MediaCentral is a feature-rich solution. Every release brings new MediaCentral features or enhances existing functionality. At times it can be hard to select the most significant development. When dozens of new capabilities are added, deciding which one brings the most benefits to users can be tricky to answer.
With MediaCentral 2024.2, while there are many new capabilities, there is no doubt which is the standout feature that will improve the experience of so many users: the introduction of audio waveforms to the edit timeline.
Waveforms in a sequence with four audio tracks in MediaCentral | Cloud UX
Editing audio in MediaCentral | Cloud UX has always been available. Going forward and back, frame by frame, through tapping the keyboard left and right arrows, or using the mouse can be done, with audio scrub enabled so you hear each audio frame in turn. You can also use the keyboard combination of K plus L to scrub forward at quarter speed or K plus J to scrub backward at quarter speed.
But the visual element of drawn waveforms on the audio tracks has, until now, not been possible. All of this changes from the 2024.2 feature release. The existing ways of audio editing are still available, but there is no question that enabling the drawing of waveforms will improve the audio editing experience overall.
Users can choose to enable the waveforms or not. Tracked text can be turned off to make the waveforms stand out, and users can zoom in on the timeline to be even more accurate with their frame selection.
Now you may think, from the way I am writing, that this is the ONLY significant feature in the release, but no, there are a few other gems worthy of your attention.
Improving the user experience and speeding up production processes is a constant demand for our development teams, so introducing the ability to right click and search directly in a folder while using the Browse app will be a big timesaving feature. Users can now get to the footage they need much quicker, and the feature will be very familiar to those coming from using Interplay Assist or MediaCentral UX, making it easier to transition to the latest release.
The search in folder option, available from within the Browse app
Also supporting users in migrating workflows to the web-based MediaCentral | Cloud UX from the traditional iNEWS client, are new functions in the Rundown app. Printing stories or the view of a rundown can now be completed. Plus, something very important from a usability perspective, is the ability to increase or decrease the font size in a story in a rundown to make it more easily readable. Wire stories now display priority colouring, and wire stories which have been read are also more obvious.
The new print dialogue option, available through the Rundown app
And finally in the list of new MediaCentral features is this gem. Users can create subclips by just dragging and dropping into a folder in MediaCentral | Production Management. This extends the existing functionality to save subclips directly to a default folder set by users, a big timesaver.
Remember that new MediaCentral features build on an already in-depth, feature-rich solution which spans the end-to-end requirements of newsrooms – from planning and ingest to project tracking, editing, collaboration, studio playout, and social media and online distribution.
Don’t just check out what’s new, why not dive in to discover the art of the possible with MediaCentral.
Learn more about the new MediaCentral features
The “Interplay” name is used with the permission of Interplay Entertainment Corp., which bears no responsibility for Avid products.
