Ola Christoffersson
March 7th, 2009, 06:24 AM
In the newly released Avid Media Composer 3.5 there is a new feature called AMA. The idea of it is to be able to link P2 and XDCAM EX media directly to a bin without importing or copying the actual media.
I have tried this now for a couple of days and it will probably change my workflow dramatiacally.
Before the AMA-feature my workflow was this.
1. Offload cards using Clip Browser to HD.
2. Make backup of BPAV folder to second HD.
3. Convert clips to MXF into a temporary directory on a third HD.
4. Import MXF clips into Media Composer.
This meant copying to media 4 times before starting to edit. It also meant using at least three times the drive space of the original media. (After throwing away the MXF-files).
Now - with AMA I can remove almost all of these steps! I can actually get away with no file copying at all.
One workflow is this.
1. Put SxS-card into laptop.
2. Use AMA feature to browse to SxS card ant point to it. Wait 5-10 sekonds and voila - the clips show up in a bin and you can start editing straight from the card.
Of course you will need to consolidate your edit when you are finished if you don't want the card to remain permanently in the reader. This would be great for news. Absolutely NO off load time.
The workflow I will be using will be very differnt from my old workflow.
1. Offload clips to HD. (My fast Avid Media drive)
2. Make backup to another HD.
3. Use AMA to point to the media on the fast Avid Media drive. And start editing.
The great thing about this, apart from only having to copy the media twice instead of four times (With shotput you can do this in one go) is that I actually don't create Avid media files ever. The media remains in it's original BPAV-format forever. This means that if my media drives crash I don't even have to relink the media from a backup. All I have to do is plug in my backup drive and point to the media on my backup and I'm of again. A couple of minutes of lost editing time.
AMA has also meant that all of my archived footage since I bought my EX1 now is online instead of requiring at least two file copies to be available in the Avid. All I have to do is use AMA to point to it on whatever drive it is on. I've even managed to point to media on our backup NAS over the Gigabit LAN and use it for editing.
I find AMA revolutionary and I truly hope that there will not be any flaws or bugs in the feature that show up with time.
I have tried this now for a couple of days and it will probably change my workflow dramatiacally.
Before the AMA-feature my workflow was this.
1. Offload cards using Clip Browser to HD.
2. Make backup of BPAV folder to second HD.
3. Convert clips to MXF into a temporary directory on a third HD.
4. Import MXF clips into Media Composer.
This meant copying to media 4 times before starting to edit. It also meant using at least three times the drive space of the original media. (After throwing away the MXF-files).
Now - with AMA I can remove almost all of these steps! I can actually get away with no file copying at all.
One workflow is this.
1. Put SxS-card into laptop.
2. Use AMA feature to browse to SxS card ant point to it. Wait 5-10 sekonds and voila - the clips show up in a bin and you can start editing straight from the card.
Of course you will need to consolidate your edit when you are finished if you don't want the card to remain permanently in the reader. This would be great for news. Absolutely NO off load time.
The workflow I will be using will be very differnt from my old workflow.
1. Offload clips to HD. (My fast Avid Media drive)
2. Make backup to another HD.
3. Use AMA to point to the media on the fast Avid Media drive. And start editing.
The great thing about this, apart from only having to copy the media twice instead of four times (With shotput you can do this in one go) is that I actually don't create Avid media files ever. The media remains in it's original BPAV-format forever. This means that if my media drives crash I don't even have to relink the media from a backup. All I have to do is plug in my backup drive and point to the media on my backup and I'm of again. A couple of minutes of lost editing time.
AMA has also meant that all of my archived footage since I bought my EX1 now is online instead of requiring at least two file copies to be available in the Avid. All I have to do is use AMA to point to it on whatever drive it is on. I've even managed to point to media on our backup NAS over the Gigabit LAN and use it for editing.
I find AMA revolutionary and I truly hope that there will not be any flaws or bugs in the feature that show up with time.