EditShare and Automatic Duck Streamline Shared Workflows between Avid and Final Cut Pro

Instant, automated file format and sequence translation enables Final Cut Pro and Avid editors to share same media, with timelines intact, from a single storage space

EditShare®, the technology leader in cross platform collaborative editing and shared media storage systems, announced today it has partnered with Automatic Duck to solve a critical workflow productivity issue for postproduction facilities and editing workgroups that want to collaborate on shared media files across disparate editing platforms. EditShare’s unique Universal Media File technology – a core feature of the Flow product line — allows a single media file to be used simultaneously by Apple and Avid editors. Automatic Duck’s Pro Import FCP and Pro Export FCP allow editors to translate bi-directionally between Avid and Final Cut Pro sequences. Now EditShare and Automatic Duck have joined forces to create a special version of Automatic Duck that understands EditShare’s Universal Media Files and that knows how to retrieve information from the Flow database.

As a result of this technology partnership, for the first time it becomes possible for editors in a mixed Avid and Final Cut environment to seamlessly switch back and forth between the two applications, using a common pool of media files, with entire timelines intact. This development eliminates the time-intensive, productivity draining process of exporting, re-linking, re-connecting, transcoding and re-importing media - a workflow typical in multi-platform, collaborative environments. This is a tremendous time saver; enhancing overall collaboration. The newly integrated solution will be demonstrated at NAB 2009 (April 20 to 23 in Las Vegas, NV) on the EditShare stand (SL6420).

“Many facilities feel they have to choose which editing application they go with – typically Final Cut Pro or Avid. This limits the talent pool because editors are usually aligned with one application versus another. The new Automatic Duck and EditShare integration means that organizations can build mixed application environments without having to make a painful choice,” explains Andy Liebman, President and founder of EditShare “Under the new workflow, an assistant editor can log projects on Final Cut while the senior editor works on Avid – or vice versa. You can truly use the editing application you want to, and share the very same media files”.

“There’s a simple reality facing editors - editing applications don’t talk to each other, and we created Automatic Duck to solve that issue,” added Wes Plate, president of Automatic Duck. “EditShare was founded on a similar premise; there was no easy way for editors in a workgroup to share media files. Partnering with EditShare on this initiative enables us to build on our original vision, taking the notion of simplifying workflows between applications and extending that value to the collaborative, shared media workgroup environment.”