NAB Roundup
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| Avid President and CEO David Krall |
First up was the newest iteration of XPress DV, now named Xpress Pro, where you can add a great-looking flat and shiny new device for $1695 called Avid Mojo, the entry-level product in the new DNA line. It's sized and shaped in such a way that it would be easy to take it along with your notebook for some in-the field editing. Mojo is a portable piece of DNA hardware which lets you output real time uncompressed video using FireWire on a Mac OS X or Windows XP workstation or notebook. In this impressive demo, this tiny shiny box supercharges Xpress Pro into a real time uncompressed monster. With this kind of power, tricks like real time color correction, multitrack real time audio editing and all kinds effects with no rendering were child's play. It was remarkable seeing this unit moving DV25 to uncompressed SD input and output -- in fact, to emphasize the fact that only a 1394 cable was being used for the demo, the artist hung a 1394 cable around his neck throughout his presentation. Now Xpress is really real time. And imagine this: Uncompressed real time editing on a notebook. Remarkable. Avid says this new version of Xpress ($1695, now including Film Tools for 24p work), and Mojo hardware (an additional $1695) will be available in Q3 of this year.
The next step up in the DNA line is the new Media Composer, juiced up with the Adrenaline accelerator. The demo sure had the adrenaline pumping in the room, because the new hardware turns Media Composer into a real-time beast. You can mix resolutions on the timeline, with plenty of compositing features along for the ride, too -- we saw the demonstrator stack up five streams of standard definition uncompressed video, all in real time. Real time color correction and lots more made this a most impressive system. The system's power was evident when the operator scrubbed rapidly back and forth on the timeline, and the result was instant response -- a trait that will be of the utmost importance for real-world editors. Showing off further, the demo artist briefly showed the stunned crown eight streams of (was it really uncompressed?) video playing back in real time on the system. Another big plus is the way the 3D effects can take advantage of off-the-shelf 3D accelerators like the NVidia GeForce 4, a trend that we've seen also in Pinnacle's new Edition 5 software and hardware. Avid also mentioned that we can expect an HD expansion card in 2004 for the system. What was the most surprising, though, was the price -- $24,995 -- but that doesn't include any storage, a CPU or monitors. Still, that represents a departure in pricing from Avid for such a powerful new system. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
Then we got to the granddaddy of all the DNA family, the DS Nitris. This hardware box significantly accelerates Avid's DS compositing and editing system, so much so that Avid says the chip-stoked box is equal to 30 Pentium 4 chips running at 3GHz. I believe it, too, because this was a screaming system. It's actually able to handle two streams of real time 10-bit HD footage, albeit slightly compressed. But it looked squeaky-clean to me, with no visible compression artifacts. It's capable of handling two simultaneous streams of real time color correction, too. The system is also able to handle DPX and Cineon 2K files in their native color space, a big plus for the digital intermediate producers in the crowd. Even more astonishing was the way Nitris crunched through eight streams of 10-bit uncompressed standard definition video in real time. As the demo progressed, it was obvious to me that Avid has combined the best of Media Composer, Symphony and DS into one monster system that's accelerated by some serious hardware. It was the first demo of its kind I've ever seen. There has never been a digital video editing system built with this kind of power. Avid says it plans to ship the new systems in the third quarter of this year, at a price of $145,000 for turnkey Avid DS Nitris systems and $78,995 for DS Nitris Editor systems. This doesn't include storage, CPU or monitors. Now I know who those tongue-like drawers were wagging at: All other digital video hardware manufacturers, that's who. For more on Avid's new line of DNA products, I talked with CEO David Krall -- we'll have that exclusive interview soon here on DMN.Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
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