Avid & Nucoda

Avid workflow with Nucoda Grading System

Facilities that offer editing and finishing services on Avid systems now seek a feature rich colour grading solution or image restoration and enhancement tools that can be fully integrated within the Avid workflow.

Digital Vision was the first grading equipment supplier to join Avid's DNxHD® codec licensing program to address the significant industry demand for efficient file-based mastering and grading within established Avid broadcast and film workflows. Continuing this partnership with Avid, we have been pursuing this push until now.

How we work alongside Avid  

To unlock new opportunities without adding non-productive transcoding time or multiple generation duplication cycles into the process, Image Systems products include extensive support for interoperability with Avid products, including:

• Avid Media Composer 5.5.2
• Avid Symphony 5.5.2
• Avid DS 10.3
• Interplay 2.3.0 Server and 2.3.0 Client Software
• Older versions of Interplay Server and Client software are also supported 

When handed an AAF (Complex EDL that allows for complex metadata such as effects, media locations and importantly multiple track and layers) from the Avid Media Composer it is imported into Nucoda and conformed.

Depending on the connection of the Nucoda to the MXF media, local storage,  ISIS or Unity we can expect to see real-time playback of MXF media without the need to transcode and create local copies of the media, we will also be able to grade the media and achieve real-time playback, allowing for use of much less storage on the Nucoda local drives.

The AAF contains all the Avid effects from the original Avid edit, we read all the effects, but apart from transitions and speed effect we don’t display them. They are however retained and passed back to the Avid in the new exported AAF sequence, on export assets can be checked into Avid Interplay.

Nucoda supports linking to rendered (pre-compute) media as well as mixdown files that are part of the sequence.

Also supported is the ability to import Avid MXF OP-Atom audio files, so there is no need to import broadcast WAV files as a separate process. Upon exporting the AAF, audio is passed along in the new composition, back to the Avid.

If the workflow requires a new mixdown created from an imported AAF, upon creating the new mixdown, a new AAF referencing the mixdown will be created, it will also contain a new Avid sequence referencing the mixdown (video) and the original audio tracks from the imported composition.

The Grading and Finishing Process

Moving on to the actual Grading and Finishing there are a couple of ways to move forward from this point.

    AAF from Avid - Conform into Nucoda and grade - AAF export back to Avid
    AAF from Avid - Conform into Nucoda and grade - export MXF media and Relink
    AAF from Avid - Conform into Nucoda and grade - Final master.

We can work with consolidated media, or with the media as it exist on the storage, this means changes are easier because we don’t need to continually consolidate the media. We will only process and access the media we require for the grade. 

Unity Medianet/ISIS - AAF > AAF

• Media Composer and Nucoda are connected to the same shared storage (Fibre or Ethernet)
• The editor passes a AAF version of the edit for grading to the Nucoda.
• At any time, changes to the AAF can be sent across to the Nucoda Platform and current grades can be   merged into the new AAF.
• The Nucoda accesses the MXF media from the ISIS/Unity and we can grade the native MXF media, (dependant on connection) alternatively the media is cloned on local storage. This transparent and the user can continue working.
• On completion of the grade, new material is created and new AAF exported to the MC/Symphony or DS for finishing.
• AAF is imported back onto Media Composer and imported, it points to the new graded media. Media is automatically checked into Interplay upon completion of the export if required
• Sequence checked into Interplay from Media Composer.
• DS will automatically link to the newest media, if the master AAF is used to start the online.

Unity Medianet/ISIS/Local Storage - AAF > Re-link

• Media Composer and Nucoda are connected to the same shared storage Unity/ISIS/SAN/ or alternatively it could be an external drive with Avid consolidated media.
• The editor passes a AAF version of the edit for grading to the Nucoda.
• The Nucoda accesses the MXF media from the storage we can grade the native MXF media. (dependant on connection)
• At any time, changes to the AAF can be sent across to the Nucoda platform and current grades can be merged into the new AAF.– If the media was consolidated extra media may have to be copied from the Avid (If you are not on shared storage)
• On completion of the grade, new MXF files are generated, and placed where the Avid will have access for indexing optionally you can add a unique identifier to the graded files that will allow for sifting of the files in the Avid Media tool.
• In the Avid the media is imported via the Media tool and re-linked to a duplicate sequence.
• DS will automatically link to the newest media if the old AAF is used to start the online.

Unity Medianet/ISIS/Local Storage - AAF > Mixdown AAF