10 New Partners in Adobe's OpenHD Alliance

by James Murray
Published on Jan 18, 2006 3:00 PM



January 18th, 2006 - Just a day after the unveiling of the new Adobe Production Studio, Adobe Systems Incorporated has today announced the expansion of their Adobe OpenHD alliance. This alliance was formed in April of 2005, and was a concerted effort by Adobe, Dell, HP, Intel, and Microsoft to provide certified and integrated end-to-end solutions for Windows-based HD editing platforms working with HDV, SD, and HD formats. Along with the release of the new Adobe Production Studio, which includes new versions of Adobe After Effects, Premiere, DVD Encore, Audition, the latest versions of Photoshop and Illustrator, Adobe and its allies are looking to create a strong presence for themselves within the postproduction HD editing and production market.

As part of this expansion, Adobe is now providing integration with ten new manufacturing companies that produce capture cards, graphics, video accelerators, audio tools, and data storage. The original line-up began with Adobe, Dell, HP, Intel, and Microsoft. The new list of companies includes: AJA, AMD, Blackmagic, Bluefish, CineForm, Focusrite, Huge/Ciprico, Matrox, NVIDIA, and Rorke. These new alliances have allowed Adobe to create seven new turnkey systems for the support of HDV to real-time compressed and uncompressed HD. This, Adobe’s press release states, will provide users with the scalability and reliability which is needed when working with HDV, SD, and HD workflows. So as to prove its word, the new Adobe Production Studio was tested with the capture cards and software configurations of all the alliance partners to ensure performance and reliability.

This conscious effort to create a more fluid workflow structure and visual palette is something emphasized throughout all of the releases made by Adobe Systems Incorporated yesterday and today.

“The new turnkey HD systems provide solutions to address the needs of creatives and videographers up to the largest postproduction houses. With each milestone we reach and each new partner that comes aboard, the Adobe OpenHD alliance is making HD technology more affordable and accessible to a wider audience of creative professionals,” said to Jim Guerard, vice president of Web and Video products for Adobe.

Prices for these new turnkey systems vary greatly. The least expensive option is the HP 4300, starting at a retail price of $5800. At the higher end of the price range, the HP xw9300 Dual Core-Matrox Axio has a retail price starting at $25,000. This price does not include the Rorke 14-bay MaxArray. Add-ons and modifications may be made to this and all the systems announced today. The first round of new systems will be available for shipment starting on February 1, 2006.