Avid ships OS X-ready Symphony and more

After announcing it in January, Avid Technology Inc. today released Symphony, a hardware-based digital video finishing system for Mac OS X. The Symphony announcement is concurrent with Avid’s release of Media Composer XL, Film Composer XL and Xpress for Mac OS X as well. (Xpress is different from Xpress DV, Avid’s software-only editing solution, which has been available for Mac OS X for some time.)

Symphony is a real-time finishing environment that includes both custom software and hardware — the system uses Avid’s Meridien video technology to provide real-time 2D and 3D effects and recreation of offline sessions. Symphony produces both NTSC and PAL output with real-time effects abilities like 10-bit DVE, advanced color correction tools and Ultimatte keying.

Avid Technology senior manager of product marketing Matt Allard said that Avid Symphony takes Avid’s OS X offerings to a new level. “[Symphony] further reinforces our commitment to providing professionals with technology improvements that help them produce high-quality media efficiently and creatively, on whatever platform they choose,” Allard added.

The new OS X compatible versions of Media Composer XL, Film Composer XL and Xpress will include real-time Symphony style color correction and 23.976 fps project support for all Media Composer systems. What’s more, they’ll support MetaSync — an Avid-made technology that synchronizes metadata with video and audio content.

Avid Symphony 4.7 systems start at US$90,000, although Avid is offering up to a 22 percent discount as an introductory offer through March 28, 2003. Media Composer 11.7 offline starts at $12,000, Film Composer XL 11.7 starts at $53,000, and Avid Xpress 5.7 systems start at $5,999.