News

Avid iNEWS Instinct Now Available (21/12/2005)

Revolutionary broadcast journalism tool improves newsroom productivity; empowers reporters to assemble news segments for immediate playout

Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today announced the availability of the award-winning Avid(R) iNEWS(R) Instinct(TM) system, a ground-breaking story composition tool that allows journalists, newsroom staff and producers to create ready-to-air news segments including text and video footage - without the need to learn a professional nonlinear editing (NLE) application. With the Avid iNEWS(TM) Instinct system, broadcast journalists can take advantage of a range of intuitive features, 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 stories to a professional news editor for finishing - or directly to a server for playout - significantly reducing the time required to turn ideas and concepts into completed news pieces.

"As one of the test sites for iNEWS Instinct, we were so impressed by the application that we went on to become one of the first customers," said David Sirak, news operations manager of WFTV-9 in Orlando, Florida. "Instinct has truly changed our workflow and introduced a new paradigm to the newsroom. For breaking stories or fast turnaround of breaking news coverage, anyone in our newsroom will be able to create ready-to-air pieces using this first-of-its-kind text composition and editing package. With Unity connectivity, they also have access to any pictures and sounds in our audio/video library, which we are constantly updating. Most importantly, InstinctÕs interface and capabilities are easy to learn. In a very short time, weÕve nearly tripled the number of journalists who can assemble stories on their own."

David Schleifer, vice president of Avid Broadcast and Workgroups, said, "Typically, voiceover and voiceover sound-on-tape sequences can make up 80% to 90% of every newscast. We are making it possible for anyone in the newsroom to complete these tasks by extending the power of visual storytelling to every desktop. iNEWS Instinct is a perfect tool to support the changing role of journalists and desktop news professionals who are increasingly asked to do more within their organisations. It enables professionals to work more efficiently and produce more stories in a timely fashion. WeÕre already seeing enthusiastic response from the industry, including ABC News, which has received one of our first shipments of 100 seats."

The Avid iNEWS Instinct system gives journalists and news professionals easy access to all of the media assets within an Avid end-to-end production environment to significantly extend the reach and efficiency of workflow throughout the newsroom. The Avid iNEWS Instinct desktop workspace includes a flexible, intuitive script and video story assembler, a video monitoring window, access to the newsroom database, and research query and results displays. 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.

Pricing & Availability

The Avid iNEWS Instinct system is a software-only system priced at £2,600 / Euro 3700 per seat and is now available.

www.avid.com

[more NLE news]