Not for the Meek

Early Media Composer Systems Were Rarely Put Together By users-the combination of Avid and third-party hardware often proved to be too daunting for anyone but certified Avid technicians. In these days of software-based plug-and-play systems, Xpress Pro with Mojo should be free from this problem, right? Unfortunately, it’s not.

Setting up Xpress Pro with Mojo was surprisingly difficult, given that there were only two FireWire connections that were needed-one to the host computer and one to my DVCAM deck. What could go wrong?

As it turns out, Avid’s Mojo interface is the Rupert Murdoch of FireWire interfaces, with a need for total FireWire bus domination. Because Mojo is pushing so much video data, it requires all the bandwidth on a FireWire bus-without those nagging peripherals, such as FireWire hard drives. In order to use any FireWire peripheral, you’ll need to purchase and install a third-party FireWire PCI card, and plug any FireWire peripherals into that. Otherwise Mojo will not work with Xpress Pro-until you unplug every FireWire peripheral off the bus. Buying a PCI FireWire I/O card is a minor expense-my Orange Micro FireWire card cost only $90. Still, given the popularity of FireWire hard drives and peripherals-especially in DV editing systems- Avid’s lack of disclosure on this is unfortunate. At the very least, a FireWire version of "batteries not included" should be included in the product literature.

Avid reps noted that they are revamping their product literature to correct this omission in future releases.