The new releases of Avid’s DX digital non-linear editors, namely Mojo DX and Nitris DX, as well as Version 3 of Avid’s Media Composer, were introduced to the South African market by Spescom at a Road Show in Johannesburg on 1 July.

In terms of both Mojo DX and Nitris DX, the biggest change is in these output boxes is their architecture – the PCI interface results in a 20% faster response time, allowing the user to leverage power in the processor and graphic cards.

Director of Spescom Media IT Sean du Toit described the Thin Raster HD as a major breakthrough. “This technology allows the new DX systems to accept all high definition (HD) camera formats such as 1020i, 720p, HDV, XDCAM, etc., as well as standard definition (SD) formats, as long as there are all in the same time line. Avid’s Open Time Line means that editors and producers no longer have to worry what HD format footage is acquired on.”

The Nitris DX operating on the Media Composer Version 3 was demonstrated by Avid’s Rob Thompson, who is stationed in Dubai. Thompson showed clips from an observational documentary called Deadliest Catch. “The footage for this documentary, about fishermen’s trials and tribulations in the middle of the ocean, was shot on all manner of HD and HDV cameras, with some sequences shot uncompressed and others compressed. The Nitris DX gives you six streams of playback and much shorter rendering times. Editing is a lot faster with a PCI interface.”

Thompson noted that the previous version of output box prior to Mojo DX and Nitris DX was Adrenaline. “That used a firewire connector and was 400 megabits per second, whereas the new system uses a PCI card with a bandwidth of 10 gigabytes.”

Other features of the Nitris DX include a built in sub-titling tool and an advanced Script Sync function.

Sony South Africa was present at the road show, with HDV cameras on display. Also present was a representative from Miller Camera Support in Australia, who showed some of Miller’s latest tripods.

See full report in August issue of Screen Africa.