products as individual components.
Obviously there are a huge number
of common elements that exist
across them. The key change was
being able to strip out those
common elements and put them in
a common services platform, which
is Avid’s MediaCentral.
The products themselves became
more like applications or modules
that can be turned on and turned
off depending on user profiles
within a customer organisation.
Obviously it makes them more
easily updatable. It makes sure that
they interact very well together and
makes them more agile and
business focused.
So instead of developing products
as individual components, they’re
now developed as applications on
top of a common platform. And
that allows for more scalability and
flexibility in terms of how we can
bring new things to market.
How have things been developing
with the Avid Customer Association?
We’ve enjoyed great momentum
there. We obviously established the
organisation. We’ve elected all of
the officers and we’ve agreed on all
the bylaws and the governance
documents. We held initial in-
person meetings at our Avid
Connect Event in April 2014 at
NAB. And we did the same thing at
Avid Connect Europe in September.
Some particular focus areas have
been established – such as MAM.
Overall membership has been
growing very steadily since that
April inaugural event. And we’ve
also got an online community, just
for ACA members, for them to
interact, and comment, and review
meeting minutes of the six separate
councils and for them to push for
any agenda items they want to see
included in the next set of meetings
and conference calls.
So overall, we’ve been delighted
with the progress. And I think what
happens now is it starts to
transition away from being an
Avid-led organisation to being an
organisation that is actually run by
the Customer Association itself.
What are some of the issues and
questions coming up that you
hadn’t necessarily expected?
We’re continuing to hear the main
themes that are pretty prevalent
across our industry. One is, of
course, the digitisation of media
“
”
Many
broad-
casters
have
difficult
decisions
concerning
investment
40
|
ISSUE 1 2015
|
THE CHANNEL
vid Everywhere is
our strategic vision
for the future ofmedia
and the entertainment
industry. It’s centred
on connecting
creative professionals
and media organisations with their
audiences in a more powerful,
more efficient, cooperative and, of
course, profitable way.
When we unveiled our vision, we
said that Avid Everywhere would
deliver the most fluid, end-to-end
distributed media production
environment in the industry, a
comprehensive ecosystem that
encompasses every aspect of the
new digital media value chain.
At NAB in 2014, we introduced
the first phase of Avid Everywhere
with the launch of the Avid
MediaCentral Platform and a set of
modular application suites that
together represent the most open
integrated and flexible media
production and distribution
environment in the industry.
How has the Avid Everywhere
concept changed how Avid
develops its products?
Previously we would develop our
PUTTINGCUSTOMERS
Avid Technology reinvented post-production with the introduction of its non-linear
editor in the late 1980’s. The company has undergone another revolution with the
introduction of its Avid Everywhere concept of digital media production, and the
formation of the Avid Customer Association, designed to facilitate media tech dialogue
worldwide. Avid’s VP International Sales Tom Cordiner tells us what Avid is offering in
the new digital landscape and how it plans to help media producers find their way in it
A
FIRST
Above and top
right
Avidcustomer
eventsatNAB 2014
TomCordiner:
Instead of
developing
products as
individual
components,
they’re now
developed as
applications on
top of a common
platform
