Avid Ships Media Composer XL 8.0 for Macintosh and Windows NT

Avid Ships Media Composer XL 8.0 for Macintosh and Windows NT

Industry's Leading Offline/Online Editing System Supports Uncompressed Video, Enhanced Editing and Ease-of-Use Features

Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVID) announced that it is now shipping the Media Composer XL Version 8.0 system. Providing customers with the same powerful, industry-proven Media Composer editing interface on both the Macintosh and Windows NT platforms, Version 8.0 of the XL family offers single-stream uncompressed images and a range of new performance oriented features. The Media Composer XL family is comprised of two core configurations, Media Composer Offline XL and Media Composer 1000 XL, each available for both Macintosh and Windows NT.

"We were able to put this system through real-life tests right away, and it proved itself over and over to be powerful and stable," said Jeff Beckerman, president, The Cutting Vision, a Media Composer XL beta site. "With the incredible quality of the uncompressed images available through the Meridien^TM hardware and new software features like soft-edge drop shadows and drag and drop import/export, Avid has done a very good job of listening to its customers and bringing us the tools we need."

The Media Composer XL family includes a number of new software and hardware features that make the product the most powerful Media Composer in Avid's history. In addition to the single-stream of uncompressed video, the new Meridien video subsystem offers high quality fixed Kbyte/frame compressed images and more flexible and comprehensive video I/O. The new version 8.0 software offers numerous editing, ease-of-use and collaboration enhancements increasing the overall performance of the product.

With Version 8.0, Media Composer XL customers can add several option bundles to address typical projects and extend capabilities cost-effectively. Available bundles include:

- FX Bundle: 3-D effects software and hardware provides a range of 3-D effects capabilities along with Avid's unique Intraframe^TM Editing toolset and ExpertRender^TM.
- FilmScribe^TM Bundle: This bundle enables the creation of a 24 fps cutlist from a 30 fps or 24 fps video sequence, and provides Autosync for automatic syncing of picture and sound, as well as dupe detection in the timeline. It also includes Avid's patented Script-Based Editing software.
- Uncompressed Bundle: For single stream uncompressed video support, Media Composer 1000 XL users can add uncompressed 601 video images.

Avid is offering a number of upgrade options for existing Media Composer users to easily and affordably make the transition to the Media Composer XL family. Initial upgrade promotions include an early adopter program that extends low-cost upgrade paths to Media Composer XL for existing ABVB PCI-based customers that will offer significant new software functionality as well as the new Meridien hardware and a hardware trade-up program for existing Nubus system owners that extends trade-up credits for the customers' old system that can be applied to the purchase of a new Media Composer XL system. For more information on Avid's upgrade options and paths programs, visit www.Avid.com.

Avid Vice President of Product Marketing Paul Henderson said: "The new Media Composer XL product line represents another significant leap in technology for film and television post-production. Avid has put in place a number of upgrade paths and programs that will help our existing customers get the most out of the systems they have today while offering them economical migration paths to next generation technology."

Availability and Pricing
The Media Composer XL family is available immediately through Avid's worldwide reseller channel. USMSRP base-turnkey pricing is $47,500 for Media Composer Offline XL, and $67,500 for Media Composer 1000 XL. Avid's worldwide reseller network is now providing demonstrations of the new Media Composer XL family.

Avid Technology, Inc. is an international, industry-leading provider of digital audio and video tools for information and entertainment applications. The company's products are used by a variety of customers worldwide including film, television and interactive content producers, TV news broadcasters, corporate communicators and consumers. For more information, visit Avid's Web site at www.avid.com.