Avid DS is a heavy-duty finishing tool, for concentrating on full-res high quality compositing,effects and formatting. It was originally developed by Softimage, and whilst there have been efforts to make it more Avid-like it remains vastly different because it is so much more sophisticated.
It is highly likely that you could jump on and be simple cutting in the timeline quite quickly, but you wouldn’t be in the least bit comfortable.It also sounds a bit odd that someone wants you to cut on one,simply because it’s an expensive box that needs high rates to pay off. (I have been lucky enough to be able to cut short items full res on DS however and it is just excellent.)
Good luck !
William Watts.
Regards,
Will.
(freelance editor,Brighton,U.K.)