Avid Media Composer proxy workflow

Avid Media Composer is strict about where media lives. It reads managed MXF from the Avid MediaFiles/MXF/1 hierarchy, and it links camera files through AMA with Link to AMA File(s), where you have to pick the exact plugin for your source format. Many editors then transcode those AMA links to a lighter DNxHR resolution so the timeline plays back smoothly. The weak point is the link: when a drive letter or mount point changes, AMA links break and clips go offline, and a manual proxy folder that does not match what Avid expects makes it worse. On a long project that is a lot of relinking instead of cutting.

Sanbila gives Avid the layout it wants. Your originals upload to cloud storage on import with a redundant backup copy, the DNxHR LB proxy is encoded on the Sanbila cloud rather than on your workstation, and Sanbila can lay the proxies out in the exact Avid MediaFiles/MXF/1 structure so Media Composer picks them up without a manual AMA hunt. You cut on the light DNxHR proxy at a 1/4 playback resolution, and your CPU is free because nothing transcodes locally.

Avid does not keep a Premiere-style native proxy attach, so for the finish Sanbila uses Smart Relink. You export an AAF of your sequence, point Smart Relink at it, and it switches the clips used in the timeline back to the full resolution originals, streamed on demand from the cloud via a local mount. In Media Composer 2022.10 and later the relink controls moved into the Managed Media and Linked Media dialogs, so check there if an older guide points you elsewhere. It works without an Avid Nexis or Interplay server, and because the originals live in the cloud, a drive remap no longer takes your media offline.