Adobe Anywhere revealed
Adobe has announced Adobe Anywhere, a new collaborative platform for performing video editing and related content creation tasks remotely. At the heart of the system is the Collaboration Hub which allows remote users to work together using centralised media and assets across any network, coupled with the Mercury Streaming Engine, which allows the connected users to access and work directly with media stored on the central server, rather than proxies. With a ‘reveal’ planned for IBC 2012 in Amsterdam, the platform is expected to be available for sale in 2013.
During a briefing prior to the announcement, Bill Roberts, director of product management for Adobe’s professional video team, explained that the Adobe Anywhere platform would initially work seamlessly and remotely with the tools in Adobe Production Premium, such as Premiere Pro, After Effects and Adobe Prelude. He demonstrated this ability with some impressive remote editing from his MacBook Pro in Canada, working in real-time collaboration with a colleague in Seattle and both using media based on a server in San Jose.
Roberts also explained how the Adobe Anywhere platform differs from thin client editing systems which work with remote media through a Web browser. “By integrating with our applications, you can not only work with remote media on the server, but you can also work with local media,” he explained. “The system is intelligent enough that if I start working with a local clip, it will start moving that clip up to the server in the background, based on my usage. ”
Roberts further explained that Adobe Anywhere was intended as an open system with data and resources available via a backend RESTful API and uses standard hardware, networks and processes. “We think that the segments that will use this the most are broadcasters, postproduction and education,” Roberts added. “It allows you to build teams based on talent, not location.”
Roberts also revealed that Adobe has been working with pre-release customers in a closed NDA for two years, including some major broadcasters such as CNN.
“As a global news organisation with journalists all over the world publishing to multiple platforms, we need a streamlined post production solution,” said Michael Koetter, vice president of News Technology Planning and Development, CNN. “We have a strong relationship with Adobe that includes utilising Adobe Premiere Pro for editing hundreds of pieces daily. We are also participating in a pilot of Adobe Anywhere and hope it will be a tool that simplifies the way CNN journalists work in the future.”
Adobe Anywhere is able to operate on existing hardware and network infrastructures, so reducing the need for additional capital expenditure and resources, according to Adobe. It also works with existing media asset management (MAM) and other workflow systems. “Virtually all of our existing pre-release customer sits have different bespoke MAM solutions,” said Roberts. “ We’ve been integrating successfully with them as well. What they’re able to do is maintain their existing ingest and logging workflows and just add this system into the workflow.”
He added: “We’re very proud to be able to bring it out to the public and look forward to the response.”
Roberts hinted that IBC 2012 would see announcements concerning around a dozen MAM solutions that could now be integrated into Premiere Pro. A later Adobe press release confirmed this by announcing new partnerships with MAM and graphics vendors in broadcast news and sports – such as Chyron, Dalet, EVS and Vizrt
Find out more about the reveal of Adobe Anywhere at http://tv.adobe.com/show/adobe-anywhere/
