Splice Now

Avid showed off DS version 10 last night at an event at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel. The new version boasts impressive speed and a new approach to processing based on the host computer and the GPU in the video card (an Nvidia FX 3700). In other words, no more Nitris. They were able to show 2K material with secondary color correction playing in real time with good responsiveness.

The package includes an 8-core Windows CPU with 8 Gigs of RAM, a single 30″ monitor and either 8 or 16 Terabytes of fast RAID 5 storage, for $50-60,000. Also included is a copy of DS software that can be run independently on a second CPU and a copy of Media Composer software, too.

The system relies on an off-the-shelf AJA card rather than Avid’s old Nitris box to handle I/O. And you no longer get Symphony when you buy DS. A lot of MC conforming works better with Symphony and that will apparently entail a separate purchase.

DS began life as a competitor to Media Composer, but when Avid bought Softimage in the late ’90s it had to morph into something that would complement it as a conforming engine that also offered high end visual effects capabilities. That’s never been a slam dunk because DS can’t fully recreate all Avid effects, and thus there’s been a continuing need for Symphony.

This latest DS showed very impressive performance and does it at a much lower price point than before. Avid is reaching out to customers in a way that most of its competitors cannot, and it’s offering a complete turnkey system with comprehensive support. In the environments where a product like this lives that’s critical. Details are here.

Technorati Tags: avid, edit, film, video

This entry was posted on August 21, 2008 at 8:09 am and is filed under Avid, Workflow. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.