LAS VEGAS—April 23, 2006—Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID)
today announced that it has shattered major real-time storage barriers
by introducing an Open Storage Initiative that allows customers to run
third-party applications on Avid storage systems, and by offering
massive increases to its entire shared-storage line. Professionals can
now use virtually any third-party Mac OS X or Windows XP content
creation tool with the Avid(R) VideoRAID(TM) and Avid Unity(TM)
product families. In addition, Avid has tripled the storage headroom
of the Avid Unity ISIS(TM) system to an unprecedented 192 terabytes
(TB), and doubled the capacity for the Avid Unity MediaNetwork and
LANshare systems. All Avid Unity systems also support Avid
Interplay(TM) – the world's first nonlinear workflow engine that
breaks new ground in team-based collaboration for media production
(announced today in a separate release:
www.avid.com/company/releases/2006/060423_interplay_avid.html).
"For years, Avid Unity has been at the heart of collaborative
workflow for media production. As these production environments have
evolved, a more diverse set of creative professionals – like
producers, directors, writers, graphic artists, 3D animators, and more
– are becoming a part of the workflow," said Dana Ruzicka, vice
president of Post Solutions at Avid. "By extending the openness of our
storage systems, media professionals can collaborate with greater
efficiency – regardless of the tools they use – and also take
advantage of new innovations like Avid Interplay, the world's first
nonlinear workflow engine that tightly links everyone in a facility to
the media production process. With major increases to the capacity and
bandwidth of our shared-storage systems, we now offer the most
comprehensive, scalable, and open family of high-performance storage
solutions on the market."
New Benchmarks for the Avid Storage Family
With its new Open Storage Initiative, Avid is enabling virtually
any Mac OSX or Windows XP content creation system, including nonlinear
editing, compositing, 3D animation, and script writing tools – from
Avid or other vendors – to connect to Avid VideoRAID local storage or
Avid Unity shared-storage systems. With the ability to run these
third-party products on Avid storage systems, professionals can use
the tools they prefer with the most open storage solutions for media
production and collaboration on the market.
In addition, all Avid Unity systems now offer greater storage
capacity through the use of 500 GB drives, boosting overall system
performance to provide higher bandwidth with fewer drives. These
systems also offer smooth integration with the revolutionary new Avid
Interplay nonlinear workflow engine to support the most comprehensive
team-based approach to collaborative media production anywhere.
Specific enhancements to the Avid Unity family include:
Version 4.2 of the Avid Unity LANshare system – delivers a
turnkey, entry-level Fibre Channel and Ethernet shared-storage
solution that offers small to mid-size facilities the perfect
mix of simple, low-cost connections for both creative
editorial and high-resolution finishing. Version 4.2 of the
LANshare system doubles storage capacity to 8 TB with the new
LANserver LP (Low Profile), an integrated storage and server
device featuring 16-drives in a three-rack unit (3U) size.
Version 4.2 of the Avid Unity MediaNetwork system – offers
4-Gigabit Fibre Channel connectivity to mid- to large-size
facilities that require the high-bandwidth and performance for
multi-stream, high-resolution projects in a real-time
collaborative environment. Version 4.2 of Avid Unity
MediaNetwork doubles the system's storage capacity to 40 TB,
thanks to the new MEDIArray(TM) LP array, featuring 8 TB of
storage in a three-rack unit (3U) size.
Version 1.1 of the Avid Unity ISIS system – features Avid's
revolutionary distributed intelligence architecture for large,
enterprise-class customers who require virtually unlimited
storage headroom, extraordinary data resiliency, and vast
client connectivity. Version 1.1 triples the system's storage
capacity to an unprecedented 192 TB of storage, expands client
connectivity by 50% – or up to 150 active users – and adds
support for creative professionals running Mac OS X (Tiger)
workstations.
Low-Cost, High-Efficiency Storage with Avid VideoRAID
Avid is also showcasing its new VideoRAID RTR320 and RTR320X drive
arrays, which deliver fail-safe data protection and uninterrupted
real-time performance – even during a drive rebuild – unlike
competitive RAID products that operate at sub-optimal levels or may be
completely unusable in the event of a drive failure. The Avid
VideoRAID product line leverages the combined bandwidth of multiple
drives – with capacity of either 250 GB or 500 GB per drive – in
storage arrays that provide real-time access to uncompressed SD and HD
media. Available in a range of configurations at affordable price
points, Avid VideoRAID products are qualified to work with the full
range of Avid editing products – from Avid Liquid(TM) to Avid DS
Nitris(R).
Pricing and Availability
Pricing for Avid VideoRAID systems starts at $3,929 USMSRP.
Pricing for the Avid Unity family of solutions includes: