's new chief product officer, succeeding Tim Claman, who is leaving the company. Hilburn begins her new job on Oct. 1.

Hilburn—who joins several new members of Avid's leadership team, including Tom Sharma, its new CTO, and new Chief Customer Officer Dominic Constandi—has more than 17 years of experience leading product and business operational teams in the digital media and marketing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industries. A former television producer, Hilburn started her career at a national lifestyle network before moving into the digital commerce space, where she built and led video strategies for major retailers like Petco. Most recently at Marigold, she spearheaded cross-functional product operations, addressing customer pain points and business goals.

At Avid, she will lead the product management teams, ensuring a unified and strategic approach to product development.

In an exclusive interview with TV Tech at the 2025 IBC Show in Amsterdam, Hilburn and Claman discussed the changing media environment and Hilburn's background which led her to Avid.

“I was a TV producer for a couple of years, and then kind of thought what was happening on the online digital video space was interesting so I stepped into the vendor side, working for a bootstrapped startup that was doing the first shoppable videos for social media,” she said. “This was before Instagram, before you could click through to a website, or to a product page.

“They were the first to do it within the online video space, and I was on the customer side, and built up the customer team,” she added. “I worked directly with retailers, helping them build out their video programs to figure out what's the best way to produce their content and then make that content readily available on their website, and then ultimately be able to make sure that those assets were being monetized and strategically fitting the purpose in which they were missing to create their video programs.”

How did she end up at Avid?

“I love storytelling,” she said. “I wondered…maybe I'll go work for Netflix now that I have this tech background,” adding that “I learned how to cut on Media Composer at the television and film program at Pepperdine University, so I feel really humbled and honored to be here and be the one to lead the team.”

With the rise of the “content creator” phenomenon spurred on by social media, Hilburn thinks she’s arrived at almost an inflection point for the broadcast industry, which is constantly on the lookout for new distribution and content channels.

“I feel generally that that dynamic has changed,” she said. “I think broadcasters have woken up to the reality of the change in the way viewers consume content and where they—and generationally—where they go to to get the content, and they recognize that they have to change how they present themselves to the world in order to continue to have relevance.”

Moving from the linear world to an on-demand model has been a goal of media companies for years, but Hilburn thinks broadcasters are focusing more on the need to transition to a more digital model.

“That whole model or the mindset [of linear] has really changed for broadcasters,” she said. “They're thinking, ‘how do we become digital media companies first, and how do we tell our stories and get our stories to the right audiences on the right platform, rather than having this mindset that we've got to get linear TV?'”

“Instead of focusing on the basics of traditional linear TV, they really are changing the way they're looking at their companies, and it's affecting how they're mobilizing their resources and operationalizing their teams,” she said.

Considering its long heritage, Avid would be well within its right to consider it among the original content creation companies and Hilburn acknowledged the company’s legacy and its potential to help bridge the gap between broadcasters and the content creators.

“A significant portion of our business already comes from individual audio creators, and we have a direct commercial relationship with them. They tend to buy through our web store, and so we're already very successful on the audio side,” she said, “on the video side, more of our business tends to be with larger enterprise customers, i.e. studios and broadcasters and the ecosystem that supports them, including such service providers like post production facilities.

“But I do think that over time, these delineations between like media companies and just general enterprise…that's going to blur, because every company is becoming a media company, and every company is essentially broadcasting. As a technology company, of course, we want to serve the broadest range of market segments we can.”

Claman emphasized the importance Avid will always place on the enterprise market, regardless of any new markets it pursues.

"I think there are enough challenges to be solved in the near term for our existing customers, on the Individual creator and on the enterprise space, that what we're bringing to market and our roadmaps are currently hyper-focused on solving those challenges for our customers,” he said. "But also with the bigger picture in mind, which is…content is consolidating across the space, so we're trying to be very strategic in the moves that we're making to make sure that it's helping our current markets continue to modernize as technology is accelerating, but also keeping that broader view and making sure that if we go down this path, it's not cutting us off from where we see the market going.”

With the launch of Avid Content Core Data Platform announced just prior to IBC, Hilburn discussed how it’s designed to bring together disparate silos of content into one managed data set across a common core.

“There's a lot of data historically locked up in these data silos, in particular metadata,” she said. “There's all the text for stories, there's the rundowns, the genealogical links to all the sources that were used to make those stories. Customers also have a MAM, a library of durable assets, but without the context of what story they may have been used in. And then we have full tech, which is the planning tool. I've got human beings, cameras, trucks and edit bays, and I'm managing those resources and workflow.

"All these disparate data silos really haven't been brought together into a cosmic view, and that's prevented customers from not just exploiting their content, but really understanding not just the value of the content, but also the efficiency of their teams and how best to evolve their operations to either become more more effective or more efficient," Hilburn added. "Other industries have gotten much more data driven, and those insights are readily available. But in our industry, historically, it's been like, the data has been kind of segmented and compartmentalized. And so with Content Core, our goal is to to leverage AI to bring the data driven insights into view for customers from these disparate sources, not just Avid sources.”

Tying audio and video assets together in a centrally managed platform for production through metadata is a constant challenge, particularly in the traditional media space. But Hilburn is hopeful about Avid’s approach in Content Core, particularly in an age where AI is helping to accelerate the process.

“Our goal is to have a unified view of disparate data, and synthesize from that those data sources, like unique insights that help drive broadcasters and all of our customers be more more effective in their mission," she said. "MAM's have historically been big, monolithic libraries of content, maybe with some orchestration around them, but they were very cumbersome with fixed schemas, and rigid data models.

“What we're talking about is something that's very different; it's more of a data mesh architecture, and really embraces a diversity of data formats, and yet still brings them together in a way that informs the business. And this is analogous to what's happened in other industries. It just hasn't really been done yet in media, so it's very exciting.”

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid has introduced Avid Content Core, a new content data platform designed for news and entertainment production that uses AI and agentic workflows to transform content from static files into intelligent, connected, actionable data, the company said.

Avid will showcase Avid Content Core at IBC2025 in Amsterdam Sept. 12–15 at Stand 7.B59.

Avid calls Avid Content Core “the industry’s first true cloud-native production platform that unifies asset identity, ingest, storage, metadata, orchestration, and rights information into a single intelligent layer.”

Avid Content Core platform manages media assets and processes as interconnected data rather than isolated files, turning siloed creative tools and media libraries into an interoperable ecosystem, according to the company. From newsrooms and streaming platforms to broadcasters and post facilities, Avid Content Core accelerates creative output while delivering the scalable infrastructure and data intelligence media companies need to streamline operations, increase content value, and adapt to rapidly evolving audience demands.

"Avid Content Core is a key component of Avid’s News solution, says Craig Wilson, product evangelist, artist relations at Avid. “It will help journalists find material more easily, connecting them more efficiently with their colleagues, and let reporters use impactful AI and automation services. All of this will create efficiency and allow journalists to focus on creativity and storytelling — tailored to multiple platforms to expand audience reach and boosting opportunities to generate revenue from their output.”

Wilson adds that current Avid marquee products including iNews and Media Composer’s Newcutter are integrated into Avid Content Core.

“In terms of iNEWS and Media Composer’s Newscutter option, these remain highly valued by our customers, trusted by some of the biggest broadcasters in the world. They will be fully part of the Avid Content Core world, which delivers hybrid workflows with on-premises solutions connecting to the cloud. In addition, we are expanding our web editing capabilities in Avid Content Core and building a pathway to a cloud-hosted NRCS solution in the future.”

Richard Berger, CEO at MovieLabs, noted: “Avid Content Core represents a significant step toward realizing the MovieLabs’ 2030 Vision, where assets are created in the cloud, identified with unique IDs, enriched by metadata and shared securely via authorized access across interoperable systems. With this move, Avid is demonstrating the importance of interoperability using the MovieLabs Ontology for Media Creation for data interchange, supporting productions that span across multiple clouds, and building the foundation for truly connected, next generation media creation."

Unlike media asset management (MAM) systems, Avid Content Core is a content data platform that delivers a single source of truth, connecting teams and systems across editorial, operational, and business domains to support collaborative content production, distribution and monetization. Every asset ingested into the platform receives a unique fingerprint, enabling teams working within the Avid ecosystem to authenticate provenance, track usage, and measure ROI. Advanced AI-driven search and recommendations dramatically reduce time to find and use content, while embedded review, approval, and browser-based editing streamline workflows across distributed teams.

Avid Content Core is designed as an open, extensible platform. With continuous deployment and API-enabled integration across other Avid solutions and third-party tools, it allows organizations of any size to evolve their media operations at their own pace – whether supporting newsrooms, multi-site broadcasters, or postproduction facilities.

July 19 marked one year since what has been described as “the largest IT outage in history” when cybersecurity company CrowdStrike updated its software that led to roughly 8.5 million systems crashing and refusing to properly restart.

A number of broadcasters were significantly impacted by the outage, including the U.K.’s Sky News and Sky Sports News. Sky News went off-air for parts of the morning on July 19, 2024, before returning with a much-changed backdrop, no graphics, autocue or packages.

In the United States, station group E.W. Scripps Co. told TV Tech that a strategy put in place over the past 10 years was able to quickly muster technical resources and identify and correct issues when they arose.

To mark one year since the outage, TV Tech and sister brand TVBEurope asked key media figures if they believe the industry has taken sufficient steps since then to prevent similar disruptions in the future.

Tim Claman, chief technology officer, Avid
One of the big learnings from that outage was that security strategies need to be more proactive and adaptive, rather than just responding to incidents after the fact. Since the outage, we have seen wider adoption of strategies that combine prevention and resilience methods.

Customers are bolstering traditional detection methods (like antivirus, EDR) with technologies that more dynamically identify potential threats, including AI-based monitoring, zero-trust models, dynamic policy management and more rigorous update testing, to help prevent and minimize impact from security incidents like we saw last year. While a lot of the technologies and approaches (CNAPP, IAM, EDR, Endpoint Isolation, Zero Trust, etc.) are not new, they are now being used more intelligently in combination with operational best practices to reduce risk.

Beyond the technological improvements and the evolution of best practices, we have seen a shift in mindset. The outage was a wake-up call for our customers, as well as for the vendor community. Media enterprises realize that they need to own their own destiny on security, rather than trusting security vendors, so they are more proactively managing their security strategies and practices. As a technology vendor, Avid is receiving more detailed and thorough security questions and requirements in RFPs, a reflection of our customers’ more intensive approach to security strategy.

Rowan de Pomerai, CEO, DPP
I think it’s probably fair to say that no, not enough focus has been given. There’s been a huge amount of business transformation and disruption, and AI has taken so much of the technical limelight, so it’s been easy to lose focus on concerns like security.

But perhaps AI could be the solution as much as the problem: contributors to the “DPP 2025 Predictions” said that “security concerns will go beyond human scale” as the capability to keep up with ever-changing threat vectors will become so complex that AI and other automation tools become essential.

Our “State of Media Technology Security” report also exposed a gulf between customers and vendors when it came to their assessment of the security of modern media technology tools. Clearly, there is more collaboration needed as we move forward.

Neil Maycock, TVBEurope contributor and business adviser
I think the CrowdStrike incident really highlighted that trying to protect against the ever evolving threats in cyber security carries its own risks, and the fact that major operations were so severely impacted is a testament to that. These were companies who take security very seriously and will have had extensive protocols in place to keep systems safely up to date, and yet an unforeseen scenario had devastating consequences. Therefore, to answer the question have sufficient steps been taken to prevent a repeat, I think the answer is of course industry will have protected itself from another CrowdStrike, but the real question is it ever possible to anticipate all possible scenarios?

Cybersecurity is a classic risk management exercise, where risk must be balanced against cost, both financial and operational impact. If we lock our systems down to the extent it compromises the ability of our organisation to operate, then the cost may outweigh the potential risks. Quantifying the risk and cost impact is a massive challenge, and one that is getting harder all the time. We frequently talk about the impact of AI in the media industry, but across all sectors AI is now being leveraged to implement ever more sophisticated cyber-attacks. For example, AI’s ability to impersonate key personnel, or create very specific personalised phishing attacks is creating new challenges.

Ensuring companies are adequately protected is an unenviable challenge.

Karl Paulsen, TV Tech contributor and retired CTO
I suspect this won’t be the last time we see something like this happen when there are so many moving parts in a single system. With Windows 10 support evaporating, much of the base software for users will be shifted and everybody and their dog will be wondering how to address a significant change in their hardware and software (including third-party support).

Impacts on multi-cloud will need to be managed, and it is still unclear what “AI” is going to do to everyone’s architectures. Errors are still likely to occur and an overload of systems management is a potential liability.

Dan Pisarski, chief technology officer, LiveU
The notorious CrowdStrike outage in 2024 taught an important lesson about shared vulnerabilities: you could have an entire, physically diverse set of servers and workstations—even in a building designed to withstand disasters (what if a meteor falls on the building, after all?)—but if every one of those servers runs CrowdStrike, you’re still at risk. This event has put real pressure on media organisations to rethink what disaster recovery looks like, especially when it comes to intentionally building diversity into Disaster Recovery (DR) plans.

Is your primary production on-prem? Then your DR should be in the cloud. Is your playout path based on a local fibre run? Then your DR plan should use wireless. The goal is simple: if something happens that wipes out an entire class of options (as the CrowdStrike incident did to Windows PCs and servers), you need a diverse DR plan that can avoid the fate that takes down not just one component, but an entire class of your mission-critical systems.

Cloud-based production platforms provide a diverse form of backup to hardware-based production solutions running Windows. If there is another day when “all Windows PCs don’t work in the world”, then you have a backup plan. The cloud solution does not require integration with Windows, and while it is not an exact match 1:1 of features of a hardware-based solution, that matters less when it is becomes the primary solution in a disaster recovery scenario.

This kind of built-in diversity applies at both small and large scales. At the small scale, for example, your bonded-cellular active/active wireless transmissions should use multiple carriers—not just for performance, but also “just in case” one carrier experiences a localized or nationwide outage (it’s happened!). On a much larger scale, diversity might mean having an elastically scalable cloud production service ready to go, even if you “usually” rely on on-prem production.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid today released its fully integrated news platform, uniting MediaCentral and Wolftech News in a single newsroom solution, and will demonstrate it live during IBC 2025, Sept. 12-15, at the Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Center.

Redefining newsroom collaboration with a story-centric workflow designed for today’s multiplatform news environment, the combined offering enables news teams to plan, create, publish and amplify stories, reaching audiences where they are when they want news. The integration empowers newsrooms to focus on impactful storytelling instead of administrative overhead, Avid said.

Now commercially available as a production-ready offering after its debut at NAB Show, the integration of MediaCentral and Wolftech News within the MediaCentral Cloud UX brings together planning, story writing, media production and resource management in one AI-powered environment accessible from anywhere, Avid said.

“Avid is equipping news teams to collaborate across geographies, streamline editorial processes and amplify their stories at unmatched speed and scale,” said Arne Berven, CEO of Wolftech and senior vice president of broadcast strategy at Avid. “We are eliminating barriers through our AI-powered, unified toolset—responding directly to the industry’s call for an end-to-end, best-in-class platform that breaks down workflow silos and accelerates storytelling.”

The integrated solution supports:

Pitch-to-publication workflows, bringing together planning, resource management and equipment booking with production and publishing in one web-based interface.

Seamless, faster storytelling, eliminating duplication and delays with centralized communication and intelligent automation to drive efficiencies in the production chain.

Story-centric, multiplatform distribution, reaching audiences everywhere faster with AI-powered content distribution to digital, social and broadcast channels.

Empowered remote and field teams, using mobile tools that connect newsroom operations in real time.

Future-proof architecture, leveraging Avid’s open platform, integration engine and AI framework to support evolving technology needs.

The integrated MediaCentral and Wolftech News solution is well-suited for national and regional broadcasters and other media companies facing mounting pressure to deliver more stories faster across more platforms with constrained resources, Avid said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

See Avid at IBC 2025 Stand 7.B59.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid today announced an extended agreement with Amazon MGM Studios to integrate Avid’s Media Composer and Avid NEXIS on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The new integration enables the studio’s customers to deploy Avid’s editing and storage solutions via the cloud to fit their specific production needs, Avid said.

Amazon MGM Studios and Avid began a strategic collaboration three years ago that will continue as the companies explore ways to integrate other Avid tools via the cloud. The launch of the Amazon MGM Studios integrations follows the unveiling of the Avid on AWS production framework at NAB Show 2025.

“Amazon MGM Studios’ continued relationship with Avid underscores our confidence in the role Avid NEXIS and Avid Media Composer play in the cloud-powered post-production future,” said Raf Soltanovich, VP of Technology, Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios. “Today, through the Studio’s own offering with AWS, we can deploy Avid NEXIS to our productions around the world in minutes, which helps us ensure we have best-in-class tools to support our productions.”

Amazon MGM Studios is driving a cloud-first vision for the industry that enhances global collaboration, the companies said. The deployment of Avid tools in AWS empowers distributed creative teams, accelerating turnaround times while cutting complexity through flexible, software-defined workflows.

The collaboration strengthens agility and efficiencies through cloud automation in AWS, enabling new editorial environments to be launched globally within minutes, the companies said.

This agility was demonstrated with a recent feature shooting in India, running dailies in Mumbai and completing editorial in London and Spain. This flexibility enables seamless editorial changes during production while supporting creative flexibility and international collaboration. By leveraging this technology, production teams can maintain workflow continuity across borders, adapting swiftly to evolving creative customer needs.

“We are meeting the pent-up demand of enterprise-class customers for a secure, scalable, and high-performance post-production solution on AWS,” said Wellford Dillard, CEO at Avid. “Amazon MGM Studios’ integration of Avid Media Composer and Avid NEXIS not only shows the critical role our technology continues to play in media production workflows, it also proves that cloud-native post-production is empowering successful creators everywhere, today.”

ST. LOUIS—ACT Entertainment, a major manufacturer and distributor of live performance equipment, said it was selected to be the U.S. distributor for Avid’s live sound portfolio. ACT and Avid will officially debut this partnership at InfoComm 2025 at ACT Entertainment’s booth, Booth 3943.

The two companies said this new partnership represents a significant expansion in Avid’s U.S. strategy and underscores its commitment to serving the professional live sound community with exceptional service and support. ACT Entertainment has a proven track record of building infrastructure and market presence for premium brands, such as Ayrton, MA Lighting and PK Sound.

“The partnership with Avid represents another major step forward in our strategic initiative to build the ACT Entertainment portfolio with class-leading solutions across all categories of entertainment technology,” ACT CEO Ben Saltzman said. “We have long admired Avid’s commitment to innovation, and we believe this collaboration marks a very exciting chapter for both Avid and ACT Entertainment. Collectively, we bring together some of the most passionate professionals in the world for the benefit of our shared customer base.”

Among the products that ACT will represent is Avid’s VENUE S6L System. Avid reported that it is widely regarded as the digital mixing console of choice for the world’s top touring artists given the product’s reputation for flexibility, reliability and sound quality.

Executives from the two companies recently met at ACT’s Cincinnati location to kick off the collaboration with console demonstrations and discussions surrounding streamlining distribution processes, to ensure every customer receives a fully supported, plug-and-play Avid experience from the start.

“Partnering with ACT Entertainment empowers us to reach more live sound professionals with the tools they need to deliver unforgettable performances,” says Avid CEO Wellford Dillard. “ACT shares our commitment to innovation and excellence. Together, we’re not only distributing premium live performance solutions, but building a stronger, more responsive experience for the live sound community. ACT’s expertise and infrastructure will allow us to deliver our VENUE systems with the speed and support our customers expect.”

The Avid VENUE | S6L will be on display at InfoComm 2025 between June 11 to 13 alongside ACT’s other live entertainment solutions, at Booth 3943 and in Demo Room W224C. For product details, visit: avid.com/products/venue-s6l-system.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS), to deliver a cloud-based production framework that helps film and television production companies address key industry challenges, including rising costs, reduced budgets, and increasingly complex workflows, the two companies said. The new collaboration will be showcased at the 2025 NAB Show 2025 in Las Vegas April 5-9.

The new Avid on AWS production framework gives studios, broadcasters, and streaming services unparalleled access to Avid’s post-production solutions—offering the award-winning Avid Media Composer video editing software and Avid NEXIS storage on AWS, Avid said.

Unlike traditional on-premises post-production models, which require heavy upfront investment, the new Avid on AWS production framework delivers enterprise-class security, compliance, and seamless scaling, according to the company. The framework empowers TV and film production companies and post-production facilities to reduce infrastructure complexity, cut operational costs by as much as 40%, and shrink deployment time by roughly 60% through automated workflows. The framework also addresses the skills shortages many production teams face by providing remote access to global talent.

The new Avid on AWS production framework enables rapid deployment of production environments—in hours rather than days or weeks – by utilizing templates for specific project needs. This turnkey solution transforms traditional production workflows by enabling efficient, scalable, and secure cloud-based operations.

“Moving post-production to the cloud means we give creative teams faster, more efficient workflows and real-time collaboration, making it easier than ever for them to view and access media, and eliminate wait times that interrupt the creative process and flow,” Wellford Dillard, CEO at Avid, said. “At Avid, we know that every timeline tells a story, and we are committed to powering creators to craft and tell their stories, and capture inspiration anytime, anywhere.”

The Avid on AWS production framework will be available in AWS Marketplace and expanded offerings for film, TV, and enterprise production companies, including advanced training programs, will roll out throughout 2025.

“The collaboration between Avid and AWS helps set a new standard for efficient, global content production,” said Chris Blandy, Global Leader, Strategy and Business Development for Media & Entertainment at AWS. “Together, we are empowering the media and entertainment industry to accelerate the pace of implementation and content delivery. The Avid on AWS production framework will eliminate costly operational burdens and help maintain professional management standards for post-production.”

Also built on AWS and showcased at NAB Show 2025 is Wolftech News. Wolftech is an Avid company that enables newsroom teams to easily manage story-centric workflows. Wolftech News will be presented at the AWS Theater, Stand W1343 on Sunday, April 6 at 12:45 – 1:15 pm.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—At the 2025 NAB Show, April 6-9 in Las Vegas, Avid will showcase new features to its MediaCentral platform, featuring the latest AI-powered newsroom workflows accessible from anywhere, streamlined multiplatform distribution, and the public debut of Avid’s integration with Wolftech following its recent acquisition.

News organizations today face mounting pressure to meet evolving viewer behavior patterns as consumers engage with content across an array of devices and platforms. At the same time, new revenue models have come into play with many consumers moving from traditional newspaper, cable, and broadcast outlets to social media, digital subscriptions and Free Ad-supported Streaming TV (FAST) services.

“As news organizations navigate the shift to digital-first storytelling, they need solutions that empower creativity and cooperation, efficient resource management, and quicker content delivery,” said Wellford Dillard, CEO at Avid. “At NAB Show 2025, Avid will demonstrate how our latest innovations move the world and give news teams enhanced workflows for creating, distributing, and monetizing news content, more quickly and cost-effectively; winning viewers across multiple touchpoints.”

"NAB Show 2025 marks the first public demonstration of Avid-Wolftech integration, combining Avid’s MediaCentral platform with the Wolftech News cloud platform, which the company describes as “a milestone in newsroom innovation and efficiency,” Dillard added.

Together, the Avid and Wolftech news solutions optimize resource management within a single, intuitive interface, ensuring that the right people, footage, and assets are allocated efficiently through intelligent automation, the company said. The integrated solutions empower newsrooms to focus on creating and delivering better, more compelling content in real-time to drive viewer engagement and audience reach.

“The integration of Wolftech News with Avid’s solutions unlocks unprecedented efficiency and collaboration for news teams,” said Arne Berven, CEO of Wolftech and SVP, Avid Broadcast Strategy. “By streamlining workflows from planning to publication, journalists can focus on what matters most—creating and delivering impactful stories that captivate audiences, at the speed they demand today.”

News solutions demo-ed at the Avid booth will include :

• Empowering Digital-First, Story-Driven Newsroom Collaboration – Avid’s AI-powered, unified toolset integrates planning, production, and publishing, enabling news organizations to accelerate storytelling across platforms.
• Multiplatform Planning and Publishing – Wolftech News streamlines news production, fully supporting mobile work, reducing costs and enhancing efficiency by seamlessly managing stories from initial fact-finding to multiplatform delivery.
• Easier Remote and Field Storytelling – Preview the highly-secure, mobile app experience of Wolftech News, which gives journalists and story planners the ability to plan, craft, and distribute content while on the go.
• AI-Powered Content Discovery with Avid Ada Transcribe – Avid’s latest AI-driven tool for rapid content indexing, enabling faster access to relevant footage and improved content discoverability in newsroom workflows.

A Year of Change
In a recent interview with TV Tech, Dillard and Berven discussed how new leadership, the Wolftech acquisition and the company’s move to go private in late 2023 have impacted Avid over the past year.

“Avid has never done an integration as quickly as we've gotten this one done with Wolftech,” Dillard said, adding that they will announce their first customer for the newly integrated platform in June. “[At the NAB Show] we'll have web based editing to show that Avid is moving at a speed and pace that you haven't seen this business move in a long time.”

(Read: What Does the Sale of Avid Mean for its Future?)

Dillard partly attributes the rate of progress on bringing in new leadership.

“We have pretty much turned over most of the management team over the last 12 months, and been really careful to bring in executives who have a background in broadcast, like our new CTO Tom Sharma,” Dillard said. “We also have a new SVP of Product and a new Chief Customer Officer. Arne is leading our broadcast strategy now. This is a recognition of having leadership rooted in this industry, but also with backgrounds in personalization, ad tech and monetization.

“With this new leadership, we have people who are excited about what we can build, but also understand the respect for what we have built—and they understand the pressures that this industry is under,” Dillard added. “This is a team that has a background in both growth transformation, but also cultural transformation, where you need to increase the speed at which the business is moving. And I think a lot of what we're going to be showing at NAB reflects exactly that—we have to be able to meet this industry where it is, whether that's on prem, whether it's hybrid, whether it's fully in the cloud, cloud native—that's really where we're going.”

“We've got some cool AI capabilities that may have been in production for—or in demo for a couple of years at NAB—things that are live now,” Dillard added.

Listening Tour
Dillard has spent much of his first year on the job listening to customers to gauge where the company is positioned as well as its image in the industry.

“What I learned is, that while there was a really good vision internally at Avid of what we were doing—and a roadmap for our products—that was not known to our customers, and it really wasn't clearly understood across the entire business,” he said. “Somebody who was in the audio side didn't really have a great understanding of what was going on in broadcast, which meant that you didn't also think about the problems we're solving holistically at Avid. So we've been doing a lot of work on the cultural transformation, defining strategy, communicating that down to the entire company and getting everybody energized about where Avid is going.”

Bervin has been encouraged by the speed at which Wolftech’s cloud-based news production platform has been integrated into MediaCentral.

“I've been on the customer side for a long time, and I've heard about open API but I haven't seen it,” he said. “Avid has been a bit slow on the forefront of development over the last 5-10 years, but this has changed. We have the right focus helping our customers move to the cloud, but we want to do that in a secure and very controlled way, together with our customers—that's our goal.”

Industry Angst
At the 2024 HPA Tech Retreat, Jeff Rosica, Dillard’s predecessor, spoke of the impact that the Hollywood strikes in 2023 amid the rise of the use of artificial intelligence in media production are “creating fear, uncertainty and doubt” in an industry that has already been severely impacted by the pandemic as well. Dillard concurred.

“There are a series of macroeconomic factors that are causing this industry to evolve—you have changing revenue models, the way ad spend is moving around, for example,” he said. Referring to the Hollywood community, Dillard added “these are industries that had really operated the same way for over 100 years, and it's just really only in the last few years that the pace of change has just been so rapid. You're seeing it in broadcast now as well.

“So if you just take a step back and you look at the pressures that our customers are under with changing revenue models, that creates enormous opportunities for Avid,” Dillard added. “All of the data that flows around Avid—we haven't really been great about making sure that our customers have insights into how all these assets they're creating are being used. And now, in a more digital world where stories are being cut, pushed out across multiple channels, we can help our customers track that. You're delivering the right message, at the right time to optimize your audience, and you start to think about retention of your customers differently.”

Dillard’s arrival as CEO of Avid occurred just months after the company went private after being sold to private equity firm STG. Dillard says the move provided Avid some great opportunities.

“I think it would have been almost impossible for Avid to do a lot of the things that it's doing had the business been public,” he said. “First and foremost, we do not do deals that have any implication in our road maps, that would in any way delay current work that's underway. Avid had a fair amount of that in the past, particularly with, like, large deals where we get into customizations, that was a big one—we've completely killed that. And our CPO and Tom, our head of engineering, sit on top of our deal desk—they could kill any deal that was going to delay the great work that needs to get done long term.

“The other thing we did was to increase investments in a number of areas,” Dillard added. “I think doing acquisitions like Wolftech would have been really hard [if Avid was still public]. I don't think the business was capitalized well to do it. We also are freeing up an enormous amount of money on R and D, like, orders of magnitude more than most of our competitors, if you think about it as a percentage of revenue.”

With artificial intelligence being top of mind at the moment, what did Wolftech bring to the table? Berven said Wolftech approaches AI on both the technical and creative sides.

We have an AI module built inside Wolftech which we are now combining with MediaCentral,” he said. “But the thing we are focusing on is to help the journalist produce better and faster content, especially on the publishing side. But at the same time, we are also working very closely with other vendors and integration to fact checking, because we want to combine the idea of working faster with AI but also using fact checking in the new tool.”

Dillard is bullish on the upcoming NAB Show, which will provide the launching pad for introducing its new Wolftech integrated solutions to the industry.

“It's a different Avid now, it moves at a different pace, there’s a new landscape that creates the opportunity for Avid to move faster,” Dillard concluded. “There are more opportunities because of this changing landscape than there have been for Avid for a number of years. And I think the booth will reflect that.”

Avid will be in Booth SL1516 in the South Hall of the LVCC.

BRISTOL, U.K—Wounded Buffalo Sound Studios is an audio postproduction facility that has worked on countless award-winning TV productions, including “Planet Earth III,” “Earthsounds,” “Our Great National Parks” and “David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet”.

From their facility in Bristol, in the west of England, Wounded Buffalo Sound Studios has carved out a unique niche in the world of audio postproduction. It is known for its exceptional work in natural history documentaries.

Long-Shot Audio
Working on natural history documentaries presents many unique challenges. Since most subjects are shot on very long lenses, you can film something from 400 yards away but you can’t easily capture the sound from that distance.

This often means that when we receive footage, the accompanying audio is sometimes minimal or of poor quality. In the field, audio is rarely a priority, or even available, with shoots often capturing “first-ever” seen footage in extreme environments.

But we do get some atmospheric sound if we’re lucky. Sometimes the production team will leave a remote camera with a built-in mic somewhere, and even though the sound can be pretty terrible, it’s really useful; it lets us know what we’re supposed to be aiming for.

Natural history content requires incredible attention to detail. We regularly consult with scientists and episode producers familiar with the footage or landscapes they depict to ensure the authenticity of the sound. Each layer is pretty fastidiously researched. The wrong bird at the wrong time of day can ruin the authenticity.

The pressure to maintain accuracy is immense. We often work with footage that needs the sound to be reconstructed entirely. This means creating a soundscape that is believable yet captivating.

Swimming In Sound
One of the more surprising aspects of natural history sound work is dealing with underwater audio. Given the important role of clear underwater audio in ocean scenes, we advise recording teams on how to capture it for best effect—for example, stopping the boat’s engine so that the noise doesn’t interfere with natural sounds.

Underwater stuff is actually quite tricky. Swimming generally doesn’t make much noise, but when you see it, it kind of needs to make a sound to look right. So, if you’re underwater and a dolphin swims past the camera and above you, you can follow it with sound.

To address those difficult issues at Wounded Buffalo, our facilities now include three dubbing theaters featuring Dolby Atmos technology and six edit suites:

• Dubbing Theatre A (Dolby Atmos): Avid Pro Tools HDX system with S6 M40 console, and wall-to-wall speakers.
• Dubbing Theatre B: Avid S6 control surface and Pro Tools.
• Dubbing Theatre C: Two Avid S1 modules and Avid Dock.
• Sound Editing Suites: Pro Tools with various plugins including iZotope RX, a powerful noise-reduction software package.

A turning point for us came with the integration of Avid’s S6 control surface, marking a significant upgrade. When the S6 came along, we jumped ship and went to Avid. It’s very versatile.

The integration has been particularly crucial for our work on complex projects. Everything is in one place. The integration is seamless, and it brings forward everything we need for a session.

More information is available at avid.com.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—SMPTE has joined with Avid to publish a new standard for the VC-3 codec in Interoperable Master Format (IMF).

The VC-3 standard, a codec implementation that Avid provides under the DNx brand, is a primary production codec used by enterprise media organizations worldwide for critical broadcast functions such as capture, editing, rendering, base transcoding and long-term archiving. SMPTE ST 2067-70 is a new standard that specifies an application of the IMF framework covering the use of VC-3 as specified in SMPTE ST 2019-1, SMPTE said.

“For many of Avid's customers, the DNx family of codecs, VC-3, is used in their productions as a mezzanine format to maximize quality while obtaining superior editing performance on common off-the-shelf desktop and server platforms,” Avid Vice President of Technology Shailendra Mathur said. “This newly published standard will ensure that the same mezzanine-quality codec used in production can now be passed through to the IMF mastering stage for distribution.”

IMF is an important international media standard for providing a single interchangeable master file format and structure for content distribution. IMF is a family of SMPTE standards (SMPTE ST 2067) that simplifies the storage of all the audiovisual content needed to create different versions for distribution to multiple territories and platforms in one package. It is an essential component of modern, high-scale content fulfillment and has enabled the building of simplified delivery and processing systems for versioning. The IMF package can be used for business-to-business content exchange between content owners, post facilities and distribution platforms.

As VC-3 is a primary production codec used in delivering content to a variety of broadcasters, the new ST 2067-70 standard covers its usage with IMF, which enables delivery in VC-3 codecs that closely match the ideals of IMF in keeping the maximum quality possible for future distribution/reversion and archive. The standard allows any broadcast facility to deliver final assets for broadcast/archive with as much of the original creative intent in place as possible. It also offers a choice to use a constant-bit-rate (CBR) codec profile, enabling predictability for storage and network transport. The standardization will provide time and cost savings and will bypass quality degradation due to the ability to pass through previously encoded content without the need to transcode into a different format, SMPTE said.

The DPP, an organization with membership spanning the media supply chain, including media technology and production companies, initially approached SMPTE and Avid as a proponent in the development of this standard, which offers significant workflow advantages over the alternatives currently in the specification, including the easy insertion of changes (before creating a final IMF deliverable) and potentially faster turnaround times.

“It has been great to support the collaboration between Avid and SMPTE to enable the use of VC-3 codec within the IMF framework,” DPP technology strategist David Thompson said. “This addition meets a clear business need for companies who use VC-3 as their primary production codec and wish to adopt IMF for distribution and archiving.“

Added Avid Chief Technology Officer Kevin Riley: “We are pleased to be working with SMPTE on improvements to the DNx family of codecs, VC-3, for the benefit of our valued member partners in the DPP. Avid understands that improving DNx is critical to our customers in keeping existent media processing chains intact. This new standard maintains the ability for our DNx codec to be storage- and network-friendly while also producing time and cost savings, as the delivery format can now match the production codec used by our partners and customers.”

Further information about SMPTE can be found at smpte.org.

More information on Avid and the DPP is available at www.avid.com and at www.thedpp.com.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid said it completed the acquisition of Wolftech Broadcast Solutions, a provider of cloud-based, multiplatform news planning, production and publishing solutions. Financial details were not disclosed.

“This is an exciting moment,” Avid CEO Wellford Dillard said. “Wolftech is unquestionably on the leading edge of where the industry is going, and this acquisition demonstrates Avid’s commitment to transform news, sports and live production workflows. We are delighted to welcome Wolftech into the Avid family.”

Closing the deal enables Avid to combine its digital-first, end-to-end media product portfolio with Wolftech’s story-centric workflow management. The combination will benefit news organizations with increased efficiency and accelerated story delivery due to enhanced remote collaboration and the ability to amplify the reach of stories across multiple platforms, Avid said.

“We were focused on finding a partner that could accelerate the adoption of our platform globally,” Wolftech CEO Arne Berven said. “We explored a number of possibilities, but when we talked to Avid, we knew it was the right match.”

Avid disclosed its definitive agreement to acquire Wolftech on Oct. 7. The acquisition will more fully integrate Avid’s tools with those of Wolftech, but Avid said it will continue to maintain an open approach to working with other companies with media production tools and newsroom systems.

Existing Wolftech customers will have access to Avid’s global scale for customer support and professional services, the company said.

“This acquisition strengthens Avid's position in the news market and confirms our commitment to deliver best-in-class solutions that empower news organizations to thrive in today's fast-paced digital landscape,” Dillard said. “Together, Avid and Wolftech will enable news production teams to accelerate storytelling—from pitch to publish.”

More information is available on the Avid website.

TV Tech is teaming up with TVBEurope and Avid to host a webinar looking at the impact of artificial intelligence on the media industry.

With so much being written about the technology, how does the industry actually see it? What advantages and challenges does AI offer to broadcasters, and how confident are they about using AI in their workflows today?

The free session on Nov. 26 will take a deep dive into the key findings of an industry survey on the confidence in AI, conducted by Caretta Research on behalf of TVBEurope and TV Tech.

Topics under discussion will include what challenges lie on the road ahead to adopting AI, and where AI is currently making the most impact on broadcast and media workflows, and where it could in the future.

Speakers include Caretta Research co-founder, Robert Ambrose, and Seth Hallen, president of the Hollywood Professional Association and AI expert.

A second session hosted by TVBEurope and Avid on Dec. 3 will focus on the reality of AI today for broadcasters and how it can increase workflow efficiency and creativity. It will include discussions on the ways in which AI can help journalists get their stories to air faster than ever before, and the importance of security when considering the implementation of AI.

Speakers include Avid product evangelist Craig Wilson and Danijela Horak, Head of AI Research, BBC R&D.

Don’t miss out on these webinars with leading experts sharing their knowledge on artificial intelligence. Register for free now.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid Technology announced today that it is acquiring Wolftech Broadcast Solutions, a Bergen, Norway-based provider of cloud-based multiplatform planning and publishing news-production solutions.

The acquisition enhances Avid’s presence in the news, sports and live-production market by combining its digital-first, end-to-end media solution with Wolftech’s expertise in story-centric workflow management, the company said. The integration of Wolftech and Avid is intended to enable news organizations to rapidly deliver stories through multiplatform amplification, significantly increasing efficiency and improving remote collaboration, Avid said.

Wolftech—which started in 2011 with the cooperation of TV 2, one of Norway’s largest commercial broadcasters—counts CBS, the BBC, CBC, ITN and RTL among its most prominent customers. Its software platform already integrates with a wide range of tools, including Avid MediaCentral, and the company said it will continue to build integrations with Avid solutions, as well as other similar media production platforms. Existing Wolftech customers will benefit from Avid's global scale for customer support and professional service, Avid said.

The integration will help customers “break down silos,” increase efficiency, centralize communication, optimize team collaboration and future-proof its technology by “leveraging an integration engine, open API and AI framework to easily build and evolve innovative and modular workflows, from lens to edit and beyond, for the ultimate connected newsroom,” Avid said.

“We are thrilled to welcome Wolftech to the Avid family,” Avid CEO Wellford Dillard said. “This acquisition strengthens Avid’s position in the news market and underscores our commitment to deliver best-in-class solutions that empower news organizations to thrive in today’s fast-paced digital landscape. Together, Avid and Wolftech will change the game for news production teams, delivering innovative tools and workflows that enable compelling, yet efficient, storytelling.”

Wolftech CEO Arne Berven expressed enthusiasm about the acquisition and its potential to drive innovation in news production workflows. “Joining forces with Avid represents an exciting opportunity for Wolftech to accelerate our mission of revolutionizing news production,” he said. “By integrating Wolftech’s multiplatform planning, collaboration and publishing capabilities with Avid’s industry-leading solutions, we will empower news organizations to adapt to evolving audience demands and deliver high-quality content across digital platforms more efficiently than ever before.”

For more information, visit https://connect.avid.com/avid-wolftech.html.

DOHA, Qatar & DUBAI, UAE — At CNBC Arabia, the financial and business information channel, we faced the daunting challenge of a comprehensive overhaul. It was imperative due to the revamp of our Dubai headquarters and an expansion in our Doha location, as the network sought to adapt to ever-evolving industry demands and emerging technologies.

Embracing the change, we had a clear goal of streamlining workflows, enhancing collaboration, and driving innovation across the organization. An Avid customer for more than 15 years, CNBC Arabia had previously used another Newsroom Computer System (NRCS) with third-party integrations before switching to Avid MediaCentral | Newsroom Management (iNEWS).

Two Facilities, One System
With two facilities in Dubai and Doha as well as several news bureaus across the Middle East, CNBC Arabia recognized the imperative for a comprehensive and integrated newsroom workflow efficiency solution from a single vendor, so that content could be easily shared between locations and delivered to end users as fast as possible.

Avid’s solutions offered a unified user experience in the web-based MediaCentral | Cloud UX, bringing together script writing, video viewing and editing, logging and access to archive content. Editors work in Media Composer to craft packages for air, powered by the video sharing capabilities of MediaCentral | Production Management, with Avid NEXIS shared storage. Avid ingest and playout servers are deployed in both sites for robust workflows to get media in and play media out to air.

Another key aspect of our transformation was the adoption of Avid | Edit On Demand, a cloud-based platform for seamless media sharing and collaboration, removing the need for on-prem infrastructure in the bureaus and providing a simplified way of creating content that can be easily accessed by both main studio locations.

CNBC Arabia benefits from being on a subscription package encompassing all locations, giving the organization leverage and flexibility to upgrade to a better system without a heavy initial investment.

Our migration to the new solution in both Dubai and Doha was not without its challenges, but by now using the web-based MediaCentral | Cloud UX, staff can easily view and browse content in either site on a unified user interface, and then use MediaCentral | Delivery to exchange content swiftly for use by their editorial teams.

The capabilities of MediaCentral | Newsroom Management also allow staff to view any stories in either site and transfer them simply by dragging and dropping from one rundown to the other.

In Dubai, our infrastructure was—and still is—based on SDI, while in Doha, an IP-based infrastructure was deployed. Avid’s solution can handle both scenarios. While viewers may not notice any change to their viewing experience, the technical infrastructure behind the scenes is vastly different.

Avid | Edit On Demand, which runs in the Microsoft Azure Cloud, empowered CNBC Arabia to create, edit, and distribute content with unprecedented ease and efficiency. Additionally, our distributed teams benefited from a sense of reliability and consistency. With Avid | Edit On Demand, we now have a centralized process to bring content into the cloud, making our lives much easier.

Cloud-Based Flexibility
With a modernized system now in place in our two main locations, combined with the cloud-based flexibility of Avid | Edit On Demand, the need to re-edit and transcode files and footage before sharing has been eliminated. Valuable time is saved, allowing us to deliver news to our audience more swiftly and efficiently than ever before. We no longer spend time digging through file systems, allowing us to focus on our content schedule. We have more bandwidth to create new programs and talk shows.

Looking forward, the flexibility and scalability offered by Avid’s subscription packages will enable us to adapt to evolving needs and take full advantage of all system capabilities. With plans to further explore Avid’s offerings, we’re poised to unlock even greater newsroom workflow efficiency and innovation, paving the way for future growth. l

More information is available at www.avid.com.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid has announced improvements to its Avid | Stream IO software subscription solution for broadcast production ingest and playout that are designed to further enable and support IP-based workflow. 

At IBC 2024 Avid will demonstrate an upcoming version of Stream IO software, planned for release later in 2024, that natively supports uncompressed IP ingest and playout offered by SMPTE 2110, as well as compressed IP-based ingest and playout with support for SRT and RTMP protocols. 

“The enhancements in this new release reflect Avid’s drive to increase efficiency and enable Avid customers to stay ahead of the increasing demand for high quality news, sports and live entertainment content,” explained Tim Claman, chief product officer at Avid. “Broadcasters can now ingest and playout any feed for any production workflow, while taking advantage of a lower cost of entry, thanks to Avid | Stream IO’s software-based subscription licensing model.”  

Avid | Stream IO is the next-generation ingest and playout solution that enables fast turnaround workflows for news and sports. With a flexible software architecture that supports flexible deployment on common off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware, Avid | Stream IO is configurable for both SDI streams and IP-based formats, allowing production teams to migrate from legacy workflows to IP workflows at their own pace. It also supports high precision imagery including 1080P, UHD and HDR – at a lower cost per channel than traditional hardware-based systems. 

This upcoming software release builds on other recent performance improvements to Avid | Stream IO, including a doubled channel count to support two, four and now up to eight channels in a single system, the ability to build media playlists ready for playback during production directly from the web remote console, closed captioning on playout, and increased codec support. 

Avid | Stream IO runs on COTS hardware and is available through subscription.  

For more information, visit www.avid.com/products/avid-stream-io. 

The Television Academy has announced the recipients of the 76th Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards honoring an individual, company or organization for developments in broadcast technology. 

The awards ceremony, hosted by Criminal Minds star Kirsten Vangsness, will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, at the Television Academy's Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, California.

"The Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards are a testament to the incredible ingenuity and creativity that power our industry," said Cris Abrego, chair of the Television Academy. "We are thrilled to honor these innovators who have pushed the boundaries of what's possible, shaping the future of television for generations to come."

"This year we honor a diverse group of technologies that enable and advance the storytelling process for television production," said committee co-chairs Barry Zegel and Wendy Aylsworth. "Electro/Mechanical Camera Stabilization systems, software programs that aid the editing and creation process, support for LED Volumes production, the MDDF (MovieLabs Digital Distribution Framework) Standard, and the use of generative artificial intelligence tools are all included in this year's awards. This wide range of technologies demonstrates the amazing achievements throughout our industry."

This year, the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors a living individual whose ongoing contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering, is being given to Jensen Huang. Jensen Huang founded NVIDIA in 1993 and has served since its inception as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors.

Since its founding, NVIDIA has pioneered accelerated computing. The company's invention of the GPU (graphics processing unit) in 1999 sparked the growth of the PC gaming market, redefined computer graphics and ignited the era of modern AI. NVIDIA is now driving the platform shift of accelerated computing and generative AI, transforming the world's largest industries and profoundly impacting society.

Huang has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering and is a recipient of the Semiconductor Industry Association's highest honor, the Robert N. Noyce Award; the IEEE Founder's Medal; the Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award; and honorary doctorate degrees from Taiwan's National Chiao Tung University, National Taiwan University and Oregon State University. He has been named the world's best CEO by Fortune, the Economist and Brand Finance and one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people.

Prior to founding NVIDIA, Huang worked at LSI Logic and Advanced Micro Devices. He holds a BSEE degree from Oregon State University and an MSEE degree from Stanford University.

The Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award, which honors an agency, company or institution whose contributions over time have significantly impacted television technology and engineering, is being given to Adobe Inc.

For over 40 years, Adobe has been a leader in delivering groundbreaking technology that empowers everyone, everywhere to express themselves and bring their stories to life, the Academy said. From students to creative professionals, and from small businesses to the world's largest enterprises, Adobe's customers use Adobe tools to unleash their creativity, accelerate document productivity and power digital businesses — including Adobe Acrobat; Creative Cloud tools such as Premiere Pro, Photoshop, After Effects and Adobe Express; Substance 3D collection; collaboration tools like Frame.io; and Experience Cloud enterprise solutions, such as Adobe GenStudio.

Adobe's tools have powered a record number of award-winning television shows and movies including 2024 Emmy-nominated projects, such as Saturday Night Live, FX's The Bear and HBO's Ramy Youssef: More Feelings and The Jinx — Part Two as well as noteworthy films and docuseries including Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, Dìdi (弟弟) and Penelope.

The Academy said that the Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards are presented to an individual, company or organization for developments in engineering, science and technology that are either so extensive an improvement on existing methods or so innovative in nature that they materially affect the production, recording, transmission or reception of television and thereby have elevated the storytelling process. 

The Academy described this year's recipients as follows:  

Recipient: Adobe Inc. for the development of the Adobe Substance Painter. Substance Painter is a non-destructive 3D texture painting application. Initially built for game developers, Substance Painter has seen very quick adoption in visual effects and animation within the television industry despite its relatively young age. Substance Painter's unique approach of procedural-driven materials differs from previous metaphors for texture generation: It leverages algorithmic methods vs. manual painting and cloning. This has enabled fast and creative texture creation by a broader spectrum of artists without requiring traditional art and painting skill sets. This new workflow has helped increase creativity and accelerate asset generation via quicker iterations in visual effects. As a result, Substance 3D Painter is leading the industry in texture painting, allowing the ability to texture a model in real-time. From animation to visual effects studios, the industry uses Painter to bring their creations to life.

Recipients: Tom Ohanian, Ken Goekjian, Joel Swan and Victor Young for the development of the Avid Multicamera System. Introduced in 1994, the Avid Multicamera System has stood the test of time. With its worldwide usage, it continues to be a dominant technology and product offering in the industry. The Multicamera System replaced systems that utilized videotape and laserdisc players. This digital multicamera invention improved upon all the previous limitations: It provided nonlinear, digital, random access to material with multiple tracks of audio. Due to the invention's functionality of auto-synchronization, the time-consuming synchronization of different camera angles was automated. Editing could proceed directly from camera iso (isolated) feeds as well as a line cut (directly from the video switcher), if necessary due to time constraints. These items significantly advanced the art of storytelling, proving why creative people utilize Avid's Multicamera System to make today's most celebrated video and audio content.

Recipients: Paul Pan, Yanchong Zhao, Tie Su, Shimeng Bei for the development of the DJI Ronin Series. The DJI Ronin is a line of professional camera stabilization systems designed for filmmakers and videographers to stabilize cameras, enabling camera operators to capture smooth, steady footage. The Ronin uses a three-axis gimbal system to stabilize pan, tilt and roll, keeping the camera level and steady, often eliminating the need to lay dolly track or set up a Technocrane. The Ronin's modular design allows for easy setup and adjustment and can be adapted for a variety of shooting scenarios and camera setups. Ronin's payload capacity supports a variety of camera and lens combinations from small mirrorless cameras to larger cinema cameras. Ronin gimbals offer a variety of operation modes, such as Pan Follow, Lock Mode and POV (Point of View) Mode; and they are compatible with a range of accessories, such as wireless focus systems, monitors and other filmmaking tools.

Recipients: Stuart Geman, Kevin Manbeck, John Mertus, and Michael Braca for the development of the DRSNova Film and Video Restoration Software. DRSNova film and video restoration software boasts a comprehensive suite of features tailored to meet the diverse needs of modern filmmakers and post-production experts. From its inception, this innovative software has been at the forefront of advancements in digital restoration and film-processing technology, continuously evolving to keep pace with the ever-changing demands of the industry. It seamlessly integrates into the workflows of film labs, post-production houses, and archival facilities, providing robust solutions for a wide array of restoration tasks. Whether it's restoring aging film stock, enhancing visual quality, or preparing content for television broadcast and streaming, or Blu-ray distribution, DRS™Nova excels in delivering exceptional results with unmatched efficiency. By empowering professionals to achieve their creative vision while maintaining the integrity of the original content, DRS™Nova has played a pivotal role in preserving cinematic heritage and elevating the quality of visual storytelling across various platforms.

Recipient: Benjamin Graf for the development of Accentize's dxRevive Pro. dxRevive Pro is a sophisticated speech-restoration plugin engineered to enhance the fidelity of dialogue recordings across a range of scenarios. Unlike other restoration-style software, dxRevive Pro doesn't just filter the signal, it also identifies and reintegrates missing frequency components. As a result, users can produce studio-like recordings (where the audio is not only "cleaned" but the dialogue itself is enhanced) from a diverse array of source materials. Previously, achieving such clarity required painstaking effort and might not have been achievable at all, resulting in the need for ADR sessions and the additional cost and time those incur. By swiftly and effectively improving dialogue quality, dxRevive Pro elevates the overall audio experience for viewers, ensuring that they can be fully immersed in the story without distraction or discomfort. In essence, dxRevive Pro not only mitigates the impact of budget constraints on dialogue quality but also enhances the storytelling process by providing a more comfortable listening experience, ultimately enriching the narrative and its emotional impact.

Recipients: Jeremy Hochman, Chris Byrne, Colin Cook and Justin Nicolaides for the development of Megapixel's HELIOS LED Processing Platform. The HELIOS platform is an advanced video processing system for LED walls. For over 20 years, the platform has revolutionized LED displays, making them reliable and repeatable tools for filmmakers. HELIOS' advancement of LED processing has removed the restrictions of greenscreen production, enabling storytellers to have full creativity — live in camera. HELIOS supports video sources up to 8K resolution and is capable of handling up to four simultaneous SMPTE ST 2110 inputs. This makes it ideal for large-scale displays and complex visual applications that require high-resolution and precise synchronization. HELIOS' innovative GhostFrame technology allows multiple unique video feeds to be displayed on LED panels simultaneously, streamlining virtual production workflows by enabling the recording of multiple backgrounds from a single take. Its advanced color-management system ensures accurate color fidelity, consistently preserving and applying metadata from source to final display. With full HDR support and seamless integration with image-based lighting systems, HELIOS delivers stunning visuals.

Recipients: Craig Seidel for the development of the MovieLabs Digital Distribution Framework. The MovieLabs Digital Distribution Framework (MDDF) was born from the evolution from physical to digital distribution. Starting in mid-2008, MDDF was originally conceived to support online sales of downloadable content, but it rapidly evolved into a comprehensive collection of essential data standards that drove online streaming. Prior practice was for content owners to provide distribution services an assortment of spreadsheets, emails and other unstructured data. When volumes were small these manual methods could work; but as distribution services evolved to handle tens or hundreds of thousands of titles (millions of assets), those practices were no longer feasible. MDDF provides the solution. MDDF is a suite of digital distribution specifications that define avails (licensing); metadata; asset ordering, delivery and status; bonus/extras; workflows; and APIs. MDDF was designed to get movies and television in front of home viewers in the form most suitable for their needs. It allows a breadth of content to be prepared and delivered by digital service providers to viewers with rich metadata that supports discovery allowing viewers to select the most interesting content. MDDF supports full localization, both in metadata and in handling the complexity of localized and accessibility-focused assets and supports everything from the most primitive formats to the most advanced. MDDF allows people to enjoy content in a way that preserves the creative intent and matches the needs of the individual.

Recipient: The Tiffen Company for the development of the Steadicam Volt. The Steadicam Volt system is an accessory to the already ubiquitous Steadicam that utilizes electronic stabilization technology to assist camera operators in achieving and maintaining smooth, consistent and level camera shots. When mounted on a Steadicam or other brand of camera stabilizer, the Volt will help to maintain a level or preset horizon and filter out unwanted camera movements without affecting normal Steadicam operation or control. Steadicam Volt™ consists of two main components: A "brain" that is mounted fixed in relation to the camera, which houses all gyro and accelerometer motion-sensing components and a gimbal-mounted "motor drive" unit to apply corrections to the tilt-and-roll axis of the camera stabilizer. With the camera stabilizer sled neutrally balanced, the Volt requires very little battery power to manipulate even the heaviest of camera payloads. Difficult shots that involve high-acceleration camera movement — such as running or fast lateral movements — are now easier to obtain smoothly. Operators do not need to focus as much on inertial influences or external forces, such as wind and how they affect camera positioning. The Steadicam Volt™ enables a camera operator to better focus, react and interact with dynamically changing or challenging shooting environments to produce better framing of shots. 

The Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards are made possible by Television Academy sponsors FIJI Water, Franciacorta, Johnnie Walker Blue Label, JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery, People, The Ritz-Carlton and United Airlines.

Missed any of our recent product news? Here is TV Tech's weekly wrap-up of new products, services and deployments we published in our newsletter between July 29 to August 2. The stories are listed from the newest on Friday August 2, day by day back to our stories from Monday July 29

JVC Begins Shipping New KM-IP12S8 Series vMix 4K Video Switchers

The latest JVC Solutions are designed for multi-camera productions of live sports and events.

Vivo Taps Harmonic to Power Caliente TV Sports Channel

Harmonic's VOS360 Media SaaS-based Solution is being used to simplify media processing, playout and primary distribution for a new sports channel in Mexico.

EVS Acquires MOG Technologies

The deal will expand its market reach and further support the extension of EVS’ MediaCeption workflows.

Ateliere Launches Its New `Connect AI’ Offering

At IBC 2024 Atelier will be showing what it is billing as the industry’s first end-to-end GenAI media supply chain solution.

VITAC To Demo Latest AI Captioning, Translation Advancements at IBC 2024

The company’s AI-powered Captivate captioning solution lowers the cost of captioning.

Sony Ships M2L-X Live Production Switcher

The switcher leverages hybrid procession and operations for on-premises and cloud production.

Comcast, Comscore Expand Cross-Platform Measurement Efforts

Enhanced partnership will allow Comscore clients to tap into Comcast Advertising’s Signal Authentication solution to increase fidelity of measurement and attribution.

Rohde & Schwarz To Showcase Latest Updates To Gallium, StreamMaster, PRISMON At IBC Show

Its Gallium and StreamMaster playout environment now runs on the latest Windows and Linus releases.

Dolby Acquires THEO Technologies

The deal will help Dolby expand its solutions for live sports and entertainment that enable viewers to interact with content while watching on different screens.

Atomos Unveils Shinobi II HDR Monitor

The new high-brightness HDR monitor is designed for vloggers, creatives and photographers.

iSpot Launches Cross-Platform Measurement Offering for TikTok

The solution enables brands to verify the audience overlap and incremental reach TikTok delivers against linear TV.

CommScope Launches STARLINE ESD 1.8 GHz Amplifiers

The ESD amplifiers offer substantial upgrades for DOCSIS 3.1 networks and an incremental path to DOCSIS 4.0.

Bahrain TV Launches Middle East’s First IP Playout System

State broadcaster tapped Grass Valley for the upgrade.

Critical Connection: Automotive ATSC 3.0

Experts discuss ATSC 3.0's role in automotive connectivity.

Comscore Introduces Comprehensive Cross-Platform YouTube Audience Measurement

Comscore measurement and video insights are now available for YouTube traffic on desktop, mobile and CTV.

Wohler Announces 3G-SDI To 12G-SDI Upgrade Path

The new module, OPT-RMOC-12G, makes it possible to migrate a 3G-SDI capable monitor to a 12G-SDI (4K) capable monitor.

Wooden Camera Introduces Accessory System for Canon EOS C400

The system integrates with a wide range of Wooden Camera, Canon and third-party accessories.

Avid Unveils Latest Version Of Media Composer

The release adds a new transcript tool, deeper Pro Tools compatibility and enhanced collaboration.

Vegas Creative Software Launches Vegas Pro 22

Improvements to the video engine enable new AI-assisted features, text-based editing and enhanced audio tools.

Dot Group Showcases AI-Driven Solutions for M&E at IBC 2024

Dot will sponsor the AI Tech Zone networking area, highlighting innovative data management solutions.

PMVG Launches NextGen TV Station in Cookeville, Tenn.

The Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), a business development consortium of 32 public stations, has launched NextGen broadcasting service on W35DZ-D, its low-power station in Cookeville, Tennessee.

ADMC Riyadh Deploys Ikegami HDK-99 HDR Camera Systems

Each system comprises an HDK-99 camera head, FA-97A fiber interface, BSX-100H base station, VFL-P700A viewfinder and OCP-300 operation control unit.

Leader Electronics of Europe to Feature New ZEN-W Series Advanced Analyzers at IBC Show

Test and measurement specialist Leader Electronics of Europe will make the European debut of its ZEN-W Series of advanced analyzers at IBC 2024, Sept. 13-16, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center.

V-Nova, Amlogic to Support MPEG-5 LCEVC on Amlogic SoCs

V-Nova and Amlogic have announced a partnership to support MPEG-5 LCEVC on Amlogic SoCs.

Pliant to Showcase New Compact Crewcom Radio Pack at IBC2024

Professional intercoms provider Pliant Technologies will highlight its new CRP-C12 Compact Radio Pack at IBC2024, Sept. 13-17 at the RAI Amsterdam.

Disney, NBC and NFL Among IBC2024 Innovation Awards Finalists

IBC has announced the finalists for this year’s IBC Innovation Awards, taking place on Sunday, Sept. 15 during IBC2024 in the RAI Amsterdam.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid has introduced Media Composer 2024.6 of its video editing software, offering a new Transcript Tool for PhraseFind, enhanced compatibility with Avid’s Pro Tools audio production software and expanded availability of Avid Huddle, the company’s cloud service for real-time collaborative editing sessions.

The latest version enhances Avid PhraseFind with the Avid Ada AI. The new Transcript Tool allows editors to work more efficiently by letting them jump to specific moments in a clip based on spoken phrases, editing directly from selections in the transcript into the timeline, the company said. 

Media Composer 2024.6 also improves integration with Pro Tools, adding support for sub-frame automation for volume and pan, improving compatibility with Pro Tools and providing editors with more creative control. Pro Tools also can now export Media Composer-compatible session files that preserve essential metadata, it said. 

The release makes Avid Huddle available for all versions of Media Composer and Avid | Edit On Demand. Editors can stream the audio/video output of Media Composer directly to collaborators connected via Microsoft Teams, allowing for real-time reviews, time-stamped annotations and discussion. Time-based text comments can be imported back into Media Composer as markers to streamline content revisions, the company said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid has announced improvements to its software-defined storage solution, Avid NEXIS that are designed to help users meet the most demanding audio workflows. 

“Our customers need to find ways to become more efficient, removing friction from their workflows while dealing with increasingly complex projects," explained Avid chief product officer Tim Claman. “Avid NEXIS is already the most trusted shared storage platform in the industry. With the latest enhancements to NEXIS software, Avid has now set a new standard for audio performance, for both audio-only facilities and mixed audio/video environments, enabling fluid content sharing without performance compromises.”

“While this ground-breaking innovation has been proven to exceed the expectations of the most demanding, large-scale audio facilities, the performance and workflow advantages apply to smaller configurations as well,” he continued. “And, because the enhanced performance is the result of software innovation, existing customers simply need to update their NEXIS software to reap the benefits.”

Optimized for real-time media production, Avid NEXIS is a collaborative shared storage solution, designed to provide the performance, scalability, and availability that powers professional audio and video content creation workflows. Ideal for post-production facilities, dubbing studios, and multi-room studios using multiple Avid Pro Tools workstations, NEXIS offers a range of storage ‘engines’, both on prem and in the cloud. 

For the most demanding audio and video workflows, Avid said it recommends customers deploy the Avid NEXIS F2 SSD engine. With Avid NEXIS | VFS software version 2023.12 or later, SSD-based NEXIS systems are now performance verified to support up to 8,000 tracks per NEXIS F2 SSD across hundreds of connected Pro Tools workstations accessing audio clips, session files, video sequences and other media simultaneously, while enabling 6x faster performance for audio punch-in.

Seamlessly integrated within Avid Media Composer and Avid Pro Tools, the Avid NEXIS F2 SSD offers ultimate performance, scalability, and real-time media delivery to track and mix sound-for-picture and other high track count, immersive audio projects, the company said. 

For smaller-scale projects, production teams can deploy the Avid NEXIS F-series and Avid NEXIS | PRO+ engines. With Avid NEXIS | VFS software 2023.12 or later, they also offer verified multi-user performance for Pro Tools audio workflows, now enabling 2x faster performance for audio punch-in, and 20% faster save times for Pro Tools sessions. The NEXIS F-series supports up to 175 million files and 500 voices per media pack, while the NEXIS | PRO+ supports up to 5 million files and 500 voices per media pack. 

Avid also reported that in any NEXIS configuration, production teams no longer need to spend time duplicating files or moving them around. Their media can be securely, centrally stored, providing fast simultaneous access to all authorized team members.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—German public broadcaster ZDF is migrating its existing asset management systems onto Avid’s MediaCentral | Cloud UX software platform, the company said.

The transition extends the broadcaster’s long relationship with Avid. It provides ZDF with a complete toolset to manage news and program workflows and opens up the possibility of encompassing workflows ranging from ingest to publication., the company said. 

The deal with ZDF supports the broadcaster’s complex multi-site configuration. One core media asset system is being located at its headquarters in Mainz and two supporting systems in Berlin and Düsseldorf.  

Avid’s MediaCentral | Cloud UX provides ZDF’s production teams with robust remote collaboration enabling them to use the platform’s feature set, which are regularly updated, within a current on-premise model, Avid said.

“Our editorial teams have enthusiastically embraced the new possibilities with Avid MediaCentral | Cloud UX in their daily work. This new agreement with our long-term trusted partner Avid future-proofs our production tech, allowing us to accelerate our news and program production workflows,” said ZDF project manager Antje Lang.

More information is available on the company’s website.  

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid has launched Avid Huddle, an SaaS solution that gives post-production teams the ability to collaborate and accelerate content review and approvals.

Editors using Media Composer | Ultimate, Media Composer | Enterprise or Avid | Edit On Demand in a hybrid environment can now easily share high-quality media during a live Microsoft Teams meeting. Remote reviewers can collectively view, discuss and comment in real time from anywhere as if they were working in the same room, the company said.

“Collaborating to review video content during post-production is challenging when the creative team is distributed across multiple locations," said Tanya O'Connor, Avid vice president of market solutions. "Avid Huddle helps teams jump this barrier and truly embrace distributed working. 

"Finally, remote over-the-shoulder content review with any production stakeholder is achieved simply by using one of the world’s most widely available collaboration apps.” 

Editors can launch a Teams meeting safely from Avid Huddle without leaving Media Composer. This enables Teams participants to review content with full confidence that it is secure and protected, the company said. 

Avid Huddle allows producers, clients and other reviewers to give immediate feedback to editors by virtually adding time-stamped comments and annotations while discussing content through a live session, it said.  

“With the help of the secure and ubiquitous Microsoft Teams platform, Avid Huddle brings a true paradigm shift to the way TV shows, movies, commercials and other content can now move through review and approval with speed and economy. Most importantly, we’re enabling an exceptional video and audio streaming experience that’s just like looking over the shoulder of an editor at work in Media Composer,” said Simon Crownshaw, director of Microsoft's worldwide media and entertainment strategy.

Avid Huddle will be available as a flexible monthly or annual subscription. It allows users to scale up or down as required and only pay for what editors need when they need it. Only the host needs to have an Avid Huddle subscription. Participants can join sessions through Microsoft Teams, Avid said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

Jeff Rosica, former CEO of Avid announced today, June 10, as his last day with the company. Rosica first joined Avid in 2013 as SVP, Worldwide Field Operations and was appointed president in December 2016. He became CEO in February 2018.

Rosica announced his resignation from Avid in November after the company was acquired by STG for $1.4 billion. At the time, he said he would stay on for a period of time to assist in the transition to new leadership. Avid announced his successor, Wilfred Dilard earlier this year. 

In a noteworthy address to the HPA Tech Retreat in February, he warned of "disastrous times" for M&E, caused by "uncertain business models" fueled by tech advances, particularly AI. 

In a post on Linkedin, Rosica described his time at Avid as “an incredible journey.”

“I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to be a member of #TeamAvid for more than a decade of my career … especially my time as CEO. Being the CEO of such an iconic company and steward of an amazing brand has been an honor, a pleasure and has surely been the pinnacle of my career! I leave Avid with incredible gratitude and tremendous pride—and high expectations for a terrific future for the company.

While I’m officially retiring from Avid, I will forever “bleed purple” and will be rooting for the company and team quite loudly from the sidelines!”

Rosica also hinted that he’s just taking a “break.”

“[I] don’t think that I will sail into the sunset and completely disappear just yet,” he said.

The power of AI (artificial intelligence) will be central to Avid’s product offerings at the NAB Show between April 13 and 17 in Las Vegas.

For instance, Avid’s Inspiration Station open sessions at booth #SU2014 (which are being offered hourly throughout Sunday, Monday and Tuesday) are showcasing Avid Ada AI-powered tools for accelerating creative workflows. The sessions are also demonstrating how Avid’s alliance partners are extending the capabilities of Avid’s editing tool Media Composer with API-powered workflows. They include ‘lens to first edit' with Haivision, First Mile and Marquis; dailies with Autodesk Flow Capture; lightweight asset management with ioMoVo; ingest and archive with Spectra Logic; VFX with Doom Solutions; and integration with Storage DNA.

Avid is spotlighting the latest changes to its news production solution MediaCentral. According to the company, MediaCentral’s new capabilities include enhanced browser-based editing with audio waveforms, more powerful search tools, Blueprint Builder for workflow planning, enhancements to the Rundown app, plus new AI enhancements powered by Avid Ada. 

Demonstrations will show how Avid Ada uses AI to automate speech-to-text transcription, summarization, and language translation. They’ll also show the many AI-powered tools already in Avid solutions today – such as PhraseFind AI and ScriptSync AI in Avid Media Composer, facial detection and scene recognition in Avid MediaCentral, plus a preview of transcription services and recommendation engines.

The latest release of Avid’s software-based ingest and playout solution Avid | Stream IO is on display at 2024 NAB Show. Designed for production teams transitioning from SDI to IP and wanting to use cloud and hybrid workflows, Stream IO supports formats from low resolution proxy up to UHD, in two-, four- and eight-channel configurations for ingest and playout. There will also be a demo showing how a journalist editing in the web-based MediaCentral | Cloud UX can write a script, record their voiceover to the timeline, and then ask the AI service to identify relevant footage that matches a selected section of the story.

As well, visitors can see how Avid Pro Tools (audio postproduction market) has added features for dialog, re-recording, ADR, and mixing, with previews of several new features, including:

• ARA integration of essential audio post plugins like iZotope RX, Synchro Arts VocAlign, and Sound Radix Auto Align.
• Dropbox Replay integration with Pro Tools to accelerate review and approval workflows.
• Immersive audio workflows, including live re-renders for Dolby Atmos, using Pro Tools’ internal renderer.
• Dialog workflow enhancements like track markers, and memory locations.
• Saving of Pro Tools sessions as Media Composer-compatible files, complete with sample-accurate volume and pan information, plus markers.
• Drag and drop of Pro Tools sessions directly into Media Composer bins.

In addition to third-party integrations with Media Composer, Avid is highlighting third-party apps available on its MediaCentral news platform including:

• AI-driven transcript and caption creation, and language translations from TRACO and Digital Nirvana.
• Avid | Edit On Demand ‘lens to first edit’ integrations with Sony and Marquis for proxy workflows and high-resolution file transfers.
• X.News which allows users to incorporate social media content into their story creation and rundown. 

TV TECH: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2024 NAB Show?

DAVE COLANTUONI: We expect to see more innovation around transcription and language, semantic and generative AI technologies. Generative AI will dominate the show. We will also see an evolution of hybrid and cloud solutions and IP-based workflows for cloud production and enhanced interoperability for collaboration. 

TVT: What will be your most important product news?

COLANTUONI: In the Avid booth (SU2014) we will be showcasing a tech preview of our journalist toolset MediaCentral Cloud UX’s enhanced production capabilities that integrate multiple AI technologies into real-world news and production workflows.

Integrating our artistic digital assistant Avid Ada generative AI for story summaries, advanced transcription and translation and semantic technology, we’ll be showing our Avid Ada AI Recommendation Engine, which allows content creators to collaborate with team members by locating content to create stories quickly and easily to get to air faster. In addition, users can view transcriptions and transcription summaries, view multiple languages in near real time and seamlessly edit using the transcription to create a final story. 

TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?

COLANTUONI: Avid Ada’s power is taking tomorrow’s enhanced AI technologies and integrating them into today’s workflows. This accelerates productions and allows content creators to focus on quality and story, without having to learn new tools or change existing workflows.

TVT: What is it about the NAB Show that brings you back every year?

COLANTUONI: There is always something new to learn at NAB Show. The industry is at the beginning of a renaissance of new technology and it’s exciting to see production workflows evolve so quickly, especially in the area of AI. NAB Show is also a great time to check in with customers and our industry partners to see all that’s new and special.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid has announced that it has appointed Wellford Dillard as the organization’s CEO. Wellford succeeds Jeff Rosica, who is staying with the company in an advisory capacity to ensure a smooth and successful transition.

Wellford joins Avid after serving as the CEO of Marigold, a leading provider of omni-channel marketing SaaS solutions, used by businesses to manage and deepen customer engagement. Wellford has more than 20 years of experience in the software industry and, prior to Marigold, held CFO roles at vertical software leaders such as Opower and GetWellNetwork, among others.

“We are thrilled to appoint Wellford as the new CEO of Avid,” said William Chisholm, Managing Partner, and Patrick Fouhy, Principal, of STG. “He has an exceptional background leading software businesses and brings a wealth of valuable experience to Avid. His strong track record driving growth will be invaluable during this next phase of the company’s journey. In addition, we want to express our sincere gratitude to Jeff for his leadership and contributions to the company during his tenure as CEO and for his commitment in helping to ensure a successful transition prior to his retirement.”

“I am privileged to join such a terrific team and significant technology leader in the Media & Entertainment industry. It is a critical time for the industry, as well as an important time for Avid, and I am excited to be leading this iconic organization,” said Wellford Dillard. “The company’s continued focus on innovative technology that can help its preeminent customer base deliver on their creative and business objectives will remain at the center of Avid’s focus as we deliver on the company’s strategic goals and next phase of growth.”

“I’m excited about the future of Avid under Wellford’s leadership, and personally believe that he is the right individual at the right time to lead the company,” said Jeff Rosica. “It has been my honor to be the CEO of Avid over the past several years. I am confident that Wellford has what it takes to move the company forward and lead the team to even greater success in the years ahead.”  

Efficiency, AI and the need to optimize remote production capabilities are among the watchwords among editing and graphics vendors as the 2024 NAB Show approaches.

“Key trends in TV/video graphics include the need for greater efficiency, which is essential in enabling broadcasters to remain and grow more profitable,” said Carol Bettencourt, vice president of marketing for Chyron. “Accuracy is also vital. On the sports side, we’re seeing a trend toward even more rapid playout. And finally, an overarching trend is increasing interest in cloud workflows.”

That’s not all. “Remote collaboration continues to be a driving force within the video editing world, and really in the post-production world as a whole,” said Sarah Jones, senior technical solutions specialist for Blackmagic Design. “Producers and operators want to enable their teams to edit from any available system, from anywhere on the planet, while maintaining security,” added Ray Ratliff, Vizrt’s Product Evangelist, XR. “These requirements are driving cloud MAM and HTML client editing.”

Pushing the Boundaries
There’s also a growing demand for immersive experiences, which are driving innovations in augmented reality and virtual reality graphics, according to Daniel Evans, senior vice president of sales for Magnifi, a San Francisco-based developer of AI for broadcast technologies. 

“Additionally, the rise of 4K and even 8K content is pushing the boundaries of visual quality,” he added. “Cloud-based editing solutions are gaining traction, enhancing collaboration and flexibility. Furthermore, AI-powered tools are streamlining workflows, from automated editing to real-time graphics generation.”

With changing viewer expectations and shorter attention spans, there is pressure to create visually captivating and easily digestible live sports events, says Steven Heimbold, CEO of Singular.live. “But it is also important to make the creation of quality graphics more accessible for all levels of sport, with solutions that offer fast onboarding and a great user experience,” he added.

At press time, many NAB Show editing and graphics exhibitors had not unveiled their plans, including Avid, although the company is implementing AI in many of its products, including  ScriptSync AI in Avid Media Composer, which uses AI-enabled speech-to-text technology to generate transcripts and automatically align media clips to scripts and transcripts. Avid’s new Media Composer PhraseFind AI, likewise, also uses AI speech-to-text, letting editors search for clips using keywords, with automatic detection of 21 languages.

Blackmagic Design will showcase DaVinci Resolve Studio post-production software, the ATEM family of live production switchers, and Blackmagic Cloud Store, a storage that syncs and shares media with Dropbox and Google Drive.

“DaVinci Resolve is a complete post-production solution that lets everyone on a team work together on the same project at the same time,” Jones said. “Traditional editing has a linear workflow with each editor handing off to the next, introducing errors and mountains of change logs to keep track of at each stage. With DaVinci Resolve’s collaboration, each editor can work on the same project, in their own dedicated page with the tools they need.

“With the introduction of Blackmagic Cloud, editors, colorists, VFX artists, animators and sound engineers can now simultaneously work together from anywhere in the world,” Jones added. “Plus, they can review each other’s changes without spending hours reconforming the timeline.”

The Latest in AI
Perhaps no element of the content creation process has been impacted more by AI than editing and graphics, and advances in the technology will be omnipresent on the show floor.

Chyron’s booth will include a sneak peek at some of the latest graphics features the company has developed specifically for NBC Sports. 

“Attendees will also see a beta version of PRIME 5 [Chyron’s live production engine] and how that robust platform is coming into its own as a mature offering,” said Bettencourt. Cloud-based workflows are also on deck. “We’ll also showcase PAINT 9.6, the latest iteration of our legendary illustrated replay offering, now with brand-new AI features including seamless telestration across camera angles,” she said. “Virtual Placement will be on display as well.”

New enhancements to the Magnifi platform enhancements include advanced editing and storytelling capabilities, multichannel audio ingest, frame-accurate scrubbing capabilities, and rules-based package automation, according to Evans. “Additionally, we will highlight new features such as ‘AI-enabled Ball Tracking’ and ‘Bulk Autoflip.’

Magnifi is also introducing what Evans calls “design system as a service at scale”—an AI solution seamlessly integrated into the design system using LLM and a botable image generation solution. “We will also be demonstrating how one of the premier Division I Athletics programs leverages this platform to modernize their creative workflows across video, marketing, advertising, and player commercialization efforts,” he added.

More Flexible Workflows
Singular will launch “overlays.uno,” which provides an optimized operator interface for Singular.live graphics.

“The Singular platform addresses the trend of accessibility by providing a low barrier to entry for users,” said Heimhold. “It allows content owners and creators to design and animate graphics, integrate data seamlessly, and enhance the overall production quality, contributing to engaging new audiences. Our cloud-based system saves hardware costs, supports agile workflows, and allows for customization based on specific requirements, which aligns with the industry trend towards more flexible production workflows.”

Vizrt will show how data-driven storytelling, XR and AR graphics, and virtual sets driven by its Viz Engine can create stunning visuals for covering important events. The company will also showcase tools for live sports production and analysis including Viz AI, Viz Flowics, Viz Libero, 3Play, Viz Arena, Viz Virtual Studio and TriCaster. 

“With Viz AI, onscreen objects like cars or players can be tracked without multilayer tracking systems, eliminating complexity, and expanding the possibilities of sports analysis,” said Chris Black, global head of brand and communications/AI evangelist, who sees 2024 as a year packed with important broadcast-worthy elections and international sports events.

This fact “means those who provide coverage must be on top of their game to deliver information to a global audience beautifully,” he said.  

To help broadcasters meet this goal, Vizrt will be showing how data-driven storytelling, XR and AR graphics, and virtual sets driven by its Viz Engine can create stunning visuals for covering important events. The company will also showcase tools for live sports production and analysis including Viz AI, Viz Flowics, Viz Libero, 3Play, Viz Arena, Viz Virtual Studio and TriCaster. 

“With Viz AI, onscreen objects like cars or players can be tracked without multi-layer tracking systems, eliminating complexity, and expanding the possibilities of sports analysis,” Black concluded.

Register for the 2024 NAB Show, April 14-17 in Las Vegas at https://nabshow.com/2024/

RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIF.—Avid CEO Jeff Rosica has warned that the M&E industry is “at the edge of a disastrous time if we aren’t careful.” 

In his closing address at the HPA Tech Retreat last week, Rosica, who is retiring from Avid, said he "can’t think of an industry that’s had this kind of change or transformation going on, and all the pressures at the same time in one industry. It is unprecedented. In my 37-year career, I can’t think of a time where even a fraction of this (was going on)” said Rosica in beginning his 30-minute presentation: “’Unbreaking’ an Industry: Fixing an Industry-Wide Mess.”

“Our industry is facing significant headwinds coming from all directions, and all at the same time,” he declared. “A tremendous technology shift is coming on (and) it’s really reshaping everything that we do.” 

In enumerating the multiple challenges the industry is now facing, he cited uncertain business models, as well as evolving technologies and the way in which they’re being deployed. 

“We have an ecosystem that’s under pressure and we need to look it,” said Rosica. “We must rethink what we do. Technology shifts are changing the way people work. Where the industry gets its revenue is changing, and changing business models mean new ways of doing things.

“Fear, uncertainty, and doubt are creating industry-wide angst. This in itself is creating a lot of concern. We have to do everything faster than we’ve ever done it before. We have to adapt and find new ways of doing this. And to add icing on this, we had Covid, and Covid accelerated a lot of thinking around how people want to work. It’s changing nearly everything about how we work and who we work with.”

Adopting New Technologies and Embracing Them
Rosica termed the industry now in a period where “an exponentially high level of technology shifts are going on,” referring to the adoption of the cloud and its resources, as well as the recent wave of artificial intelligence developments and deployments.  

“Just moving to the cloud or virtualization, or whatever term you want to use—that’s fundamentally changing the way we do things as an industry. I think that’s a good thing, by the way. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think that working on a collaborative basis can be a big part of what saves this industry.

“AI is coming in and this is another thing that’s going to reshape our industry,” said Rosica. “And it needs to reshape our industry. 

He noted that there is now a lot of concern among M&E workers about artificial intelligence eliminating their jobs or otherwise affecting their employment.

“I say it has to,” said Rosica. “We have to get more efficient. We don’t have enough people to even keep up with current requirements. We have to find a way to get it done.

“I’m not afraid of (AI) taking anybody’s job away. We have to create better efficiencies so people can do more. Our industry has proven one thing—when you give it new technology it will find ways to use that technology to create more and better storytelling. I don’t think we should fear (AI); I think we should embrace it, because we need it.”

“Workflows are changing. All of this takes a lot of resources and a lot of investment, neither of which this industry has enough of. We have to talk about prioritization. We have talk about how to be reasonable about this. We’ve got to be careful about this.  I really think as an industry we’ve got to be more realistic and think about what it is you have to have today, tomorrow, or next week.”

No More Strikes, Period!
In reflecting on the 2023 strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, and the trickle-down effect work stoppages had on employees in the media and entertainment business, Rosica flatly declared that the industry could not tolerate any more such massive interruptions.

“I understand why labor and management get into difficult discussions,” he said. “But we’ve got to be careful—I’m talking about both sides of the street. 

“As business leaders and organizational leaders, we must find ways to avoid any more strikes. We have to. 

“I know that we need good outcomes for workers, and we need to find a way to get there without work stoppages again. That almost killed our industry, or at least the ecosystem in our industry. It’s still tearing a little bit because of it. We’ve got to be careful because it will damage this business and it will take a decade to rebuild what we spent decades building, if we can even get it done.

“We’ve got to be careful!”

Get Ready for Disintermediation
In looking at other areas of the M&E industry where he thought big changes might be coming, Rosica called out the very intense pressure to curb operating costs, stating this practice may very well inadvertently trigger another shift in an already battered business, that of “disintermediation,” or a reduction or elimination in the use of intermediaries in delivering goods or services between producers and consumers.

“There is an even more intense focus on costs, and that pressure is being applied to the ecosystem,” said Rosica. “Everyone is expected to do more for less. It’s always been that way, but the pressure is more intense today, on top of what’s going on economically for the ecosystem

“We’ve got to be careful!

“And then, we’re asking this same ecosystem to shift business models, change technologies, change operating practices. All of this is impacting us. And this is going to cause disintermediation.  

“Get ready for it!

“I’m not saying this may happen. I’ll take it to the bank. You can call me in five years and call me a liar if it doesn’t happen.

“This industry—because of technology shifts, the business shifts, and the operating shifts that we’re going through—we’re going to have disintermediation. You can count on it, and you need to prepare for it. It is already here to some degree. All players across the industry should be ready for this.”

“When you put it all together, I think we’re standing on the precipice of an industry disaster if we’re not careful.”

'Not Looking at the Big Picture' 
Rosica declared, however, that there was a way out of this current dilemma.   

“I do think there is a way forward,” he said. “I have faith in the people in this room. We have the talent, (but) as an industry, we’re not looking at the big picture. No matter what our role is, we’ve got to live together (and work to fix the problem). 

“We have to collaborate like never before. A lot of team work is needed. 

“We have to realize that change is inevitable, change is needed, and change is indeed good. Our industry is still too indifferent—we must find ways to do thing faster and cheaper. 

“The pandemic was only the beginning—if there’s new normal, we’re not there yet.”

Rosica observed that while new methodologies and practices were good in themselves, the M&E industry should not be two quick to adopt them. 

“Avoid bespoke thinking; we’re too small of an industry for that,” he said. “We need to preserve common workflows,” noting that while the M&E business needed to be open to possibilities that could come with AI and machine learning, it needed to exercise caution in the ways these emerging technologies are adopted. 

“I do think there is a way forward. We can build something better for the future,” he said. “Some things can be more valuable and stronger when they’re broken.

“We need to be brave. All will be fine and shake out favorably in the end. The consumer’s appetite for appealing content will not go away, and streaming is not a bad model. We need to embrace it as it may be the savior.”

Rosica said that the M&E business could learn lessons from other industries that have undergone similar quantum shifts and disruptions, citing in particular the disruption in the music industry caused by the adoption of iPods as media players and the subsequent change in the way in which consumers purchased recordings, shifting from CD albums to the purchase of songs on an à la carte basis.     

“The music industry took 22 years to recover,” said Rosica. “Let’s not make mistakes like this that will cause a 22-year-long falloff in revenues”. 

“We have got to be sure we get this right!”

In conclusion, Rosica reminded the audience of his impending retirement from Avid Technology after more than a decade with that company, and expressed gratitude to those who had been supportive of him in career track. 

“It’s been the absolute pinnacle of my career,” he said. “It’s been terrific. I want to thank a lot of people in this room who gave me input, who gave me advice, who gave me support. I thank you for that. It’s been an honor and I’m grateful.”

This year’s HPA Tech Retreat was held at the Westin Rancho Mirage Golf Resort & Spa here, and once again a “sell-out” event, attracting more than 800 television and motion picture industry players. 

HUNT VALLEY, Md.–Sinclair Broadcast has deployed innovative cloud-based news and content gathering and production workflows by combining technologies from Avid, Sony and Marquis Broadcast. This new approach integrates Avid MediaCentral, Sony Electronics’ C3 Portal gateway service and Marquis software and leverages 5G networks to reduce connectivity costs while enriching the flow of news metadata to accelerate the speed of its news operations. Using this method, we’re getting news to air faster than ever.

Our fundamental strategy is to democratize news acquisition, with every journalist or photographer having fast content delivery to news production centers. This transformation requires a collaborative approach to streamline the workflow. We’re engaged with Avid on its MediaCentral news production platform, Sony on cameras and C3 Portal and Marquis to enable complex workflow integrations. 

New News Workflows
We’ve enabled real business and operational benefits, with fast story turnaround and structured metadata automatically delivered to newsrooms, which can then cut several versions of the same story to deliver to digital platforms faster and with improved relevance. We have six stations engaged to refine the technologies and we’re continually optimizing workflows for best ROI and operational outcome. 

There are challenges to overcome but we’re moving closer to having access to all content in near real time. The next steps are around compression efficiency to increase quality while reducing bandwidth consumption and improving metadata transparency throughout the process.

Fundamental to Sony’s C3 Portal news workflow is the automatic preservation and enrichment of metadata from the point of origination. C3 Portal supports pushing metadata to the camera before shooting commences; for example, iNEWS slug information and assignment data, preserving this metadata throughout the production process when the story checks into Avid MediaCentral. Future workflows will allow rights information—and therefore genealogy—to be automatically maintained from creation throughout the edit and into archive.

Another powerful component of the new solution is the ability to send proxy video quickly back to the news production center via 5G network and Sony’s C3 Portal. The Marquis integration enables the “edit while record” feature in Media Composer so stories can be edited as soon as the proxy file starts ingesting. With a wide choice of Sony proxy resolutions, news organizations may easily take the proxy to air within seconds for fast news turnaround.

Sony's C3 Portal
This workflow automates extraction of sequence information from the Avid low-res proxy edit. With this sequence data, Marquis automatically retrieves the high-resolution media from either Sony’s C3 Portal, and the originating camera or originating camera cards. Assuming a 10:1 shooting ratio, this partial extraction process results in a 90% reduction in 5G data transferred and network bandwidth required. 

Using the dynamic relink feature in Avid, the high-res content simply drops into the timeline and automatically substitutes the low-res content, thus transforming news production. 

For more information on Sony, visit https://pro.sony/ue_US.

REYKJAVIK, Iceland—Icelandic national public broadcaster RÚV has inked a multi-year subscription agreement with Avid to upgrade its server platform to Avid | Stream IO, the company’s new ingest and playout solution.

RÚV, which broadcasts linear and non-linear TV and radio throughout the country, will use Avid | Stream IO for software-based production ingest and playout of news, sports, live entertainment and other TV content, Avid said. 

“Upgrading to Avid | Stream IO was a simple decision for us,” said RÚV CTO Bragi Reynisson. “We needed to replace legacy servers but also required the capabilities to ingest in higher resolution than HD, including 1080p50.

“As an addition to our existing Avid MediaCentral production environment, Avid | Stream IO will give us the flexibility to ingest and play out both standard HD resolutions and higher quality resolutions as AVC Intra, including 1080p50. It integrates easily into our overall Avid production environment and supports our strategy to virtualize as much of our infrastructure as possible into our private cloud.” 

Avid | Stream IO offers a flexible architecture that can be configured to ingest or play out IP and SDI streams. It offers RÚV’s production teams a way to migrate from legacy workflows and on-premises deployment to cloud and IP workflows at their own pace. It also will allow the teams to increase efficiency by combining different ingest sources in a single configuration, the company said.  

The software-based solution supports all common production formats​, including SDI. Support for compressed IP streams SRT / RTMP will soon be available. NDI and SMPTE 2110 support will follow later next year​, it said.

Avid | Stream IO offers the capabilities of the company’s AirSpeed and FastServe hardware-based server. It also expands support to include emerging IP standards and higher-precision formats, such as 4K and HDR, the company said.  

The software-based solution supports fast-turnaround workflows, while tightly integrating with RÚV’s existing subscription agreement to Avid’s media workflow platform MediaCentral, minimizing disruption to production, the company said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

Long time industry veteran Jeff Rosica, who has been part of the leadership of Avid for more than a decade and CEO for nearly six years, announced his retirement yesterday, days after the announcement that STG Symphony Technology Group closed its acquisition of the company, which it bought for $1.4 billion in August, taking the company private.

Rosica has a long history within the broadcast technology market, having led Grass Valley through numerous ownership transitions until moving to Avid in 2013. He was appointed president in 2016 and CEO in 2018, succeeding Louis Hernandez Jr. 

Rosica shared his news on Linkedin yesterday:

"I want to let my network in on something that I shared with the Avid team during our quarterly all-hands company meeting earlier today—and that is the news of my personal decision that I’m planning to take an early retirement from Avid in the first half of 2024.

"With all the transformational progress and good momentum that we’ve created together, I believe that now is clearly the optimal time for me to prepare for this move and transition at Avid. We’re innovating faster than ever, building on a strong market position, and poised for even greater growth and success under STG – Symphony Technology Group’s ownership. It’s an exciting place to be today with tremendous opportunities ahead, and I believe it’s the right time for a new CEO to lead the next phase of the company’s journey.

"I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have the experience of being part of one of the legendary brands in media technology—and being the CEO for almost 6 years now is an honor and clearly the pinnacle of my career. One of the best parts has been getting to work with the amazing people that make up Team Avid and who make it so special, not to mention the terrific customers and partners who give us so much opportunity to help them reimagine this industry.  A once in a lifetime privilege for sure!

"All that said, I’m not going anywhere too soon. I’ll be continuing as CEO for a few more months and helping to recruit my replacement in collaboration with STG, so we’ll have a smooth transition and stay right on course to help all our customers—and continue to execute Avid’s strategic plan. Until then, I hope to see many of you out on the road real soon!"

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Private equity firm STG has completed its $1.4 billion acquisition of Avid Technology in an all-cash transaction, Avid said today.

The acquisition was announced Aug. 9 and approved by Avid stockholders on Nov. 2. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Avid stockholders will receive $27.05 per share. As a result of the completion of this transaction, Avid common stock ceased trading prior to the opening of trading on Nov. 7. It will no longer be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Avid will operate as a privately held company and remain headquartered here.

“By becoming a private company, we believe Avid will be able to achieve the speed of innovation, scale and performance required for us to continue leading the industry forward,” said Jeff Rosica, Avid’s Chief Executive Officer and president. “Combined with their significant operational and financial resources, STG brings deep investment experience in the technology sector that will accelerate the achievement of Avid’s strategic vision, building on the momentum of our successful ongoing transformation achieved over the past several years.”

More information is available on the company’s website.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid announced this week that it is the first technology Founding Partner of the Roybal School of Film and Television Production Fund, which was established by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Creative Artists Agency’s Bryan Lourd, to support The Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet, a specialized academy based in Los Angeles that was created to provide a more inclusive pipeline of historically underrepresented college- and career-ready students pursuing below-the-line careers in film and television. Avid says its investment will include the comprehensive tools, curriculum and support to get Roybal’s high school students and teachers professionally certified in video and audio editing.

Students are already using Avid tools in a new Post Production Lab sponsored by Avid at the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center.  The space is equipped with Media Composer and Pro Tools software and complete PC workstations. Over the next three years, 90 student editors will be able to learn and work simultaneously in the lab and earn industry-recognized Avid certifications by the end of each school year. Avid’s learning services team organizes deep curricular consultancy and training to ensure Roybal teacher readiness, while the company’s customer care organization provides installation and on-call support.

“Roybal is an engine for tangible progress in the local community that is pushing forward through an extremely motivated partnership with Hollywood’s leading professionals,” said Blanca Cruz, Principal of the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center. “With Avid's support, our students now get hands-on experience with the technology of editing, and more visibility into college-level media arts education and the profession through the company’s global network. Together, we are constructing entirely unique pathways for L.A. families to travel toward rewarding careers in the arts.”

“We couldn’t be more excited to have Avid on board. They’re a huge part of post production in our industry and now will be a huge part of educating our underserved community,” said George Clooney, Roybal Advisory Board Member.  “This is a giant step.”

Avid’s CEO and President Jeff Rosica added, “Roybal strikes right at the heart of two glaring needs in the entertainment business. First, underserved people need more effective access to our industry. Second, we’ve got to close the widening skills gap in the essential professions below-the-line in broadcasting and filmmaking. It’s the perfect intersection where we can help students’ curiosity catch fire and start to pursue a creative calling— and I strongly encourage the global media technology community to pitch in.”

“Personally, I’m thrilled for the kids now that Avid has come on board to enrich Roybal’s post production learning track,” said film editor and Roybal Industry Council Member Joi McMillon, ACE. “The majority of editors who do what I do, work every day with Avid’s tools. Knowing how to handle that technology is the bridge from dreaming about making stories for the big screen, to being called upon to help bring them to life.”

Along with Avid, other founding-level corporate partners from Hollywood supporting Roybal’s mission include Amazon Studios, Disney, Fox Corporation, THE HISTORY Channel/A&E Networks, NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery.

MovieLabs has announced the next 10 participating companies in its 2030 Vision Showcase Program.

The organizations selected to participate in this round are Adobe, Ateliere Creative Technologies, Avid, Gunpowder, Hammerspace, Light Iron, Pixel Logic, Sohonet, Universal Pictures and Yamdu.

Among the case studies submitted by the latest cohort are:

• Using camera to cloud for fast turnaround editorial content at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival from Adobe
• Virtualizing apps and data for distributed editorial collaboration by Avid
• Ateliere Creative Technologies’ work on moving Lionsgate’s de-centralized distribution assets to a singular cloud ‘single source of truth’ library to enable more flexible distribution strategies
• An end-to-end Cloud VFX “studio in a box” for Houses of Parliament from Gunpowder
• Light Iron’s full color-in-the-cloud pipeline used on episodic television
• Sohonet’s secure content management system for managing assets and workflow tasks
• How Universal Pictures supports feature production and post utilizing MovieLabs Ontology for Media Creation

Each of the organizations will work with MovieLabs to develop their case study which will be published at MovieLabs.com (date tba).

Richard Berger, CEO of MovieLabs, said: “Since we published the MovieLabs 2030 Vision, it has been broadly adopted by the industry as the roadmap for the future of media creation. The ten principles in the vision establish a framework for more secure and interoperable workflows, which ultimately gives time back to creatives so they can focus on what they do best—creating amazing stories and experiences.

“We are excited to work with the new showcase participants to publish these technical case studies and share with the industry examples of how the 10 Principles of the 2030 Vision are already delivering real and significant efficiencies, which is critical now in this time of industry change.”

NEW YORK—As the ultimate destination for storytelling, AMC Networks operates in more than 125 countries worldwide and is the home to several iconic brands across television, independent film, production, distribution, gaming and publishing. We’re behind some of the most celebrated and acclaimed television content, such as the TV series “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul.” 

Bringing these productions to market requires a stop in AMC’s New York City headquarters, where teams of producers, editors, and designers craft ancillary and promo material for use across a diverse delivery landscape. Until recently, the technology portion of that operation consumed over 45,000 square feet of real estate. So, when Covid forced everyone to work from home, there were a lot of empty rooms.  

Getting Started
After some initial experimentation, we decided to adopt HP’s RGS app, which allowed editors to work on the same Avid Media Composer PC they were used to. In short order, our operation was humming along with no loss of efficiency or creative quality.

As the pandemic wore on—and with success of work-from-home—it became apparent that a permanent remote editorial strategy should be considered. This would entail virtualization of the Avid PCs and sunsetting most of the real estate. No strangers to virtualization—we had already successfully virtualized our Avid backend systems—we reasoned that it was time to virtualize the Media Composers as well. A cluster of 14 Dell servers were deployed, each fitted with five Nvidia T4 cards and 100G networking. Nutanix AHV virtualizes the 100 VM Avid environment, and Teradici PCoiP provides the link to the home.

AMC’s editors are accustomed to working exclusively with hi-res media, so what is seen at home must be largely artifact-free. Unfortunately, we immediately encountered drifting audio sync and random video stuttering. Not being a turnkey system, troubleshooting was a painstaking process but over time we qualified every link in the chain and developed our own test movies to aid in troubleshooting. 

The breakthrough came from a Teradici software engineer who created a system that allowed graphical plotting of our visual experience. This led to a fix for the audio sync issue, as well as improvements to playback smoothness. The result of Teradici’s efforts now fuels our collaboration with Avid on improvements to the Media Composer’s Media Player. 

The Private Cloud Payoff
Media Composer has always been at the center of our post-production operation, and once the planned improvements to Avid’s Media Player are realized and—except for very specific workflows and finishing operations— working remotely via our private cloud will be virtually (pun intended) as good as being on-premise.

From an engineering perspective, virtualization provides agile deployment, simplified maintenance, and significant overall cost savings. From the user’s perspective, virtualization provides high-powered, consistent performance across all 100 Media Composer seats, as well as the flexibility to work from anywhere and at any time. And from a producer’s perspective, this environment affords the opportunity to engage with editorial talent across the globe.

The 45,000 square feet of real estate referred to earlier is ready for its next life. And though our move to a private cloud was instigated by the pandemic, we’ll likely look back and realize that this paradigm shift was all but inevitable.  

More information is available at www.avid.com.

At the time this article was written, the entertainment industry was on strike and virtually all major production shut down. In the middle of all this comes the news that Avid, one of the legends in film, video and audio post-production, is being sold to STG, a private equity firm, for $1.4 billion in cash.

Other than the typical optimistic press releases from the company, there has been radio silence on the sale. Jeff Rosica, Avid’s president and CEO, won’t talk about the sale beyond the news release. Calls to several Avid analysts and major users also got a “no comment.”

A blog from Devoncroft Partners, a media research firm, found “there is no detailed rationale provided by Avid’s management team or board of directors on why this is in the best interests of Avid and its stakeholders.”

Devoncroft continued: “We can appreciate the conventional view of private equity ownerships is decidedly negative among media technology professionals. Caution is advisable. Becoming a private company, under STG’s stewardship, may very well prove beneficial for all stakeholders as Avid’s board believes. And it’s not like the public markets have a perfect incentive structure for long-term planning.”

The video editing market is now crowded. Today, Avid competes with Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, as well as a range of lower-cost options. In the audio market, Avid’s Pro Tools competes with Adobe Audition, Apple’s Logic Pro X, Reaper, Cubase and free software, such as GarageBand and Audacity.

What's Next?
For Avid’s user base, moving from a publicly traded company to a private company leaves questions unanswered. Avid’s board of directors has unanimously accepted the offer. Closing of the transaction is expected during the fourth quarter of 2023, though at presstime the deal was still subject to Avid stockholder and regulatory approval, along with other “customary closing conditions.”

The deal includes a termination fee of $39.8 million should Avid terminate the transaction, which limits the company’s ability to entertain alternative proposals.

Whatever the implications of the sale turn out to be, Avid has a long and rich history in the video business. At the 1987 NAB Show, the company, founded by inventor Bill Warner, demonstrated the first prototype of the Avid Media Composer in a hotel suite.

Media Composer opened the door to nonlinear editing. Linear editing, then the standard, was too hard and cumbersome. Avid was started with the sole goal of providing a faster way to create media.

It took a convergence of technology to make Warner’s dream come true. One key component was the Apple Macintosh. By 1989, with the help of the Macintosh CPU, the Avid/1 Media Composer became a viable product with real-time video compression techniques that could instantly display edited sequences.

The Avid/1 could simultaneously handle full-motion color video at 30 FPS and two channels of 44 Khz, 16-bit sound. With this, medi editing changed forever.

'Sweating Bullets'
At that NAB Show, Warner recalled at the time, “I could taste it. I wanted that machine. I just had to have it. So, we shipped the machines by FedEx to the NAB Show. Our machines were lost in shipping. Then they found them in time, but we were sweating bullets,” Warner recalled.

(Read more: Avid Founder Bill Warner Inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame)

“Just to show you how much money meant to us at that time, we were thrilled because we got the shipping for free. And it was like $1,000 to send these big machines, but they had been lost for a few hours. We got our machines and we set it all up in the suite. We called people at their hotels to make sure they would come. And they did. We got our first $500,000 investment at that NAB [Show].”

Two years later, Avid began selling its system. The first handful of systems went mostly to editors for making commercials in New York. The system was still immature, and the kinks needed to be worked out before tackling the big film market in Hollywood.

The video quality of the Avid/1 was VHS quality due to the use of a very early version of the Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) codec. In 1991, when Avid implemented JPEG compression, picture quality greatly improved. Finally, the system was ready for primetime.

In 1992, Avid made its Hollywood debut. That year, Steve Cohen began editing Neil Simon’s “Lost in Yonkers” on Avid’s first Film Composer system. After an initial process shakedown, the Film Composer performed well—it operated at a true 24 fps, with no locked-out frames or fields. The company went public in 1993.

Avid’s cut lists were 100% accurate, consistent and stable over editing changes. Over the years, many optical-heavy shows appreciated this accuracy and stability, when every scene comes out to the frame, every time.

Avid had set a new editing standard. By the year 2000, more than 100 television shows and movies such as “Titanic” and “The Matrix” were edited with Avid products.

By 2018, Avid’s editing products, including its premiere audio editing app, Pro Tools, were used in 70% of commercially published music, 90% of original primetime content and most of the world’s major news networks. Avid has won a Grammy, 16 Emmys and two Oscars. 

Now, facing a new chapter in its 35-year history, there is speculation about the future of Avid. Might it be broken up—separating its film, video and audio products and services? No one is saying.

In a letter to Avid customers, Rosica wrote, “We’re confident that by becoming a private company, we will strengthen our business and be able to achieve greater scale, performance and speed.”

It’s anybody’s guess whether or not this will be true.

Frank Beacham is a New York City-based writer and media producer.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid has announced that it has expanded its long-time relationship with global media conglomerate Al Jazeera Media Network with a multi-year deal that will transition Al Jazeera’s production operation into a cloud-based subscription service. 

The move is designed to enable better multi-site collaboration and remote production, the companies said. 

As part of the agreement, Al Jazeera will use Avid to completely upgrade and expand its news and programming creation workflows and connect teams distributed across its regional hubs – in Qatar, London, and Washington, DC – and its global network of news bureaus and other sites. 

“We’re very pleased to continue our long-standing relationship with Avid,” said Ahmed AlFahad, AJMN’s executive director of technology & network operations. “This new subscription agreement gives us a comprehensive end-to-end solution and all the flexibility we need, so that our journalists can focus on what they do best--telling the important stories of the day.” 

Al Jazeera is one of the largest international news networks in the world. Launched in 1996, it was the first independent news channel in the Arab region, and now broadcasts to more than 450 million homes across 150 countries. 

The new multi-year comprehensive agreement will convert Al Jazeera onto an Avid MediaCentral | Flex subscription model, giving them access to the latest platform tools and Avid NEXIS storage. 

It will also include a transition path in the near future from its existing hardware servers onto Avid’s next-generation software-based and cloud-enabled media ingest and playout platform, Avid | Stream IO, Avid reported.  

In addition, the new agreement comes with subscription licenses to Avid | Edit On Demand, Avid’s complete production environment in the cloud, allowing Al Jazeera to spin up the latest editing capabilities across its entire network of bureaus, while exploring all the possibilities of cloud workflows. 

“We’re delighted to extend our agreement with such a long-time customer as Al Jazeera,” Avid’s chief revenue officer Tom Cordiner explained. “This move to subscription provides them real flexibility and the latest functionality from Avid, while positioning them to take advantage of new upgrades to meet their future requirements.” 

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Following reports that Avid was in talks with a private equity group regarding a potential sale, Avid has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of STG. 

The deal, which is expected to close in Q4 2023, is an all-cash transaction valuing Avid at approximately $1.4 billion, including Avid’s net debt. 

Upon completion of the transaction, Avid will become a privately-held company, and its common stock will no longer be traded on Nasdaq.

The companies said that Avid stockholders will receive $27.05 in cash for each share of Avid common stock, which represents a premium of 32.1% over the company’s closing share price on May 23, 2023, the last full trading day prior to media speculation regarding a potential sale of the company.

“Since our founding over 30 years ago, Avid has delivered technology that enables individuals and enterprises who create media for a living to make, manage and monetize today’s most celebrated video and audio content across the globe,” said Jeff Rosica, Avid’s CEO and president. “We are pleased to announce this transaction with STG, who share our conviction and excitement in delivering innovative technology solutions to address our customers’ creative and business needs. STG's expertise in the technology sector and significant financial and strategic resources will help accelerate the achievement of our strategic vision, building on the momentum of our successful transformation achieved over the past several years. This transaction represents the start of an exciting new chapter for Avid, our customers, our partners and our team members and is a testament to the importance of Avid and our solutions in powering the media and entertainment industry.”

“This transaction is the result of a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives for Avid,” John P. Wallace, chairman of the Avid Board of Directors added. “Upon closing, this transaction will deliver immediate, significant and certain value to our stockholders. After carefully evaluating a variety of options, the Board determined that this transaction is in the best interests of Avid and its stockholders.”  

“STG has admired Avid’s heritage as a category creator and pioneer in the media and entertainment software market for many years,” explained William Chisholm, managing partner of STG. “We are excited to partner with Jeff and the management team to build on the Company’s history of delivering differentiated and innovative content creation and management software solutions. We look forward to leveraging our experience as software investors to accelerate Avid’s growth trajectory with a deep focus on technological innovation and by delivering enhanced value for Avid’s customers.”

The transaction was unanimously approved by Avid’s Board of Directors and is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2023, subject to Avid stockholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, the companies said. 

The companies noted that the transaction will be financed through a combination of equity and debt financing and is not subject to any financing conditions. 

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is serving as financial advisor to Avid, and Sidley Austin LLP is serving as legal counsel. 

Rothschild & Co is serving as financial advisor to STG, and Paul Hastings LLP is serving as legal counsel to STG. 

Sixth Street Partners and Silver Point are providing committed debt financing in support of the transaction.

This year has witnessed an explosion in the use and discussion of artificial intelligence (AI). It is, of course, something that has been around since the 1950s but since the end of last year, coverage has ranged from the serious to hysterical, particularly over its latest manifestation, generative AI (Gen AI).

This more evolved form of AI can create different kinds of content, from text and images to audio and synthetic data, which is more realistically human instead of something clearly produced by a machine. At the forefront of this is ChatGPT (generative pre-trained transformer), which, although only launched in November 2022, has already radically changed the direction of automated speech, text and image creation.

Fast and Precise
As is often the case with “new” technology, many of the features of AI had been available to broadcasters and media producers in the last decade.

“We’ve been implementing AI in our tools for years, so it’s not something we’ve jumped on with ChatGPT,” says Andre Torsvik, vice president of product marketing at Vizrt. “AI is used to make computers do what they are best at, which is being fast and precise. Human beings can find that difficult to do, with, for example, outdoor keying on a sports field. An AI can react much faster and the end result is a much better key, you don’t see flickering or ads on top of players.”

The most common applications for Gen AI in broadcast include: 

• image generation and video synthesis 
• automated production 
• assisted video editing 
• creation of metadata for automatic “logging” 
• subtitling, captioning, segment-specific searches and re-use of media assets 
• automatic upscaling of content to higher resolutions; and
• encoding/decoding of audio and video streams 

Simon Forrest, principal technology analyst at Futuresource Consulting, comments that AI is capable of assisting artists and producers to create content more quickly, enabling “faster iteration, more exploration and delivering media assets that approach a harmonized composition.”

Another assistive application of AI comes in the form of improved archive searches. This has been a particular area of research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS). Dr Christoph Schmidt, head of Fraunhofer IAIS’s Speech Technologies Unit, explains that it goes beyond keyword techniques, with Gen AI and natural language processing providing “improved ways to find relevant archival content to produce new programs.”

Efficient and Dynamic
In addition to reducing the number of repetitive tasks performed by operations staff and allowing creatives to do their jobs faster and better, Peter Sykes, strategic technology manager at Sony Europe, sees AI as “making the whole media supply chain as efficient and dynamic as possible, helping analyze and then address resource allocation and process steps to optimize them, leading to better business decisions.”

Sony established an AI division in 2020, focusing on projects in the areas of imaging and sensing, gaming, gastronomy (robotic manipulation of food and cooking utensils) and AI ethics. 

For broadcasting, Sony offers its A2 Production system, which, among other features, can identify sports highlights using automated logging and scene detection features. It is also applying AI to software-defined networks through the VideoIPath media orchestration platform developed by its Nevion subsidiary.

Ross Video implements AI across two of its main business groups: robotic cameras and newsroom systems. Both are working on integrating AI into their product lines, with robotics using a more proprietary-style technology built into its products while news is relying on third party AI engines.

Jenn Jarvis, product manager for newsroom computer systems at Ross Video, says this gives customers a choice of which engine they want to use and a framework for how they integrate it into a product. “We’re also now looking at the content creation side, which is part of the newer aspects of AI we’re still exploring and seeing how it fits into a news workflow,” she said.

For robotics, Karen Walker, vice president of camera motion systems, observes that the person managing shot selection will still have some work to do in keeping the presenter in frame or in focus.

“But the next thing for AI—and a lot of people have come out with this—is a ‘talent tracking’ application,” she says. “You don’t have to have any human intervention so its possible to set up pre-sets and where you want the talent to be in that shot. This is done independently of the talent and can be configured for different presenters. It takes away some of that manual intervention and I think it’s where AI has benefits, in taking out some of the mundane tweaking.”

Reducing Tedium
Removing, or at least easing, the amount of dull but necessary elements in live production by employing AI is now a realistic proposition. This is illustrated by Rob Gonsalves, engineering fellow at Avid, who gives the example of Open AI’s Whisper speech-to-text model. 

“It can be applied for live transcription and real-time translation of multiple languages within a broadcast feed, toggling through as many as 100 languages simultaneously,” he said.

Avid has also tested both OpenAI’s CLIP model and the generic GRoIE ROI (region of interest) extractor as part of research into auto-framing.

“This followed the area of a shot that is of the greatest semantic interest,” Gonsalves explains. “The traditional way to enable search is to manually annotate media assets with metadata tags describing what is in the shot. Using AI object or facial recognition can now automate the scanning and annotation process. Semantic search does something similar but, by creating embeddings into clips, it allows an editor to conduct a free-text search for scenarios.”

Sepi Motamedi, global industry marketing lead for professional broadcast at NVIDIA, comments that “live production, particularly for sports, takes tremendous advantage” of AI. “It is used in super-slow motion replays to localize advertisements seen on the pitch, to quickly generate highlights from the game, to deliver an added layer of data through telestration [which involves pitch calibration and player tracking] and, of course, camera tracking.”

Among the first developers to begin applying AI to broadcast applications from the outset was Vertitone. Founded in 2014, the company offers an enterprise AI operating system platform, aiWARE, along with engines for ChatGPT, audio, biometrics, speech, data and vision. 

“We realized there was an opportunity in the media and entertainment markets to begin to index the world’s audio and video content,” comments Paul Cramer, managing director of media and broadcast at Veritone. He adds that once material is indexed, Gen AI can be used to “create a new personalized experience for the consumer” who is looking for custom content. This could be in the form of news footage tailored for a viewer with an interest in, for example, space exploration.

From Broad to Niche
As AI is adopted more widely throughout the media sector, it is being used for both very niche and quite broad applications. Moveme.tv illustrates a highly specialized use: its search platform is designed to help viewers match films to their mood through the use of descriptive words and emojis. Founder and chief executive Ben Polkinghome says the ultimate aim is to enable people to create “their own hyper-personal entertainment channels.”

On a wider broadcast level, BBC’s R&D department initiated its AI in Media Production program in 2017 with a prototype video editing package that automatically selected and assembled shots into a finished piece. This work continues today and was expanded last year with a new data set for “Intelligent Cinematography” to assist in framing and editing. BBC R&D is due to announce its position on Gen AI soon but could not give any more details before TV Tech went to press.

AI is now exploited by all types and sizes of media creators and organizations, both new and old. Video marketing platform Vimeo announced in June it was making a Gen AI-powered “creation suite” that simplifies the process of making videos. The package includes a script generator, teleprompter and text-based editing system that automatically deletes filler words and long pauses. 

On the more traditional side, the All England Lawn Tennis Club is using the Gen AI capabilities of IBM’s Watson platform to produce commentary for video highlights of the 2023 Wimbledon championships on its app and website.

Despite the innovative spirit of this, AI has caused discomfort among media professionals, both in terms of jobs being potentially lost and the risks of the technology being misused. Major news outlets including “The New York Times” and NBC News recently voiced concern over how Gen AI could not only make journalists redundant but enable unscrupulous types to produce fake but believable stories.

The FCC has its own working group on AI and among the topics it’s initially focused on has been using the technology to improve its services including using AI to manage spectrum more efficiently. The commission is hosting a joint workshop this month with the National Science Foundation “to discuss the possibilities and dangers AI presents for the telecommunications and technology sectors.”

In the U.K., media regulator Ofcom, while acknowledging that Gen AI offers benefits such as synthetic data training for better safety technology, has similarly highlighted the dangers of bogus news and other media content. Ofcom is currently monitoring the development of Gen AI to see how its positive aspects can be maximized and also what threat the more negative ones might pose.

As for the human impact, Karen Walker at Ross Video observes that “a lot of creative things have to be done by humans—people are going to work with AI side-by-side.”

Veritone’s Paul Cramer concludes: “Gen AI won’t replace humans but it will replace the humans who are not using AI.” 

Avid stock jumped over 17% today after Reuters reported that the company is considering a potential sale. 

Avid is the largest provider of video and editing software to the media and entertainment industry and has a market value of more than $900 million; according to sources, Goldman Sachs is working with Avid on the sale, Reuters said. 

Avid increased its annual recurring revenue by 8% in its first quarter and increased subscriptions by 22% YOY, however it missed analysts’ numbers, sending its stock down 20% since the beginning of the year. During its quarterly earnings call last week, CFO Kennth Gayron told analysts, “we are confident in the underlying strength of our business. We expect continued strong growth in our subscription business and a positive trajectory given the strength in our bookings the last 2 quarters.”

Nevertheless Avid CEO Jeff Rossica admitted that supply chain issues continued to affect production and that profitability had been hit by "substantial and unexpected gross margin headwinds for audio hardware."

Avid declined to comment. 

Based in Burlington, Mass., Avid was launched in the mid-80's and its Media Composer editing platform was the first and most popular digital nonlinear editing platform in Hollywood. It went public in 1992.

Avid's biggest shareholders include Impactive Capital LP, BlackRock Inc., Fidelity Investments and Vanguard Group. 

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid has launched a new partner program, Works with Avid On Demand, that enables customers to expand their workflow capabilities through a growing range of certified industry-standard tools and apps from third-party vendors. 

“Works with Avid On Demand expands the range of workflows our customers can deploy in the cloud, with the agility to easily spin up new editorial workgroups as needed, and then spin them down when projects are done,” said Tim Claman, Avid’s senior vice president and general manager of Media & Video Solutions. “Edit On Demand users now have the flexibility to access many more of the familiar tools they need to get their work done – all in a pay-as-you-go cloud service.”

In launching the program, the company explained that Avid | Edit On Demand, the turnkey editorial-in-the-cloud SaaS solution on Microsoft Azure, is relied on by television networks, post houses and filmmakers to keep their distributed teams on task and deliver projects on time.

The new Works with Avid On Demand, debuting with 12 partners, expands Avid | Edit On Demand remote workflows with tightly integrated capabilities including file- and stream-based ingest, data replication in the cloud, support for third-party creative tools, and remote content review, among others, the company said. 

Avid | Edit On Demand includes cloud-optimized Media Composer editing software and Avid NEXIS Cloud storage. The Works with Avid On Demand program now enables editors to bring complementary products into their workflows seamlessly with peace of mind that they are reliably and securely enhancing their remote collaboration.  

Many of the industry’s best-known vendors are already certified through the Works with Avid On Demand program, including Adobe, Boris, EVS, FileCatalyst, First Mile Technologies, Haivision, HP Anyware, Marquis, Microsoft, Nablet, Signiant, and StorageDNA.

“Edit On Demand brings Avid and Microsoft together in a seamless SaaS capability delivered on Azure that’s available for anyone working in film, television and other media,” said Simon Crownshaw, worldwide strategy director Media & Entertainment, Microsoft. “The Works with Avid On Demand program extends what is possible on Azure with tested Avid and Microsoft partner products supporting a broader set of workflows and enabling media organizations to capitalize on greater opportunities.”

Technology vendors interested in joining Works with Avid On Demand may contact Ray Thompson, senior director, partner & industry marketing, at Raymond.Thompson@avid.com.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid announced that it will demo Avid | Stream IO, a new software-based platform for production ingest and playout available via subscription at this year's NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 16-19. 

The company says Avid | Stream IO features a flexible architecture that can be configured to ingest or play out IP streams and SDI streams, allowing content producers to migrate from legacy workflows and on-premises deployment to cloud and IP workflows at their own pace.  

The solution also offers flexible channel configurations, supporting popular video formats, codecs and resolutions, enabling media companies to leverage new and emerging technologies within their production workflows. Avid | Stream IO offers complete deployment flexibility, supporting both off-the-shelf certified hardware for on-premises studio environments and standard virtual machines in the cloud, the company said. 

The new platform also allows media companies to combine different ingest sources in a single configuration. For live entertainment and multi-camera productions, Avid | Stream IO supports all common production formats​ including SDI, Compressed IP streams—SRT / RTMP / NDI, with ​SMPTE 2110 due later this year​. Avid | Stream IO offers all the capabilities of the company’s hardware-based server solutions—AirSpeed and FastServe—while expanding support for emerging IP standards and higher-precision formats, such as 4K and HDR. 

Tim Claman, Avid SVP and General Manager of Video & Media Solutions, explains, “We’re very excited to announce Avid | Stream IO, our next-gen production ingest and playout solution, designed to help our customers bring their proven end-to-end Avid workflow deployments into the future. With a flexible software architecture that supports deployment on-prem or in the cloud, Avid | Stream IO is configurable for both SDI and IP, and supports high-precision formats 1080P, UHD and HDR, all at a lower cost per channel than traditional hardware-based systems.” 

Avid | Stream IO also supports Avid’s proven fast-turnaround workflows, including shot-listing, craft editing and logging—all while tightly integrating with Avid’s MediaCentral® production platform. 

Claman concludes, “We believe Avid | Stream IO will help production teams accelerate their content creation pipelines, both now and in the future, by delivering unparalleled speed, flexible deployment, and adaptable support for media formats.” 

Avid | Stream IO will be demonstrated at NAB Show booth N1221 and will be commercially available later this year, the company said.