IBC 2016: Avid intros sports production packages; Nexis E5 server
Avid has introduced a new integrated, end-to-end sports production system that the company says is designed to cover every type of production, from small and mid-sized studio organizations all the way up to large broadcasters and remote productions. The core of the system is the Avid MediaCentral Platform, the new sports workflow that integrates various tools into a single system.
Avid is zeroing in on the sports market with four different production packages.
“Live sports are perhaps the most intense production environment there is, and great productions are rewarded by high ratings and devoted fans,” says Alan Hoff, vice president, Market Solutions at Avid. “We have put together a winning team of solutions so that organizations of all types and sizes, from outside to remote production, as well as collegiate, can get in the game.”
Each system contains everything needed for the fast turnaround world of live sports, centered on the PlayMaker sports ingest, replay and playout server, Spark sports enhancement, and complemented by Avid NEXIS shared storage, Media Composer editing, and Interplay asset management. Even basic installation and training are included in the package.
All the packages are based around Avid’s PlayMaker replay and highlights editing server; Spark telestration and graphics rendering; Nexis E4 storage; Interplay asset management; MediaCentral UX; Media Composer for editing; and Avid Customizable Logger. Those tools allow for sports highlights to be turned around quickly with support for multiple playlists; visual analysis and graphics to illustrate key plays to bring viewers into the game; browse, search, and share local and remote media; and edit video in post for creating additional sports show content.
New sports workflow solutions announced at IBC 2016 include:
Avid Sports Solution Studio: Designed for small and medium-sized broadcasters, Avid Sports Solution Studio can ingest up to six feeds per PlayMaker server and also produce slow motion replays.
Avid Sports Solution Remote Productions: For big sports and remote productions makes it easy for multiple teams to cover a game or sporting event from the field. Ingest up to 12 feeds using PlayMaker sports servers.
Avid Sports Solution Trucks: For OB, outside, and remote productions, this package makes it easy to bring powerful sports production with you wherever you go, thanks to its plug and-play workflow.
Avid Sports Solution EDU: For colleges and educational facilities, Avid Sports Solution EDU makes it easy to cover games live at home, on the road, or in the studio.
The new sports solutions are expected to be available in Q4 2016.
Earlier this year Avid introduced Avid Nexis, a software-definied storage platform and this week at IBC it is taking the technology to the next level with Nexis E5, an enterprise-class high-density storage engine. A single E5 system scales up to 1.4 PB with bandwidth of 9.6 Gbps, delivering more than 2,000 DNXHD streams (or 500 4K streams) to hundreds of clients with a footprint of only 17 rack units.
“It has 300% higher density that the highest performing storage systems in the market, 600% higher performance, twice as secure, and one-third cheaper than Avid ISIS,” says Avid Chairman, President, and CEO Louis Hernandez, Jr. “Gone are the days when an organization can make a hardware capital investment and then rip it out.”
Avid NEXIS High Availability options increase the reliability and performance of Avid NEXIS E-class storage systems for the most critical deployments. The Avid NEXIS Redundant Storage Controller, Redundant System Director, and Redundant Networking options protect against potential hardware performance issues, while the Media Mirroring option protects an entire Avid NEXIS system against up to five simultaneous disk failures, and even an entire engine failure.
Thanks to the openness of the Avid MediaCentral Platform, Avid NEXIS solutions work with all top media creation applications, including Media Composer, Pro Tools, Apple Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Grass Valley EDIUS, and many more. Production teams can quickly access a shared pool of virtualized storage resources, which dramatically increases their efficiency.
Avid NEXIS enables fully virtualized storage so media organizations can adjust storage capacity mid-project, without disrupting workflows. Customers can select components that meet their current needs, and easily grow as their needs change. In terms of availability Avid NEXIS E5, the Redundant Storage Controller, and Redundant System Director are available now; Avid NEXIS Redundant Networking option will be available in Q4 2016; and Avid NEXIS Media Mirroring option will be available in Q4 2016
The moves are all part of Avid’s continuing efforts to grow the Media Central platform and the ways it can be deployed. Hernandez says there are now 38,000 users on board as well as more than 2,000 asset management deployments.
“It’s the largest deployment in the industry and we’re happy that things have worked out so far,” he says. “The 38,000 who have adopted the platform as using it to solve a business problem but saving money and making people more efficient. And that continues with more enterprise-wide deployments like with Sinclair Broadcasting in the U.S., the largest deal we have ever signed.”
Dock10, based in Salford, UK, is also making news as the first cloud-managed services partner.
“MediaCentral is designed to run in the cloud and the partnership with Dock10 offers the entire Avid experience in the cloud,” says Hernandez. “And Dock 10 has the knowledge to understand how the industry works.”
With the business of Avid’s clients changing rapidly Hernandez says MediaCentral gives Avid the agility needed to be meet those changing needs.
“And with third-party integration anyone can tie into it as it is open extensible,” he adds. “We also have seven global service technology centers and 600 core developers working on it along with an $80 million spend on R&D.”