Avid Unveils Revised Look

By Debra Kaufman

Avid Technologies unveiled a new brand today, with a logo made up of purple triangles representing “up, down, and fast forward” to form the familiar letters.

The new logo is representative of big changes afoot at the company. The five operating companies — Avid, Digidesign, M-Audio, Pinnacle and Sibelius — have been reorganized as a single company. “There’s now a common identity that joins us,” says Director, Segment Marketing, Post & Broadcast Patrick McLean. “Avid is not a video-editing company any more.”

The chief emphasis of the company at NAB 2009 is openness, says McLean. Avid is showcasing Final Cut Pro’s integration with its Avid Unity storage. “Our customers have heterogeneous environments,” says McLean. “Why buy four or five storage systems to support different applications?”

Also on show is the company’s demonstration of an XDCAM HD workflow with an Omneon play-out server. “We’ve already announced new editors and a server,” says McLean. “Now we’re saying you can integrate other peoples’ servers including Omneon.”

Avid also released version 5.2 of Deko, which now supports FBX Collada 3D file formats. “The broadcaster can now import 3-D objects from Softimage XSi, Autodesk 3D Studio Max, or Maxon Cinema 4D, to bring 3D scenes into your graphics environment with Deko,” says McLean. “The ability to import 3D is an important dynamic in the broadcast workplace. Graphics is about continually enhancing the look and giving more options to the brand.”

“It’s clearly a tough time for broadcasters,” concludes McLean. “The key message that we’re conveying here is that Avid solutions deliver lower operational costs, from the integration of products such as Unity and Interplay to iNews Instinct that let desktop reporters do a lot of the work.”