Pro Tools Support Added to Sony's DADR-5000

To address the demands of leading film and television post-production facilities, Sony announced that Sony's Advanced Digital Systems Group, developer of the DADR-5000 digital audio disk recorder, has signed a licensing agreement with Digidesign to permit support of plug and play compatibility with Pro Tools audio files for the DADR-5000. ProTools products are manufactured by Digidesign, a division of Avid Technology, Inc. The agreement with Digidesign will provide a foundation to allow Sony DADR-5000 users to simply 'plug and play' disks containing ProTools digital audio editorial tracks without format conversion, real-time transfer or generation loss.

"This collaboration with Digidesign strengthens the capabilities of the DADR-5000 and demonstrates our commitment to offering the flexibility that facilities need in an evolving digital environment." said Courtney Spencer, vice president of professional audio products for Sony Electronics' Broadcast and Professional Company.

"We are very excited to be partnering with Sony and supporting the new DADR-5000 in its compatibility with ProTools," remarked Ed Gray, manager of Digidesign's Third Party Developer Program. "Now users will work with confidence that content exchanges between Pro Tools and the DADR-5000 are robust, as both of our companies work towards open and widely supported interchange standards."

Two hundred DADR-5000 units are already in use at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, supporting both feature film and television dubbing stages. An entire season of 1998/99 television shows, such as Party of Five, Early Edition, The Net and VIP and major feature films such as Columbia Pictures' Crazy in Alabama and Big Daddy have been mixed using a DADR-5000 network of units.

"Seamless integration between our digital editing and dubbing is vital to our overall efficiency and we are delighted that Sony and Digidesign will be giving us this capability," said Gerry Humphreys, Academy-Award nominated re-recording mixer and managing director of UK-based Twickenham Studios. "This agreement seals our order for 26 DADR-5000 units." Twickenham Studios' sound department has been the European betasite for the DADR-5000.

The Sony DADR-5000 Digital Audio Disk Recorder, designed by the Sony's Advanced Digital Systems Group, is a digital alternative for the analog magnetic film dubber, and is a 16-channel recorder for selectable 16, 20 or 24-bit uncompressed digital processing. Designed to network without external synchronization, the DADR-5000 provides unique user interface capabilities. Pro Tools is the leading DAW (digital audio workstation) for the music and postproduction industry. It is manufactured by Digidesign, a division of Avid, and provides advanced 24-bit audio production and digital mixing functionality for Macintosh and Windows NT platforms. The Pro Tools/24, Pro Tools/24 Mix and Pro Tools/24 Mix Plus systems integrate professional recording and editing functions with world-class, automated mixing, real-time DSP processing, and mastering functionality. The system can process up to 64 simultaneous audio tracks in a TDM-based mixing environment and supports ProControl with DigiFaders for traditional console operations and tactile adjustments to system settings.