Avid to Demonstrate AI-Enhanced Production Tools at 2024 NAB Show

Avid
(Image credit: Avid)

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. 
James Careless

James Careless is an award-winning journalist who has written for TV Technology since the 1990s. He has covered HDTV from the days of the six competing HDTV formats that led to the 1993 Grand Alliance, and onwards through ATSC 3.0 and OTT. He also writes for Radio World, along with other publications in aerospace, defense, public safety, streaming media, plus the amusement park industry for something different.