Avid Technology, Inc. is a global technology company headquartered in

Burlington, Massachusetts Burlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 26,377 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History It is believed that Burlington takes its name from the English town of Bridlington, York ...

, and was founded in August 1987 by Bill Warner. It develops software, SaaS, and hardware products used in media and entertainment.

History

Avid was founded by Bill Warner, a former marketing manager from

Apollo Computer Apollo Computer Inc. was an American technology corporation headquartered and founded in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1980 by William Poduska (a founder of Prime Computer) and others. Apollo Computer developed and produced Apoll ...

. A prototype of their first non-linear editing system, the Avid/1 Media Composer, was shown at the

National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a Industry trade group, trade association and lobbying, lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, broadcasters in th ...

(NAB) convention in April 1988. The Avid/1 was based on an

Apple Macintosh II The Macintosh II is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from March 1987 to January 1990. Based on the Motorola 68020 32-bit CPU, it is the first Macintosh supporting color graphics. When introduced, a basic s ...

computer, with special hardware and software of Avid's design installed. The Avid/1 was "the biggest shake-up in editing since Melies played with time and sequences in the early 1900s". By the early 1990s, Avid products began to replace such tools as the

Moviola A Moviola () is a device that allows a Film editing, film editor to view a film while editing. It was the first machine for motion picture editing when it was invented by Iwan Serrurier in 1924. History Iwan Serrurier's original 1917 concept f ...

Steenbeck Steenbeck was a company that manufactured flatbed editors. Steenbeck is a brand name that has become synonymous with a type of flatbed film editing suite which is usable with both 16 mm and 35 mm optical sound and magnetic sound film. The ...

, and KEM flatbed editors, allowing

editors Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

to handle their film creations with greater ease. The first feature film edited using the Avid was ''Let's Kill All the Lawyers'' in 1992, directed by Ron Senkowski. The film was edited at a 30fps NTSC rate, then used Avid MediaMatch to generate a negative cutlist from the EDL. The first feature film edited natively at 24fps with what was to become the Avid Film Composer was ''Emerson Park''. The first studio film to be edited at 24fps was ''

Lost in Yonkers ''Lost in Yonkers'' is a play by Neil Simon. The play won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Production The play premiered at The Center for the Performing Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on December 31, 1990, then moved to Broadway at ...

'', directed by

Martha Coolidge Martha Coolidge (born August 17, 1946) is an American film director and former President of the Directors Guild of America. She has directed such films as '' Valley Girl,'' '' Real Genius'' and '' Rambling Rose.'' Early life Coolidge was born in ...

. By 1994 only three feature films used the new digital editing system. By 1995 dozens had switched to Avid, and it signaled the beginning of the end of cutting celluloid. In 1996

Walter Murch Walter Scott Murch (born July 12, 1943) is an American film editor, director, writer and sound designer. His work includes '' THX 1138'', ''Apocalypse Now'', '' The Godfather I'', '' II'', and '' III'', '' American Graffiti'', '' The Conversation ...

accepted the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for editing ''

The English Patient ''The English Patient'' is a 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje. The book follows four dissimilar people brought together at an Italian villa during the Italian Campaign (World War II), Italian Campaign of the Second World War. The four main charact ...

'' (which also won best picture), which he cut on the Avid. This was the first Editing Oscar awarded to a digitally edited film (although the final print was still created with traditional

negative cutting Negative cutting (also known as negative matching and negative conforming) is the process of cutting motion picture negative to match precisely the final edit as specified by the film editor. Original camera negative (OCN) is cut with scissors an ...

In 1994 Avid introduced

Open Media Framework Open Media Format (OMF), Open Media Framework, or Open Media Framework Interchange (OMFI), is a platform-independent file format intended for transfer of digital media between different software applications. OMFI is a file format that aids in exch ...

(OMF) as an open standard file format for sharing media and related metadata. Over the years, Avid has released numerous freeware versions of Media Composer. Initially this included

Avid Free DV Avid Free DV is a non-linear editing video editing software application which was made by Avid Technology. Avid discontinued this product, stating: "Effective September 1, 2007, Avid is discontinuing the Avid Free DV application offer, and has ...

: a free edition of Media Composer with limited functionality; Avid Xpress DV: a consumer edition of Media Composer; and then Avid

Xpress Pro Avid Xpress Pro was a non-linear video editing software aimed at professionals in the TV and movie industry. It was available for Microsoft Windows PCs and Apple Macintosh computers. Features Xpress Pro included many of the high-end editing fe ...

: a prosumer edition of

Media Composer Media Composer is a non-linear editing (NLE) software application developed by Avid Technology. First introduced in the late 1980s and widely adopted in the 1990s, it has become a prominent tool in the professional editing landscape, particular ...

. These editions were discontinued in 2008 as the flagship Media Composer was lowered in price. Later, Avid released Media Composer , First, which included a large portion of Media Composer's functionality but its exporting workflows publishing finished videos directly to web services like YouTube. On March 29, 1999, Avid Technology, Inc. adjusted the amount originally allocated to IPR&D and restated its third-quarter 1998 consolidated financial statements accordingly, considering the SEC's views. In February 2018, Avid appointed Jeff Rosica as CEO, after terminating Louis Hernandez Jr, who was accused of workplace misconduct. In November 2023, Avid Technology was acquired by an affiliate of STG for $1.4 billion. This process delisted Avid from the public stock exchange, making it private. In April 2024, Avid appointed Wellford Dillard as CEO, succeeding Jeff Rosica.

Products

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

Sibelius Jean Sibelius (; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...

Awards

1993: The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awarded Avid Technology and all of the company's initial employees with a technical Emmy award for Outstanding Engineering Development for the Avid Media Composer video editing system. 1999: At the 71st Academy Awards, Avid Technology Inc. was awarded an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

for the concept, system design and engineering of the Avid Film Composer for motion picture editing which was accepted by founder Bill Warner.

Acquisitions

References

External links