Avid Content Core - The future of media production

Avid is redefining media workflows with Avid Content Core, a next-generation Content Data Platform designed to break down silos and streamline the entire content lifecycle, from creation to monetization.

Why it matters: 

• Single pane of glass: Track assets from origination through distribution and performance. 
• Cloud-agnostic & hybrid-ready: Will works across AWS, GCP, Azure on-prem, and multi-cloud environments. 
• AI-powered automation: Speeds up editorial processes, freeing creatives to focus on storytelling. 
• Open & interoperable: API-first architecture aligns with MovieLabs 2030 vision. 

This is more than asset management, it’s a game changer for news, sports, and post-production workflows, enabling efficiency, creativity, and revenue generation. 

Transforming Media Operations 

“Avid Content Core is the foundation layer for future media workflows. It is going to be a game changer.” Avid’s Chief Technology Officer Tom Sharma is not holding back when he discusses how significant the work being done on a brand-new Content Data Platform will be for the media industry.

Sharma, who took over as CTO in March 2025, heads up the engineering teams and sets the technology vision for the company. Avid recently unveiled their plans for Avid Content Core, which is set to have far reaching impacts on the business of news, sports, post production, and more.

Avid’s Vice President of Product Management, Guillaume Aubuchon, outlined the benefits of Avid Content Core. “This is a true content data platform—not just a Media Asset Management (MAM) or Production Asset Management (PAM) system. It'll have those pieces in it, but this is really a single pane of glass that allows you to track assets from their origination in the workflow and their creation all the way through distribution, and ultimately the performance and monetization of those assets as well. So, it's really different for the industry.”

Sharma agrees, pointing out the key role which AI and automation will play in the platform, “It basically manages and indexes content and metadata across on-prem, cloud, and hybrid, so teams can search, access, and collaborate without worrying where the media is. We want to automate as much as we can because it gives our customers the power to get the time back. So, you know, when you add this—hybrid cloud architectures, interoperability, AI-powered agents—these are the most exciting innovations that basically free up time for editors to simplify the complexity and align the industry around common principles.”

As an example of how AI can help the editorial process, Quickture has a panel in Media Composer which can use AI to create a basic roughcut from an interview. On a recent reality TV series, it is estimated that this enabled the team to deliver almost three times as many casting tapes to the production team for consideration.

Having worked for Hulu and NBCUniversal as well as running his own company, Sharma has seen the industry undergo significant change in the past twenty-five years. He says this gives him an ideal perspective. “I was fortunate to see the entire supply chain, from creation to monetization. And now my focus is on how we reduce friction and unlock creativity in the next generation of workflows.” From storycentric news workflows to end to end media production pipelines, the drive for efficiency is constant.

Openness and interoperability are key tenets of Sharma’s beliefs, promoting an API-first strategy throughout the engineering organization and investing in AI research. He said, “API is not just about integration today. They are absolutely the foundation of interoperability and AI-driven workflows of tomorrow.”

On AI, he is clear that it is an enabler to the creative process, not a replacement for the expertise of the craft editor, journalist, or sound mixer. “It's very simple. It's about how we give the editors and the storytellers more time so that they can focus on creativity and less on chasing and preparing media, right? What I mean by that is, how do you take raw media and how fast can you create finished stories so you can allow the networks and the studios to monetize that media?”

There is a recurring theme here, not just about creativity, but also focused on enabling customers to generate revenue from the crafted stories, movies, or songs that they create. This is a subtle, but important shift, recognizing that Avid has a role to play in the wealth-creating activities of those who use their solutions.

“It's transformational in the sense, like the supply chain as it has been up until now was, hey—there's media creation inside of the house that actually produces media. Then, you know what? There's another set of folks that actually monetize and distribute it, and then there's yet another set of folks that actually buy the media on the advertising side of the house. So, there were silos. Those walls are definitely coming down, and if they can get further insights, that helps monetize the content better.”

The industry is on a journey to the cloud, but on-premises workflows will continue for years to come, and hybrid-cloud has gained traction in recent years as broadcasters seek the best technical approach for their business. Avid has worked with Microsoft Azure to deliver cloud workflows and recently signed a partnership with AWS to deliver cloud-based storage and post production workflows with Media Composer and Avid NEXIS. While Avid Content Core will be built on AWS and leverage their technologies, Sharma insists the approach is multi-cloud.