Adrenaline RIP
Avid formally announced their new product line yesterday and the name “Adrenaline” was not part of the lineup. Mainstream “offline” editing will now be based on Media Composer software running the Mojo DX box, at a price point of $10,000 (CPU extra) with full HD support included. Editors will also be able to purchase the more powerful Nitris DX and use it with Media Composer software for $15,000 (CPU extra). Symphony/DS now costs $36,000 with the CPU included.
The new hardware intelligently uses all the CPU cores that you have, along with the processing power of your graphics card, and it connects to the CPU via PCIe, rather than Firewire. This adds up to what the company claims is the fastest and most stable Media Composer ever. MC moves to version 3.0 and will run under either OSX Leopard or Windows Vista.
The system handles many new file-based media formats natively and does not require rendering for DNXHD playout. Other announcements include a realtime burn-in effect, XML output via FilmScribe, and Metafuse, which helps turn DPX scan files into DNXHD media.
The details are in this press release.
Meanwhile, longtime Avid-l member Frank Capria announced that he will be joining Avid in May as product designer for Media Composer. Frank has been an outspoken and trenchant critic of the company and should bring plenty of new thinking to a reenergized Avid. Welcome aboard, Frank.
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Splice Now 
April 15, 2008 at 4:49 pm
One thing I really liked in the demo are XML file format spex for FilmScribe. You just drag your timeline file over the format spec file and it will automatically create the appropriate list — EDL, Film Output List, etc. This modular approach will, I hope, show the way to faster integration with new file formats (even for input) in a much easier way programmatically.
April 15, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the press release doesn’t mention anything about DS. The $36k package only mentions Symphony with the Nitris DX box.
Curious.
I think there must be another announcement coming. Otherwise, Avid will have left their only DI solution out of their new product mix.
(They also released upgrade pricing for MC Adrenaline -> MC MojoDX, MCA -> MC NitrisDX, and MCA -> Symphony Nitris DX. But gave no detail for a Symphony Nitris -> Symphony NitrixDX option. What does this mean?)
April 16, 2008 at 6:03 am
Much of the Avid website has yet to be updated with details about the new products, but here’s a video that offers a few specifics.
http://www.avid.com/video/video_window.asp?videoID=243
Based on the video, I’m wondering whether you can ingest HD materials and turn it into DNxHD using Mojo DX — or whether you need Nitris for that.
April 16, 2008 at 7:10 am
From what I’ve gathered, Mojo DX does not transcode to DNxHD in the Mojo DX hardware, but with an approved 8-core system it can use the CPU power to do it during capture. Nitris DX, however, seems to transcode to DX through the hardware, like the Adrenaline DNxHD board, thus allowing DNxHD capture on a less powerful system.
Am I right? Who knows. Avid hasn’t made it clear yet, but that’s what I’ve gathered from the dark corners of the internet.
April 18, 2008 at 8:20 am
I attended Avid’s big private event monday night at NAB and here is what I took away from the presentation. First of all the software really hasn’t changed other than now its compatible with Mac OSX-Leopard. The big announcements were the two new I/O boxes meant to replace the Adrenaline. In my opinion they are missing the boat with these new products. There were several other manufactures offing similar I/O boxes for a fraction of the price. For example Matrox MXO2 does the same thing as the most expensive Avid box for $1600, thats about half of the cost of the Mojo and I think the lesser of the two higher end boxes goes for around $6K – $10K. All in all I think you can put a more powerful Final Cut system together for half the price and that includes the computer. Don’t get me wrong, I love Avid and have been a user since system id # 6 in 1990. It also seemed odd to me that the new corporate leadership has no experience in this business. I think we have all worked for post shops not owned by Editors and we know how bad that situation can be. And don’t forget the debacle that was Apple in the 90’s when they brought in the former CEO from Pepsi to run the company. Avid, in my opinion, needs to decide wether or not they want to be a software company or a hardware company because they are going to get killed if they try to do both.
April 18, 2008 at 11:15 am
Thanks for the call out, Steve.
Quick follow up to Ron’s point. I’m not of the opinion one can be either a hardware or software company, but not both. That other company he cites in his post does pretty well as both.
April 19, 2008 at 10:56 am
Frank,
Very nice to have you here. I have to agree with you. A lot of manufacturers end up making both software and hardware. Certainly, nobody could deny that Apple is selling hardware. In fact, when Jobs returned he killed the clone program because he believed that the company couldn’t survive on software alone. And Microsoft sells plenty of it, too, despite their name. Adobe is a key exception. I don’t know of any hardware that they sell.
I’m not sure that there’s any hard-and-fast rule, but it seems clear that customers tend to value the physical and find it psychologically easier to part with real money for it.
Steve
April 20, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Thanks Steve, The point I was trying to get across was that there are cheaper and in some cases better alternatives out there for I/O than what Avid is currently offering. Their current “new thinking” alone isn’t enough for them to stay on top. They need to offer some new ideas too.