News

Avid Unveils Avid iNEWS Instinct a Storytelling Tool for Journalists (13/5/2005)

Innovative, intuitive system promises new levels of productivity by extending video storytelling to every desktop in the newsroom

Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today introduced the Avid(r) iNEWS(r) Instinct(tm) system, a ground-breaking composition tool that allows journalists, newsroom staff, and producers to create news stories with text and video footage - without the need to learn a professional nonlinear editing (NLE) application. With the Avid iNEWS(tm) Instinct system, users can take advantage of a range of new patent-pending features to access all of the content within an Avid digital news production environment and easily develop stories with text, video, and audio voiceovers (VOs). They can then send their completed stories to a professional news editor for finishing - or directly to the playout device for airing - significantly reducing the time required to turn ideas and concepts into completed news pieces.

"Avid iNEWS Instinct is a revolutionary new tool that allows virtually any newsroom professional to work more efficiently, and supports the changing role of journalists and desktop news professionals who are increasingly asked to do more within their organizations," said David Schleifer, vice president of Avid Broadcast and Workgroups. "Avid iNEWS Instinct enables anyone in the newsroom to complete voiceover and voiceover sound-on-tape sequences, which typically can make up 80% to 90% of every newscast. Journalists can submit the pieces to a professional craft editor who can add compelling transitions, effects, titles, and graphics, or send completed segments directly to a video server, where news directors can approve the content for broadcast. With iNEWS Instinct, we're extending the power of visual storytelling to every desktop in the newsroom."

The Avid iNEWS Instinct system broadens the reach of the iNEWS newsroom computer system, the news management solution that provides broadcasters with all the tools necessary to plan, create, control, transmit, and archive a television news broadcast. As a fully integrated iNEWS component, Avid iNEWS Instinct leverages the unified end-to-end Avid news production environment, providing a cohesive workflow between the newsroom and the video production chain, which includes acquisition, editing, and playout applications. The desktop workspace of Avid iNEWS Instinct includes a flexible, intuitive script and video story assembler, a video monitoring window, access to the newsroom database, and research query and results areas. Users can begin building stories with either video or text, adjust audio and timing, and then submit rough sequences to craft editors for completion or play sequences directly to air.

Other Avid iNEWS Instinct system features include:

* Intuitive, familiar workspace - vertical, script-based storyline uses iNEWS story copy as a means of building sequences easily and corresponds to the way journalists are accustomed to writing stories

* Flexible user interface - consists of multiple activity panes that can be arranged and sized in any manner - even allowing a workstation monitor to be used in portrait (vertical) mode.

* Visual timing indicators - displays the text reading time and total running time of the video sequence - as well as the difference between them - making it easy to match video to the script.

* Predefined sequence sets - allows the journalist to choose a sequence type - such as VOs or VOSOT (voiceover sound-on-tape) - and the system will automatically define several parameters, such as designating the correct audio tracks, which minimizes the chance for errors and speeds the workflow.

* iNEWS content extraction/adoption - creates an initial sequence for the storyline from information in the script, contributing to greater accuracy and consistency.

* Send-to-playback - enables users to transmit completed stories to air, ensuring rapid turnaround time for breaking news.

Pricing & Availability

The Avid iNEWS Instinct system is a software-only system priced at $3,995 USMSRP per seat and is scheduled to be available later this year.

www.avid.com