Tom Ohanian has had a fascinating 26-year career in the industry as a filmmaker, editor, designer and inventor. Most notably he was the co-inventor of the Avid Media Composer, the technology that less than two decades ago revolutionized editing by leading the transition from film-based linear editing to computer-based digital nonlinear editing.
Ohanian is the recipient of a 1994 Emmy Award for the Avid Media Composer, a 1995 Academy Award for Scientific and Engineering Achievement for the Avid Film Composer –which was upgraded in 1999 to the Academy Award of Merit, an Oscar Statuette and the Academy’s highest scientific and technical honor–and a 1998 Emmy Award for the Avid Multicamera System.
This past year, Ohanian joined Burlington, Mass.-based Signiant as VP of product management. Signiant offers digital media distribution management tools designed to help rich media content creators and producers easily implement a digital media distribution strategy for their file-based workflows. The Signiant Digital Media Distribution Management Suite is designed to simultaneously manage, secure, automate and accelerate digital media workflows–allowing users to easily share, repurpose and move their digital files to more places in a shorter period of time. Signiant’s technology also allows the easy delivery of digital content to Internet and mobile portals and lets users acquire and exploit community-generated content.
He has served as a judge and lecturer at industry events, and is the author of three textbooks on nonlinear editing and digital filmmaking, as well as a historical novel on the subject. Ohanian holds a BS in broadcasting and film from Boston University and an MS in instructional technology and an honorary doctorate of humanities from Rhode Island College.
SHOOT: Let’s start with nonlinear editing. How would you describe the state of this product category?
Ohanian: I think the digital nonlinear editing landscape is one that is in transition. It’s important to think about where we were and where we hopefully are going. So where were we? In 1989 a $100,000 product was seeking to ultimately displace something that cost about 10 times that. Around ’99 we saw another shift where a $100,000 product basically became $10,000. Today, we’re in that $1,000 range. We are seeing a massive expansion in people who are interested in editing, from software only-Flash based editing systems on the Internet, which are seeking to allow people to really take the YouTube experience to another level.
That’s a huge area for bringing editing to the masses.
Digital nonlinear editing has come out of the professional world. The products are very feature-rich right now. The next challenge [for manufacturers on professional tools] that has to be met is the interoperability of the systems–and how do you publish your content to the different formats that are necessary.
Now there’s another challenge: How do you bring editing, not to the tens of thousands [of people], but to the millions. Now that’s a massive opportunity.
SHOOT: Would you reflect on the other changes that you see occurring in the industry?
Ohanian: As the media and entertainment world transitions from analog to digital processes, we’re witnessing profound and irreversible transformations. This digital media revolution is disrupting traditional business models, blurring the lines between content creators and content consumers and creating workflow, distribution and content ownership issues. To face these issues, and take advantage of new business opportunities, content producers need to implement a comprehensive digital media distribution management strategy that leverages their existing infrastructure to efficiently and securely move and distribute content throughout their ecosystem and to more media outlets. Signiant does all this.
I think our company can become as significant as Avid has become in the industry.
Most people don’t realize that the category of digital nonlinear editing didn’t exist [when Avid was founded]. I think that Signiant is at the forefront of creating a new category.
If you look at everyone’s emphasis [today] we are now seeing the requirement–because of file-based workflow–to be able to put content on a network and coordinate its movement to all the constituents that have to add to it, review it and collaborate, and then ultimately to deliver it to a whole new set of distribution venues.
SHOOT: Tell us about Avid in 1989. What was the creative genesis that led to the breakthrough?
Ohanian: In 1989, I was employee number eight at Avid. We were in a machine shop. Out of little dreams do great things happen. We were very focused on the problems we were trying to solve and adding a lot of value. It really takes knowing the industry and what it’s like sitting in these chairs for hours and hours and what the workflows really are, then you can design the best products.
Avid was a tremendous challenge, but it had one specific promise, that was you could see where things were going to go. People could see the inherent difficulty in continuing to edit film for commercials. The first Avid Media Composer was a commercial editorial system because of the large cost of storage and the inability to store lots of footage.
That’s why I’m at Signiant. [Today] the need to put content reliably on a network is an imperative for these businesses to work the way they need to work and grow the way the market is demanding that they grow in service.
There’s [also] a tremendous tie-in to the other ecosystems that are out there [including] nonlinear editing.
SHOOT: Did you have any idea that what you were developing would revolutionize the industry? Would you reflect on lessons learned in terms of manufacturers coming up with and successfully introducing relevant product to the marketplace?
Ohanian: I didn’t have a clue….I knew that we had a great problem to solve. It was tied to how close we were to the users and the market needs. You have to be as close to the user base as possible. You listen to your users. The users really helped us to prioritize
There is a lesson there for all manufacturers. While the product was a great product the key was that we put in place training programs so that people who didn’t know how to use the product and were reluctant to use the product had the ability to get trained.
Training is key on any new product, and in many cases you see that manufacturers have fabulous, great products but they are not able to address the training issue.
I think that is one of the unspoken keys to Avid’s success.
SHOOT: Avid editors used to ship reels to agencies in 3/4-inch, then 1/2-inch….Do you think there’s going to be another physical media format, or will it be all file-based?
Ohanian: I think it’s a great question. Physical distribution still has a place, but increasingly you see less reliance on it.
Because timely decisions can’t wait, I think you will see delivery mechanisms that are digital packages sent reliably to your workstation or destination. That really becomes the methodology.
