Avid Delivers Accelerated Broadcast Workflows with Availability of Panasonic AVC Ultra-LongG Format Support

BURLINGTON, MA, 06.09.2016

Full integration of the popular format with MediaCentral Platform solutions provides the industry’s first end-to-end AVC-LongG production workflow for unprecedented performance and efficiency

Avid® (Nasdaq: AVID) today announced the availability of the first MediaCentral® Platform solutions that support the Panasonic AVC Ultra-LongG video format. Through the openness of Avid Everywhere™, the popular format is now fully integrated into Media Composer®, Interplay® | Production, AirSpeed® | 5500, Interplay | MAM, Avid NEXIS™, Avid MediaCentral™ | UX, and Media | Director. By leveraging this format and these solutions, broadcasters can streamline their entire workflow from ingest to final delivery while lowering storage and networking requirements.

“Thanks to the openness of Avid Everywhere, broadcasters can work with a wide range of formats and resolutions,” said Jeff Rosica, senior vice president and chief sales & marketing officer, Avid.  “By supporting AVC Ultra-LongG, we’re extending Avid MediaCentral Platform solutions to give customers fast, efficient and highly integrated workflows. Our work on delivering Panasonic AVC Ultra-LongG as an end-to-end solution as well as some of the unique capabilities we’ve provided illustrate our commitment to our Resolution Independence strategy to provide modern workgroups the complete workflows they need to do their work with confidence every day of operation.”

An increasing number of news organizations and broadcasters worldwide are now shooting in the AVC Ultra-LongG format as it provides high-quality media at smaller bandwidth rates. Avid is the first to support this format fully, releasing new product updates that offer an end-to-end LongG workflow across the Avid MediaCentral Platform. Avid’s unique splicing of AVC Ultra-LongG streams is an industry first capability, allowing for changes to be made to existing sequences without requiring a full re-encode upon playout or consolidation.

Through seamless integration with the MediaCentral Platform, customers can safely replace old camera inventory and invest in this new camera platform without risking interruption of well-established operational practices. By using this media format, customers can streamline their entire workflow, speed up production, and save on storage costs. From baseband and file-based ingest and logging, to editing, playout, and archive, the Avid media production workflow solutions have been updated to support the complete workflow.

“We’re seeing strong demand from customers for a complete AVC Ultra-LongG media production workflow,” said Kunihiko Miyagi, executive VP of Cinema and Broadcasting, Imaging Network Business Division, Panasonic. “By working closely with Avid, we’re enabling customers in the news production and broadcast industries to benefit from a complete, integrated workflow, spanning everything from acquisition to archive.”

Avid’s end-to-end production workflow for AVC Ultra-LongG spans the Avid Artist, Media, and Storage Suites, and includes baseband and file-based ingest, editorial and logging, send-to-playback, and archive. The following Avid product updates and upgrades are now available:

• Media Composer 8.6 —Edit HD and high-res media with the film, TV, and broadcast standard ( P2 Plugin 4.7 is required )

• Avid NEXIS™ 6.0— Accelerate production with the world’s first software-defined storage platform

• Interplay® | Production 3.6—Manage assets, collaborate, and automate workflows for high-volume media delivery

• Interplay | MAM 5.6—Unify and coordinate every aspect of media production with a comprehensive system

• AirSpeed® | 5500 2.1—Speed up SD, HD, and high-res workflows with a multichannel ingest/playout server

• Media | Director 1.5—Automate file-based media ingest, parking, and transcoding

• MediaCentral | UX 2.7—Access media and work on projects anywhere using a cloud-based interface