Avid Media Composer 7 Extends Real-time Production Everywhere

NAB (Booth #SU902), LAS VEGAS, NV, 2013/04/07

Industry’s preeminent nonlinear editing solution now available for $999; New release simplifies and accelerates file-based workflows, and offers Mac support for Interplay Sphere

Avid® (NASDAQ: AVID) today unveiled Media Composer® 7, featuring accelerated and simplified file-based workflows including optimized HD delivery from high-res source material and automated media operations. In addition, as a key component of the Avid Everywhere vision, the new release offers Interplay® Sphere for Mac support, extending real-time production everywhere. Used to edit more top-tier content than any other nonlinear editing (NLE) solution, Media Composer software is now available starting at $999 USD—bringing unprecedented value to post production editors.

“Avid has never wavered in its commitment to the professional editing community. Today’s video professionals are faced with a media landscape of new formats, fewer resources, and tighter budgets,” said Chris Gahagan, senior vice president of Products and Services at Avid. “Media Composer 7 tackles these challenges with unparalleled file-based workflows, background processing, and automation. Plus, with its new lower price point, Media Composer is now more accessible than ever to editors who previously had to compromise on quality with other tools.”

Accelerating HD delivery from high-res source

As more content is created with high-res cameras and delivered as HD, editors typically must perform time consuming transcode and resize operations before true editing can begin. Media Composer 7 eliminates this step by enabling editors to work directly in HD from the high-res source, while maintaining full creative control of image framing.

Media Composer 7 offers a wide array of key new features, including:

• AMA media management — Media linked via Avid Media Access (AMA) now benefits from the complete suite of industry-leading media management tools formerly reserved for native Avid media.
• Dynamic media folders — Accelerates and simplifies AMA media management tasks automatically in the background.
• FrameFlex™ tool and LUT support — Enables editors to ingest 2K, 4K, and 5K media with real-time color space conversion and deliver content directly to HD.
• Master Audio Fader — Enables editors to control overall program volume and insert plugins for compression, equalization, and compliance metering.
• Clip Gain — Editors can adjust gain on a specific clip, independent of track-based automation, without engaging separate audio tools.
• Symphony Color Correction option — Lets editors add advanced color correction tools previously found only in Avid Symphony.
• Interplay Sphere for Mac — Enables creative teams to edit, share, tag, track, and sync media as it flows through the production process anywhere in the world (Media Composer Interplay Edition required).

Mark Futa, head of Post Production at The Ant Farm, said, “As we journey further into a tapeless post production world, managing a wide range of dissimilar digital media is a major challenge. What excites me about Media Composer 7 is not only its ability to speed up the ingest of both high-res and HD source media via AMA, but also the introduction of background processing so our editors can keep editing while the application handles non-creative tasks like media transcoding and consolidation.”

Media Composer software configuration options

At product availability, Avid will offer a choice of two Media Composer software configurations:

• Media Composer provides the full Media Composer editing feature set as well as support for ISIS® workgroups.
• Media Composer Interplay Edition includes all the features in Media Composer, plus the ability to connect to Avid Interplay.

Availability & Pricing

Media Composer 7 will be available in the online Avid Store and from Avid resellers worldwide starting in June 2013. Customers can purchase Media Composer 6.5 now and receive a free upgrade to version 7 when available. Pricing will be as follows:

• Media Composer 7 (standard) — $999 USD
• Media Composer 7 Interplay Edition — $1499 USD