Avid Advances Open Platform Initiative with More Than 50 Third Parties at NAB 2007 Leading manufacturers adopt company’s Avid DNxHD codec; company also demonstrates Open Storage Initiative and broad interoperability with third-party software and hardware tools

Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) announced that it is collaborating with more than 50 leading software and hardware manufacturers to promote open workflows, standards, and product interoperability for digital media production professionals.  In addition to the 27 hardware and software companies that will demonstrate product interoperability with Avid® tools in the Avid Developer Community (#SL1413) and a range of third-party booths, 24 other leading manufacturers have licensed the Avid DNxHD® codec and plan to integrate Avid’s revolutionary 8-bit and 10-bit HD encoding technology into their product offerings.  Furthermore, NAB attendees will have the chance to see how Avid is advancing collaborative production through the Open Storage Initiative (OSI) it announced last year.  The company is demonstrating offline and online workflows with third-party content creation tools – including Adobe® Production Studio, Apple Final Cut Pro, and Digital Vision’s Film Master – running on an Avid Unity™ MediaNetwork 5.0 shared-storage system (announced today in a separate release: www.avid.com/unitymedianetwork5.0).

“Over the past 20 years, Avid has developed and deployed comprehensive content creation, management and distribution solutions for tens of thousand of customers.  In talking with these users, one of the things they continue to value most is ‘choice’,” said Graham Sharp, vice president and general manager of Avid’s Video division.  “In addition to using Avid systems, our customers want the freedom to choose the applications, products, and operating systems they prefer most – and we are focused on providing them with that opportunity.  In fact, at this NAB, we’re working closely with more than 50 third-party manufacturers to demonstrate that commitment – and how we offer customers a platform on which they can build open workflows that best suit their requirements.”  

Industry Adoption of Avid DNxHD Gains Momentum
In 2004, Avid introduced Avid DNxHD – a mastering quality HD codec that maintains full-raster 10-bit HD image quality at SD-comparable data rates – to provide post and broadcast teams worldwide with an easy way to deploy HD workflows using their existing network infrastructures.  With the widespread acceptance of the Avid DNxHD codec, a growing number of software and hardware developers have been working to deliver tight interoperability between their product offerings and Avid systems that coexist in HD workflow environments.  As a result, Avid plans to release a software development kit (SDK) in mid-2007 that will allow these manufacturers to incorporate Avid DNxHD encoding capabilities directly into their products and extend the efficiencies of Avid DNxHD to a broader range of content creation, management, and distribution systems.  To date, 24 manufacturers have signed SDK licensing agreements for Avid DNxHD, including Agnostic Media, Inc., Anystream, Inc., Ardendo AB, Cinegy LLC, Digital Vision AB, Drastic Technologies Ltd., DVS Digital Video Systems GmbH, Dayang Technology Development, Inc., EVS Broadcast Equipment SA, FilmLight Ltd., Harris Broadcast Communications, Ikegami Tsushinki Co., Ltd., Marquis Broadcast LTD, Masstech Group, Inc., Merging Technologies, S.A., MESoft, Inc., Metaglue Corporation, MTI Film, LLC, NonLinear Technology, LLC, Optibase, Inc., Quadrus Ltd., Rhozet Corporation, Skymicro, Inc., and Telestream, Inc.  

“Digital Vision’s Film Master application provides a rich toolset for grading and finishing video and film projects.  In tapeless environments, exchanging data, and transcoding and managing multiple versions of the same media in different formats adds complexity, increases cost and reduces efficiency,” said Simon Cuff, President and COO of Digital Vision.  “Avid DNxHD encoded MXF media solves these problems by providing a standard data format that provides online picture quality at bandwidths enabling multiple HD streams to multiple client workstations.  By sharing that same media format at the editing and finishing workstations, projects are simultaneously accessible by editorial, grading, and finishing systems – which ultimately improve the client experience, the quality of end result, and the bottom line.”

In addition, Avid DNxHD is compliant with SMPTE draft standard VC-3, an HD video compression format in development that enables open media exchange.  VC-3 is making excellent progress toward becoming a SMPTE Standard (to be identified as SMPTE 2019) and the effort is nearing completion.  Pending VC-3 standardization by SMPTE, Avid DNxHD will be the world’s first codec fully compliant with VC-3 compression technology, and any manufacturer that licenses Avid DNxHD will have confidence knowing that it is working with a SMPTE standard.

Promoting Open Workflows with OSI
Introduced at NAB 2006, Avid’s Open Storage Initiative is allowing professional content creators to deploy deeply integrated workflows that embrace the PC and Mac products they prefer most – whether they are Avid tools or third-party products.  In the past year, Avid has tested 17 content creation applications from a range of third-party manufacturers, qualifying each to run on the Avid Unity shared-storage platform. At NAB 2007, Avid is demonstrating offline and online workflows with third-party applications running on an Avid Unity MediaNetwork 5.0 system.  These demonstrations will include Final Cut Pro and Adobe Production Studio systems accessing and editing the same content in real-time; and a color-grading workflow utilizing Symphony™ Nitris® and Digital Vision’s Film Master application.  Powered by Avid’s OSI, these flexible workflows empower content creators with the freedom to use their favorite tools in a shared-media production environment.

“The Adobe Production Studio is an ideal suite of tools for artists working on a range of film, video, DVD, and web projects – and with the ability to connect to Avid Unity, our customers can take advantage of one of the industry’s leading shared-storage systems to help manage their content,” said Jim Guerard, vice president and general manager Dynamic Media at Adobe.  “Avid and Adobe both share the vision that content creators should have the freedom to use a range of tools from multiple vendors in an open workflow.  We’re pleased that the Adobe Production Studio is now a qualified system under Avid’s Open Storage Initiative – and we look forward to continuing a collaboration with Avid that will empower our customers to work more efficiently.”

A Growing Community of Avid Developers
NAB 2007 marks the sixth year that Avid has hosted an Avid Developer Community, an exhibition area adjacent to the Avid booth (#SL1413) that now includes 17 third-party companies showcasing product interoperability with Avid systems.  The Avid Developer Community is an essential part of Avid’s strategy to work with leading companies and deliver integrated production solutions for content creation, management, and distribution.  Among the many companies exhibiting in the Avid Developer Community this year are ATTO Technology, Inc., Creative Network Design, Inc., Front Porch Digital, Inc., KIWA International, MESoft, Inc., Metaglue Corporation, Nexidia, Ninsight, NonLinear Technology, LLC, Ocean Systems, Pulse Digital, Inc., root6, rtSoftware, SGL, SoftNI Corporation, Sorenson Media, Inc., and Virtual Katy Development Limited.

In addition to the Avid Developer Community, 20 exhibitors will demonstrate interoperability between their products and Avid systems within complete media production workflows. These exhibitors include AJA Video, Anystream, Inc., BorisFX, EVS Broadcast Equipment SA, FilmLight Ltd., GenArts, Inc., HP, Ikegami Tsushinki Co., Masstech Group, Inc., Nvision, Panasonic, Philips Content Identification, Quantum, Ross Video, ScheduAll, Signiant, Sony, and Thomson Grass Valley.