ARRI announces a major new recording feature for its ALEXA camera range, offering in-camera support for Avid’s open standard and widely adopted Avid DNxHD codec.
The ability to record native Avid DNxHD, as MXF files in-camera, creates a unique
proposition for the 35 mm digital capture industry and is another first for the ALEXA
camera system. The combination of ARRI ALEXA quality and mission-critical reliability
with Avid’s respected codec and editing technology delivers a powerful, uncomplicated
workflow into the film and broadcast TV market, building on ALEXA’s position as the first
choice digital camera for capture and postproduction.

As a benefit to cinematic productions, ALEXA cameras record ARRIRAW uncompressed
3K images that preserve the true 35 mm ‘digital negative’ for mastering and feature
archival. Expanding ALEXA’s parallel recording capability to include native support for
Avid DNxHD eliminates a transcoding step for the dailies generated by the Avid editing
system and creates a more streamlined editorial workflow with seamless final
conformance back to the archived ARRIRAW digital negative.

Neil Fanthom, ARRI’s head of digital camera strategy, comments, “The Avid editorial
environment is an important cornerstone of the broadcast and motion picture
postproduction industry, and ARRI is very pleased to be able to provide Avid DNxHD
MFX file-based recording within the ALEXA camera for Avid-centric productions. This
further confirms our commitment to add significant ongoing value to the ALEXA camera
family, in this case by allowing customers to choose which workflow suits their own
capture and postproduction requirements. No other camera in this industry fulfils such
diverse workflow needs.”

Angus Mackay, pro video segment marketing manager at Avid, says, “The Avid Media
Composer family of non-linear editing systems, featuring the high quality, low bandwidth
SMPTE standard Avid DNxHD codec, are the industry’s first choice for professional
editorial. By providing native Avid DNxHD recording with the ALEXA camera, ARRI is allowing producers to use high quality ALEXA cameras and quickly and easily view
dailies, and begin editorial, without the need to transcode or re-wrap footage. Media
Composer version 6 now offers the Avid DNxHD444 codec, which will permit customers
to preserve the high color information in ALEXA footage while still having a low bit rate
codec suitable for editorial. This is great news for ARRI and Avid customers, who will
benefit from the advantages in quality, speed and streamlined workflows.”

The Avid DNxHD recording function for ALEXA will be distributed as a cost-effective,
downloadable software upgrade during January 2012 and is now entering Beta phase
testing with selected broadcast productions. Avid DNxHD codec data rates of up to
145Mbit/s (bit depth 8 bit) and 220MBit/s (bit depth 10 bit) will be supported in the initial
release. Avid’s highest quality version of the codec, Avid DNxHD 444, will record at
440Mbit/s at 10 bit depth and will be provided as an upgrade for all adopting customers
later on during the first quarter of 2012.

For more information: www.arri.com.