The new Avid Media Composer 2020.4 is now shipping.

As we continue our social distancing coverage of things that would have been introduced at NAB 2020 I sat down with Michael Krulik from Avid Technologies and he walked us through this deep dive of the brand new Avid Media Composer 2020.4. We got a great look at the new update in a recent Let’s Edit With Media Composer – What’s New In Media Composer 2020.4 here on PVC.

But I asked Michael if he would do a screen share demo with us and let me interrupt and ask questions. He thankfully obliged!

This new version of Media Composer builds upon what was released at NAB 2019. That included the first major refresh of the Media Composer interface in quite some time. Another big thing in these new updates is the development of the Avid Universal Media Engine (UME). This is the kind of under-the-hood change that lays the groundwork for future updates. UME also is what helps break the Avid reliance on Quicktime.

2020.4 is also the official update that supports MacOS Catalina.

Get all the details on macOS Catalina support in Media Composer 2020.4 — Now available
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▶️ https://t.co/j4gGzk9Lz7
⠀#avid #mediacomposer #videoediting #catalina #update #editingsoftware pic.twitter.com/DglYl8x5tf

— Avid (@Avid) April 27, 2020

And it’s worth reminding here that if you don’t know Avid at all they have a suite of free versions called |First that are great for training as they are very close to the full versions. If you learn Media Composer | First then you’ll be able to sit down at a full install and go to work. Apparently, they have had a lot of downloads.

Aspiring creative people around the globe have downloaded Avid’s family of free First products more than two million times

▶️ https://t.co/BlhxSapcRP
⠀#avid #free #musicmaking #notation #videoediting #protools #mediacomposer #sibelius pic.twitter.com/rgxiLWkCUN

— Avid (@Avid) April 27, 2020