At the NAB Show, Avid announced innovations across the Avid MediaCentral Platform and its associated modular application suites. These new tools and resources let everyone, from individual artists and students, to creative teams in studios and post-production companies, to the largest media enterprises more efficiently create and distribute high-quality professional media content.
“Across the industry, Avid Everywhere is helping content creators and distributors of all kinds connect with their audiences more efficiently, powerfully, and collaboratively than ever before,” stated Avid chairman, president and CEO Louis Hernandez, Jr. “From announcing our vision in 2013 we went on to launch the most significant product innovations since our company inception and are seeing huge market adoption. In January we unveiled our first free tools that open the ecosystem to all, furthering our fight to help everyone in the industry thrive. At Avid Connect and NAB 2015, we are continuing to deliver what we promised by announcing landmark solutions and services that will continue to lead the industry forward.”
MediaCentral Platform innovations
Since Avid launched the Avid MediaCentral Platform at NAB 2014, the company has continued innovating, with the rollout of new tools and partner integrations that extend capabilities across live sound, music composition, video production, media asset management, and shared storage.
The latest platform innovation announcements include:
Artist Suite Innovations
o New benchmark for live sound production: Avid introduces the flagship Avid VENUE | S6L live sound mixing system, featuring a modern, intuitive touch-based interface that enables audio professionals to easily handle the largest, most complex tours and events.
o Affordable licensing and subscription options: Avid introduces the next release of Sibelius, the latest version of the world’s most popular music composition software, giving composers more choice over how they acquire and use their tools, create music scores, and collaborate with others. The release also offers new workflow and mobile features, including multi-touch gestures and Microsoft Surface Pro 3 support, and moves Sibelius on to the Avid MediaCentral Platform.
o Powerful, integrated high-resolution video production: Avid introduces Avid Artist | DNxIO, helping video professionals meet the growing demands of high-res video production with best-in-class hardware and the industry’s preeminent Media Composer® video editing software
o Free versions of industry-standard media creation solutions: Avid announced plans to open video editing to everyone with the upcoming Media Composer | First, a free version of the video editing software used by top Hollywood Oscar and Emmy winners. The company also announced that Pro Tools | First, the free version of its renowned music creation software, is starting to roll out to the more than 70,000 people who pre-registered for the product.
Media Suite Innovations
o Open, end-to-end, integrated media asset management: Avid introduces Interplay | MAM 5, enabling organizations both large and small to manage the entire content lifecycle and reduce media operation costs. This release completes the integration of all Media Suite modules into the MediaCentral Platform.
Storage Suite Innovations
o Proven real-time shared storage for smaller teams: Avid introduces ISIS® | 1000 shared storage, bringing small production teams the same collaborative power proven on blockbuster films, prime-time television, and mission-critical news broadcasts—customized for their needs, at a price they can afford.
The Avid Advantage
Avid announced another important milestone and continued momentum of The Avid Advantage, the company’s vision to transform expectations for service delivery in the media industry. With the introduction of innovative new professional service offerings, education delivery options, certification programs, and customer care enhancements, Avid is helping customers maximize efficiency, accelerate their return on media production technology investments, and deepen their joint collaboration with Avid.
Avid Everywhere for Education
Avid Everywhere is driving the development of new solutions, training, and certification options that provide educators with more choice and flexibility and enable them to reach larger numbers of students. Students can now experience industry-leading Avid creative tools for free, and then step up to the full products with affordable subscriptions. Educators and students can collaborate and connect more effectively using cutting-edge cloud-based solutions. Additionally, it is easier than ever for students to get the industry recognized Avid certifications they need to succeed after graduation.
Eleanor Adds Director Candice Vernon To Its Roster For Spots and Branded Content
Director Candice Vernon has joined production house Eleanor for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. She has already wrapped several jobs at Eleanor, which waited to announce her until they had a body of work together.
Via Eleanor, Vernon made history as the first Black director on a Febreze commercial. The “Small Spaces” campaign marks a major departure from Febreze’s typical blue-and-white world. The home of the “Revolving Door” commercial is a beautiful array of bold sunset hues, African prints, and African art.
Vernon said, “I asked myself, what feels right to me? What feels new? I wanted to bring an essence of not just Black Americans but the full diaspora. I wanted to make a statement that we’re not a monolith.”
Following the success of the “Small Spaces” campaign, Febreze brought Vernon back for a comedy-infused trifecta exploring the hilarious situations that call for an air freshening hero.
Febreze Brand VP Angelica Matthews said, “About two years ago, we realized the consumers that were the most loyal to Febreze were the African American consumers. And the more we learned, the more we realized the richness that we were really missing. So we said we have to go beyond just Black casting, we need to get Black directors that truly understand the culture that truly understand how to bring authentic performances out on screen. We really looked around the industry and noticed there’s actually a shortage of African American directors who have experience doing commercials. When we all saw Candice’s reel, we could all tell the passion for the craft, passion for really trying to help us from where we are to where we’re trying to go.”
Vernon brings a unique lens to... Read More