Avid Technology today announced that it expects to ship the new family of Media Composer products on Wednesday, June 21. Introduced in April at NAB 2006, the new Media Composer family is now available to editors in a range of flexible configurations, including a software-only application, which offers portability and the option to add hardware acceleration as required. All products in the Media Composer family feature version 2.5 software, which delivers improved dual-platform functionality, with the addition of broad HD capabilities and real-time multi-cam support on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. In addition, the new Media Composer family is designed to offer workflow-intelligent features that support team-based collaboration through the Avid Interplay system – the world's first nonlinear workflow engine – which is expected to ship in Q3 2006.

"The availability of Media Composer software just gives us so many options – we're really excited. The software delivers all the professional tools we require – HD, Mac functionality, mixed resolutions, motion tracking, and keying, and we can now affordably add seats to supplement our hardware-accelerated systems," said Jamie Beedy, post supervisor at Karl Productions, a Chicago video production company.

The new version adds HD format support on the Mac, allowing editors to work with popular HD formats such as DVCPRO HD, HDV, and Avid DNxHD. Using the optional Avid DNxcel board, editors can also encode HD material into Avid DNxHD resolutions of 145 Mb, 220 Mb, and 10-bit 220 Mb data rates. In addition, it delivers improved real-time multi-cam functionality for the Mac and PC with support for HD resolutions and the ability to preview grouped clips before adding selections to the timeline.

"We had considered switching to Final Cut Pro, but having to deal with multiple manufacturers whenever there is a problem is something we don't have time for. Plus, we beta tested Media Composer, and are impressed with the performance. Every time we sit down to use this system, we're simply amazed that we've got the world's best creative toolset running on our laptops. We can't imagine using anything else."

Other new features include motion tracking and stabilization with SteadyGlide, which enables editors to smooth shaky camera footage while maintaining desirable camera motion, such as pans and tilts. The updates also offer full-screen playback over DVI, enabling users to monitor SD or HD projects on LCD or plasma displays through on-board graphics cards without the need for expensive I/O or HD monitors.

Finally, Avid has added workflow-intelligence with Avid Interplay. It allows editors to use remote bins, monitor project changes, and access the powerful transcode, low-res encode, and integrated asset management tools of Avid Interplay.