Avid announced the release of Avid DS v10 at an industry event held at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood on August 20. The release of version 10, which comes only several months after the new line of Mojo DX and Nitris DX based products was introduced, marks the tenth anniversary for the advanced finishing system. The shipping date for the system is at the end of September 2008. The price for the full turnkey system is around $59,900.

The new Avid DS v10 brings significant enhancements to the effects rich SD/HD/2k/4k toolset.

This is just a short review of the new features and improvements that greatly enhance the speed and capabilities of Avid DS v10 and boost its value as a finishing system of choice for client supervised sessions.

Avid DS v10 marks a departure from the real time Avid Nitris hardware although existing Nitris hardware can still be used in legacy configurations. This of course doesn’t mean that the editing system has retired the real time effects. On the contrary, one of the most significant improvements is the real time processing of effects including primary and the new secondary color corrector in resolutions of up to 2k in both 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 sampling structures.

A range of new features focuses on DI functionality of the system. They include support for industry standard and custom 3D LUTs, improved file based conform, better handling of DPX files and overall improvements to color management and speed.

DPX files can now be conformed via AFE using MetaFuze in addition to the older EDL method used by most DI workstations. This means that effects from the Media Composer offline timeline can be transferred to Avid DS when working in 2k and 4k resolutions.

Facility integration has been strengthened by addition of 720 23.98p output capability and the addition of the latest Sony 1080 59.94/60p high definition standard. Interaction with Avid Interplay and Unity environments has been improved.

Stereoscopic viewing can be easily setup using the new Stereoscopic Container option. The stereoscopic outputs from the system allow for anaglyph, field sequential, over/under and L/R configuration.

The supported computer platforms include the powerful HP XW8600 in 64 bit Windows XP. Other supported platforms are HP XW8200, XW8400 and XW9300. Instead of two displays the system now comes with one 30” monitor although it is possible to configure it in a legacy mode with two smaller displays.

The value of the system is greatly enhanced by the inclusion of a full version of Media Composer with each Avid DS v10. Media Composer can be used as a preparation and conversion utility for file based workflows or as a fully featured offline editing software.

Each system also ships with easy to use MetaFuze utility, Remote Processing license (render station license) and a Software Only license. The Software Only station has the full DS v10 toolset and the ability to connect to a broadcast monitor with an optional AJA XENA 2ke or Lh card.

The turnkey system is equally exciting–a dual quad-core 3.0 GHz XW8600 workstation from Hewlett Packard with 8GB of SDRAM, NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 graphics card and AJA 2Ke 4:4:4 I/O card with a breakout box. The peripherals include 30” monitor or a set of two 20” displays, graphics tablet, and fail safe local storage in 8TB or 16TB configurations.

As impressive as these specifications are most producers don’t care much about the technical aspects of the finishing system as long as it delivers on time and on budget. Avid DS v10 answers this requirement by being one of the fastest and most flexible systems on the market.

Avid DS is not the only finishing choice available to producers. Proper selection of a finishing system can be a hard task in a brand driven world of post production. Avid DS is particularly suited for finishing projects offline edited on another Avid system such as Media Composer. Vertical workflow integration within Avid’s family of products ensures that you spend the minimum amount of time in the finishing bay rebuilding the offline effects.

Avid DS is a superior choice for cross platform finishing as well. Access to fast and sophisticated effects is invaluable for feature film HD conforms and DIs. Any shows that require extensive visual effects work such as commercials, promos or music videos can be finished with ease on Avid DS regardless of the offline platform.