One of the aspects of my job that I enjoy the most is the opportunity to work closely with our manufacturers. In my 17+ years here at Sweetwater, the manufacturer that perhaps I’ve worked most closely with is Avid (which, due to my long relationship, I still have the hardest time not calling “Digidesign”). In March, I had the opportunity to attend and participate in Avid’s inaugural Customer Association event, which was held prior to the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show in Las Vegas, where they introduced their “Avid Everywhere” strategy.
To be blunt, this is a very, very big idea that encompasses everything from creation to monetization of your video and music productions, with a heavy focus on developing the technology that will provide unprecedented freedom to collaborate with others. I’ve been in this industry for a long time, and frankly, I have to admit that the effort Avid is putting into this (which includes soliciting a crazy amount of direct feedback from their partners and users) is incredible. I’ve never seen a company reach out at this level to try to improve the customer experience and, maybe even more importantly, improve the creative process to deliver higher quality results.
Here are some of the highlights that I found most interesting:
- The backbone of Avid Everywhere is the Avid MediaCentral Platform upon which everything else is built and where all of the capabilities of Avid Everywhere are accessed. It’s an open and expandable environment that integrates with technology from Avid as well as other providers.
- Cloud Collaboration is one of the future concepts that I’m truly excited about. This technology will allow Pro Tools users to share independent tracks and work together on the same music session in real time or offline in a secure environment. For example, you can have a producer in LA, a guitarist in London, and a mixer in Berlin, with all of them working on a project together using integrated video chat and the ability to easily send/receive sessions or even tracks to collaborate either in real time or offline, all the while keeping track of credits. The producer, record label, or ad agency can audition/approve tracks from their iPhones.
- Avid is developing a new archival format they call PXF (Production Exchange Format). You’ll be able to “Freeze” or “Commit” the tracks with plug-ins, which will allow you to archive sessions as is, or collapse/commit (i.e., “Freeze”) the files so that if 10 years down the road there is a need to restore the session, it can be opened without worrying about having the original plug-ins installed on the system.
- There will be an Avid Marketplace, which will allow users to purchase and sell session files as well as multichannel mixes. You’ll be able to easily search content in the style and format you need. Plus, rights and licensing will be managed and protected across the marketplace.
The important thing to know about this is that you don’t have to worry about buying something now and then have it not function later as all these features come online in the coming months. If you purchase or upgrade to Pro Tools 11, you’ll be all set to take full advantage of these great tools (Pro Tools software versions prior to version 11 will not be compatible).
To be honest, as this initiative rolls out, I’m still trying to process what all of this really might mean for our industry, but the possibilities are really exciting. As I noted previously, this is a big concept and certainly one worth exploring if it allows you (and maybe even me) to make better music! For more information and details, check out:
• http://apps.avid.com/avid-everywhere/mission/#overview
• http://www.avid.com/static/resources/common/documents/whitepapers/Avid_Everywhere.pdf
Rock and Roll!
Jeff Radke
Executive Vice President of Sales
Chief Sales Officer