The University of Washington’s School of Oceanography used Blackmagic Design’s ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher, Micro Videohub and OpenGear Converter Audio to SDI products as part of the ocean going VISIONS ’11 Expedition.
The university relied on the Blackmagic Design products to capture, route and stream footage from the ocean floor, 400 kilometers offshore, back to the school and online and it did it, says a university official. The expedition was “a day and a half from land at maximum speed, so the equipment had to work,” said Ed McNichol, the university’s technical video project manager.
VISIONS '11, a cooperative effort between the University of Washington and the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative, commenced on Aug. 11 in Seattle, Washington, aboard the 274 foot Research Vessel Thomas G. Thompson. The purpose of the expedition was to continue to prepare for, survey and assess the ongoing installation of the initiative’s high power and high bandwidth cabled ocean observatory.
The university provided VISIONS ’11 with technical support for video operations and management of a number of cameras on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Blackmagic’s ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher was the only switcher on the expedition and had a significant role, the company says. The switcher’s ability to feed multiple sources of footage from the numerous cameras located on the ocean floor was an incredibly important feature instrumental in streaming video out over satellite, the firm adds.
The University also used the Blackmagic Design’s Micro Videohub to handle all VISIONS ’11 routing needs for the network, which included routing footage from HD underwater and Pan/Tilt/Zoom cameras on the Thompson. Also included in the workflow were Blackmagic Design’s OpenGear Converters, which were used to embed audio for both scientific recording and satellite streaming.
“The Blackmagic Design products have proven to be incredibly reliable, and we were able to trust the ATEM Switcher, which fit seamlessly into our workflow and budget, to handle anything we needed it to,” McNichol said.
-- Government Video
