What's new
- Natively access and edit Sony HDCAM SR Lite media through AMA (Avid Media Access)
- Accelerate Panasonic AVC-Intra projects—and use multiple streams—with the new Nitris DX AVC-Intra hardware interface
- Take hands-on control of your video and audio editing/mixing with EUCON support for Artist Control, Artist Mix, and Artist Transport control surfaces (watch the video)
- Find the right clips fast with support for the new PhraseFind option (watch the video)
- Directly manipulate transitions in the timeline with the expanded Smart Tool (watch the video)
- Quickly find files across local and shared storage bins using the improved Find tool
- Specify audio track formats during import or through AMA, and expand your creative palette with 20 included AIR effects plug-ins
- Be more creative with new updates to the included Production Suite (sold separately from download purchases)
- Get more flexibility with audio signal routing when sending material to air (Send to Playback), with up to 16 audio output channels
- View portions of the software interface in localized languages, including Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, French, Spanish, German, and Italian
- Get better Long GOP performance when using Send to Playback with AirSpeed servers
- Use proxies of H.264 material in AirSpeed MultiStream environments for faster response time and increased stream counts
Speed up your workflow when working with processor-intensive Panasonic AVC-Intra material. Symphony now includes the new Nitris DX AVC-Intra interface, which features built-in AVC-Intra encoding/decoding, enabling you to edit multiple streams in real time, with unrivaled performance. And with onboard 10-bit Avid DNxHD encoding and decoding and thin raster support, you can edit HD projects with incredible beauty and speed.
With new AMA (Avid Media Access) support for the Sony HDCAM SR Lite codec, you can directly access the media and all associated metadata—without transcoding—to get a jump-start on editing and selecting suitable clips.
Find video clips based on a spoken word or phrase with Avid PhraseFind powered by Nexidia, a new software option for Media Composer 5.5, Symphony 5.5, and NewsCutter 9.5. PhraseFind combines audio indexing with dialog search, so you can quickly find the right takes by typing a few words, or pull up every clip containing a certain word to edit the dialog. You’ll be able to spend more time refining your edits instead of digging through bins.
Speed up your video and audio editing, finishing, and mixing with new EUCON support for the Artist Control, Artist Mix, and Artist Transport control surfaces. With highly responsive tactile controls and programmable Soft Keys that enable you to perform complex functions with just one touch, you’ll never go back to editing with just a keyboard and mouse again.
With the improved Find tool, you can quickly and easily find what you need by searching through clips, sequences, script text, the timeline, and monitors. You can even search for material in bins on local and shared storage.
Work with audio in more ways than ever before. Specify audio track formats (up to 16 audio channels) before bringing them into your project, either in the Import Settings or AMA Settings dialog. And expand your audio sweetening palette with 20 new RTAS plug-in effects by AIR (the same ones included in Pro Tools).
With updates to the included Production Suite, you can create stunning video effects, graphics, music, and more, and deliver content for web or disc play. This updated collection includes Boris Continuum Complete 7, Sorenson Squeeze 6.0.4, Avid FX 5.8.3, SmartSound SonicFire Pro 5.5.2, and Avid DVD 6.1.1.
Full details
Experience the fastest, most flexible workflows that enable you to work the way you want—in more ways than ever.
Edit faster and easier than ever
Tapeless = waitless with AMA
Experience the fastest tapeless workflows in the industry. With AMA (Avid Media Access), you can natively access and edit RED (.R3D), QuickTime (including Apple ProRes and .mov files captured by Canon 5D/7D cameras), Sony HDCAM SR Lite, XDCAM HD/EX, P2/AVC-Intra, Canon XF, GFCAM, and other file-based media directly from an external disc, card, or volume, without transcoding, importing, or rewrapping files. See AMA in action.
Storytelling on the cutting edge
Edit the way you want with the industry’s most accurate and flexible editing toolset. Trim on the fly with the Smart Tool (see the Smart Tool in action) or perform critical edits with ultra precision. Mix and match media formats, codecs, frame rates, sizes, resolutions, and aspect ratios in the same timeline—in real time—without rendering or transcoding (see Mix and Match in action). Drag and drop clips to rearrange sequences. Plus, you can customize the interface, shortcuts, and keyboard layout for maximum speed and comfort.
Find the right clips fast
Take the work out of editing movies, television shows, and other video projects with two powerful software options that’ll make finding the right clips easy. For script-based projects, the unique ScriptSync option syncs all relevant clips to your script phonetically—automatically—so you can find the best takes fast (see ScriptSync in action). And with the new PhraseFind option, which combines audio indexing with phonetics-based search, you can find the right takes fast or pull up clips containing a certain word to substitute dialog.
Real-time HD editing
Edit HD material in real time—and in optimal mastering picture quality—using Avid DNxHD encoding. Whether your HD workflow is online or offline, you can maximize your productivity, reduce storage requirements, and maintain the highest image quality—even over multiple generations—without additional hardware. And now with Nitris DX AVC-Intra, you can edit natively in this popular format and get the accelerated performance you need.
Get peace of mind with your media
Whether you work alone or as a team, you never have to worry about losing source material or rendered files with the most reliable and robust media management available keeping track of all project assets and metadata for you. Create custom metadata fields to track media the way you want. And easily search, sift, and sort to find information beyond the scope of OS-level searches.
Polish your projects with huge collection of built-in 2D and 3D effects, transitions, and tools for motion tracking, keying, compositing, titling, color correcting, and editing/mixing audio.
Get the look, sound, and quality you want
High-quality effects, compositing, and visuals
Create stunning effects, transitions, and graphics easily with a host of powerful built-in tools:
- 2D and 3D effects—Create stunning visuals and add more depth to imagery with a number of 2D and 3D effects at your fingertips
- Layered, Nested, and Key effects—Create multilayer effects, such as picture-in-picture or superimposing objects in front of different backgrounds, with a host of tools and effects
- Motion effects—Control speed, freeze action, and get the look of film with interlaced video using a variety of motion and timewarp tools
- Motion Tracking and Stabilization—Control an effect based on an object’s motion, or minimize jittery movements while retaining motion you do want, such as a camera pan
- Segment effects—Apply a look to an entire clip, such as a color tint or mask, or create a multilayer effect, with a variety of effects
- Title effects—Create titles, graphics, and credits for your projects with the Avid Title tool or Marquee Title tool
- Transition effects—Smooth transitions between clips or add visual interest with an assortment of fades, dissolves, wipes, and more
Studio-quality sound
Get professional-quality sound to complement your video using a comprehensive set of audio tools. Refine and balance dialog, production audio, ADR, sound effects, music, and more, and build up to 24 tracks of audio per video sequence. Plus, with support for RTAS plug-ins and included AIR effects, you can bring in a wide variety of the industry’s best compressors, reverbs, EQs, and other sound processing plug-ins to sweeten dialog, enliven effects, and make your overall mix more cohesive. See the audio tools in action.
Advanced color grading and correction
Save time and maintain the highest quality production with the fully integrated and flexible 10-bit color correction toolset. Quickly and accurately match colors from shot to shot using NaturalMatch. Gain better color precision with support for full-quality 4:4:4 HD-RGB color space processing. Get fine control over shots with animatable color correction. And dive into the large palette of easy-to-use tools to refine settings or get creative with the color.
Full-quality HD-RGB processing
With support for full-quality 4:4:4 HD-RGB color space processing, you can keep your finishing jobs in house and deliver the highest quality color and effects work. Perform color correction, keying, and effects work with greater precision and ease. And if you have a Nitris DX-based system, you can digitize, process, monitor, and output projects in HD-RGB, using the two HD SDI connections to handle the high-bandwidth resolutions (RGB I/O is included in all Nitris DX products).
Expand your creative palette
Get even more options to get the look, effect, or sound you want through a huge collection of Avid and third-party video (AVX and AVX2) and audio (RTAS) plug-ins, which you can install and use right from your editing interface.
Create video effects, graphics, music, and more, and deliver content for web or disc play with the included Production Suite (not included with download versions of Media Composer).
Design, dazzle, and deliver with the Production Suite
Avid DVD by Sonic
Author professional DVDs and Blu-ray Discs quickly and easily, with complete control over the entire process with Avid DVD 6.1.1 by Sonic, which works with Windows-based systems. Easily export chapter points and thumbnails from the timeline, author and burn discs with advanced controls, produce multi-language titles, generate and import subtitle tracks, and more. Learn more about Sonic professional DVD products on the Sonic website.
Avid FX
Create dazzling 2D and 3D composites, titles, animation, and effects with Avid FX 5.8.3, a powerful collection of creative tools designed by Boris FX. Get started fast with 1,500 customizable templates, or design your own titles and graphics using text, drawing, styles, and animation tools. And create stunning effects with over 115 filters, including Wire Removal, Grain Match, Light Zoom, and more. For more details, visit the Boris FX website.
Boris Continuum Complete
Get the looks you really want with the new Boris Continuum Complete 7 AVX, which includes new lens blur effects, noise reduction tool, OpenGL particle engine, and more. With over 200 plug-in filters, including 3D objects, image restoration tools, time-based effects, distortion and perspective effects, light and glow effects, transitions, keys and mattes, colors and blurs, and cartoon effects, you can create high-quality visuals right within your editing system. For more details, visit the Boris Continuum Complete website.
SmartSound Sonicfire Pro
Create fully customized scores from royalty-free music effortlessly with SmartSound Sonicfire Pro 5.5.2. Choose from a variety of loops and pre-recorded soundtracks and then customize the music to fit your scene. You can match beats to video, insert a stinger, alter the tempo and pitch, fine-tune searches with Sensory Searching, search for music by simply tapping a tempo, and get new spotting tools. For more details, visit the SmartSound Sonicfire Pro website.
Sorenson Squeeze
Optimize and deliver content in a create-once-publish-anywhere world. With Sorenson Squeeze 6.0.4, you can optimize content in a variety of formats (including HD, DVD, MPEG-2, MPEG-4/H.264, Flash, and 3GPP) for web or DVD delivery, author DVDs and Blu-ray Discs on Windows, and burn discs on a PC or Mac. Plus, you can publish content directly to Sorenson 360, YouTube, Twitter, Akamai, Limelight, and other servers. For more details, visit the Sorenson Squeeze website or watch the video tutorial.
With Symphony, you can work with more media formats than any other editing system and integrate into any workflow for the ultimate efficiency
Experience an open workflow
Work natively with SD and HD codecs
Start editing footage right away with AMA which offers native support for a wide range of SD and HD codecs, including RED, QuickTime (including ProRes and H.264), HDCAM SR Lite, DV, HDV, XDCAM HD/EX, DVCPRO HD, AVC-Intra, GFCAM, DNxHD, and more. No need to transcode, even when mixing codecs in the same timeline.
Take your settings with you
Forget about tweaking settings or re-orienting your workspace if you move from one Avid video system to another. Take all of your settings with you to any project through your own user profile—even when moving from an offline workstation to a Symphony finishing system. All shortcuts, keyboard, and screen customization are accessible, so you’ll be up and running in no time.
Work with stereo 3D and other single-frame files
With MetaFuze*, you can quickly merge DPX, TIFF, or even stereoscopic 3D files from film scanning or CGI systems into a single native Avid DNxHD or uncompressed media clip for editing. You can even display and edit 3D material offline—without conforming—using industry-first stereoscopic editing tools and workflows.
Sync with Pro Tools editors
Make the audio post workflow easier by making projects directly accessible to Pro Tools editors through Video Satellite. Or bring in a Pro Tools session as an MXF file and sweeten the mix using any of the 20 included AIR effects, such as reverbs, delays, filters, and other effects—the same ones included with Pro Tools. No need to render effects, transcode video, or copy files for the audio team, as they can simply tap into any Media Composer system to open and play Avid HD and SD sequences (including DNxHD) in high quality, in full resolution, and in sync with their sessions.
Film focused
For filmmakers, you have the industry's most powerful and accurate film workflow in your hands with the award-winning Avid Film Composer toolset. Save time with automatic audio and video syncing and seamless tracking of timecode, Keykode, and other metadata. Plus, with support for 4:4:4 HD-RGB color, you can preserve the full-quality color process from beginning to end.
Timecode and subtitling ease
Speed up any online or audio post workflow with the Timecode Generator, which enables you to create onscreen timecode displays in real time. And with the SubCap Generator, you can easily create open captions and subtitles, plus import and export in Avid DS and standard EBU N19 subtitle formats.
Smoother BWF workflows
Ease the post audio workflow when exporting timeline audio tracks as BWF (Broadcast WAV) files. Just insert the sequence timecode based on your project type as you’re exporting the tracks to create a fast and easy sync reference for downstream processes that don’t support OMF or AAF, such as slave playback devices.
* MetaFuze works with Windows-based computers, including Windows XP and Vista, and Macs running Windows through Boot Camp or other emulation.
Take your offline online—with high-performance finishing tools and powerful hardware acceleration backing you up, you can finish your projects in-house at full 4:4:4 HD RGB color.
Finish online with advanced color and mastering tools
Correct or get creative with advanced color correction
Get the look you’re after with a comprehensive collection of powerful color tools that enable you to correct color from scene to scene, as well as color grade projects. Apply a correction to all clips from a specific source or on a specific track (or span on a track). Apply HSL adjustments to and customize the ranges of Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights individually. With secondary color correction tools, you can make adjustments to certain color values while preserving the integrity of others—with the utmost precision.
Output high-res projects with Universal Mastering
When you’re ready to send your project out to tape, having clips with different frame rates can cause a few blips in your final master. With Symphony Universal Mastering, you can just set your desired output frame rate and the tool ensures that your entire project is mastered in the highest quality and with consistency.
Work efficiently and seamlessly with others using a wide array of workflows and solutions from Avid.
Designed for collaboration
Share media, projects, and ideas
Experience the most collaborative workflow and get things done on time and on budget. With Avid Unity media networks, you and your team can access and play the same files and capture media to the same volume simultaneously, in real time. Since media bins aren’t linked to specific projects or users, you can open bins and access files from other projects—even when in use by others—without having to copy media. And because Unity supports Final Cut systems, you can easily collaborate across mixed editing systems and share media using AMA.
Share projects with the audio team
Collaborating with Pro Tools audio editors, remixers, and sound designers is easy. You can export audio from your video projects to Pro Tools for audio production, with all media and metadata intact. Or for the fastest workflow, add Video Satellite or Video Satellite LE to your workflow and have Pro Tools editors sync directly with Avid video sequences, eliminating the need to render, transcode, or copy files.
Raise the bar with Interplay
When the stakes are high, bring collaboration to the highest level with Avid Interplay asset management systems. Instantly access media and secure files from unauthorized use. Always have the current production elements in play and synced through automated tracking. And with sophisticated multi-contributor asset management, multi-resolution workflows, and rules-based transcoding, you can put the flow in workflow for total facility-wide collaboration.
With a huge community of Avid video users and professional support from Avid, your editing career is in good hands throughout its many stages.
A worldwide, world-class community
The industry leader
Avid understands professional content creation. We’ve been in this industry for over 20 years, designing the tools used by more film and television professionals than any other product. In fact, Symphony Nitris DX is certified by ACE (American Cinema Editors) and received both an Oscar and Emmy Award. And though we are the industry leader, we continuously strive to innovate and make our products the best they can be, so you can keep doing what you do more easily and more efficiently.
Avid editors in demand
For projects large and small, studios and production companies around the world constantly seek the skills and advice of Avid editors, as they’re widely considered to be the best in the industry. Whether you want to do freelance or join a team, or you’re looking for talented Avid editors to help you with a project, you’ll find opportunities and Avid editors worldwide.
Get expert support
When you need help, expert assistance is just a web click or phone call away. Choose from a wide range of Avid Support resources that fit your needs and budget, including free web-based support (the Avid Knowledge Base), pay-per-case phone support, Avid Support plans (which include free software upgrades/updates), and complete installation services.
Get training
Get the most out of your investment through Avid Training. Whether you simply want to learn how to use your Avid software and/or system to the fullest or want to up your game through certification training, you can choose from several self-paced books, online courses and classroom training, and customized training programs.
Connect with others
Whether you need help, want to offer help, have tips or tutorials to share, or want to connect with thousands of fellow Avid editors, you’ll find a wealth of information and resources on the Avid Community site. Seek advice from the Avid staff and other users in the Avid forums. Check the Avid Community blogs for the latest tools and techniques. Get helpful tips and tutorials from the community. Meet others by joining an Avid User Group. And much more!
