Avid has announced a new version of the Avid Interplay (2.1) production asset management (PAM) system, as well as a new Interplay feed scheduling and recording system option, Avid Interplay Capture (1.0). Customers can expand workflows with enhanced media access and control offered through Interplay support for Mac-based Avid editing systems and increase worfklow accuracy through streamlined asset ingest and metadata management capabilities.

Interplay, which is currently installed at more than 700 of the world's leading broadcasters and production facilities, enables customers to efficiently manage content creation projects by centralising media assets and extending access to remote users. Interplay 2.1 now includes support for Avid Media Composer and Avid Symphony editing systems on the Mac platform, delivering the benefits of the Interplay workflow to customers using the latest Apple OS, Snow Leopard. Interplay 2.1 also offers Web Services 2.0, further extending third party interoperability with Interplay. In addition to accessing Interplay media and metadata, external applications can now, for example, use Interplay Media Services to move media between Interplay and external systems, convert media to different formats, or publish low resolution proxies.

Interplay Capture, a new feed ingest automation system option for Interplay, schedules and controls the recording of incoming media quickly and accurately. Features include:

• Shared database with Interplay - Accelerates customer workflows and enhances metadata management with a direct interface to the Interplay production asset management system database. Editors and journalists can begin logging in Interplay Access and editing media as feeds are ingested, speeding news turnaround and time-to-air.
• Failover and redundancy - Ensures media feeds are captured accurately and completely with dynamic channel allocation and failover within a channel pool.
• New, highly-configurable user interface (UI) - Improves customer productivity with greater control and full visibility of incoming feeds and system diagnostics. Customers can update schedules on the fly by creating and monitoring timeline-based schedules that provide at-a-glance status of multiple feeds and multiple channels.

www.avid.com