Avid signs Google Cloud AI deal
Avid has signed a multi‑year agreement with Google Cloud to add AI features into professional editing tools including Media Composer and Pro Tools. The announcement positions AI inside established post‑production workflows rather than as standalone experimentation. (latimes.com)
Avid signed a multi-year deal with Google Cloud on April 16 to build artificial intelligence features into Media Composer and other production software. (avid.com) The companies said Google’s Gemini models and Vertex AI will be embedded in Media Composer and Avid Content Core, Avid’s new cloud-based media platform. They said the tools will automate tasks such as searching footage, logging metadata, matching visual styles and identifying emotional cues in raw video. (avid.com) Avid announced the partnership ahead of the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas, which opens April 18. Deadline reported both companies planned a significant presence there as they pitch the system to broadcasters and studios. (deadline.com) Media Composer is Avid’s long-running non-linear editing system for film and television, and Pro Tools is its audio production platform for music and post-production. Avid said Content Core is now generally available as a software-as-a-service product that acts as a central data layer for media assets. (avid.com 1) (avid.com 2) Avid has been adding artificial intelligence to its tools before this deal. In July 2024, it released Media Composer 2024.6 with a transcript tool that let editors jump to spoken phrases and cut directly from text into the timeline. (avid.com) The Google partnership shifts that work from single features to a broader system tied to cloud storage, search and automation. Avid said natural-language queries will let teams ask for clips in plain English instead of relying only on manual tags and folder structures. (avid.com) Google Cloud has been selling similar archive-search tools to media companies including Gray Media, Major League Baseball and NBCUniversal, according to Deadline’s summary of the company’s recent customer examples. The pitch is that large video libraries can be tagged and searched faster, making older footage easier to reuse. (deadline.com) Avid Chief Executive Wellford Dillard said customers want “intelligent tools” that fit existing workflows, not separate software. That framing puts the new features inside editing systems that are already standard in film, television and audio post-production. (avid.com)
