Avid brings Gemini to Media Composer to add shot descriptions to clips

Avid released Ready to Play, an AI extension for its Media Composer video editor, on November 10. It can send selected clips to Google Gemini for analysis and attach the resulting descriptions to the clips after an editor reviews them. Editors can use those descriptions to find footage from a shoot where the team has yet to log individual shots.

The extension also generates video and makes revised versions of existing shots. Both return as separate clips in the editing project. Avid includes the extension at no extra charge for Media Composer Ultimate and Enterprise customers on version 2026.8 or later. An eligible Google Cloud account with billing enabled is required, and Google charges for model usage.

Descriptions stay with the clips

The analysis feature can work on one or more clips the editor selects. Avid’s guide says it uses the visual contents of the footage to produce a description. The editor can add instructions about what to look for. Avid points to unlogged footage as one use for the feature, since editors and assistants can add information that helps them organize a set of clips and locate material within it.

When the descriptions return, the editor can review them before adding them to the clip metadata, the information stored alongside a video clip. Avid says the analysis adds descriptive information to the master clip without replacing existing metadata or changing the source video. An editor can refer to that new information while reviewing the clip in the project.

A changed shot comes back as a new clip

Create Video can make a clip from a written request or a still image. Avid describes it as a way to put temporary footage in an edit while waiting for a shot, or to give a visual effects team a reference for discussion. The result goes into a bin chosen by the editor. A bin is where a Media Composer project groups and displays clips. Avid’s guide says generated media can be imported or linked, depending on the workflow.

Modify Video starts with existing footage. Avid gives removing a boom microphone as an example of a change an editor can request. The current release takes one clip at a time, up to 10 seconds, from an uploaded file or from a range marked on the editing timeline. It returns the changed version as a separate asset, leaving the original available for comparison. A bin column shows AI attributes for identifying clips made with the extension. The editor decides whether to add a result to the sequence.

Google Cloud processes the selected media

Ready to Play is installed separately from Media Composer and needs internet access to Google services. According to Avid’s FAQ, a clip sent for analysis or used as a reference is first copied to a temporary folder and then uploaded to a Google Cloud project belonging to the user’s account. The local temporary copy is removed after processing. Avid says its servers are outside that transfer path. Google’s terms for the connected account and service govern its handling of the material. The extension requires access to Google’s services from the edit workstation. Avid’s guide places responsibility for checking the workflow against a production’s media-handling policies on the organization that deploys it.

Avid says the extension uses Google’s Gemini family and the Veo video model. Available models depend on the account and the services Google offers in the region. Media Composer Standard and the free Media Composer First edition are outside the supported tiers. Avid handles installation and Media Composer integration support. Google handles questions about the account and billing. The launch announcement gave no fixed price per clip analyzed or generated.