BURLINGTON, MA, 9/7/2016

The Media School and The Mark Cuban Center for Sports Media and Technology adopt the Avid MediaCentral Platform to prepare students for today’s real-world workflows Avid® (Nasdaq: AVID) today announced that Indiana University has invested in the MediaCentral® Platform for two new facilities, becoming one of the first customers to take delivery of the new Avid NEXIS™ software-defined storage platform, and the first athletics department to invest in an Avid virtual studio. The Media School and The Mark Cuban Center for Sports Media and Technology have embraced Avid Everywhere™ to give students access to advanced media technologies and workflows.

The Media School at Indiana University is a new school that combines the 100-year-old journalism program with the department of telecommunications and the film program in the department of communication and culture. In July, the school relocated to Franklin Hall, the university’s former library built in 1907. A $21 million renovation blends the school’s long tradition of educational excellence with the latest technology advancements.

To give students exposure to real-world situations, The Media School tries to duplicate what they would see in professional settings. It has used Avid Media Composer® and Avid Pro Tools® for over 15 years, with small user groups installed on individual computers. To connect Franklin Hall with a studio across campus, and get all 20 rooms on a common platform, The Media School turned to Avid NEXIS, the first software-defined storage platform designed specifically for storing and managing media. With the school planning to connect more than 100 workstations to Avid NEXIS, Avid Professional Services will provide setup, commissioning, and training.

“We’re building a state-of-the-art facility, and Avid’s a big part of that,” said Jay Kincaid, director of facilities and technology for The Media School at Indiana University. “With Avid NEXIS, we’re excited about getting into the true collaboration capabilities of Media Composer, and being able to use Avid Interplay® | Production to share media and collaborate in all the ways that Interplay fosters. We’ll have the ability to teach true workflows—not just how to edit on the desktop, but how to edit video in a collaborative manner within the ecosystem of a television station, production house, or network.”

“One of the big selling points of Avid NEXIS is that it’s truly interoperable with whatever flavor of editing system you might be using,” said Scott Myrick, assistant director of facilities and technology, The Media School at Indiana University. “It supports Adobe Premiere Pro and Apple Final Cut X, as well as Media Composer, and we use all of those. That was a big requirement for us; because of the diversity of units that are combining to form this new school, there’s a diversity of editing platforms that’s coming into this, too. I think people may start to see that there are some additional benefits to using Media Composer, but it allows us to get on the same page with the shared storage system and go from there.”

The Media School’s workflow is connected to that of IU Athletics’ Mark Cuban Center for Sports Media and Technology. Funded by a $5 million gift from IU alumnus Mark Cuban, the first-of-its-kind broadcasting and technology center aims to make IU Athletics the national leader in 3D broadcast and replay, virtual reality, and 3D virtual studio technologies, when it opens in September 2016. To fulfill its mission, the center turned to Avid to deliver a virtual studio solution, investing in Avid ProSet.

According to Jeremy Gray, Associate Athletic Director at Indiana University, it was the Dallas Mavericks owner who suggested looking at an Avid virtual studio solution. “Mark Cuban had some specific technologies that he requested that we buy, and one of the first things that he told us to explore was the Avid virtual studio,” said Gray. “The whole mission of the Mark Cuban Center is to prepare students for tomorrow’s jobs by having them interface with the technology that’s going to be widespread in use in five, ten years from now. I think it’s going to get a lot of use, and we’re really excited to have it here.”

Indiana University students will use ProSet for pre-game, half-time, and post-game shows for the university’s live internet broadcast sporting events, and to enhance video-board elements. Interview shows with coaches and student athletes will also take place in the Avid virtual studio. The Media School at Indiana University will train student talent and production crews in using the studio, with dedicated classes on creating content for The Mark Cuban Center. The Avid virtual studio will be open and shared with the Media School, and files will be shared back and forth using Avid NEXIS.

“By embracing Avid Everywhere throughout its campus, Indiana University is giving students access to the most advanced technologies and workflows in the media industry, putting them well ahead of the game when it comes to starting their careers,” said Jeff Rosica, senior vice president and chief sales & marketing officer, Avid. “As one of the first customers to take delivery of Avid NEXIS, and the first athletics department to invest in an Avid virtual studio, Indiana University is at the forefront of implementing cutting-edge technology and preparing students for real-world production environments.”

About Avid Through Avid Everywhere™, Avid delivers the industry’s most open, innovative and comprehensive media platform connecting content creation with collaboration, asset protection, distribution and consumption. Media organizations and creative professionals use Avid solutions to create the most listened to, most watched and most loved media in the world—from the most prestigious and award-winning feature films, to the most popular television shows, news programs and televised sporting events, as well as a majority of today’s most celebrated music recordings and live concerts. Industry leading solutions include Pro Tools®, Media Composer®, ISIS®, Avid NEXIS™, Interplay®, ProSet and RealSet, Maestro, PlayMaker, and Sibelius®. For more information about Avid solutions and services, visit www.avid.com, connect with Avid on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, or subscribe to Avid Blogs.

Creating and delivering a high volume of content on schedule is a requirement of any post-production team. Being able to collaborate together and complete higher quality work faster, easier, and more confidently so you can all make it to happy hour? Squad goals. For smaller post teams, this objective is now easier to achieve than ever.

Our new “Team” bundles provide the high-performance media production tools you need to go from mere workgroup to a powerfully united team, delivering unmatched real-time collaborative capabilities, accelerated workflows, and the utmost reliability. Even better, you don’t need a big budget to play on par with the big studios—not only are these bundles affordably priced, they offer massive value—with limitless creative possibilities.

The tools you need—the speed and ease you want

Avid NEXIS | PRO is at the core of all Team bundles, giving you the same media performance and reliability demanded by large post-production facilities. This scalable, flexible, and open shared storage system unites all of your team’s assets together into one virtualizable pool of protected storage—which you can partition any way you like—making finding, accessing, and sharing media fast and easy. Even when storing tens of thousands of hours of high-res 4K video. Need more storage and performance? Just add another NEXIS | PRO engine—up to a total of four—to scale your system up to 80 TB of capacity and 1.6 GB/s of bandwidth. And it couldn’t be simpler. Just connect additional engines to your original and the Avid NEXIS software automatically distributes your media for you, immediately taking advantage of the expanded storage and bandwidth to optimize performance and throughput…[continue reading]

axle Video, developer of “radically simple” software to manage video and still image media, announced that axle Starter, a new entry-level version of its flagship media management software, is now included with all configurations of the industry-leading Avid NEXIS™|PRO software-defined storage platform from Avid®. Customers receive a 2-user license for axle Starter software with each Avid NEXIS|PRO purchase, including powerful search and browser-based display, browse, shot selection, annotation, review and approval capability for up to 300,000 assets, along with their purchase of Avid NEXIS|PRO storage.

axle Starter carries a retail value of $495 and can be upgraded to full 2-user or 5-user license blocks of axle Video’s 2016.2 media management software with Cam media ingest, 1 million asset support, and additional features. axle media management is a particularly good complement to Avid NEXIS|PRO media storage, which targets the production and storage needs of independent professionals and smaller workgroups, and supports all the top media creation applications including Avid Media Composer®, Adobe Premiere Pro and Apple Final Cut Pro X editing systems.

“With the prevalence of high-resolution video, production teams of all sizes need affordable high-capacity, high-performance media storage,” said David Colantuoni, Senior Director of Product Management, Avid. “Avid NEXIS|PRO offers the ability to effortlessly store hundreds to tens of thousands of hours of high res video and support 4k production teams. With axle Starter media management now included with Avid NEXIS|PRO, media professionals can more efficiently find, share, use/reuse and review media stored on Avid NEXIS|PRO.”

“axle Video takes a unique, radically simple approach to media management,” said Sam Bogoch, CEO of axle Video, “and axle Starter provides the simple, yet powerful capabilities customers need to take full advantage of the value delivered by their Avid NEXIS|PRO storage. With its browser-based access to every video, audio, and still image file from any laptop, tablet, or smartphone, axle Starter software complements and adds a new dimension to the excellent value proposition of Avid NEXIS|PRO storage.”

Pricing and availability

axle Starter is available now; priced at $495 for a 2-user license, and included by Avid in all purchases of Avid NEXIS | PRO storage, effective immediately from Avid and its resellers worldwide.

axle Starter upgrade to 2-user axle 2016 license: $800.

axle Starter upgrade to 5-user axle 2016 license: $2,500.

axle Starter upgrade to 5-user axle Gear license: $4,500.

Long-time Avid user Macondo installed an Avid NEXIS | PROmedia server for its in-house post production facility in the central Germany city of Mainz. The media group works in a number of different communications sectors, including events, corporate communications and public relations, while its television production arm produces documentaries and consumer affairs programmes for several German broadcasters, notably the country’s second TV channel, ZDF, and southwest regional service, SWR. Macondo’s Julie Hoerr discusses the installation of the Avid NEXIS | PRO and what it means for the company’s way of working.

“Macondo is named after the fictional town that features in many of the stories and novels of the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez,” she explains. “It was chosen because our programs tell a story. Macondo’s program-making covers a big area, with work for ZDF, as well as other TV stations, including SWR. We also produce corporate videos for a number of high-profile companies.”

“To support this operation, Macondo has its own post production facility at our headquarters in Mainz, which is also home to ZDF. We work on documentaries, investigative reports and consumer programs that test and discuss new products. These have included the environmental series Planet E and Zoom+ investigation shows for ZDF, as well as reports on a variety of subjects for SWR…[continue reading]

Dutch production company The Media Brothers is a creative hub for a collection of producers, directors, journalists and composers that produces a wide variety of television programs, from dramas and documentaries to children’s series and sports shows. Founded by managing director/producer/composer Luc Schinkel, who works alongside his brother, director/producer Robert Schinkel, the firm has premises in Amsterdam that incorporate an in-house facility that was recently upgraded through the installation of an Avid NEXIS | PRO server. Media manager Klaas-Thijs Postma oversees the post-production operation, and here he outlines the role that the new storage system plays in The Media Brothers’ program-making activities.

“I have been working for The Media Brothers since it started six years ago. I was the first employee and so have witnessed its growth over the years, with more colleagues — including filmmakers and researchers — joining us to produce more and more programs. Really, it’s a band of friends from all kinds of businesses coming together. We knew each other from other projects and have similar attitudes to what we do.”

[continue reading]

Avid NEXIS l Pro

Avid NEXIS is the world’s first software-defined storage platform for media. Offering unrivaled media storage flexibility, scalability, and control for Avid, Adobe, Apple and other third-party workflows, Avid NEXIS is the only storage platform built with the flexibility to grow with you at every stage of your business. Manage your system with unrivaled ease, visibility, and control. Scale your system for any workflow—from terabytes to petabytes. Give critical projects and high-priority teams maximum performance to shared assets while throttling back on less important workflows. With Avid NEXIS you get the reliability you need today, the scalability for tomorrow, and the technology to take your production to the next level.

CreativeCow.net by Bob Zelin

At NAB 2016, G-Tech released their first shared storage product, the G-RACK 12.

In the past, G-Tech has made large drive arrays that used ATTO or Highpoint RAID controllers, but over the years, seemed to have phased these out, concentrating on smaller drive arrays, that were more affordable. This changed in 2015, when G-Tech released the G-Tech Studio XL, which was a full 8 bay RAID array for Thunderbolt 2 systems, that could support up to 8 TB SATA hard drives, for up to 64 TB of RAID protected storage. This product became wildly successful for them.

The G-Tech Studio XL was (and still is) great, an excellent choice not only for standalone large RAID arrays, but also for the type of shared storage system that I have been building for years.

G-Tech has gained a reputation over the years of making very reliable products. They have relative recently been acquired by giant drive manufacturer HGST, which in turn has been purchased by the largest drive company in the planet — Western Digital (who just purchased SanDisk for 16 billion dollars), so when they announced that they were making a shared storage product, I knew that this was going to be a serious product.

Unlike the new craze of ZFS based shared storage systems from Small Tree, LumaForge and Other World Computing, G-Tech has decided to use Btrfs. Pronounce it any way you want. Butter FS, Better FS, or just spell it out. This is a Linux-based system that’s designed for maximum speed, reliability, and flexibility, including things like reconfiguring workspace allocations on the fly. Don’t worry about not knowing Linux, though. You can find everything you need in a very easy to use web browser interface. (More details about that below.)

The actual chassis only takes up 2 rack units, and as you can guess from the name, the GS 12 holds 12 drives. Because G-Tech is owned by HGST, they are fortunate to be the first company to get access to the new 10 Terabyte HGST Enterprise series SATA drives. This means that you can have up to 120 TB (100 TB after RAID 6 configuration) in only 2 rack units…[continue reading]

Q: I recently purchased ISIS | 1000. What is my migration plan to Avid NEXIS?  Can these solutions co-exist?
A: Great news!  ISIS | 1000 is now Avid NEXIS | PRO.  It’s the same hardware underneath, but we’ve renamed it to express that it is now part of the next-generation Avid NEXIS family and can utilize the new Avid NEXIS software when available.   You can combine one to four PRO systems into a shared pool of storage, and dynamically adjust workspaces across the entire storage solution, for a maximum of 80 TB of storage space. Note PRO systems cannot be mixed in the same pool of storage as Avid NEXIS Enterprise systems.  You can also purchase new bezels for your ISIS | 1000 systems so that they have the most current look and new product name.

Q: I just purchased an Avid NEXIS | PRO.  What will I receive?
A: You will receive the 2RU server with Avid ISIS | 1000 on the bezel, along with a letter and a sticker with the new name, should you chose to apply it.  The shipments will be sent this way until current ISIS | 1000-branded inventory is depleted.

Q: Why did I receive a download for ISIS 5.0.x software when I registered my Avid NEXIS | PRO?
A: Your Avid NEXIS | PRO system can run the latest ISIS 5.0.x software today. If you register your system in your Avid Master Account on  April 16, 2016 or later you will receive the Avid NEXIS 6.0 software in your account when released.

IMPORTANT: If you received an ISIS 1000-branded unit or are running ISIS 5.0.x software today on your Avid NEXIS | PRO you must install ISIS 5.0.2 software before you can upgrade to Avid NEXIS 6.0 or else the upgrade will fail. Avid NEXIS 6.0 and ISIS 5.0.2 software will be made available in your Avid Master Account if you register on or after April 16, 2016 or have an active Avid Advantage Support Plan once available.

Q: I currently have multiple ISIS systems in my facility. Can I use them with Avid NEXIS?
A: You can simultaneously connect clients to both Avid ISIS and Avid NEXIS systems in your workflow using the Avid NEXIS 6.0 client software. However, ISIS storage engines cannot be physically mixed with Avid NEXIS storage engines in the same system to form one pool of storage.

Q: What applications work with Avid NEXIS?
A: MediaCentral Platform applications including Media Composer, Pro Tools, Interplay plus a wide breadth of 3rd party applications including Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut X, EDIUS and more have been qualified with Avid NEXIS. Avid NEXIS supports a wide range of client operating systems including Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Q: What protection do I get against drive failures?
A: With the release of Avid NEXIS 6.0 there are three Workspace Protection types offered:
 

Q: How much of the total raw capacity is usable with Single or Dual Disk protection?
A: Dual Disk protection provides 80% usable and Single Disk protection delivers 89% usable.  The advantage of Avid NEXIS is the ability to define the protection level per workspace, other storage 

Q: When will High-Availability features be made available?
A: Features such as Redundant Controllers, Redundant Networking, Redundant System Director Appliances, and Engine Protection (mirroring) will be made available in software updates to be delivered into your Avid Master Account later 2016.

Q: Are there Interplay Production and Broadcast Bundles that include Avid NEXIS storage?
A: Yes: Interplay | Production Starter and Facility bundles and Broadcast Bundles D, E & F now have options that include Avid NEXIS.  These can be booked now and will be available to ship May 19th 2016.  The existing ISIS | 5500 based bundles will remain active for a number of months to allow Avid to fulfill existing quotes.
Details of the bundle contents are in all pricebooks.

Q: Can I add Avid NEXIS to one of my current ISIS VLANs?
A: Yes, you do not need a separate subnet to add Avid NEXIS to your existing ISIS network.

Q: I have an existing ISIS 7000 customer utilizing a typical Zone 1 type configuration.  This site has all servers and most clients connected Zone 1 with a .10 and .20 connection to clients and servers.  This site has not established a third VLAN nor have they looked to move servers off of that config to a more current Zone 3 type connection and routing.  How can i move them to Avid NEXIS?
A: You should configure a third VLAN for Avid NEXIS and route the clients to this new network.  The clients will be Zone 3 to Avid NEXIS and Zone 1 to the existing ISIS 7000.

Q: Can Avid NEXIS be used as Nearline?
A: Yes: Avid NEXIS is ideal for production and nearline storage.  A major benefit of Avid NEXIS’s Software Defined Storage is the ability to have multiple virtual Workspaces on a single physical pool of storage with different protection schemes to best suit the needs of the workflow.  Dual Disk or Mirror protection is recommended for production workspaces and Dual or Single disk protection is recommended for nearline workflows. 

Q: What else do I need to configure / Quote / Order?
A: All Avid NEXIS Enterprise E2 & E4 Engines and the System Director Appliance require 10G Ethernet network interfaces, either Short or Long Range SFP+ transceivers or Twinax direct attach cables.  All Avid NEXIS | E4 Engine also requires either spare Hard Disk Drives (up to 2) or drive slot covers.  Any half populated Avid NEXIS | E4 (with one Media Pack) requires a 10-pack of drive slot covers.

Q: Does Avid NEXIS support LDAP and is it similar to ISIS LDAP functionality?
A: Yes: Avid NEXIS supports LDAP and it is equivalent to LDAP in current ISIS products.

Q: What does Avid NEXIS FS stand for?
A: Avid NEXIS File System: We are branding the File System it is a truly differentiated, software defined storage FS.

Q: What licenses do I need?
A: Each Avid NEXIS | Enterprise (E2 & E4) engine includes an Avid NEXIS | FS Foundation license that enables the Avid NEXIS System Director to be run embedded on the engine and supports up to 4 Media Packs and up to 40 clients.
The Avid NEXIS | System Director Appliance (SDA) includes the Avid NEXIS | FS Extended license for up to 12 Media Packs and up to 165 clients.
The Avid NEXIS | FS Advanced License is required for configurations of up to 24 Media Packs and up to 330 clients. The Avid NEXIS | FS Advanced license is an add-on to the Avid NEXIS | SDA.

Q: My customer has 80 clients but can be accommodated by a single Avid NEXIS | E4 120.  Can they use the Avid NEXIS | System Director Appliance (SDA) with a single engine?
A: Yes: There is no minimum number of engines or Media Packs for use with the Avid NEXIS | SDA. The SDA is required if there are more than 40 clients regardless of the number of Media Packs.

Q: My customer will be using the Avid NEXIS | System Director Appliance and not the embedded Foundation license, so do the Engines require the SSDs?
A; Yes: All Avid NEXIS Engines (Enterprise E2, E4 and PRO) require and ship with the dual mirrored SSDs (Solid State Drives).  The SSDs are used for;

• File System Acceleration
• Configuration & Profile Management (enables zero configuration when replacing a controller)
• System Director MetaData when using the embedded Avid NEXIS | FS Foundation license

The SSDs are included and required in all Avid NEXIS components, E2, E4, Pro engines and the SDA.

Q: What version of ISIS 5500 and ISIS 7500 will the Avid NEXIS 6.0 client work with?
A: Avid ISIS v4.7.5 and later can connect to Avid NEXIS v6.0 client.

Q: To clarify and confirm on mirroring protection.  You need Three E2’s or Three E4’s.  Not three Media Packs.
A: Correct, for Seamless Engine Protection vioa Avid NEXIS Mirror the workspace must be across 3 similarly configured engines.  (3 Media Packs, 2 in an E4 and one in an E3 or half populated E4 are NOT “Mirror capable”.)

Q: Can I chose which workspaces have mirroring?
A: Yes: Each Workspace can be configured for Mirror, Dual Single or no protection.  This is a benefit of Avid NEXIS Software Defined Storage.

Q: How do Avid NEXIS features compare to current  ISIS features?
A:

Let your editing team fly. G-RACK 12 brings G-Technology’s industry-leading scalability, reliability, and studio-friendly technology to centralized storage. It’s the only platform to combine all these technologies into the ultimate centralized storage solution for demanding “4K-and-beyond” workflows.

Introducing G-RACK 12

Your productions matter. See how G-RACK 12 can help your entire team to store, color correct, composite, assemble and manage colossal amounts of video content with new speed and confidence.

• High-performance Network-Attached Storage (NAS)
• Scalable 12-Bay server from 48TB to 120TB capacities
• Ultra-reliable Enterprise-class HGST hard drives
• G-Technology developed NAS operating system
• Advanced BTRfs file system for reliable data protection
• iSCSI support for simplified shared storage management
• Seamless integration with top non-linear editing suites
• Optional 48TB, 72TB, 96TB or 120TB Expansion Module
• Future-friendly platform for software add-ons
• 5-Year limited warranty

Interested in becoming a Certified Partner Pro to sell the G-RACK 12?

Your business must meet the following criteria:

• Currently sell and install NAS / SAN Solutions
• Ability to show solutions in demo room or tour kit
• 1st level technical support staff
• Employ a minimum of 1 pre/post sales engineers & 1 technical support staff
• Commit to & participate in required certification and on-going trainings
• Sell Components such as:
• NAS / SAN storage storage systems
• Ingest Systems
• Digital Camera Systems
• Transcoding systems

If you think your business is a good fit, please reach out to your G-Technology Account Manager or g-technologychannelprograms@hgst.com for more information.

Find all Premier Partner Program assets at the following:
Current Unilateral Price Grid
Premier Partner Pro Box Site
Marketing Assets Guide

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to the Channel Team.