Around 1989 (not sure of the year), I was working in a successful ad agency in London as head editor. A man came to me saying that he had a R&D product from an amercian company called avid & that he was doing market R&D for find how to place this new computer editing product. I knew of a couple of these products (Basys in particular had a really good one) but Avid was already starting to make in roads into Hollywood, so it was to be taken seriously. From what I can remember, the app was just a load of floating windows with a timeline, not dissimilar to the oirginal Avid Express. It had highly pixelated video in 256 colours. After testing for sometime, I passed on the product as it was impossible to sync rushes, as the pixelation was too bad. Acouple of years later, I saw a system that ran off a NEXT machine. That was much better but prohibitevly expensive so I passed on that too. In the meantime, Lightworks appeared and many other boxes disappeared in the technology ether.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has done an Avid product history & a non linear editing history? Let the memories flow....

in the early 90's I was in school earning my degree in communications.  We were already using Sony flatbed editors and the school had acquired a New Tek video toaster (see ki ki effect) when we were told the school had purchased an Avid.   At that time the school only the one;  A MC 400 built on a Max Quartro 900.  The internal hard drive was less than 1gb, has 28mb ram.  External storage was a 1gb optical dtive and no title tool but it was love at first sight, wow!

In 1994 (or there abouts) my school bought an AV Power Mac (7100 AV?) at my suggestion, for video editing. They purchased Adobe Premiere for it, version 3 I think, but we were also supplied with a copy of Avid Cinema I think. I didn't like it. It was hard to use.

I next got in front of an Avid Express in about 2000 which was hard for me to use, given that I'd used Premiere and Final Cut Pro (on my Blue and White G3, the first and last Mac I owned). I had to use it to cut a simple trailer for a independant DV feature I'd agreed to edit (on my G3 with FCP) - they'd already started the trailer on the Avid and I had to finish it. I managed.

It wasn't until late 2001 that I got another good crack at Avid - My company shared offices with a camera rental and post production company, so I got to have a little play with the Expres and Media Composer. It still confused me.

In 2003 I finally got out of the IT and Marketing jobs I'd had, and went right back to what I'd intended to do, and enrolled in film school, intending to be a cameraman. Instead, I ended up training as an editor and was taught Avid and caught on real quick. I've been working on one Avid system or another almost every working day since late 2003.

You are right. Premiere was a really good app at the time. It opened video to photoshop folks. Avid Cinema was dreadful. Some Avid for the poor that didn't do a great deal.

New Tek video toaster was very interesting at the time. I had been working Umatics fort many years & New Tek video toaster did miracles for little money.

Keep the memories coming...

In 1991, the school where I was studying bought one of the early Avid: "Media Suite Pro", running on Mac. Knowing that school, they probably still have it... 

I seem to remember Lightworks had the largest number of lines of code ever written for an application.

Quantel were doing 60 seconds of uncompressed online non linear editing (at a price) in the late 1980's

History of Avid 

http://www.macvideo.tv/editing/interviews/index.cfm?articleId=119444

In 1991, the school where I was studying bought one of the early Avid: "Media Suite Pro", running on Mac. Knowing that school, they probably still have it...     So you're the one!  

Avid Cinema was another program that was developed for the consumer market by Avid.  Avid did not then and with the exception of Pinnacle Studio does not now do much to get the word out unfortunately,

mvegas:

So you're the one!

Avid was nice enough to take it as a trade back

Does anyone know what the first commerciallised version of Avid was called? MC 100?

There was also Media 100 that was hot early on.

It was the Avid/1.  From 1989 ....

For Immediate Release

New Digital Non-Linear Editing System Combines Film and Video Editing Techniques

System Uses Advanced Video Compression to Provide Full 30 Frames-Per-Second Performance

NAB Show, Las Vegas, April 30, 1989 -- Avid Technology, Inc. today announced the Avid/1 TM Media Composer TM, a new real-time digital non-linear editing system that combines the creative freedom of film editing with frame-accurate digital video technology. The system uses advanced hardware and real-time, high-speed video compression techniques to display edited sequences instantly, direct from digital disk. The Avid/1 provides random access to digitized video and audio, offering from two to six hours of storage capacity. With its three processors working in parallel, the Avid/1 can simultaneously handle full-motion color video at 30 FPS and two channels of 44Khz, 16-bit CD-quality sound.

The power of the Avid/1's hardware and software is seamlessly integrated into an Apple(R) Macintosh TM IIx or IIcx, which serves as the host system.

"As a marketing manager in the engineering workstation industry, I had been using the power of video to introduce new products into the marketplace," said William J. Warner, President of Avid. "But I found the editing technology to be slow and frustrating. In August of 1987 I started Avid with one goal: to provide a new, faster way to make media productions."

The system dramatically increases the speed with which editors can make creative decisions. Its digital technology eliminates the need for shuttling tape decks or premastering video disks.

According to Peter Farago, President of Farago Advertising Inc., "The excitement of seeing your spot come together on the Avid just by pointing and clicking is wonderful!" He continues, "At last I'm in control of the entire creative process. I cut an entire commercial in two hours - the way I wanted it, the way I saw it. That's the power of the Avid/1 - it allows my ideas to flow directly into the finished product and allows me to easily review my work with colleagues and clients."

The Avid/1 provides a range of integrated editing tools. The main editing window features an intuitive interface simulating the familiar source and record monitors of a traditional editing system. A timeline window displays a map of the edited sequence. Bins, databases of clips and edited sequences, can be sorted and sifted and displayed as lists or as head or key frames. The system enables output to workprints and standard EDL formats.

The Avid/1 extends the power of the Macintosh environment to handle full-motion video and CD-quality audio, yet preserves the familiar, easy-to-use Macintosh interface.

Tyler Peppel, Apple's Manager for Multimedia products, stated that "Avid's product represents a pioneering step in the convergence of personal computing and electronic media - an area of strategic interest for Apple. We're especially pleased at how well-integrated the Avid functionality is with the Macintosh platform."

" Apple and Avid's philosophies are closely aligned. Avid has made simplicity and ease-of-use a key part of their product design. With the Avid/1, video editing will now be available to a much wider audience. The notion of empowering our users to communicate in new ways is fundamental to Apple's philosophy," continued Peppel.

A configured Avid/1 system, including real-time video digitizing and playback and CD-quality audio digitizing and playback sells for under $50,000. The system comes complete with high speed disk, real-time video processor, CD-quality audio processor and two color display monitors. The price includes an Apple Macintosh IIx CPU with 5MB of RAM. The maximum Avid/1 configuration sells for under $80,000 and includes over 4 Gigabytes of high speed disk storage.

Avid Technology, Inc., is a privately-held company specializing in the development and marketing of advanced media production technology for film and video professionals.

Avid TM, Avid/1 TM and Media Composer TM are trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. Apple(R) is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh TM is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.

Randall L Rike:

A configured Avid/1 system, including real-time video digitizing and playback and CD-quality audio digitizing and playback sells for under $50,000. The system comes complete with high speed disk, real-time video processor, CD-quality audio processor and two color display monitors. The price includes an Apple Macintosh IIx CPU with 5MB of RAM. The maximum Avid/1 configuration sells for under $80,000 and includes over 4 Gigabytes of high speed disk storage.

Wow. When I think about my computer from that time this is incredible. In 1989 I had an IBM PC JX. No hard drive, 2x 720KB floppy drives, No idea how much RAM. It did have a wireless keyboard though.

In 1990 I got a new computer, it was a 286. 20MB hard drive, 1MB of RAM, 1.2MB floppy drive. My first > 1GB hard drive was in about 1995 I guess, with a Quantum Bigfoot. It was 2.1GB and cost me about NZ$300 - I had it on layby for about 6 weeks.

5MB of RAM and 4GB of diskspace in 1989 is incredible, no wonder it was nearly $80k!

Interesting to note though, that if that press release is sort of the launch of the Avid/1 NLE into the market, then Avid NLEs just turned 20! Did I miss the party?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js_eS6bFwdc

Take a look at the above.  A demo of the Avid 1, great stuff

"... Did I miss the party ..."

Looks like you may have.  The theme of the Avid 2007 Event at the Joint @ the Hard Rock was, "I spent the night with a 20 year old".

mvegas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js_eS6bFwdc

Take a look at the above.  A demo of the Avid 1, great stuff

Wow. Welcome back to the 80's. I love it. Those big, round glasses have become very fashionable with young people here in Paris, france.

After 20 years, Avid still does one thing better than FCP. Give EDL that work.

Does anyone remember the BASYS Automation non linear system? It came out at the same time. BASYS Automation was subsequently bought out by Avid.

Randall L Rike:

The theme of the Avid 2007 Event at the Joint @ the Hard Rock was, "I spent the night with a 20 year old

Right. Well it's been a while since I've done that. Also didn't make it to NAB... :(