Boards: What will be the main emphasis of the company at NAB (in the area or areas that have relevance to the commercial production industry)

Krall: Our major theme is "Make Manage Move Media," and that is a big change for Avid. Avid has moved from the story of tools for storytellers, which I think really was the defining phrase for what we were doing in the '90s -- revolutionizing the way media could be created digitally. What we see happening in 2001 and beyond is the need to not just stop there. Media can stay in a digital format and never actually go to tape, so we want to lead the change in creating and delivering complete end-to-end digital production capability.

Boards: How is the company addressing the increasing availability of lower-cost video solutions:

Krall: We have new low-cost products we're rolling out; they're in beta now and we'll be shipping them at the time of NAB. It will allow us to deliver a solution for people who might otherwise have chosen [Apple] Final Cut Pro. They will now have the choice of an offering from Avid which will not only give them the user interface they are comfortable with, but also give them the ability to integrate that into the entire Avid workflow. We've announced before it will be available for under US$1,700. The Avid on laptop solution is a software-only version of XpressDV. What it means is that now, for example, if you want to buy a low-cost editor from Avid, you'll need to buy one of the two turnkey offerings we have. But what we want to do is broaden the base of machines we support by using a software-only version that complies with a certain standard for FireWire Interconnect. It will allow people to acquire their media digitally, use a FireWire Port for the connection and then just load our software onto the system and get everything they need. And the beauty of that is that it extends to laptops. The beauty of the mobility is wonderful, and the fact that it is the same user interface and a compatible metadata with the rest of the Avid production toolflow that lets people, in essence work offline and then come back and continue what they were doing at the office.

Boards: Last year Avid addressed the AICE meeting at NAB. What do you anticipate will be their concerns and how would you answer those?

Krall: One is the way we're embracing the Internet, which I think is affecting everyone. I think if there's any lesson that various companies and investors learned in the year 2000, it is how to cope with the Internet. We've all seen the rise and fall of a lot of Internet companies. I think what's happening now is a much more even-handed approach towards the Internet -- it's not going to cure the world's problems, but nevertheless there are some great things it's going to do for us. One of them is around geographically distributed content creation, and that applies to commercial production as well as anything else. You can create content in a globally distributed fashion, and use things like (Avid's) Online Review and Approval for going through the production process. So at NAB you will see us with that complete workflow in a service format so that it's actually useable. It won't just be talk, it will be a service that's available. In addition, I think one thing that everyone has had to sort out over the year 2000 and for which we now have real solutions is how to distribute on the Internet. How do you take content and create it once but then just distribute it through whatever method is the right one for reaching your audience? We've seen Internet pure plays -- people who created companies that were solely intended to create content for the Internet. And that's actually been a tough business because it doesn't allow the company to leverage their media across all the other channels of distribution. The approach we've taken is letting our tools service whatever channel of distribution you want in order to leverage your investments and improve your odds of being financially viable. Another thing that came up during AICE was some interest in interactive TV. I had some people afterwards who really wanted to know what we were doing in that area. We will have some new things that are being developed all the way up to the wire along the path of interactive TV that I think will be pretty exciting for folks from AICE, for example.

Avid ProNet is the portal we've created for professional content creators. The first thing we did last year was create a site that delivered content and community to the Avid user base. What we are doing on a steady basis is enhancing that with features and capabilities that are going to make the production process faster, more efficient and more cost-effective. The first specific service we're rolling out will be the online review and approval, which is in beta right now. In fact, if you had a chance to take a look at the Web site, they have a workflow diagram showing exactly how the process will work. It's really neat. It shows you how you're going to be able to get things done a lot faster than the old process of putting a tape in FedEx.