By Elina Shatkin, June 2, 2005
BRIEF:
Avid Technology, Inc. announced a new pricing structure for the Avid Unity family - with up to 40% lower prices for the only shared-storage solutions on the market to offer true real-time and simultaneous sharing of frame-level media assets for collaborative postproduction and broadcast environments. The new pricing structure - which extends the accessibility of Avid's shared-storage solutions to a broader spectrum of content creators - includes Avid Unity MediaNetwork systems starting at $40,000; new Avid Unity LANshare EX Ethernet and Fibre Channel system configurations starting at $24,995; and MEDIArray ZX storage devices starting at $24,995.
Designed specifically for storing, accessing, and sharing media in collaborative workgroup environments, the family of Avid Unity solutions offers significant advantages over standard storage area networks (SANs). Unlike other SAN-based storage offerings, Avid Unity solutions integrate seamlessly into the production process, and efficiently deliver real-time, high-resolution media to creative workstations
. In addition, Avid Unity systems offer stability in demanding environments, transparency and ease of administration, flexibility and scalability, and deep interoperability with a powerful suite of complementary tools, including asset management, media transfer, transcoding, and archiving solutions.
Avid Unity systems are available in a range of 2 Gb and 4 Gb configurations, with pricing as follows:
-- Avid Unity MediaNetwork and Avid Unity for News systems - starting at $40,000 USMSRP for 2 Gb Fibre Channel connectivity and $67,000 USMSRP for 4 Gb Fibre Channel connectivity; and,
-- Avid Unity LANshare EX and LANshare EX for News systems with support for four clients - starting at $24,995 USMSRP for with Fibre Channel connectivity, and $24,995 USMSRP for Ethernet connectivity.
Avid Unity storage arrays, which are components of Avid Unity
MediaNetwork systems, are available at the following new price points:
-- MEDIArray ZX system - 2 Gb solution starting at $24,995
-- MEDIArray ZX4 system - pricing for this 4 Gb solution, which was introduced at NAB2005, begins at $29,995
-- MEDIArray II system - 2Gb Fibre drive solution starting at $8,595.
All newly priced Avid Unity systems are qualified for both PC and Mac clients. Systems in 2 Gb configurations are available now. Systems in 4 Gb configurations can be ordered starting today and are expected to be available through Avid's worldwide reseller channel on June 10, 2005.
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