Avid's new DNA, and eliminating the 'Stone Tax': how new developments from two of the most popular post product makers will affect you - Special Report: Technology

Post, May, 2003 by Carolyn Giardina

LAS VEGAS -- At NAB, Avid (www.avid.com) previewed DNA, a series of digital nonlinear accelerators developed to increase the media processing power found in today's leading personal computers by the equivalent of anywhere from two to more than 30 Pentium 4 processors. "Representing three years [and $50 million] of pioneering development, these new accelerators complement host-based processing," said Avid president/CEO David Krall." From DV to HD, the Avid DNA family delivers realtime capabilities, virtually eliminating the need for rendering. And, the entire line is programmable and scalable."

The company emphasized that it would not eliminate any of its existing products as a result of the DNA development, but customers should be aware that not all software feature sets would be identical for DNA and Meridien-based systems. Here's a rundown of the announcements:

* Paired with next-gen Avid\DS software, Nitris is designed for editing, conforming and finishing at multiple compressed and uncompressed 10-bit HD and standard definition formats. It offers realtime performance for multistream effects such as realtime dissolves, SMPTE wipes, DVEs and Symphony-style color correction. Nitris is expected to ship around IBC, with prices starting at $78,995.

Notable is the new Avid IDS V.7 software. "We did 2K file support, DSX and Cineon files in their native color space and bit depth, with look-up table support," explained product marketing manager Matt Allard." Looking at the workflow, you can offline on Film Composers. From there, do an AAF conform in DS at HD resolution, then get the realtime nature of color correction. You can work exclusively in 2K or straight HD out to film. I think we have an interesting approach to 2K workflow, and it's really economical when you think about other systems approaching that space.

"Our strategy is to occupy the finishing and mastering space for HD and SD products," Allard emphasized." What we are trying to do with the 2K environment is not make it the exclusive domain of companies like Discreet and Quantel. We have a really good story in the 2K space with incredible performance and flexibility. And we always tie in to the offline environment via Media Composer for a much more complete conform."

* Adrenaline with Media Composer and NewsCutter is built on a realtime architecture that streams uncompressed SD video over a standard FireWire connection. Adrenaline supports a broad range of resolutions, and offers a built-in HD expansion slot and future 10-bit video and 96 kHz audio support Avid Media Composer Adrenaline and NewsCutter Adrenaline FX systems are expected to ship during Q2, with pricing expected to start at $24,995.

* Avid Mojo was developed for notebook computers and is capable of delivering realtime effects and simultaneous DV and analog output with Avid Xpress Pro and Avid NewsCutter XP software. Avid Mojo connects to any qualified PC or Mac system via a single FireWire cable and scales to support uncompressed SD video. These accelerators are expected to start at $1,695 and ship in Q3.

Allard reported that the software upgrades for DS and Nitris would likely be identical. On the Adrenaline side, he said there are a limited number of functions that are built into the new hardware that the Meridien base would not support. Conversely, there are some features for the Meridien-based system that are not available to Adrenaline users. For instance, Adrenaline will, initially, exclusively offer automatic color correction and the ability to scale with host processing power to support more than five realtime SD streams, while Adrenaline will not offer universal offline and ninestream multicam.

When asked where Symphony fits into the new lineup, Allard emphasized its purpose as an SD finishing and mastering system." If you look at what Meridien systems do in terms of realtime performance, right now you can't do it on the host. Even Media Composer Adrenaline -- you can't do universal mastering, you can't do retime, you can't do Ultimatte in realtime. Symphony has carved out a really nice space for itself, we expect that to keep going for some time, because the host-based performance we get out of Adrenaline on DNA won't actually deliver that for some time. We figure we have a number of years with Symphony in terms of performance differentiation."

DISCREET ELIMINATES THE STONE TAX

Discreet (www.discreet.com) came to NAB with its newest products -- notably the Lustre color grading system -- and a reworked plan for servicing customers' diverse storage requirements. The later effort includes significant cost reductions, which are being viewed by customers as the elimination of the so-called "Stone Tax," a term used by customers to describe the requirement to use Discreet-certified Stone hardware, which customers say was typically more expensive that other storage options. With the new plan, product marketing manager Maurice Patel said that customers could expect a reduction in storage costs of up to 50 percent.