Avid Technology Inc, which recently bought Microsoft Corp’s Softimage Inc subsidiary (CI No 3,432), has announced a new high- end television post production system for NT 4.0. The digital nonlinear finishing system, called Symphony – which further confirms the ascent of NT in TV production and post-production circles (CI No 3,358) – is intended to complement Avid’s existing Macintosh-based MediaComposer editing system. The new system is intended as a replacement for current tape-based systems. It supports multiple uncompressed real-time video streams. Symphony’s graphics sub-system will be based around two 128-bit Ticket to Ride graphics processors (CI No 3,419). Number Nine also provides dual-monitor NT display drivers allowing the dual monitor environment commonplace to Mac-based editing suites. Avid’s choice of Number Nine is ironic because the graphics chip and board pioneer was recently bailed out to the tune of $9m by Silicon Graphics Inc, yet as Avid Product Manager, Rick Keiltey, says the new wave of NT graphics post-production systems are competing – and winning – against SGI systems. However, the company is not planning an NT alternative to their MediaComposer editing system, as Keiltey claims that customers are very happy with the Mac product. The Symphony system is expected to ship in the fourth quarter of this year, costing around $200,000.
