Toby Ingleton |
This article first appeared in the Summer 2017 issue of The Record.
Tell us more about Avid.
Avid is a leading media technology provider for the creation, distribution and monetisation of media assets, serving the needs of media enterprises and creative professionals worldwide.
Since its inception 30 years ago, Avid has been at the forefront of innovation – from leading the revolution in non-linear editing to transforming the media industry with the introduction of Avid Everywhere. Avid Everywhere is powered by the Avid MediaCentral Platform – an open, tightly integrated, and efficient platform designed specifically for the media industry.
Why did you decide to partner with Microsoft?
Avid and Microsoft’s strategic alliance was announced this April at Avid Connect 2017 in Las Vegas, US, which is the annual meeting of the Avid Customer association and brings together more than 1,300 industry leaders. The partnership is a comprehensive, multi-year strategic agreement to cooperatively develop and market cloud-based solutions and services aimed at the media and entertainment industry. Avid has chosen Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud hosting platform and is developing a wide range of software-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service offerings powered by the Avid MediaCentral Platform.
To support Avid’s product development efforts and investments, Microsoft will invest additional resources and funding to help accelerate time-to-market for targeted cloud-based solutions and specific Azure-based cloud services for the media and entertainment industry.
Both companies will also work in close cooperation on the overall go-to-market approach, which will help clients migrate to the cloud easily and more cost effectively, and allow them to work with Avid and Microsoft seamlessly.
How else will customers benefit from the new partnership?
The partnership will enable Avid to fully deliver on its Avid Everywhere vision by making the MediaCentral platform and many of the company’s tools and workflow solutions available as a cloud service to media organisations – using practically any device – all from a single platform.
Customers will have maximum flexibility to move at their own pace and orchestrate workflows across on-premise and cloud-hosted environments. The cloud will enable innovation around new media workflows, operational capabilities and business opportunities by unleashing a new generation of capabilities for distributing and optimising media.
How do you see the partnership developing?
We expect to see a constant stream of innovations and cloud-based solutions during the term of the partnership. Customers can look forward to new hosting and cloud service offerings over the next 18 months, with the first wave slated for a phased release during the second half of 2017.