Features

Get more power and reliability—just added

AirSpeed | 5500 features an all-new upgraded chassis and new 3.0 software, delivering much more power under the hood. With its next-generation CPU and motherboard, you gain greater performance to handle the most complex productions. It also supports Windows 10, providing the system-level security and reliability you need in today's challenging broadcast environments.

Get a complete end-to-end workflow

For news, post, and sports production, AirSpeed | 5500 streamlines your entire workflow—from capture to playout. Eliminate time-consuming transcoding thanks to native support for a variety of media formats and codecs. And it integrates seamlessly with Avid and third-party newsroom, video, and broadcast control and editing systems. Choose the 2-channel model for smaller productions or the 4-channel system for more demanding, enterprise environments.

Open to your unique workflows

AirSpeed | 5500 runs on the MediaCentral platform, giving you easy workflow integration, unrivaled collaboration, and great versatility. Choose to use it with MediaCentral | Production Management or Interplay | Production and Avid NEXIS shared storage—in your facility or in the cloud—with other Avid and/or third-party systems, in a workgroup-connected environment, or as a standalone video server.

Get total flexibility

Thanks to its open architecture, you can work with your choice of editing software, automation control systems, and external hardware controllers, with the freedom to switch things up should your needs change.

Eliminate transcoding steps

Forget having to invest in costly converters. AirSpeed | 5500 has them built right into all of its channels, enabling you to record and play back both HD and SD baseband media in your preferred common format, such as XAVC Intra HD, XAVC-L, AVC-Intra HD, and AVC-LongG, eliminating extra transcoding steps.

Get wide codec support

The new AirSpeed | 5500 is designed around an advanced chipset that supports an extensive range of SD and HD operating points, including XDCAM HD, XAVC Intra HD, XAVC-L, AVC-Intra HD, and AVC-LongG.

Automate capture and playback

Whether you use an Avid or third-party automation control system, content recording and playout have never been easier. With full MediaCentral | Capture and Interplay | Capture integration, you can take the guesswork out of feed scheduling and recording.

Trigger multisite media playback remotely

Pair AirSpeed with MediaCentral | Ingest or Media | Director and you can trigger media playback remotely—across multiple locations—with Remote STP (Send to Playback). This enables you to send finished sequences from MediaCentral | Cloud UX or MediaCentral | UX in one location to an AirSpeed | 5500 video server group for playback in another, and get status feedback as if you were transferring the content locally. With Remote STP, you can optimize system utilization across multiple locations, increasing efficiency while reducing operating costs.

Fast editing and turnaround

Use the built-in IsoSync feature for one-button, frame-synchronized capture to Avid NEXIS for fast editing and turnaround. Capture events of any length, on any channel, with continuous recording, eliminating duration restrictions and ingest scheduling.

Cost effective playout

When you’re ready to go to air, get cost-effective playout by integrating MediaCentral | Command (formerly iNEWS | Command), which provides precision automation, plus assisted and manual control. Or integrate AirSpeed | 5500 with a variety of third-party control systems through an available API, industry-standard VDCP, Sony BVW Control Protocol, or GPIO.

Get to production and playout faster

Forget the wait. With AirSpeed | 5500, you can directly exchange files between XDCAM, XAVC Intra, XAVC-L, AVC-Intra, and/or AVC-LongG decks, third-party servers, Media Composer, and other editing systems.

Enjoy effortless switching

Deliver broadcast-quality slow motion SD and HD playback on any channel—ideal for sports and live broadcast events. Put an end to dedicating one format for each channel output with HD/SD format switching, which automatically changes a channel’s output to match the HD or SD clip.

Play back media quickly and reliably

Play back clips as soon as they’re captured with near-instantaneous ingest-to-playback turnaround—a must for live broadcast events and late-breaking news.

Start editing immediately

Start editing material in Media Composer or other systems from Avid NEXIS seconds after media recording begins using the FrameChase Editing feature. Once editing is finished, you can send content directly to AirSpeed | 5500 for playout with a single click—and even have clips play to air before the transfer has completed.

Manage media with the utmost security

With 8 TB of usable storage in 4-channel model, or 4 TB of usable storage in 2-channel model, you’ll have plenty of space to house your programming, commercial, and interstitial content. Plus, you get optimal performance, fail-safe operation, and peace of mind with RAID 5 media protection and redundant OS drives, power supplies, network connections, and system fans.

• Send clips to up to six AirSpeed servers with one Send to Playback command for redundancy or simultaneous transmission
• Sync multi-camera recording by linking up to 12 channels across multiple AirSpeed servers with IsoSync, providing one-button record, stop, and pause command across all
• View and control monitoring, inventory, play, record, clip management, and re-transfer through the intuitive Remote Console UI
• Create and edit playlists for single or multiple playback channels

• Create and edit playlists for single or multiple playback channels
• Preserve embedded data with SMPTE 436-compliant ancillary data stream support
• Easily connect AirSpeed to your existing infrastructure through industry-standard video inputs, including Gigabit Ethernet, SDI, digital embedded audio, external time code, and RS422
• Choose your required mode for recording to preserve timecode
• Customize your system to delete media automatically