For those who would like to demo the latest version of Avid Media Composer vers.5, there will be a reception at Dodge College this Thursday, July 15 with a hands-on opportunity to work with the system hosted by  Keycode Media.

It starts at 6pm for food and drink

Demo starts at 6:30pm in the Folino and moves into separate rooms.

register today to save your spot.


Applications Specialist, Casey Richards, presented the new features that Avid is touting to a crowd of Hollywood editors and post supervisors today. The interface has changed somewhat and the reaction was generally positive as witnessed by the rounds of applause following the introductions.

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Drag & Drop Editing Tools

First up was the Smart Tool Set, a small unobtrusive window that reminds one of the original toolbox found on Premiere and subsequently FCP.  With single mouse clicks, editing can be dragged and dropped in the timeline, trims effected and so on.

Audio is New & Improved

Audio waveforms are drawn immediately and there is no re-draw during changes as the information is already cached.  Real Time Audio Support (RTAS) offers sound processing plugins that do not require rendering and can be auditioned and tweaked on the fly. In fact the GUI is now looking and behaving more like a Pro-Tools session with Solo and Mute buttons on each track.  You also have 5 containers in which to drop each audio plug-in and arrange in terms of hierarchy. Stereo Pairs can be embedded in a single audio channel.  Clip Gain and Auto Gain can be accessed right at the track level.

Closed Caption Support

Will Brown of CPC demonstrated their Mac Caption software which integrates easily with Avid.  He showed how an .scc file is formatted and exported using AAF and then simply dropped on the timeline as a data stream.  It can even be edited alongside the picture.  Unfortunately the text windows can not be displayed anywhere in the Avid and he cautioned that trimming and editing the data stream can result in truncated captions. Avid now has the ability to ingest/capture/separate these embedded streams using the Media creation tool and supports AFD, V-Chip and XDS.

Edit Natively using AMA

Using Avid Media Access, Media Composer 5 can handle Red (.R3D), Quicktime (.MOV and H.264), XDCAM, AVCHD, and the latest Canon XF codec which was announced at NAB this year and supports their now famous DSLR cameras such as the 7D and 5D.

The Red workflow provides full, half or quarter debayering and allows for the inclusion of custom look up tables (LUT). MC5 can import RMD, RLX or RSX files, thus eliminating the need for Red Cine. It should be noted that the native footage can not be shared on ISIS or Unity environments without first consolidating (rewrapping) using MXF.

Mix & Match Frame Rates and Resolutions

Like AMA this is not a new feature but one that Avid continues to promote.  After years of intolerance on behalf of the project settings, the fine folkes of Tewkesbury (soon to be Burlington, Mass) have come up with a “swiss army knife” solution, meaning broadcast quality real-time conversion, with the ability to adjust frame interpolation and pull-down. Impressive although the green dot is always a little intimidating.

Support for External HD Display


Avid has partnered with Matrox MX02 Mini to provide for an inexpensive solution to the HD client monitoring problem.  Avid goes to great pains to stress that this is an “output only” device even though other applications can utilize the input functions. Instead they point out the firmware update on the Nitris DX box which now enables the second video spigot and allows for full-quality 4:4:4 HD-RGB color space processing in Media Composer using dual HD SDI connections.

The Bottom Line:

This upgrade is a must have.  They claim it is software based and does not require any acceleration, although the Nitris DX figures prominently in most profe$$ional solutions.  Avid has managed to place the shot across the bow against what FCP has had to offer and places the ball firmly in Cupertino’s court as to who can provide the most robust professional solution.  I, for one, am glad to see that Avid’s marketing dollars have FINALLY been spent where it was needed most, which is software development.  For too many years they have ignored Hollywood, believing that the global market would carry them to further success.  Game on!

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