As part of its continuing efforts to provide customers with flexible and open solutions, Avid ® (NASDAQ: AVID) today announced that it has qualified Apple Final Cut Pro editing solutions to run on Avid Unity™ MediaNetwork and ISIS ® shared storage systems. Post facilities, broadcasters and other media content creation organizations using Final Cut Pro can now take advantage of the industry-leading shared storage and collaborative workflow capabilities of Avid Unity and ISIS, and benefit from simultaneously running Avid and Final Cut Pro editing solutions on the same shared storage system. These newly-supported and highly-tested workflows will enable customers to centralize storage on a single solution, streamline operations and cost-effectively manage production workflows.

Mark Overington, vice president of video product management at Avid, said, “We’ve really stepped up our game to give customers more choice when it comes to building out best-of-breed, fluid workflows that meet their specific business needs. Today’s announcement is just one example of how Avid continues to make significant strides by extending the openness and interoperability of our applications and systems.”

Avid has completed rigorous application and performance testing on the Final Cut Pro/Unity MediaNetwork and ISIS configurations and is offering specific configuration guidelines and performance data on system reliability and stability.

Optimus, a commercial production and post production facility with offices in Chicago and Santa Monica, is currently migrating 12 Symphony™ Nitris ® systems and 15 Media Composer ® Nitris DX systems that are configured to run Final Cut Pro via dual boot, and connected on a 96TB Avid Unity ISIS system. Previously, Optimus’ Final Cut Pro systems used only local storage.

“Having a centralized system where teams can share media, regardless of which editing platforms they are using, not only creates a smoother workflow for our editors, but also frees our clients from having to choose technology over creative talent. With ISIS, producers don’t have issues trying to schedule a suite at a certain time to get access to an editor who prefers to work on a particular editing system because the media is accessible from anywhere within the facility,” said Knox McCormac, director of operations at Optimus. “ISIS is also very robust and easy to maintain, so we do not have to worry about diminishing our clients experience as a result of technology limitations. Adding a new editing system, re-allocating storage capacity or even repairing drives is transparent to editors and clients. ISIS allows our staff to keep the focus where it should be ‘ on the project.”