IBC Q&A: Dave Colantuoni, Frank Capria, and Dana Ruzicka, Avid

Avid’s Dave Colantuoni, senior director of product management, products, and services; Frank Capria, director of product management, Interplay Production; and Dana Ruzicka, VP of segment and product marketing, shared some insight into what attendees can expect to see from Avid at IBC2013.

Odds are, you cannot get into specifics on new developments, but what can you share on features and products that we will see at IBC2013 that were not at IBC2012?
Ruzicka: Avid will build on its strategic vision — termed “Avid Everywhere,” which was revealed at NAB2013 — and outline its ongoing commitment to creating the most fluid end-to-end, distributed media-production environment in the industry. We will also reveal major enhancements to our line of broadcast and media solutions with announcements for on-air graphics, ingest and playback, and shared storage. Our creative toolset will also be showcased, including the latest versions of the industry-standard pro audio- and pro video-editing solutions, Avid Pro Tools 11 and Avid Media Composer 7, that were released at the end of June.

The Avid Everywhere workflow made its debut at NAB2013, and now it is making its debut at IBC. What will Avid Everywhere mean for European customers?
Capria: Avid Everywhere is not a single workflow. It’s a set of capabilities that allows seamless collaboration among various members of a workgroup. The Interplay Central UI, Interplay Sphere, and Interplay Pulse allow anyone with an Internet connection to search, browse, edit, and publish media.

Where are the cost savings in a system like this? For example, does it make it easier to have content stored in only one place as opposed to being replicated on a number of servers in diverse locations?
Capria: Beyond the obvious cost savings made possible by centralised media storage, tools made available in a Web browser allow the use of less expensive PCs. With a distributed workforce, overhead can be greatly reduced by lessened floor-space, freight, and travel requirements. By broadening its geographical reach, Avid Everywhere gives the organisation the ability to utilise an expanded talent pool.

One of the buzz topics this year will be 4K. One of the big issues will be how to edit and transport 4K files as quickly as possible. And we are even hearing the return of the R-word: rendering. How do you see 4K capabilities spreading across your product line? And how will the increased storage needs impact systems like ISIS?
Colantuoni: Knowing that the home viewing experience will ultimately move to 4K and beyond, our customers are asking for enhancements to accommodate this trend. And, in Media Composer 7, we’ve taken our hi-res support to the next level with the introduction of FrameFlex, which allows editors to scale, pan and scan, or manipulate the 4K image in real time without losing any of the resolution of the original hi-res clips. Editors have complete creative control, including animation, of their hi-res–to–HD extraction and can also send the FrameFlex metadata off for hi-res finishing elsewhere if required.

Of course, customers capturing 4K images will need larger-capacity disc drives and have these same discs provide the bandwidth required to play back larger images. ISIS 2000, 5000, and 7000 are designed to be extensible and flexible; our ISIS file system will allow robust playback of media while providing the added benefits of performance, reliability, media protection, and workflow integration that our customers expect from our storage products.