Avid Media Composer for Broadcast

Avid Media Composer has historically been the standard non-linear video editing platform used for broadcast and film.

Avid MC is a platform designed to handle the needs of professional editors transitioning to a digital editing platform. It has continued to evolve and add features for both professional and amateur editors.

Avid is also sold on a subscription basis, which includes bundled products including PhraseFind, Script Sync and Symphony.

PhraseFind - a tool that allows editors to search their media composer project for specific dialogue moments in clips phonetically.

Script Sync - is a technique where an editor can use scripts alongside their footage to quickly find the best takes for their sequence.

Symphony - is the same product as Avid Media Composer, however Symphony has additional features including, Advanced Color Correction, Avid Artist and Universal Mastering.

Avid has long been the industry standard for broadcast and film quality editing. Avid have developed the professional end of their tool kit whilst also appealing to a wider consumer market.

Some Differences Between Avid and Adobe Premiere

Within a broadcast setting the need for networked shareable storage is important,

Importance of Codecs

All stages in online video production and distribution involve codecs. Codecs are compression technologies used to encode and decode a digital stream or signal.

Codecs are divided into two categories - Lossless and Lossy compression.

Lossless compression is a data compression algorithm that allows for the compression and decompression of files without any loss of quality.

Lossy compression is a data algorithm that discards some data in the file to make it easier to transmit. This is usually utilized when the network connection is not great. It is most identifiable with video files when they come out pixelated.

Why is this important?

When compiling a range of media sources into a timeline ready to edit, the format of that media is an important variable - and is one that is typically handled differently by Avid and Premiere.

Avid Media Composer typically changes all incoming codecs to the codec and format of the project. This allows for a seamless workflow when toggling between media and sharing projects.

Premier Pro works differently and takes in each codec from the various files onto the timeline. This creates a fast workflow, but can create format issues further down the line.

This difference is one reason why Avid has been typically used for features and high profile commercial content, whilst Premiere is well suited for different shorter form campaigns and projects with a diverse set of delivery platform requirements.

In Broadcast

Avid is the standard for many of our broadcast clients, who cut and distribute content to tight deadlines.

For example a large broadcaster would have 100+ edit suites running Avid MC. A key tool used to ensure editors can acquire, edit, publish and share content is the use of Avid MediaCentral.

This allows teams to access content from the cloud in order to collaborate. If you think of this need within a sports setting, one of the most important variables is speed. Ensuring the goal highlights can be replayed, edited and shared quickly and reliably is key.

For this reason, another tool that broadcast users rely upon is Avid Fastserve, these video servers enable the users to log content live as it happens, facilitating ingest, playout or replay in near real time.

These are some of the key features of the Avid toolkit that enable broadcasters to cut and deliver their content quickly. An editor working on a feature film will take rushes and start editing a scene once shooting has completed, within a live broadcast setting content is being edited whilst the event is still being broadcast.

It’s worth noting there are a number of Cloud based video editing and publishing platforms that have built toolsets aimed at solving this near live requirement, whilst also being able to publish to consumers across a number of platforms - eg. YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Twitch.

These companies include Blackbird Video who work closely with content owners like the NFL and productions like The Voice.