Blackmagic Design Announces UltraStudio Express with Thunderbolt Technology

NAB 2012, Las Vegas, USA - April 16, 2012 - Blackmagic Design today announced UltraStudio Express, a new capture and playback solution featuring 3 Gb/s SDI, HDMI and analog connections with high-speed Thunderbolt technology. UltraStudio Express is extremely portable, as the compact design is powered by its Thunderbolt connection and can be operated from a computer's battery or power source. UltraStudio Express supports all common SD/HD formats for incredible quality video up to 1080p60, connects to virtually all consumer and professional equipment and is available early Q2 for only US$495.

UltraStudio Express will be demonstrated on the Blackmagic Design NAB 2012 booth at #SL220.

UltraStudio Express features an attractive machined aluminum design that looks great on your desk. Its also compact and durable. That means you take it on location for uncompressed and compressed capture and playback in the highest 10 bit SD/HD quality. It features the largest choice of connections of any capture and playback solution with the flexibility to connect all types of consumer and professional video and audio equipment.

3 Gb/s SDI and HDMI inputs and outputs are built-in to the sleek aluminum design and UltraStudio Express is supplied with two breakout cables that can be interchanged in seconds for connecting to all types of video and audio equipment. One breakout cable includes RCA connections for consumer equipment and the other breakout cable includes professional BNC and XLR connections, plus genlock and RS422 deck control for connecting to professional broadcast equipment. With two interchangeable breakout cables, UltraStudio Express can bridge the gap between consumer and broadcast video equipment.

With easy plug and play and incredibly fast transfer speeds of Thunderbolt technology, UltraStudio Express can be moved easily between computers and can capture from decks, cameras and live video sources, and output to monitors, projectors, media servers and more. This is perfect for editing, compositing, graphics production and unlimited broadcast and post production situations where the highest quality video and true versatility are demanded.

UltraStudio Express is fully compatible with Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, Avid Media Composer 6, Adobe After Effects CS6, Adobe Photoshop CS6 and more. Also included is Blackmagic Design's Media Express software.

"UltraStudio Express lets you work anywhere and connect to everything," said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. "Its compact aluminum design is small enough to take with you everywhere and with its new Thunderbolt port, you can simply plug into any Thunderbolt-enabled laptop or a desktop computer and start working. With such a large number of video and audio connections and support for high bandwidth formats up to 1080p60 this is one of the most advanced capture and playback solutions ever made!"

UltraStudio Express Key Features

-High speed Thunderbolt™ port for capture and playback.

-Built in 3 Gb/s SDI and HDMI connections, plus analog via included break out cables.

-Professional Breakout Cable: Analog component, S-Video, composite, AES/EBU digital audio and XLR analog audio, Black burst/Tri-Sync -reference input and RS-422 deck control.

-Consumer Breakout Cable: Analog component, AES/EBU output and analog audio with RCA connectors. Supports all common SD/HD video formats up to 1080p60.

-Uncompressed and compressed 10-bit 4:2:2 YUV quality. Supports Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, Avid Media Composer 6, Adobe After Effects CS6, Adobe Photoshop CS6 and more.

-Includes Blackmagic Media Express 3.

-Developer SDK available to download free.

Availability and Price

UltraStudio Express will be available early Q2 2012 for US$495 from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide.

Press Photography

Product photos of UltraStudio Express and all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagic-design.com/press/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world's highest quality video editing products, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design's DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, while the company's Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagic-design.com.

Thunderbolt and the Thunderbolt logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.