Splice Now

According to an article in AppleInsider on Saturday, sources are saying that Avid will announce an open beta program for Mac-Intel products today. The idea is that if you already have a license for Adrenaline, Media Composer Software Only or Xpress Pro, then you’ll be able to download and use the Intel beta.

This comes on the heels of an Adobe open beta program for Photoshop CS3, which operates in much the same way — licensed customers only.

Avid had originally announced that Mac on Intel products would be shipping by the end of 2006 or in early 2007. Betas were demoed at DV Expo in November and one person I know who briefly played with MC-software at the show said it was surprisingly fast and responsive.

The announcement could have benefits for the long-form community, which has been underrepresented in Avid’s testing program for a long time. Beta in Hollywood has usually meant, at best, a couple of shows, or perhaps a system or two running at a rental company, and bug-fixes have been slow to materialize. If individual editors sign on to this program and give Avid articulate feedback we might see some real change in areas are important to us.

If the announcement is made as the story predicts, I hope A.C.E. and Editors Guild members will participate.

This entry was posted on January 8, 2007 at 7:05 am and is filed under Avid. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.