MIAMI & PARIS —As the Paris Olympics games head into their final weekend, much of the tech talk has been about the use of AI technologies in the production of the games. But the games have also seen notable advances in a number of other areas, including virtual reality technologies and remote production solutions that have played an important role Telemundo’s Spanish-language coverage. 

During this year’s coverage, Telemundo’s main studio has been a photorealistic virtual set in Miami that looks like it is in the Trocadero, offering a stunning view of the Eiffel Tower. This technology, which was used successfully in previous events like the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and FIFA World Cups and developed in-house, has seen further improvements for the Paris Games and has allowed Telemundo to cover the Olympics with talent based out of its Studio L in its Miami headquarters. 

"For the Paris 2024 Olympics, we wanted to have the best possible spot in Paris, right in front of the Eiffel Tower,” explained Fabian Albaraccin, director real-time graphics at Telemundo. “We know that securing such a location is nearly impossible, so we recreated `Trocadéro Square’ with a stunning view of the Eiffel Tower and the city. “To accomplish this, we began working four months ago to ensure we could showcase the City of Light in all its splendor. We paid close attention to every detail to present a beautiful set to our audience.”

The virtual set, which was developed in-house by the Set Fabrication and Real-Time Graphics teams, combines green screen studios, physical scenic pieces, advanced camera tracking, and computer-generated graphics. The result, Telemundo executives say, creates an immersive Parisian experience without the high costs and weather concerns of on-location production. Real-time adjustable lighting and weather, along with augmented reality graphics also enhance Telemundo’s storytelling.

For graphics, the setup uses four cameras, the Stype/RedSpy tracking systems, the Blackmagic/Ultimatte chroma keyer, and is powered by Epic Games/Unreal Engine 5.3 and Chyron/Prime VSAR for graphics. 

Manashi Mukherjee, vice president of technical production at Telemundo explained that the set is located in Studio L, which is on the south side of the building where the larger soundstages are located. 

“We normally shoot our series in the studios on that side of the building along with special productions such as our recent `Billboard: Women in Music awards show,'” Mukherjee said. “On a regular production week, Jose Diaz-Balart’s 11am MSNBC show on weekdays and on `Saturdays for Nightly News' on NBC also originate in the virtual studio. During football season, we have Telemundo’s `Sunday Night Football' production as well in Studio L. For the Paris Olympics, we have been using Studio L seven days a week live on-air for Telemundo’s coverage.” 

“Universo, our sister network, is using the regular Sports (“Deportes”) Studio A which is also airing simultaneously from TC,” Mukherjee added. 

Wally Rodriguez, vice president of post-production noted that “we’ve had a dedicated studio for virtual production for almost five years, which makes it easy for both the technical operations team and the sports team because they have been using the set for a while now. Our camera operators, lighting personnel, audio technicians, producers, directors, anchors, and others are all familiar with the equipment and virtual production processes for day-to-day on-air operations. The use of moving lights allows the team to reset and use several various setups without moving any physical instruments.”

While the solution has been relatively easy to use, it did have to be adapted for broadcast. 

“Since Unreal Engine is a gaming software, we need to adapt it for broadcast purposes,” explained Albaraccin. “We are working closely with Chyron to provide a tailor-made solution that ensures Unreal Engine is stable and fully integrated with our state-of-the-art facility. Additionally, we create custom panels to manipulate Unreal Engine while we are on air. Because this is not originally a broadcast solution, we must bridge the gaps and create our own workflows. Using these panels hides the technicalities of creating and triggering the graphics for the shows so that producers can focus on content. Collaboration is key in these types of projects, and while our team handled the technology, we worked with Deportes producers and the Telemundo Scenic design team to ensure that the creative vision was met.”

The result has been an extremely realistic presentation that has greatly enhanced their coverage, Mukherjee said. 

“The virtual set has allowed us to showcase a much larger space than we would have used in Paris,” Mukherjee added. “The technology makes it possible to feel like the talent are there. The team has fine-tuned miniature details to give it a photo-realistic look that hasn’t really been used for broadcast television yet. The use of the Unreal engine makes it so that small details such as wind in the trees, cars in the background and even people walking around in the Eiffel Tower, can be used to make it feel realistic. The crew and the talent almost forget they’re on a green screen set, because they are looking at the composited images. Camera operators are moving the jib in the same way they would if they were in Paris. Advantages are lower costs for labor and materials than a regular set, sustainability, lots of flexibility in framing for example, we can move the set, instead of moving a camera and the ability to create a scene without being limited by the cost of materials or physical studio space.”

The set has also proved to be adaptable for a variety of events, in part, because it is relatively easy to train staff. “It was rather straight-forward to train the teams as most positions continued working the way they are used to as we have been using this space for about five years now,” Mukherjee said. “Camera operators, directors, producers, and talent see the shots with fully rendered backgrounds, so they don’t have to imagine what a shot will look like when they’re just looking at green screens.”

That will also help Telemundo in the runup to the 2024 elections and for other events. 

"We have a special that will be filmed in the studio after the Olympics wraps, and then outside of the normal news and sports production, we will be incorporating this studio into the upcoming election coverage,” Mukherjee said. “We haven’t seen the final graphics plan yet, but there will be a virtual component in play.”

Missed any of our product news this week? Here is our new weekly wrap-up of new products, services and deployments we published in our newsletter between June 3 and June 7. The stories are listed from the newest on Friday June 7, day by day back to our stories from Monday June 3. 

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Touted by Blackmagic as “The world’s smallest Ultra HD broadcast camera”, the Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 has a 4096 x 2160 sensor that comprises most of the unit’s miniscule bulk. Featuring an active micro four-thirds mount, HDMI and 12G-SDI outputs, this AC or DC micro camera will fit almost anywhere and still deliver stunning ultra-high-definition images. Used in both live, location, or studio productions the Micro Studio Camera will more than pull its weight.

Features
The 3.3 x 2.6 x 2.74 inch, eleven-ounce camera truly fits in the palm of your hand. Using the same 17.78 x 10mm CMOS low light sensor as Blackmagic’s Studio Camera 4K Plus G2, this micro four-thirds camera accepts the active MFT mount (which allows remote lens adjustment) and may be adapted to accept other lenses. 

Most importantly, this tiny camera still outputs 10-bit 4:2:2 images to a switcher or other source using its 12G-SDI or HDMI cables. Remote functionality allows control of its internal color corrector (or RAW capabilities if using a USB connection), tally light and talkback, and a thirteen stop Dynamic Range.

The “magic” is contained in the low light sensor with ISO capabilities from 100 to 25,600 with a dual native 400 ISO (0db gain) and 3200 ISO (+18db gain). Video may be output and/or recorded at: 23.98, 24, 29.97, 30, 59.94, and 60 fps in 3840 x 2160 in ProRes or DNxHD and the same frame rates in high definition’s 1920 x 1080. RAW recording also uses the same frame rates at 26 to 190 megabytes per second.

The front of the camera features a tiny red/green tally light above the lens mount. Flanking the tally light are two microphones—one on the left and one on the right. Facing the camera on the left are the menu button, up and down toggle buttons, the set, and power button. On the same side, directly behind is the full-size HDMI camera out, USB-C expansion slot for recording to an external drive or addition zoom and focus capabilities. On the bottom is a twelve-volt DC power adapter input.

On the right side is the 3.5mm microphone audio input, the 12G-SDI camera video and audio output and the 12G-SDI camera control and genlock input. The rear of the camera has space for an optional battery.

In Use
Wanting to add a fourth camera to our university’s TV Studio, I looked forward to the arrival of the Blackmagic Micro Studio camera. Using an Olympus 12 – 40mm F2.8 Zuiko Digital lens, the addition of this glass instantly tripled the weight of combo.

The first test was to attach the Micro Studio Camera to our Roland V-60 HD switcher. Using an HDMI cable from the camera to the switcher, I immediately had an image as input five on the switcher. Across the top of the monitor screen was displayed all of the pertinent information. 

Pressing the menu button brought up: Record (Codec, Resolution, Dynamic Range, Framerate, Time-lapse, Detail Sharpening, Drop Frame, Color); Monitor (Clean Feed – this switched off the displayed information of the HDMI feed, Display 3D Lut, Zebra); Audio (Ch1 and Ch2 Source and Level); Storage (Media 1, Format Media); Setup (Name, Language, Software, Hardware); LUTS (Gen 5 Film to Extended Video, to Rec 2020 Hybrid, to Rec 2020 PQ, to Video); Presets (Create, Update, Report); and Slate (Slate for, Reel Number, Scene Number). Having total control of the image was just like using the remote paint system of our three-studio camera.

The three other cameras in our studio had 1080p 2/3 inch CMOS sensors with remote paint and iris capabilities. I needed to adjust the settings on the Micro camera to better match our older $75,000 studio cameras. 

Another reason new technology is so exciting is that I can match a palm-sized camera’s image with a twenty plus pound, pedestal mounted camera from ten years ago, and no one can tell the difference—we now had four matching cameras. Obviously, the Blackmagic camera could do much more at a fraction of the price.

My students needed to complete a live, in-studio interview project. With the traditional interview set-up – camera one was on the Interviewer, camera two on a wide two shot, and camera three focused on the Interviewee—everything was covered. 

We added the Micro as a fourth camera mounted on the top of the set looking down on the action as well as the three cameras in action—we now had a more modern approach/view of a traditional studio with a bird’s eye view shot of the studio in action. Most TV studios always switch to an overview shot like this before going to commercial. The students appreciated their cameos as we showed a functioning TV studio in action.

The next scenario was to have the Micro G2 operate on a remote shoot at a basketball game. The purpose was to record the action of the entire game in a wide shot for both archival and training purposes. Not having a battery wasn’t an issue because the camera was mounted on a tripod high in the bleachers next to an AC source. Using the internal stereo microphones as our audio feed and recording to a Blackmagic approved SSD via the USC-C output, the 59.98fps Ultra HD event looked flawless.

We didn’t even scratch the surface of what the Micro G2 camera could do – RAW recording for editing, color correcting using the LUTS, etc. We really got used to having this tiny friend at our disposal and we’re looking forward to adding a few to our arsenal. 

Application
Any situation where a 4K camera is necessary including live studio or location shoots.

Key Features
Portability, AC or DC operation, live or recording capable, high quality sensor, great price, and the Blackmagic Design name you can trust.  

Price
Blackmagic Design Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 – MSRP - $995.00

Contact
Blackmagic Design
2875 Bayview Drive
Fremont, CA 94538
Phone: 408 954-0500  

Website: www.blackmagicdesign.com/ 

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design has unveiled its Blackmagic Camera 7.7 update, which enhances sensor performance for Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K.

The update offers fine adjustments to the sensor’s unique demosaic algorithm, enabling a more neutral color balance and providing enhanced sharpness of shadow details for better overall image quality, the company said.

The Blackmagic Camera 7.7 update is now available as a free download from the Blackmagic Design website.

The update optimizes the 12K sensor by improving the clarity of fine detail in shadow regions. It also provides a more neutral color balance with a more accurate starting point for better skin tones, while still retaining the natural soft highlight rolloff of film.

The incidence of moire also has been reduced when capturing ultra-high-resolution scenes with very high frequency fabrics or architectural textures.

“The images have that creamy but detailed film look that is so pleasant and also reach well into the highlights and shadows. There are no artifacts which is really important for my work,” said Christian Sebaldt, ASC, who tested a beta of the update. “And skin tones always look natural, and to me these are features of a $40,000 camera.”

Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K uses a 12,288 x 6480 12K Super 35 sensor and offers 14 stops of dynamic range, built into the URSA Mini body. The combination of 80 megapixels per frame, new color science and the flexibility of Blackmagic RAW makes working with 12K a reality. 

Oversampling from 12K delivers 8K and 4K images with the subtle skin tones and detail of high end still cameras. The camera can deliver 60 fps in 12K, 120 fps in 8K and up to 240 fps in 4K Super 16. URSA Mini Pro 12K features an interchangeable PL mount, as well as built in ND filters, dual CFast and UHS-II SD card recorders and a SuperSpeed USB-C expansion port. DaVinci Resolve Studio is included.

The update also offers improved color balance, improved USB-C connection and improved compatibility with ExAscend U.2 disks on URSA Mini Recorder.

More information is available on the company’s website.

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design has announced that HiViz LED Lighting is building a new production studio using Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro and Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Plus live production cameras. 

The lighting technology company is also using an ATEM Mini Extreme ISO live production switcher for multi camera switching and live editing as it develops original content for the fire and emergency service industries.

Founded by Sam Massa, an active North Carolina firefighter, EMT and HAZMAT technician, HiViz LED Lighting manufactures lighting equipment used in the fire and emergency services space, ranging from LED scene lighting to brow lights for emergency vehicles. Massa started the company in 2010 to help first responders work more safely and effectively after dark.

Massa explained that "due to the nature of our products, we’re constantly shooting near very bright flashing LED lights in dark environments, so the new Studios Cameras’ dynamic range and color science are crucial for our extreme lighting conditions. Also, since we need to show off our lights and their visibility during the day and at night, having the Studio Cameras’ exceptional low light performance is a must for us.”

Massa recently started building out his production studio where he and his team will create original content, including podcasts, panel interviews, how-to videos and more, for their social media and YouTube channel, HiVizLEDS. 

With plans to shoot both in studio and on location, Massa selected a Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro for its professional XLR audio and 12G-SDI, which will come in handy for outside live events where there’s a significant distance between the camera and the ATEM Mini Extreme ISO, as well as two Blackmagic Studio Cameras 4K Plus.

For in-studio, multi camera switching and live editing, Massa is using an ATEM Mini Extreme ISO and DaVinci Resolve Studio.

“Along with quality, our workflow is built around speed, as we’re aiming to publish at least one video per week, as well as hosting twice daily video conferences with our customers,” Massa added. “The ATEM Mini Extreme ISO’s ability to create DaVinci Resolve project files is key to turning around content quickly. We’re able to record feeds from multiple cameras and get most of our edits done live, quickly adjusting any edits in post as needed.”

Massa decided to build the new studio around a Blackmagic Design workflow after he used a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K digital film camera to shoot trainings and video conferences as a way to connect with his customers in lieu of in person trade shows in 2020. He immediately recognized the impact video content could have for his business long term.

“Since we work with first responders, our customers have a lot of downtime in the fire stations to absorb content. We found that we could engage with our existing audience and reach new customers through innovative video content. Investing in more Blackmagic Design equipment has allowed us to increase the quality of our productions.

“We’re a small business, competing in a market where there’s larger, more established competitors,” Massa concluded. “With our Blackmagic Design gear, we’re differentiating and positioning ourselves as a leader in the space by reaching our customers and prospects with more professional content.”

NEW YORK CITY—When my longtime friends Mike Stroud and Agustin White from the band Kunzite asked me to create the music video for their single “Frosty,” I was in Oaxaca, Mexico. Listening to “Frosty” at the beach made me realize that the song was flowing nicely with the surfers and skaters I was surrounded by. Agustin’s partner and co-producer on the project, Mea Woodruff, had the same thought. Woodruff is from southern California and is friends with many talented female surfers and skaters, including GRLSWIRL, a women-founded inclusive skate collective empowering people around the world through skate.

We wanted the video to showcase the authentic personalities and skills of the female athletes. I was most interested in the unique movements each was capable of and matching that kinetic energy with different parts of the song. We simply wanted to have fun and try our best to keep up with these athletes. As part of that, we needed the right crew and gear. 

COMPACT & FLEXIBLE

We were joined by the legendary rollerblading camera operator Joey “Blades” Graziano, AC Jimmy Vargo and filmmaker Tristan Seniuk for help with post production. We used two Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K cameras, one lived on Joey’s Mōvi Pro, and I shot handheld or using an Easyrig with the other. A Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro also came in handy when shooting inside Venice Beach Skatepark, as we wanted to keep the camera as light and stripped down as possible. The camera’s compact form factor allowed us to be flexible, and its built-in ND filters were clutch, as it was easy to make quick adjustments to exposure without affecting aperture.

I wanted a bit of a retro, film-like look, so I mostly used my vintage lenses with heavy diffusion on the URSA Mini Pro 12Ks. Seniuk further dialed in this look with DaVinci Resolve Studio during grading. I’ve been a big fan of Blackmagic Design’s color science for many years, and this new generation of sensor is even better. The URSA Mini Pro 12K gives a nice film-like look, plus the camera comes with a PL mount, so I didn’t have to use any adapters for my lenses. Being able to use old Super 16mm glass while still shooting 4K or 6K was a big bonus.

SHOOTS 240FPS IN 4K

The URSA Mini Pro 12K’s resolutions and frame rates were equally as impressive. I utilized different frame rates and shot at higher resolutions, so we’d have freedom in post to reframe, crop and even add zooms. The song has many unique moments and change ups, so I wanted plenty of movement, angles and frame rates for variety. 

The URSA Mini Pro 12K shoots 240 fps in 4K, which is pretty insane. I captured some shots in 240 fps, which look beautiful, but Graziano and I mostly shot in 24, 48 and 60 fps, as we reserved super slow motion for key moments. Having a second or third camera was another benefit of using affordable cameras on an indie project. Working with the Blackmagic Design cameras allowed us to keep the budget down, while still achieving a very high-end cinematic look. 

Priest Fontaine Batten is an NYC-based director, DP and producer, and he owns and operates production company All In Favor Productions. Batten directs content for leading brands, such as Nike and Adidas, and frequently collaborates with artists, fashion designers and musicians on film projects. To learn more about All In Favor Productions, visit www.allinfavor.tv. 

For additional information, contact Blackmagic Design at 408-954-0500 or visit www.blackmagicdesign.com. 

DALLAS, Texas—Wooden Camera has announced that it is now shipping new kits and accessories for the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro. 

“The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro has an amazing form factor and incredible image quality at an impressive price point,” said Dominick Aiello, senior director of accessories at creative solutions at Wooden Camera. “We want to make camera operators’ lives easier by providing them with the best tools available to optimize their camera,” . 

Wooden Camera is offering individual accessory pieces starting at $99 as well as full kits starting at $847. Aiello goes on to say, “With our family of Wooden Camera accessories for the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro, you’ll be able to access the full potential of this new powerhouse camera without adding bulk to your rig.” 

Wooden Camera is part of The Vitec Group’s Creative Solutions division and are creators of professional camera support accessories for film and video production. Wooden Camera also has a retail location in Burbank, California, which serves the local film industry.

For a full range of Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro products - including accessory kits, visit  https://link.cs.inc/bmpcc6kpro-nowshipping.

FREMONT, Calif.—“Station 19,” the ABC Signature/Shondaland production that follows a group of firefighters from the Seattle Fire Department, relied on a Blackmagic Design Ursa Mini Pro 12K camera to capture a dramatic overhead angle for an episode called “Comfortably Numb.”

In the episode, the character Ben faces surgery. While on the operating table, the audience is brought into the experience with an Ursa Mini Pro 12K suspended over the actor to capture his fear and anxiety.

“We had three camera crews with our regular cameras on the ‘Station 19’ set,” said cinematographer Christian Sebaldt, ASC, “but I felt it was crucial to get an additional top angle for the editor, since visual effects were going to affect the scene quite heavily.” 

The overhead angle covered the main character's face as he laid on his back. “I didn't want to take one of the three other cameras shooting the multiple actors in the scene and lose coverage on them, but I felt the single on Ben was critical to the story.”

Sebaldt began using the original Blackmagic Design Cinema cameras in 2016 on the CBS TV series “Rush Hour.” Since then, he’s used various models, carrying many in his personal gear kit.

“With a huge amount of action in every episode, having two extra angles in addition to the three main cameras was absolutely crucial to deliver exciting sequences,” he added.

For “Comfortably Numb,” Sebaldt rigged the Ursa Mini Pro 12K above Ben’s face but framed the shot with ample room around him

“With such high-resolution imagery, I knew that we could push in on the shot in editorial and reframe if needed due to the high quality of the 12K image. A lock off with a moving actor was no worry for me,” he said.

While Sebaldt said he appreciates the quality of the 12K imagery, he also values its “clean image” and wide dynamic range with a lot of “natural detail and no artifacts.” 

“All Blackmagic cameras I have used over the years have rendered beautiful skin tones and deep detail for easy matching or manipulation in final color sessions,” he said.

More information is available on the Blackmagic Design website. 

LOS ANGELES—“Korn: Monumental, A Global Streaming Event” was shot in downtown Los Angeles at Stranger Things: The Drive-Into Experience. The immersive concert provided fans with an elevated, larger-than-life performance by the rock band Korn as they were filmed in front of several hundred feet of LED walls with the L.A. skyline behind them.

Korn is an incredible live band, and we had only one take to capture the live performance. For such a visually stunning and dynamic show, we used 12 Blackmagic Design cameras on set, along with a drone to capture the performance. Seven Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12Ks, one URSA Mini Pro G2s, one Pocket Cinema Camera 6Ks and three Pocket Cinema Camera 4Ks were situated on jibs, dollies and gimbals around the 200x50-foot rooftop stage. The range of cameras provided ultimate coverage, supporting the band as they delivered a stunning show.

MANAGING A LOT OF LOOKS

While the number of cameras helped properly capture Korn’s high-energy performance, it also meant a lot of lenses and cameras to match and monitor. To help manage this, we relied on Blackmagic RAW and several Video Assist 12G HDR monitor/recorders, both the 5-inch and 7-inch models. Shooting in Blackmagic RAW on every camera allowed us to capture the highest quality possible and make sure everything felt cohesive.

The Video Assist 12G HDR is a tool I know and trust, so it was used to monitor feeds when dialing levels. We also had its scopes and exposure assist turned on as another layer of reference. When it was go-time, we easily scrolled through and made sure all the cameras felt right.

When shooting, the monitor’s HDR screen is our last line of defense in ensuring we like the colors we capture. It’s very accurate and I trust it fully; if it looks good there then I know we’re getting what we need. It’s the last element in our chain and really is such a vital component for monitoring and recording.

The Video Assist 12G HDR also comes with the added benefit of not only monitoring, but also recording. During the Korn shoot, we used my primary Video Assist 12G HDR to record a 4K program/line cut in Blackmagic RAW to an external SSD. The external SSD record feature might be my favorite as simple as it is. The line cut being right there and available for delivery within seconds is something I can’t imagine not having in my workflow now.

Kevin Garcia has spent the last decade capturing festivals, music and documenting travels around the world with some of rock’s biggest acts. Over the last year, he’s been streaming and directing shoots with bands in order to bring live performances right into people’s homes, making them feel as if they’re right alongside the bands as they perform. He can be contacted at Kevin@Mixonesound.com.

For more information, contact Blackmagic Design at 408-954-0500 or visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design gear was a key part of the production and post-production of the independent film “I’m Fine (Thank You for Asking)” that debuted at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March. The production utilized a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and the DaVinci Resolve Studio.

The film, which follows a mother and her 8-year-old child dealing with homelessness during the pandemic, was shot in 2020. Production restrictions helped lead the filmmakers to the Blackmagic camera.

Because of the size of the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, the crew could put the camera on a DJI Ronin S gimbal stabilizer. Director of photography Becky Baihi Chen said that the small camera on a small gimbal allowed her to easily follow the lead character as she roller skates in some scenes.

The film was also shot in Blackmagic RAW, Contrast Bitrate 5:1, which helped manage the lighting conditions of shooting a lot of exteriors.

Once the film was edited, it was then conformed in DaVinci Resolve. This allowed for camera metadata to be manipulated by a colorist during the color grading process, as well as using the edit page for split and completed stabilizations.

“I’m Fine (Thank You for Asking)” was directed by Kelley Kali and Angelique Molina.

FREEMONT, Calif.—The HPA Tech Retreat that took place virtually in March featured an sequel to “The Lost Lederhosen” project from the 2020 event, of which Blackmagic contributed to with a filmmaker using its URSA Mini cameras.

At this year’s HPA Tech Retreat, “The Founder Lederhosen” was a multifilm project featuring five shorts and a behind-the-scenes documentary that was featured during the event’s Supersession. The goal of “The Found Lederhosen” was to highlight real world examples of the tools, tech, workflows and more than 200 people that worked to create these projects remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

One such films was “Neo-Bedouin” from Abeer Abdullah, who used the URSA Mini Pro 12K and URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 cameras. The URSA Mini Pro 12K camera, with its 12K resolution, was key to realize the visual effects of the short film, which was a sci-fi/fantasy thriller.

Abdullah had experience with URSA Mini Pro cameras, so she said she was confident that they could handle the lighting and other harsh conditions of the production’s shoot in the desert.

“I was so confident to have the Blackmagic cameras because I knew where we could go with the image, and how the color science would respond,” said Abdullah.

For more information, visit the Blackmagic website. 

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design livestreamed the unveiling of a trio of new and updated products, including the new ATEM Mini Extreme, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and the Blackmagic Web Presenter HD.

The ATEM Mini Extreme is a larger model of Blackmagic’s ATEM Mini live production switcher. This 1 M/E switcher features eight inputs, four ATEM Advance Chroma Keyers, a total of six independent DVEs, two media players, two downstream keyers, 16-way multiview, two USB connections and multiple HDMI aux outputs. An ATEM Mini Extreme ISO model is also available, including all the same features plus a more powerful recording engine able to record up to eight inputs plus the program for a total of nine streams of recording. Both models have a broadcast quality streaming engine for live streaming.

ATEM Mini Extreme models support connecting an Apple or Android phone to the USB port to use mobile data in remote live production situations. Phone tethering works with both 4G and 5G phones.

Both the ATEM Mini Extreme and ATEM Mini Extreme ISO are now available for $995.

The new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro provides a brighter 1,500 nit adjustable HDR touchscreen, built-in ND filters, a large battery and support for an optional electronic viewfinder. The latest Generation 5 Color Science, Super 35 HDR image sensor with 13 stops of dynamic range, dual native ISO of 25,600 and EF lens mount are also included.

The camera features controls for recording, ISO, WB and shutter angle in its multifunction handgrip. The camera sensor reduces thermal noise, allowing for cleaner shadows and higher ISO. It also has a 5-inch LCD. Additional features include an integrated 1280x960 color OLED display; a built-in digital focus chart; and the ability to connect with the Pocket Cinema Camera Pro EVF through a single connector.

Blackmagic is now offering the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro for $2,495.

The final Blackmagic product shown was the Web Presenter HD, a self-contained streaming system that includes a broadcast quality H.264 processor for direct streaming to platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and more. It features a 12G-SDI input with down converter, built-in front panel with LCD and menus, USB webcam features and monitoring output with audio meters, streaming status and full SDI and embedded audio technical details.

Blackmagic is now offering the Web Presenter HD for $495.

For more information, visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.  

FREMONT, Calif.—“Cusp,” which premiered at the recent, virtual 2021 Sundance Film Festival, had a portion of its post-production work done remotely at the at-home setup of senior colorist Andrew Francis, which was powered by Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel, Teranex Mini SDI to DisplayPort 8K HDR converter and UltraStudio 4K capture and playback device.

With post-production occurring during the pandemic, Francis used his Blackmagic setup with an Apple Pro Display XDR monitor. Francis said that he was impressed by the plug-and-play nature of the setup.

“Utilizing the UltraStudio 4K and Teranex Mini SDI to DisplayPort 8K HDR meant I could be confident that the content I was monitoring was color critical,” Francis said. “Additionally, the on-screen scope display was brilliantly versatile in the positioning and sizing options, and I was delighted with how quietly the technology ran.

“Sending my signal from DaVinci Resolve Studio through the UltraStudio 4K to my propriety IP encoder system ensured that my clients enjoyed an ‘in room’ experience independent of geographic locations, which has been crucial over this past year,” he added.

Francis, who is based in London, also worked with Samuel Gursky in New York, using the DaVinci Resolve Studio for the conforming and consolidation of the camera media. Afterward, the two were able to share .drp files to work on the color grade.

Francis also said that using the DaVinci Resolve Studio allowed for his render and QC processes to be consistent.

“Cusp,” directed by Isabel Bethencourt and Parker Hill, follows three teenage girls in a Texas military town as they confront issues of adolescence at the end of a summer. The documentary earned a Special Jury prize for Bethencourt and Hill as emerging filmmakers.

Blackmagic equipment was used on a number of 2021 Sundance Film Festival titles.

BURBANK, Calif.—Since the pandemic hit in early 2020, there’s been a huge decrease in the amount of cast and crew on the typical production set. So, in response to the old maxim “the show must go on,” I developed and built remote viewing kits to help minimize the amount of crew on set, while production could still remotely view the cameras and make decisions offsite, while working from home.

As it happened, I had been playing with Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Mini switcher line and its Web Presenter for several months. As did most, I watched Zoom become the preferred standard among most people working from home. In putting two and two together, I designed a small rack that takes two video sources and puts them in a Zoom meeting.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Basing my rack off the ATEM Mini Pro, I took two of the switchers and attached them on top of my rack. With custom-designed panels, I put four SDI inputs and one SDI output on the left side, and on the right I put one SDI input and one HDMI input. The four SDI inputs on the left patched into Blackmagic Design’s MultiView 4, allowing me to create my own quad split for shows that didn’t generate a multiview. I took the SDI out of the MultiView 4 and looped into one of Blackmagic Design’s SmartView Duo monitors; while on the right, I put a Blackmagic Micro Converter BiDirectional SDI/HDMI 3G, which let me take either SDI or HDMI as another source. The SDI output from that converter feeds another SmartView Duo.

The HDMI output from both the MultiView 4 and the Micro Converter feeds into input 1 of each ATEM Mini Pro, and the USB-C output of each ATEM Mini Pro feeds into a MacBook. From those computers, I can host two Zoom meetings with the show feeds.

The response was incredible. I have made many of these kits, and they have been a huge factor in keeping the executives and other producers involved with decision-making, while limiting the number of crew on set. The workflow has been used on many shows and projects, including “The Weakest Link,” the BET Awards, Nickelodeon’s “NickMas” special and more. As we begin 2021, I’m excited for this workflow to continue to aid productions and support remote connectivity.

Zachery Holley is a video engineer and owner of Holley Video Consultation. He is based out of Burbank, Calif., and works in live entertainment. He has contributed to shows such as the Academy Awards, the Emmys and the Grammys. When he isn’t working, he enjoys spending time with his family and traveling. He can be reached at zak@holleyvideo.com.

For more information, visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design is part of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, announcing that more than 35 projects in the festival’s lineup used one or some combination of Blackmagic gear to help bring their stories to life.

Projects that used a Blackmagic camera and gear during production included “Passing,” which used the DaVinci Resolve Studio, UltraStudio Mini Monitor and UltraStudio Mini Recorder capture and playback devices, as well as the Mini Converter SDI Distribution 4K, Smart Videohub 20x20 router and Videohub Smart Control panel. “R#J” and “Users” filmed with the Pocket Cinema Camera 6Ks, while “First Date” used both the URSA Mini 4.6K and Pocket Cinema Camera.

“Land,” which is the feature directorial debut of Robin Wright, used Blackmagic’s Fusion Studio and DaVinci Resolve Studio for VFX. Other projects to do so included “4 Feet High,” “The Blazing World,” “Mayday” and “On the Count of Three.”

The DaVinci Resolve and DaVinci Resolve Studio were also popular for post-production work, including by “Land,” “Bruiser,” “A Glitch in the Matrix,” “Jockey,” “The Pink Cloud,” “Together Together,” “White Wedding” and more.

For a complete list of Sundance projects that used Blackmagic gear, visit the company’s website. 

FREMONT, Calif.—Laurel Canyon Live is building a live streaming venue and equipping it with Blackmagic Design gear, including Ultimatte 12 compositing processors, ATEM Constellation 8K live production switcher and URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 digital cameras, among others, per a Blackmagic press release.

Laurel Canyon Live aims to create a space for artists, content creators, media and entertainment companies to stream performances and events against dynamic virtual backgrounds in real time.

To do so, Laurel Canyon Live has installed a green screen behind the space’s main stage with two Ultimatte 12 compositing processors and Ultimatte Smart Remote 4. Used in conjunction with Unreal Engine, Ultimatte provides navigation menus and keying control to refine and adjust composites in real time during live performances.

The main stage will feature six URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 cameras connected to the machine room through Blackmagic Camera Fiber Converters and Blackmagic Studio Fiber Converters. Eight Micro Studio Camera 4Ks are also located throughout the space and on the ceiling for additional angles. Some of these will be controlled by an ATEM Camera Control Panel. Everything will be live switched via an ATEM Constellation 8K and ATEM 4 M/E Advanced Panel.

Additional Blackmagic products that will be used by Laurel Canyon Live include DaVinci Resolve Studio for color grading and editing; Teranex Mini SDI to HDMI 8K HDR advanced monitoring systems to convert feeds that come in as SDI to HDMI; and DeckLink 8K Pro capture and playback cards.

John Ross, president of Laurel Canyon Live, says that this set up, along with his Ross424 post-production studio, can live stream performances while simultaneously handling post-production and mixing needs.

For more information, visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.  

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—Building off the popularity of its 2016 video “Stick Figure Battle,” SoKrispyMedia recently produced a follow-up video, “Stick Figure War,” utilizing Blackmagic Design’s URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and Micro Studio Camera 4K cameras, shooting in Blackmagic RAW.

“Stick Figure War” expanded upon the original “Stick Figure Battle,” which showed two students drawing battling stick figures on a classroom white board. The new video featured an entire classroom of students as well as visual effects.

The entire production was shot on Blackmagic’s URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2. The crew used the camera’s high frame rate capabilities (60 fps) to prepare for necessary speed ramps in post-production. The Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K, which fed into a Blackmagic Video Assist 7-inch monitor for recording, was used for top down hand shots of the students.

SoKrispyMedia continued to rely on Blackmagic for post-production, utilizing a combination of Unreal Engine and DaVinci Resolve Studio.

“Working on a pipeline between Blackmagic Design cameras, DaVinci Resolve software and Unreal Engine was surprisingly easy and intuitive,” said filmmaker Sam Wickert. “Between the full Blackmagic ecosystem with cameras, capture and playback and Resolve, we’re able to quickly and easily get up and running and integrate with Unreal Engine’s virtual production tools. To be honest, I don’t think if we had tried it any other way, it would have worked. Our current pipeline is running so smoothly, and we’re really happy with the images we’re getting.”

For more information, visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.  

WASHINGTON—Even in this COVID-crazy year, there is still lots of video creation that involves the use of production switchers. It’s easy to think of production switchers as being in the domain of studios, production trucks and other enclosed facilities that have shut down for the duration of the pandemic, but the ability to stream the output of switchers makes them key for delivering quality programming in a range of situations.

So not only are production switchers an active product category in this seemingly written-off year, they have thrived and continue to see innovation. One of the pioneers in combining switching with streaming is NewTek, which recently added the TriCaster 2 Elite to its family of software-dened live-production systems.

The TriCaster 2 Elite is capable of dual 4Kp60 mix outputs, a single 4Kp60 output with 4x 1080p60 outputs, or 8x 1080p60 outputs—all simultaneously delivered over SDI and NewTek’s popular NDI IP protocol.

“What sets the TriCaster 2 Elite apart is our groundbreaking ‘Live Call Connect’ feature that offers support for up to nine guests via Zoom, Teams, Tencent, Discord, Skype and more,” said Liam Hayter, senior solutions architect for the San Antonio-based company. “All run natively on the system with a dedicated multiviewer mode. Live Call Connect will also analyze the call and automatically separate out the nine callers into individual video inputs for use on the system, and this also includes talkback.”

Switcher manufacturers have embraced IP connectivity in addition to more traditional television standards such as SDI. One example is the Grass Valley Kahuna 9600 4K production switcher, which can be tied to other production resources using the company’s GV Orbit networking management.

At For-A, the company has seen good response to its HVS-490 3G/4K video production switcher. An ace at streaming applications, the HVS-490 packs a lot of popular streaming features into a small package.

“[The HVS-490] provides the most ‘bang for your buck,’” said Adam Daniul, director of sales for the southeast, south central and Midwest regions at For-A America. “It’s built for reliable 3G-SDI or 4K live production, and is ideal for image magnification [I-MAG] and live streaming applications. It’s easy to afford, easy to learn, and easy to use.”

LIVE & POST PRODUCTION

Blackmagic Design recently announced the ATEM Mini Pro ISO, a low-cost switcher that integrates live production into a post-production workflow. The ATEM Mini Pro ISO has a new livestream recording engine that allows all video inputs to be recorded, allowing a live production to be easily edited after the conclusion of the event.

“2020 has been an unprecedented year that has caused all of us to adapt to a ‘new normal,’ which for many of our customers meant pivoting from what once was a live event to now remote live streams or a hybrid model,” said Bob Caniglia, director of sales operations for the Americas at Blackmagic Design. “In that vein, we introduced the ATEM Mini Pro and ATEM Mini Pro ISO as affordable live-production switchers that facilitate remote workows and make it easy for our customers to create professional multicamera productions for live streaming to Zoom, YouTube, Twitch and more.”

Panasonic recently introduced KAIROS, an IT/IP-centric platform that offers an open architecture system for live video switching with input/output flexibility, resolution and format independence, and unlimited ME scalability.

“Unlike conventional switchers, KAIROS isn’t restricted by the number of MEs or keys,” said Michael Bergeron, senior product manager for live production systems at Panasonic. “The platform achieves higher performance by using the power and flexibility of its CPU and GPU, balancing total processing loads without the configuration constraints of traditional hardware-based systems. It also incorporates software that processes SDI, ST 2110 and NDI streams of independent resolutions such as HD and UHD to support the transition to live IP workflows.”

12G SINGLE-LINK CABLING

Ross Video has a range of production switchers that meet the needs of virtually any television facility. One example from the company is the Acuity, which can handle signals from SD to 4K, and will accept up to 12G single-link cabling for uncompressed 4K.

Datavideo has found a niche among smaller users that need maximum features packed into minimum space. The company’s latest model is the KMU-200, a streaming-friendly switcher that can be fed 4K signals and provides an HD output that displays “regions of interest” from the 4K image. In other words, you can make two 4K cameras look as though you’re using several HD cameras.

The KMU-200 supports an additional HDMI input for a computer with a PowerPoint presentation to add to a user’s live production, according to Rob Read, director of business development for Datavideo US, adding that the KMU-200 also supports vertical video as well.

“This switcher also has built-in dual streaming to two platforms, and provides 9:16 and 16:9 formats directly to content distribution networks that support vertical streaming, such as Facebook or Instagram,” Read said.

8K CAPABILITY

Although most companies have products that can handle 4K, at least a couple are pushing into 8K capability.

“Blackmagic Design introduced the ATEM Constellation 8K in April 2019 as a solution for customers who are currently working in HD or Ultra HD but want to future proof their investments,” Caniglia said. “The ATEM Constellation 8K is designed as an 8K, Ultra HD and HD live production switcher with so many features that customers can combine them all to make an incredibly powerful 8K switcher. In 8K, it features 10 Quad Link 12G-SDI 8K inputs, 8K DVE, standards-converted 8K inputs, 8K SuperSource, 8K chromakey and 8K multiview.”

Other companies have 8K on their radar, but are focusing on providing more features at 4K than making the next resolution leap.

“Panasonic currently offers the AV-UHS500 video switcher which is a successor to the AV-HS410 that operates almost identically in 12G as it does in HD,” Bergeron said. “All the inputs and outputs are 4K capable... for use in a variety of live production applications. KAIROS is not limited to any format, as it can work with 720p, 3G, 12G or computer monitor resolutions simultaneously. KAIROS does not currently support 8K; however, given expected increases to bandwidth and GPU processing power, 8K support for KAIROS is inevitable.”

USER PERSPECTIVE

Perhaps the bottom line on the subject of 8K switching comes from a user, Brett Casadonte, president and co-founder at GlobeStream Media LLC in Dallas, which was founded eight years ago to support live production projects.

“We chose to build our business around Blackmagic Design’s ATEM production switchers because we felt they offered the best price/performance of the various offerings we considered,” Casadonte said. “About a year ago, we began engineering work on a small remote integration production facility. When we were considering what switching hardware we would use, it quickly became obvious the ATEM Constellation 8K was going to be the best choice.”

But that doesn’t mean that there is high demand just yet for 8K production.

“While we are not currently doing any 8K productions, it’s great to know that as the industry grows into 8K, we will already be positioned to provide this service to our clients,” Casadonte said. “In general, 8K production is still in the very early stages, and there is a lot that needs to be considered, not the least of which is transmission and distribution.” 

SIMPLE NO MORE

There once was a time when video production switchers selected on-air sources, keyed in titles and performed modest transition effects. Not anymore. Switchers today do all those things, plus act as storage for still images, graphics and video clips, as well as provide control for video playbacks from servers and dedicated players. How much more capability can be built into switchers without overloading the operators?

“With the NewTek VMC1 system—think of it as a super-powered TriCaster—we added the ability to route NDI signals downstream of system, and we’ve brought this to the TriCaster 2 Elite, too,” Hayter said. “The NDI output matrix enables operators to drive screens and video walls on set, on stage, even to distribute NDI video and audio around venues. Like every other aspect of TriCaster, this is macro-controllable. The integrated macro engine on all our production systems can create shortcuts and sequences of operation with a single keypress.”

Hayter says NewTek has delivered visual radio studios where PTZ cameras, robotic dollies and tracks, and real-time tracked virtual sets work in tandem from a single keystroke.

“In the corporate space, we have projects where lighting, in-room audio systems and video wall solutions are similarly controlled from simple webpage buttons through our LivePanel controls,” he added.

It has been a strange year, and we’re all still figuring out how to do the things we want to do in this new environment. However, one thing that’s clear is that well-designed products continue to be useful and in demand and meet the needs of real users.

Broadcast equipment manufacturers started building IP capabilities into switchers more than a decade ago, and that has given this product category a leg up in the bid to stay relevant during the COVID-19 lockdown. That said, I don’t think there’s anyone who wants this new status quo to go on indefinitely—just that we should be glad that production switcher manufacturers were among the best prepared for our current streaming reality.

We all know that Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve is one of the best editing software choices. Used by students and educators in schools; by freelance, corporate, commercial and Hollywood editors; it is considered as professional and robust as the other editing software choices around. The most exciting feature of DaVinci Resolve is its price—free.

With all of the other major editing systems that come with a monthly, yearly or expensive purchase price, why would you want to pay $295 for editing software that you could download for no cost?

In this article, I will discuss the reasons why you might want to spend the $295 and have a lifetime license to DaVinci Resolve Studio.

DAVINCI RESOLVES/DAVINCI RESOLVE STUDIO

Having used the free version of DaVinci Resolve for years, I decided to look more deeply into what the Studio (paid version) of DaVinci Resolve offered and if it was worth paying the one-time charge of $295 for the lifetime license. 

I was introduced to the cost version of Resolve with version 14. I eventually upgraded to version 15 and then to 16. The biggest reason for me (and there are numerous others I will get into later) to do this was the ability to export files larger than Ultra High Definition’s 3820x2160 and frame rates faster than 60fps. That might not seem like a big deal, but when shooting in true 4K’s 4096x2304, that extra bit of resolution is noticeable if you are enlarging your image or doing layers with special effects. Since I’m now shooting in 6K (and soon 12K), I don’t want limitations in my exporting functions.

Some other features only available in DaVinci Resolve Studio version are things like: noise reduction, grading using HDR, motion blur, having easier access in dealing with RAW files and several editors can work on the same project (color grading, editing, etc.) remotely. This last feature alone has been invaluable for me during the pandemic.

Noise reduction is critical in my editing workflow. Using RAW files and low light footage, I’ve become accustomed to having to deal with noise issues—especially when shooting at high ISOs. In the free version, my RAW files were always supported, and I don’t like to be changing editing platforms frequently. Working in a university setting, I’m constantly collaborating with other faculty as well as students on projects. Having the ability to look at a student’s project, making suggestions or changes and even teaching the software is much easier with the Studio version because of the remote access.

While both the free and the Studio versions will use a GPU for processing, the Studio version will recognize up to nine GPUs, scaling with you as your needs grow. With the Studio version you have access to GPU hardware accelerated encoding on certain H.264 and H.265 codecs (which is much faster than the free version’s CPU encoding). I enjoy editing as much as anyone, but faster means less time waiting. I watched an online tutorial that proves the Studio version is 15 seconds faster (for his short video test) in rendering time and it utilizes 30% rather than 60% of its CPU. Therefore, the Studio version is more efficient and offers better playback than the free version in his testing.

Available only on the Studio version is the DaVinci Neural Engine, which adds artificial intelligence (AI), object removal (self-explanatory), Auto Color Balance and Matching (also self-explanatory, but if you color grade, it will save you mountains of time), facial recognition software and the ability to upscale your footage up to four times its present size without losing any quality. Watch this John’s Films video for more detailed information on all of these features.

SOUND AND VISUAL EFFECTS

Fairlight is DaVinci Resolve’s audio software. Fairlight is included in the free version, but the Studio version has many more sound effects and tools.

Under the Effects Library, more options are available like OpenFX, which has six effects under ResolveFX Blur; 11 effects under ResolveFX color; and numerous others under ResolveFX Generate, light, refine, reveal, sharpen, stylize, texture, transform and warp.

Under the Color tab in the menu, the Studio Version offers Dolby Vision in addition to the HDR10+ I had mentioned earlier. When working with Arriflex cameras, Arri.look files allow you to achieve their distinctive “look” via templates. 

OPTIONAL FEATURES

Blackmagic Design also offers three different control panels: the DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel, DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel and the DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel, all designed to give customers fluid, hands-on control over multiple parameters at the same time, so they can work faster and be more creative. Additional offerings include the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard, designed for professional editors who need to work faster and turn around work quickly; and the external Blackmagic eGPU to aid with a faster workflow. 

SUMMARY

DaVinci Resolve Studio might not be for everyone. When I first began teaching DaVinci Resolve to my freshman class, everyone downloaded the free version for that specific reason—the cost. As I mentioned earlier, I too started with the free version and have been happy with it. My needs have changed in that I now need the power, speed, versatility and other features that the Studio version offers to better accomplish what my clients and students desire. DaVinci Resolve Studio might be the next logical step in your workflow. The greatest component of the upgrade was I didn’t have to relearn a new software platform—I just had new and better features at my fingertips.

Chuck Gloman is an associate professor in the TV/Film Department at DeSales University.  He may be reached chuck.gloman@desales.edu. 

Take a high school TV studio and add an Apple II computer. That’s how Grant Petty started his career. 

“I found the technology interesting and enjoyed playing around in the television studio and programming the computer,” Petty recalled. That led to an internship at a local TV station. 

The internship and other early experiences fueled Petty when he established Blackmagic Design, which creates video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video live production switchers, disk recorders and real-time film scanners for the feature film, post-production and TV industries. Its customer base ranges from “Oscar-winning cinematographers to 15-year-old students.

“Just look at YouTube,” Petty said. “Young kids are making absolutely fantastic content. They deserve access to professional gear just as much as the people in Hollywood. Our early capture cards allowed a lot of new designers to move into television, and you could see the change in broadcast graphics,” he said. 

One of Petty’s favorite experiences was the acquisition of DaVinci, Blackmagic’s first purchase. “I enjoyed turning around DaVinci because of my history with telecine and color correction,” he recalled. “I was fascinated with how the colorists would manipulate the colors and create these beautiful images.” Since DaVinci’s products were “expensive and only available to high-end clients,” Petty focused on “making them available to all creatives as free software,” which he calls a “very significant moment.”

Attesting to the popularity of Blackmagic Design’s products is their widespread use. In the 2018 TV season, more than 55 shows (broadcast, cable, streaming) used the company’s tools, according to Petty, whose  goal is “to empower creativity by making film, television and AV production equipment affordable for everyone.”

His company has more than 1,000 employees in seven countries now. 

“You don’t get to a new product by market research or measuring a market,” he added. “You have to imagine a future and be able to try new ideas and then accurately evaluate the results when a new product launches. 

“The younger generation is more open to taking creative risks, which is great, and they should never let themselves plateau,” he said.

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design has implemented webcam support to its Video Assist system via a new update. Now, Video Assist—a portable monitor, a recorder, a portable scope and camera viewfinder system—can support webcams from the USB-C connection for Blackmagic Video Assist 3G and Blackmagic Video Assist 12G HDR models.

With the Video Assist Webcam Update, users can now connect to computers and stream live video using any major streaming software or platform in full HD resolution 1080p quality, according to Blackmagic. It does so by having the software tricked into thinking video assist is a common webcam that works with Open Broadcaster, YouTube Live, Facebook Live, Skype, Zoom, Twitch and more.

The new update adds additional features beyond supporting webcams. Among them are touchscreen controls; customizable LCD features; SD/USH-II card support for commonly available media; has standard open file formats that are compatible with popular software; can record direct to external USB-C media disks; has built-in scopes that include waveform, vector, parade and histogram; 3D LUTs can be applied for both monitoring and recording; upgrades cameras to better monitoring and better recording codecs; and offers professional multichannel digital and analog audio.

The Blackmagic Video Assist Webcam is now available for free download from the Blackmagic website. 

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design, after recently releasing the Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 17, has announced a DaVinci Resolves 17.1 Beta version that adds universal app support for M1 powered Macs.

DaVinci Resolve 17 offers 300 new features to the Blackmagic editing platform, including HDR grading tools, redesigned primary color controls, the next-gen Fairlight audio engine, support for 2,000 real-time audio tracks and other features like a redesigned inspector, new bin sorting and metadata clip views.

The 17.1 Beta with support for M1 is designed to provide better performance on laptops. The unified memory architecture on M1 enables DaVinci Resolve 17.1 to use CPU and GPU processing more efficiently, per Blackmagic, eliminating the need for PCI Express transfers. In addition, the combination of M1, Metal processing and DaVinci Resolves 17.1 offers up to five-times improved performance compared to previous generation computers, the company says.

DaVinci Resolves 17.1 is also compatible with macOS Big Sur, and is initially only available for Mac.

The public beta of DaVinci Resolve 17.1 is now available for download from the Blackmagic Design website. 

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif.—As a full service audio, video, lighting and staging company, MixOne Sound specializes in high-profile entertainment events. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and restrictions were placed on live events, I discussed with my team ways we could continue live performances while adhering to social distancing guidelines. We came up with an idea to build a new sound stage that allows bands and artists to safely perform on site, while live streaming those performances to remote audiences. We built the stage in three days, made a few tweaks over the next couple days, and within two weeks, we were up and running.

The new setup includes a broadcast control room, as well as a main sound stage featuring a 40x40-foot production area, a 48-foot LED wall, full lighting, 21-foot jib, full streaming and/or recording setup and a total of five Blackmagic URSA Broadcast and URSA Mini Pro G2 cameras.

Being able to enforce strict social distancing guidelines was crucial to the design of the space, which is why we created a separate control room. The control room features many Blackmagic Design products, and one of my favorite pieces of gear that I’ve come to rely on the most is the Blackmagic Video Assist 12G HDR monitor.

RELIABLE AND REASSURING

With four built-in scopes and built-in 3D LUTs, the Blackmagic Video Assist 12G HDR supports formats up to 2160p60. It has a bright touchscreen and supports Blackmagic RAW recording. We use the Video Assist 7-inch 12G HDR monitor to record all of the program out feeds as a backup, but it really is multiple products in one. It has two SD card recorders and allows recording to external USB-C flash disks, but I actually use the USB-C connection to plug in an SSD, since I prefer SSD cards over SD cards for editing and pulling clips.

I rely on the Blackmagic Video Assist 12G HDR’s scopes for waveform monitoring, vectorscope and histogram, and overall, having the monitor as my last piece for a final look is very reassuring; I know that what we’re sending out looks exactly the way I want it to. We use it to record every show, and as soon as the stream ends, the artist can immediately see their full result in its highest quality without waiting for a render. This has blown away many artists.

In the first three months after the sound stage opened its doors, we had more than 40 artists come through to perform, including Fever 333, Animals As Leaders, Tinashe, Dreamers, Dave Koz, Swae Lee, Scary Pool Party, Crown the Empire, Volumes and Bad Omens.

With our new setup, we are set to stream or pre-tape for any project anyone could need that will fit within the space, and we also offer our services for remote or off-site performances, which we’ve used for Corey Taylor, Dance Gavin Dance and CHON. The Blackmagic Video Assist 7-inch 12G HDR monitor is easily packed up and taken off-site along with our cameras, and with a few more key pieces that we keep in a fl ypack ready to go, we are set for any type of performance necessary.

MixOne Sound’s Kevin Garcia has been heavily involved in filming and shooting video for various bands and musical artists over the past decade. He has filmed some of the world’s biggest festivals throughout North America, Asia and Europe. He can be contacted at kevin@mixonesound.com.

For additional information, visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.

SAN ANTONIO—Like many other TV stations adjusting to work-from-home workflows brought on by COVID-19, KABB, the Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned Fox affiliate in San Antonio, respected public health recommendations to socially distance and instructed chief meteorologist Alex Garcia to contribute his on-air weather segments and live digital streams from home.

The station’s entire weather team has pivoted to the new workflow with the aid of several Blackmagic Design products, including an ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K live production switcher.

“We were in an unprecedented situation where suddenly we had to be socially distant, while still maintaining weather coverage for our viewers at home without a noticeable drop in quality. Fortunately, I’ve managed to set up a studio in my living room with my Blackmagic Design gear doing much of the heavy lifting,” said Garcia.

Garcia, who does the station’s nightly “Fox News at Nine” weather segments and hosts the weekly online “Hurricane Center LIVE” show, completed his home setup with a Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel, Blackmagic Web Presenter and Blackmagic HDMI-to-SDI Micro Converters, a green screen, several computers, microphones and three cameras.

The chief meteorologist interacts with his team from home during the day, preparing what he will talk about during the newscast as well as weather graphics for his segments. When it’s time to go live, Garcia runs a lot of the production himself and livestreams his forecasts in real time to a skeleton crew at the station to be broadcast.

“I utilize the ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K to do the chroma key for the show. Since I’m sending a completely prepared show to the station with the graphics already embedded in my feed, all they have to do is put me on air,” said Garcia.

“During the show, I don’t have the ability to go to the ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K and switch live because I’m on camera, so I rely on the ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel, which I have next to me, to switch and cut scenes, dissolve and preview.

“At the same time, the output of the show is going to my Blackmagic Web Presenter and through to the station for a simultaneous live stream to our social media channels.”

Garcia’s home computer is connected directly to the station’s weather computers, which he uses remotely to create his show. The output of the weather computers is sent back to Garcia as a private stream, converted using a HDMI-to-SDI Micro Converter and fed to the ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K for keying, he said.

“This allows me to see what is being shown behind me on a monitor I’ve set up in my living room,” said Garcia.

The weekly hurricane livestream is produced for broadcast meteorologists, corporate emergency directors and government emergency managers to prepare for hurricane season. It replaces an in-person five-day convention organized by the Storm Science Network Inc., where Garcia serves as president.

“At the physical conference in the past, we used the ATEM Television Studio HD to switch what we were showing on screen, but this year, since we’re bringing everyone in virtually via Skype, Zoom or Google Meet, we use the ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K,” he said. 

“Each participant comes in as a separate input into the ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K, and since I have 4 M/Es to work with, I can build them into SuperSource, taking advantage of the picture-in-picture function. Additionally, I’m using a HyperDeck Studio Mini recorder for playback.”

More information is available on the Blackmagic Design website. 

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.—The docuseries “Woodwalkers” follows a group of determined students as they take on a grueling 15-week training program to become professional lineworkers, constructing and maintaining electric power lines. Working to overcome hardships at home and push through a trying training schedule that can include injuries, dangerous weather and more, the students strive to graduate from the premier Southeast Lineman Training Center in Trenton, Ga. With a new class of students featured each season, the second season of “Woodwalkers” premiered on Amazon Prime in July 2020.

As the second and third seasons’ DP and post supervisor, I chose to shoot the second season with Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro and URSA Mini Pro G2 digital film cameras, pairing them with Angenieux EZ-1 and Angenieux EZ-2 lenses, and equipping them with Blackmagic URSA Viewfinders and Blackmagic URSA Mini Shoulder Kits for ease of use.

BATTLING THE CONDITIONS

Due to the docuseries style of “Woodwalkers,” and the inherent challenges that come from a lot of the drama happening in real-time 30 feet in the air, it’s imperative that we have reliable cameras that can stand up to the shooting conditions as well as the elements.

As part of their training, the students are put through night storm training, four-hour climbing sessions and even a Navy Seal-inspired crucible event called “Awakening.” That means we’re put through those shooting conditions as well, in the Georgia heat.

We typically shoot for 8–10 hours a day, and most days are in the high 90s to triple digits, with high humidity. With some intense night shoots happening during stormy weather, we were able to mostly shoot at the cameras’ native ISO of 800, sometimes pushing the URSA Mini Pro G2 to 1600 for slow-motion shots, and everything held up really well.

NEW SEASON, NEW GEAR

Moving from season one to season two, we were able to step back and rethink our approach, including what shooting package made the most sense for the show’s conditions.

After struggling with a 30-pound camera setup for season one, we knew that a more lightweight solution was needed, especially since a lot of the series is shot looking up and our backs needed a break. As we used several different makes and models of cameras while shooting season one, we also wanted to simplify things and start using matching cameras and lenses for season two so things would be less complicated in post. Battery life was also important, especially since swapping them out wasn’t always easy if we were suspended in the air in a bucket truck, capturing the students high up on the poles.

We ultimately selected the URSA Mini Pro and URSA Mini Pro G2 cameras because of their ease-of-use and image quality. We really liked the ability to use off-speed frame rates for slow-motion shots, and filming at 120 fps on the URSA Mini Pro G2 while still using the full sensor was incredible. Also, having built-in ND filters allowed us to keep our lens iris very wide, helping to produce a more dramatic and cinematic image for the docuseries. It’s also great that our batteries lasted 1.5–2 hours, as opposed to burning through them every 30 minutes with the larger camera setup from season one.

The cameras delivered exactly what we were looking for, so we continued using them and the Angenieux EZ-Kit lenses for season three, which is currently in post—stay tuned!

Jonny Ginese is a DP, producer and lead editor at Super Chief LLC, a Tennessee-based production company focused on documentary storytelling, feature length films and other unscripted storytelling. He can be contacted at jonny@gosuperchief.com.

For additional information, visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design unveiled to new products to its ATEM line, the ATEM Streaming Bridge and the ATEM Mini Pro ISO.

The ATEM Streaming Bridge is a video converter that can receive a H.264 stream from any ATEM Mini Pro and convert it back to SDI and HDMI video, enabling users to be able to send high-quality video to remote locations around their local Ethernet network or globally via the internet. The system uses advanced H.264 codecs for higher quality at lower data rates. In addition, ATEM software utility can create files that customers can email to remote ATEM Mini Pro studios to enable setup. Blackmagic plans to release the ATEME Streaming Bridge in August for $245.

The ATEM Mini Pro ISO meanwhile, is a live  production switcher with a new five stream recording engine that allows all video inputs to be recorded, allowing a live production to be edited after an event. The switcher also records all audio files, media pool graphics and can save a DaVinci Resolve project file. Users can also relink to Blackmagic RAW camera files for adding professional color correction and finishing in UHD. The ATEM Mini Pro ISO is available now for $895.

In addition, Blackmagic announced a handful of updates. DaVinci Resolve 16.2.5 adds support for importing projects from ATEM Mini Pro ISO, improves the listing of numbered still frames in the media pool, addresses offline frame issues for some H.264 clips on Windows and boosts the reliability of relinking AAF clips in different folders.

There is also an update to the Blackmagic Camera Setup software (6.9.5) for Blackmagic Pocket Cinema, which also improves metadata support for ATEM Mini Pro ISO. This update also adds support for manual iris ring control on some Panasonic Leica lenses when used with the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema camera.

The latest software, 8.4, for Blackmagic ATEM Switchers adds support for ATEM Mini Pro ISO as well as definition of audio bitrate in XML files and includes general performance and stability improvements for all ATEM switchers.

For more information, visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.  

FREMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design has upped its resolution game, announcing the debut of a new URSA Mini Pro camera that can shoot up to 12K resolution. 

Unveiled during a livestream event with Blackmagic CEO and founder Grant Petty, the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K features a new sensor with native 12,288x6,480 resolution, which equates to 80 megapixels per frame. The Super 35 sensor has 14 stops of dynamic range and a native ISO of 800. With the camera, users can shoot natively in 4K, 6K, 8K and 12K.

The third generation of Blackmagic’s URSA model, the new camera supports Blackmagic Generation 5 Color Science and higher Blackmagic RAW performance. The URSA Mini Pro 12K sensor and Blackmagic RAW were designed together to make 12 bit RAW workflows in 12K. Blackmagic RAW also makes it easier for users to edit the camera’s footage as either HD or UHD files.

Additional features of the URSA Mini Pro 12K include interchangeable lens mount, with PL, EF and F mounts included; the ability to shoot up to 60 fps in 12K, 110 fps at 8K and 220 fps at 4K; dual card CFast recording at up to 900MB/s; SuperSpeed USB-C for recording to external disks; DaVinci Resolve Studio for post-production; and compatibility with Blackmagic URSA Mini Recorder.

“With Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K we have advanced imaging technology into a new generation where new styles of shooting will be possible,” said Petty.

Blackmagic plans to release the URSA Mini Pro 12K in July for $9,995.

The livestream also offered looks at additional new products from Blackmagic, like the Blackmagic Video Assist 3G, UltraStudio Monitor 3G and UltraStudio Recorder 3G.

The Blackmagic Video Assist 3G is a video monitor and recording system that now features built-in scopes, upgraded batteries, 3G-SDI and HDMI for all SD and HD formats. The design offers fast to use touchscreen controls; customizable LCD features; SD/USH-II card support; a large LCD screen with digital film style focus assist tools; standard open film formats; ability to apply 3D LUTs for monitoring and recording; multichannel digital and analog audio; can be localized for 11 international languages; and works with NLE software, like DaVinci Resolve. The Blackmagic Video Assist 3G is available now for $495.

The UltraStudio Monitor 3G and UltraStudio Recorder 3G are Blackmagic’s new, separate capture and playback systems with 3G-SDI and HDMI connections, plus high-speed Thunderbolt 3 technology. Blackmagic designed the products to be portable, pocket-sized and operable from a computer’s battery or power source. The models also support all common SD/HD video formats up to 1080p60; offer uncompressed and compressed 10-bit 4:2:2 YUV or RGB quality; support DaVinci Resolve and other video software; and can download Developer SDK for free. Both models are now available at a price of $115.

For more information, visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.  

LOS ANGELES—For nearly a decade, Jukin Media has teamed up with entertainment, advertising and publishing professionals to develop shows, campaigns and stories utilizing the world’s most compelling user-generated videos. Jukin has produced more than 1,000 episodes of TV for networks in the United States and abroad, and hosts a library of more than 50,000 remarkable viral-style video clips it licenses out for use by thousands of media and entertainment companies across the globe.

Jukin Media is using a combination of Blackmagic Design gear for its latest entertainment venture, “TBD’s The Link.” TBD is a broadcast network that highlights the best of the internet, and the 13-episode, 30-minute show, hosted by Lorena Abreu, takes viewers on a hilarious viral video clip trip. “TBD’s The Link” airs Saturdays on TBD, and episodes are then uploaded to the network’s website (tbd.com).

LINKING THE PRODUCTION

Production for “TBD’s The Link” took place in one of the smaller studios at Jukin Media’s Los Angeles headquarters. We used one camera connected to a Blackmagic ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K switcher and also had a live audio mixer on stage feeding into the switcher and camera. The switcher’s SuperSource multi-layer engine was used for two different on-screen monitor orientations for vertical and horizontal clips.

We also used the switcher’s ATEM Advanced Chroma Keyers to our advantage when creating both our green screen feed and our key for the line cut and graphics on our virtual set. The ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K allowed us to use numerous high-quality transitions, and with its DVE, we could easily resize, rotate and scale our videos.

An ATEM 1 M/E Broadcast Panel controlled the ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K and allowed us to access the switcher’s macros, giving us full control to record and playback macros at the push of a button.

At the heart of the workflow sat a Smart Videohub 12G 40x40 router, which was fantastic as we had 10 monitors on set for the crew, as well as an additional monitor for when we had a live audience onsite. Connected to the Smart Videohub 12G 40x40, we had one camera source, two inputs per HyperDeck Studio Mini recorders for a total of four inputs and one input for the audio, which allowed us to hear the clips’ audio live on stage. In terms of output, we had four HyperDeck Studio Minis, five program outputs for monitors and one program output for remote monitoring of the live web stream.

Even though we didn’t use them all, we were glad to have the router’s 40 inputs and 40 outputs available. For example, we started with fewer inputs and outputs, but they expanded over time as the project progressed. We also used the Smart Videohub 12G 40x40’s built-in LCD to monitor during the show’s production and for troubleshooting because it allowed us to see the format of the video that was coming through.

The six HyperDeck Studio Minis were used for graphics and video playback, a clean green screen recording, a line cut recording and backup recording. A Teranex Mini Audio to SDI 12G converter was used to get the program mix into an embedded stream to one of the HyperDeck Studio Minis for recording.

Relying on Blackmagic Design for “TBD’s The Link” was a great decision for our team. We were able to control costs and every piece of gear worked seamlessly with each other. We look forward to using Blackmagic Design in our future productions.

Daniel Romero is a freelance union technical director with experience in broadcast engineering and a demonstrated history of working in the live television industry. For more info on Jukin Media, contact Mike Skogmo at mike.s@jukinmedia.com.

For additional information, visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.  

MANCHESTER, U.K.—Blackmagic Design was a key cog in getting the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s New York Times bestseller “Normal People” to viewers on both BBC and Hulu, as the show utilized the company’s DaVinci Resolve Studio for grading and finishing.

Gary Curran, colorist and company director at Outer Limits, handled all post-production, including utilizing the ACES workflow in DaVinci Resolve Studio for the grade, online and final deliverables.

The series was directed by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald, with cinematography by Suzie Lavelle BSC and Kate McCullough.

“The camera work in this series is fantastic,” said Curran. “Suzie decided to use K35 lenses that introduce flare and fogging. They had a real softness to their highlights and contrast.

“Overall, my aim was to not take anything away from that,” Curran continues. “Rather just enhancing Suzie and Kate’s work further. It was about finding the right balance between keeping it natural in the DI and not too stylized while also retaining a slight richness to the images.”

In different lighting settings, Curran explains that he would use the Resolve’s channel mixer to narrow the range of skin tone to ensure they were natural and soft.

“Normal People” is available to watch on Hulu.

For more information, visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.  

MONTEREY, Calif.—The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey is a graduate school of Middlebury College in Vermont. Located in Monterey, Calif., known as the “language capital of the world,” the Institute’s mission is to educate professionals to advance understanding, promote peace and drive change in pursuit of a more just world. 

The Institute uses Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Mini live production switcher as part of an online production workflow designed for broadcast media outlets engaging with the Institute’s many experts in the fields of nonproliferation, counterterrorism, geopolitical studies and the environment. 

Oftentimes when news breaks in one of these fields, network TV outlets reach out to our experts for comment and analysis. Since we acquired the ATEM Mini four months ago, we have worked with dozens of large and small, national and international media outlets. The ATEM Mini, along with the ATEM Software Control app, is the link between broadcast production techniques and lower bandwidth streaming services like Zoom, Skype and FaceTime. 

ENHANCING WEB-BASED PRODUCTION

The workflow in our small studio starts with a handheld camera feeding an HDMI signal into the ATEM Mini, which has a USB connection operating as a simple webcam source. Our ATEM Mini generates the webcam-protocol signal into an iMac, which is then recognized as a video/audio source by the application in use (Zoom, Skype, etc.) and is subsequently distributed by hard-wired Ethernet.

We also use this workflow to present a professional image to webinar participants for student recruiting. Many of our recruiting webinars incorporate PowerPoint, and with the ATEM Mini we’ve migrated from using “screen sharing” in Zoom for slide display to loading the slides into the ATEM Software Control on our iMac and calling the slides up from the Software Control’s Media Manager. ATEM Software Control features a visual switcher user interface with parameter palettes for making quick adjustments.

We’re also exploring the ATEM Mini’s chroma key functions, transitions and picture-in-picture options, as the switcher features an ATEM Advanced Chroma Key for high-quality chroma or luminance keying, an additional downstream linear keyer and a full HD DVE for picture-in-picture effects and DVE transitions. We use a Blackmagic Video Assist 4K monitor/recorder as our program monitor and backup recorder. We record the streaming session into the camera, overlay that clean recording over the lower resolution Zoom recording in post production and then post that edited version for later on-demand viewing.

Using this workflow, we’re often asked by the people on the other end how we make our feed look so good, especially broadcasters. I’ve often taken a few extra minutes after our session to explain our process. Using the ATEM Mini, we're able to offer a clean, professional, studio look of our experts over Skype, Zoom and FaceTime without the cost of additional products or services. 

We believe using every tool available to us to deliver a clean, professional video stream to our audience enhances engagement, as our viewers are not distracted by poor production value—instead, they can concentrate on the content. The ATEM Mini is clearly a device for the times if people want to look their best to whomever they are sending a signal. I'm delighted with the possibilities of the ATEM Mini.

Mark Basse is a multimedia producer at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He has more than 30 years production experience in all corners of the media landscape, including broadcast news and features, cable networks, sports programming and higher education. He can be contacted at mbasse@middlebury.edu.

For additional information, visit www.blackmagicdesign.com or call Blackmagic Design at 408-954-0500. 

FREMONT, Calif.—Webcomic and gaming company Penny Arcade is using a variety of Blackmagic Design products, including an ATEM Mini live production switcher, to power its live streaming workflow for several weekly online shows. The shows air live on Penny Arcade’s Twitch channel, “PennyArcade,” and are later uploaded to its YouTube channel, “pennyarcadeTV” (PATV), attracting tens of thousands of viewers.

What started as a thrice-weekly comic strip has since become one of the most popular and longest-running webcomics online, creating and distributing gaming content to millions of readers globally. Over the years, Penny Arcade has grown its business to include PAX, one of the largest gaming festivals in North America that also uses Blackmagic Design gear for live production; Child’s Play, the largest gaming charity in North America; and PATV, home to its video and media content, merchandise, podcasts and more.

In building out its video content, Penny Arcade wanted a more professional live streaming workflow and sleeker look for its productions. Producer Joshua Price and his team stepped in, transforming a meeting space into a production studio outfitted with a multitude of Blackmagic Design gear.

To power its live streaming workflows, Penny Arcade is using ATEM Mini and ATEM Television Studio Pro 4K switchers along with Micro Studio Camera 4K, URSA Broadcast and URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 cameras.

“When I originally received the ATEM Mini, I planned on using it as supplementary or as a travel switcher to help when needed,” Price said. “Once I started using it and learned how powerful it was, especially when leveraging its ATEM Control Software, ATEM Advanced Chroma Key and picture-in-picture functionality, I immediately put it to work in our secondary studio in my office. We run two Micro Studio Camera 4Ks and two computers as the four inputs in a sort of mirror setup on either side of my desk with one camera serving as a face cam with a green screen behind it, and the other on the opposite side capturing a couch and television set up for gaming content. Because the ATEM Mini is so small and flexible, I still bring it with me wherever I go so that I have a switcher with me at all times.”

Initially, Penny Arcade selected the ATEM Television Studio Pro 4K to switch overhead Micro Studio Camera 4Ks in the primary studio, but quickly realized that it could also replace its main camera switcher.

“Now we’re using a second ATEM Television Studio Pro 4K with the URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2s and URSA Broadcasts, sometimes adding the Micro Studio Camera 4Ks to the mix if necessary,” Price said. “We try a lot of new things and bring in a variety of different board and tabletop games and other projects that require custom solutions to showcase them in the best possible way. Having the two switchers with full hands on control of the camera settings gives us that flexibility.

“For us, the URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and URSA Broadcast cameras’ ease of use is incomparable. We can bounce from camera to camera for interactive multicamera live streams, and because their build is basically the same, we can easily swap between cameras without needing to adjust, and the images work together seamlessly. In addition, the URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2’s large sensor allows us to get in closer and have a wider field of view in our small studio where space is premium without having to move to an ultra-wide lens and deal with the inherent distortion of the image.”

Four Micro Studio Camera 4Ks are mounted in the primary studio’s ceiling, capturing overhead shots of board games, dice trays and other top-down action. A fifth Micro Studio Camera 4K is on a monopod that can be moved around to shoot as necessary, and a few others are set up throughout to studio to capture shots from different angles.

Rounding out its camera gear is a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K that Penny Arcade uses to shoot advertisements, anything impromptu and even behind-the-scenes shots. “The Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is a workhorse,” Price said. “Even though it’s small, it’s extremely powerful and the images it captures are stunning. I even take it with me when I travel to events like PAX to shoot anything quick and dirty.”

Additionally, Penny Arcade is using HyperDeck Studio Mini recorders, DeckLink 8K Pro and DeckLink Quad HDMI Recorder capture and playback cards and a Teranex Mini SDI Distribution 12G converter. Two DeckLink 8K Pros allow Penny Arcade to bring full 4K signals into a streaming computer for easy image manipulation in the streaming software and to make corrections to framing or for digital zooms without any loss of quality. Three HyperDeck Studio Minis are used for backup recording from the main cameras when shooting multi camera content and as splitters to feed direct outs into the computer.

“Using a full Blackmagic Design workflow has really simplified our work,” Price said. “When you look at our streams, you can tell from the image quality and how smoothly they run. We are excited to continue using Blackmagic Design for future Penny Arcade projects.”

This story originally appeared on TVT's sister publication AV Network.

FREMONT, Calif.—Rooster Teeth has been putting Blackmagic Design’s URSA Broadcast cameras and ATEM 4 M/e Broadcast Studio 4K live production switcher to use at both is Austin, Texas, and Los Angeles studios for broadcasting across the country.

According to Patrick Salazar, Rooster Teeth’s director of broadcast, the media and entertainment company uses produces up to 10 productions a week using Blackmagic cameras and a control room operated by Blackmagic switchers, media recorders and more.

The Austin-based studio features six URSA Broadcasts, which are fed into a Smart Videohub 40x40 router along with all other sources. Signals are routed to the ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K, ATEM 1 M/E Advance Panel, MultiView 16 and SmartScope Duo 4K monitor. There are also four HyperDeck Studio Pro and two HyperDeck Shuttle SSD recorders to record ISO camera feeds, while a separate HyperDeck Studio Pro records the line cut from the ATEM, as well as feeding the livestream.

A similar setup exists in Rooster Teeth’s Los Angeles studio.

When Rooster Teeth produces the Extra Life charity broadcast for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, the Austin studio adds two more URSA Broadcast cameras, a second ATEM, converters and a full network of the camera routing map. A Pocket Cinema Camera 4K was also used for the 2019 broadcast to capture behind the scenes footage.

For more information, visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.  

Blackmagic Design has released its ATEM Mini Pro, a low-cost, live production switcher with all the attributes of ATEM Mini, plus extra features for recording, streaming and monitoring. The ATEM Mini Pro includes a new hardware streaming engine to allow direct streaming via its Ethernet connection to YouTube Live, Facebook and Twitch.

There is also support for recording the stream direct to USB flash disks in H.264, plus support for recording to multiple disks for continuous recording. The new model also includes a multiview on the HDMI video output that allows all inputs to be monitored on a single monitor, as well as live status of recording, streaming, and the audio mixer. All ATEM Mini models have USB that works like a webcam so customers can use any streaming software, and the ATEM Mini Pro model adds live streaming and recording to USB disks.

FREEMONT, Calif.—Blackmagic Design was part of the production of FX’s new docuseries “The Most Dangerous Animal of All,” specifically the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and the DaVinci Resolve Studio.

Documenting Gary Stewart’s search for his father, who he believes may be the infamous Zodiac Killer, director or photography Zak Mulligan and his crew used two Pocket Cinema Camera 4Ks. They cited the cameras’ small grip package, light frame, that it can “rig anywhere,” ability to fit as a single carryon and its cinematic image quality as reasons they opted to use it.

“We wanted to work with the most dynamic range and color information we could get out of the camera, and I was surprised at how well we could match the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K footage,” Mulligan said.

In addition, the production used the DaVinci Resolve Studio for color grading.

“The Most Dangerous Animal of All” premiered on March 6.

Fremont, CA – January 8, 2020 - Blackmagic Design today announced that Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS) MBS/ Tokyo Broadcasting System’s (TBS) drama series “Eren the Southpaw” was graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio. The show, a live action drama series based on a manga series by artist Kappy, includes hundreds of shots per episode graded with an advanced collaborative workflow at Tokyo’s Digital Garden using a mix of DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel, and DaVinci Resolve Mini or Micro Panel.

Digital Garden colorists Masahiro Ishiyama and Osamu Haga are the main colorists for the series, with one handling grading for the present and one for the past, with both working on DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel. With the large number of scenes, difficult grades and tight deadlines, Digital Garden built a seamless collaborative workflow around DaVinci Resolve.

The series follows Koichi Asakura and Eren Yamagishi, who met each other while in high school and continue their relationship as Koichi becomes a designer and Eren becomes an up and coming painter in NYC. “To those who could not become a genius” is the catch phrase for this series and the story depicts the people and environment in the art industry and at an ad agency based on the manga author’s actual experience.

For Digital Garden, best known for their color grading TV commercial work, “Eren the Southpaw” was one of their first long form drama series. The show’s DP, Akiyoshi Yoshida, wanted to use Digital Garden’s commercial expertise and asked them to grade the drama as if they were grading a TV commercial, while at the same time create two different looks between current and past scenes. To do this, he shot in two different aspect ratios -- 4:3 for past and 2:1 for current, with colorist Ishiyama grading the present and Haga grading the past.

“The current scenes I graded were mainly in the office, so I aimed for a more realistic look yet still contain decent shadow in the scenes. The set design for this series is good quality, so I took advantage of the footage fully and tried to pull out the best tone possible,” said Ishiyama, the lead colorist of Digital Garden.

Haga said: “The past scenes are a more fun memory of youth. So I made more like pastel tone with brighter and more colors. I used a lot of Power Windows and keys even for single shots, such as brightening the white of characters’ eyes. And I sometimes use DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel or Micro Panel if I need to color correct at the location. However, I mainly use DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel. Using panels allow me to grade instinctively and fast. I can say I cannot grade without them.”

“The Advanced Panel allows us faster grading; however, even Mini and Micro Panel have the same quality of feeling when I touch the track balls.” Ishiyama added.

Each episode of the show required 3 days of post production, which had to include client presentations. To meet these tight deadlines, Digital Garden created a collaborative workflow between the main colorists and assistant colorists. “There are more than 100 shots just needed to do color matching for one episode. So we, the main colorists, created base looks and then the assistants did matching other shots with the base looks using the Mini Panel,” said Ishiyama.

During preview, Ishiyama played the episode with the Advanced Panel and the DP and director gave feedback. While the preview went on, the assistant was fixing colors based on their feedback using the Mini Panel. By the time the preview was over, most of the fixes were complete.

“This collaborative workflow has three advantages. The first is more for sales perspective in that we can increase our production ratio for the grading suites. Next is we, the colorists, can concentrate on more creative works. And the third is the assistants can learn grading in the actual working environment where the main colorist and client are in the same suite,” Ishiyama concluded.

Press Photography

DaVinci Resolve Studio, DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel, DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel, DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel as well as all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Fremont, CA – December 19, 2019 - Blackmagic Design today announced that MixOne Sound Partner and Videographer Kevin Garcia used an URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 digital film camera to capture live performances from top artists such as Blink‑182, Tim McGraw, Luke Bryan, The Flaming Lips, ZZ Top, Marilyn Manson, Ice Cube, Rob Zombie and more. Shooting in Blackmagic RAW, Garcia captured more than 25 artists across four U.S. music festivals this fall, including Hometown Rising, Bourbon & Beyond, Louder Than Life and the Aftershock Festival.

For the recent festival season with Danny Wimmer Presents, an L.A. based music festival production and promotion company, Garcia was tasked with capturing live performances for the artists to use as part of music videos and marketing, as well as daily recaps for the festivals.

“The headliners usually have more elaborate production elements during their sets, for example things like pyrotechnics, and that’s where we really needed the URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2. The camera’s higher frame rates and dynamic range allowed us to capture incredibly detailed shots that showcased how much work and thought these artists put into their sets to make them something truly special to watch,” Garcia explained.

“I shot in 4.6K to use the full sensor in Blackmagic RAW the entire time. It simply just looks better and has more control, which is key during these festivals,” he added. “Within five seconds, the stage will go from complete darkness to strobing lights and flames. Blackmagic RAW makes it much easier to retain all that information without blown out or overly grainy moments. That was the biggest thing for me with the extreme variations in lighting and color on stage. It made a world of difference knowing I could rely on the footage when the edit needed to be done immediately after the festival concluded.”

Despite the changing lighting conditions, the URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 captured so much information during shooting that Garcia had room to do whatever he needed with the footage in post. “It’s a great feeling going back to edit and seeing a shot with dark areas and fire, both perfectly clear. It’s something I don’t think I really had until shooting with the URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and Blackmagic RAW,” he noted.

Garcia also used a Pocket Cinema Camera 4K for specialized action shots, shooting in 4K in Blackmagic RAW. “Huge crowd sweeps and running shots are essential when trying to capture the enormous energy of rock shows like Aftershock and Louder Than Life, and the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K did this effortlessly,” said Garcia. “Its dual native ISO was crucial when shooting at night or in low light areas. The low light ability really saved the day in some instances.”

The Pocket Cinema Camera 4K also proved useful when shooting in small tents or activations during the festivals where a larger camera wouldn't fit. “No other camera that size delivers the quality, so you’re not sacrificing either. That was the main reason I got the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, for quick run and gun shoots or shooting in tight spaces while maintaining quality footage,” Garcia concluded.

Press Photography

Product photos of URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, as well as all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Fremont, CA – December 18, 2019 - Blackmagic Design today announced that Dayglo Presents is using Blackmagic Design products at the heart of its live production and live streaming workflows, including concerts and tours at its venues and beyond for Vulfpeck, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Trey Anastasio Band, Dead & Company, Phil Lesh and Friends, Primus, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, The Marcus King Band, Chuck Leavell and more.

Dayglo Presents, a New York based live music and media company founded by independent music promoter Peter Shapiro, is using Blackmagic Design’s ATEM live production switchers, HyperDeck broadcast decks, Videohub routers, SmartView monitors, DeckLink capture and playback cards and more for approximately 500 shows per year across its projects and venues. This includes shows at Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, Civic Theatre, Gramercy Theater, Apollo Theater, LOCKN’ music festival, The Scoot Inn, as well as fixed installations at The Capitol Theatre, an iconic concert venue in Port Chester, NY, and Brooklyn Bowl, a groundbreaking integration of premiere music, bowling, locally crafted beers and food by acclaimed Blue Ribbon restaurant group in Williamsburg, NY, and Las Vegas, NV. It also includes work with Relix Media Group, which publishes Relix magazine and music websites Relix.com and Jambands.com.

Dayglo Presents worked closely with Austin, TX based concert film technology company TourGigs, which was brought in to assist with building a mobile video kit as well as to consult on streaming solutions for The Capitol Theatre and Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas.

“Dayglo and Relix own a mobile video system comprised of an ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K, HyperDeck Studio, DeckLink Studio 4K and 10 recently added HyperDeck Studio Minis,” explained Jonathan Healey, vice president of marketing and digital strategy for Dayglo Presents. “We’ve used the flypack system to live stream more than 60 performances on the road as well as more than 100 videos for Relix Magazine’s in house Relix Sessions. Content is streamed to The Relix Channel, YouTube, Facebook and a variety of social channels.”

“Between all of our projects, we’re constantly on the move, and we love the flexibility and ease of use of Blackmagic Design products. For example, we were recently at Radio City Music Hall using the flypack for ‘Easy Rider Live,’ an event celebrating the film’s 50th anniversary. With a live band performing the film’s soundtrack, the ATEM was critical for switching between the film and IMAG,” explained Healey. “We’re also taking advantage of the recently added HyperDeck Studio Minis in their own flypack for ISO recordings. When the HyperDeck Studio Minis aren’t on the road they live at The Capitol Theatre.”

A historic 1,800 seat theatre, The Capitol Theatre uses SmartView Duos for monitoring and a Smart Videohub 20x20 to route feeds to its 17 in house monitors. The HyperDeck Studio Minis complement the workflow by allowing for ISO recordings for the 10 camera system.

A similar approach is taken at Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, which boasts 32 bowling lanes in addition to a 2,000 capacity performance venue. An ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K, ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Panel and five HyperDeck Studios are used to live stream performances to the venue’s social channels, as well as to record and send to the venue’s 45 monitors, which include a 3mm video wall located at the end of each lane.

“We also use DaVinci Resolve Studio for post work to pull selects for VOD and artists’ management,” concluded Healey. “We use Blackmagic Design across the board because simply, it works. It delivers top performance at an affordable price, and we are always finding new use cases as we continue to tackle new projects.”

Press Photography

Product photos of ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K, ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K, ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Panel, HyperDeck Studio, HyperDeck Studio Mini, Smart Videohub 20x20, DeckLink Studio 4K, SmartView Duo, DaVinci Resolve Studio and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com

Fremont, CA - December 10th, 2019 - Blackmagic Design today announced that Grid VFX relied on Fusion Studio throughout its in house compositing pipeline to deliver newly released children’s animated feature, Latte & The Magic Waterstone.

Directed by Regina Welker, the team’s latest project ‘Latte & The Magic Waterstone’ involved the completion of more than 1,200 visual effects shots, including the complex compositing of background and foreground plates and CG render layers for 3D assets, lighting, procedural effects, and more.

“Latte was a huge project for us. It’s a feature animation with a limited budget, so we knew we had to work as efficiently as possible,” begins compositing supervisor at Grid, Laurens Bekaert.

“Fusion’s GPU accelerated render engine was amazing at being able to handle geometry and 3D space compared to alternative compositors. We could add smoke and particles behind our characters and see a good representation of how they would look in 3D instantly, without needing to re render.”

Using Fusion in conjunction with Grid’s in house pipeline management system, Gclus, the team built several node trees to act as the containers for a base look for all the film’s sequences. CG supervisor Chara Sottou could then set the mood for each scene, including specifying elements such as caustic effects, depth haze, depth grading, volumetrics, digital matte painting spherical projections, motion blur and depth of field.

There were also motion vector tools to allow for the motion blur to be added in post, UV tools to reposition and remap textures, and finally relighting tools that could modify the normals, ambient occlusion and position passes to allow for atmosphere and grading adjustments throughout the compositing process.

“Being able to modify so much of our final render in Fusion, without the need for round tripping, was crucial in allowing us to complete this project on time and on budget,” Chara continues.

“We were able to manually adjust depth of field, stylistically blurring certain areas of the frame to our advantage to guide viewers’ eyes to the action we wanted them to focus on.”

The team were also able to add effects such as glow to key scenes, enhancing the feeling of magical realism the story required. All with less than ten compositors instead of 50 or more.

“I think it's really important to show that this level of production quality and creativity can come from a small team in the European animation industry,” she concludes. “There’s this hesitancy with big productions, because they're worried that the budget won't allow for quality. With tools such as Fusion now becoming more accessible to artists, that’s changing.”

Latte & The Magic Waterstone will be in cinemas in France from December 11 and in Germany from the December 25 with further release dates across Europe in 2020.

Press Photography

Product photos of Fusion Studio and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Fremont, CA - December 3, 2019 - Blackmagic Design today announced that South African music festival, Rocking the Daisies, was powered by an end to end Blackmagic Design workflow, featuring Blackmagic URSA Broadcast and ATEM Constellation 8K.

Held at the Cloof Wine Estate in Cape Town and incorporating comedy, music, art and film, Rocking the Daisies (RTD) is one of the country’s biggest festivals. Live production for the three day event’s diverse international lineup, which included The 1975, Russ, Tash Sultana and Nasty C, was delivered by production company Bad Weather.

The main stage featured three central LED screens, making up one canvas, the middle being a 6 x 6 meter square and each outer screen 3.6 x 6 meter high. There were two 5.4 meter wide by 8.4 meter high IMAGs stage left and right. “With both side screens essentially being portrait, we had to be careful with how we framed our shots, making sure that everything was centered,” reveals live director Simon Wilkes.

“We used the URSA Broadcast for acquisition; front of house we had a single camera with a very long lens and a supplementary Micro Studio Camera 4K locked off just next to the sound desk,” he explains. “In front of the stage we had a jib mounted URSA Broadcast, and another on a dolly. On stage was a roaming camera op and a handful of the micro cameras positioned in key positions for additional cutaways.”

Bad Weather’s Jonathan Bandli adds: “The image quality of these cameras was something that the festival had never experienced before; good in low light and they handled the dynamic range of a large stage with heavy contrast so elegantly. Our solution just completely changed the perception of the festival organizer’s previous experience with live camera systems.”

The production desk was located 60 meters away from the stage. “We had just the one rack, and at the top was a Teranex Express. We recorded the entire festival in 2160p24, but that wasn’t suitable for some of the other screens around the site, so we downscaled to 1080i using the Teranex,” explains Simon.

Relying on the Mini Converter Optical Fiber 12G, each camera channel sent a signal back over multimode fiber to an ATEM Talkback Converter 4K racked in the PPU setup. Converted back to SDI those signals were then patched to an ATEM Constellation 8K switcher and vision mixed using an ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel.

Jonathan says, “One of the main factors in choosing the ATEM Constellation is that we have standards conversions on every single input. Mixed formats and resolutions are so often an issue on live events, especially when handling external sources. Knowing that we can handle anything that comes our way just gives us that peace of mind. With the Constellation sitting at the heart of our workflow it made sense that we invested in the best knowing that it will work hard for many years to come.”

Press Photography

Product photos of Blackmagic URSA Broadcast, Micro Studio Camera 4K, ATEM Constellation 8K, ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel, ATEM Camera Control Panel, ATEM Talkback Converter 4K, Teranex Express, Audio Monitor 12G, HyperDeck Studio Pro and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Fremont, CA, November 21, 2019 - Blackmagic Design today announced that Japan’s TBS television broadcast station has built a news streaming workflow with Blackmagic’s ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K, ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4Ks and ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panels. This new facility is used for streaming daily news as well to provide extensive streaming news content covering Japan’s upcoming election campaign.

TBS, one of Japan’s top commercial broadcasters, has grown their streaming programming as the demand for providing up to the minute news to non TV devices like smartphones and computers, has grown. The channel now includes a YouTube channel for breaking news, a 24 hours news streaming channel for satellite broadcast and news streaming for social media such as twitter and Facebook. All of these will include content created with the Blackmagic Design ATEM switchers, which were installed at TBS’s main Tokyo locations.

Content Business Department, said: “We updated our streaming facility as part of a huge layout change for our news floor. When choosing the equipment for the new workflow, we decided to use switchers that could also be used for the upcoming election campaign special program, which happens once every few years. This is different from the past, where we used to build a temporal facility for only the special program. But it was very tiring to set up all the gear from scratch each time. So, we took this opportunity to upgrade our streaming equipment to be more versatile and permanent so that we could use it for the election campaign program.”

Hayato Aoyama, who handles the everyday streaming operation at TBS TV, added: “We used to use just the Blackmagic’s ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K for our 24 hours news streaming program, but we needed more inputs and outputs to handle all of the new streaming content we were planning. So we then added the larger Blackmagic switchers, including the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K and ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panels, and another ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K that we used just for our social media channels.”

Each ATEM switcher receives pictures from television relay, VTRs and subtitles. Taking advantage of the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K’s 20 inputs, TBS sends camera feeds to the switcher while using additional inputs for subtitles. Each ATEM switcher is also connected to an ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel via LAN for more intuitive operation.

Tallies which are used for two VTR inputs with the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K and one VTR input for the ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K. Audio from camera feeds on the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K are sent to an audio mixer via Blackmagic’s Mini Converter SDI to Audio. Then all video and audio are sent to a matrix router and each program is streamed via an encoder.

Aoyama continued “We only used one ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K before, but sometimes we needed more inputs, so as a workaround, we just simply switched the input cables. Now, we use the 2 M/E for our 24 hours news channel, which allows us a seamless workflow and a large amount of inputs for subtitles, which we prepare beforehand to easily switch them on air.

“The ATEM 2 M/E has many more inputs and keyers compared to other manufacturer’s switcher, and its cost effectiveness is outstanding,” Yamamoto added.

“The ATEM switchers are intuitive and so easy to operate. When breaking news comes and everything gets so hectic, we get nervous about making operational mistakes using a mouse and computer monitor. Having a physical controller gives me a more secured feeling and speeds up my operation,” Aoyama concluded.

Press Photography

Tally Interface, as well as all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Fremont, CA – November 14, 2019 - Blackmagic Design today announced that the hit Indian film “Kumbalangi Nights” was graded by freelance colorist Mr. Remesh CP using DaVinci Resolve and DaVinci Resolve Advanced Control Surface. Remesh CP also used DaVinci Resolve to grade dozens of other films and television shows, including the recent thriller “Abrahaminte Santhathikal” and comedy “Children’s Park.”

Remesh CP has graded more than 100 feature length and short films and more than 250 television commercials over the course of his 10 year career. Working at Kerala India based Lalmedia as a full time colorist, and recently given the prestigious National Best Colorist Special Recognition award by Indywood, he uses DaVinci Resolve to grade a huge number of South Indian projects. This includes the critically acclaimed “Kumbalangi Nights” and current work on the films “Brothers Day,” “Ganagandharvan,” “Under World” and “Vikruthy.”

“I use DaVinci Resolve Studio in almost all of my projects. I find it very easy and simple to use. I especially like the DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel as it helps me to fine tune the values precisely. The main advantage I found about the DaVinci Resolve Advance Panel is that it gives me access to almost all the important functions at my fingertips,” said Mr. Remesh.

“Kumbalangi Nights” revolves around four brothers who share a love hate relationship with each other. Their relationship progresses to another level when three of the brothers decide to help the other brother stand by his love. For the film, Mr. Remesh worked with the cinematographer of the film, Shyju Khalid & Saiju Sreedharan (Dl Producer, Editor of this film) to create the look and feel of a remote village near the water that was bright and brilliant with colors all around.

“Mr Shyju Khalid beautifully visualized the story and characters which helped me to create the mood that was demanded. Even though it was a quiet village, we needed the imagery and look of it to be stunning, and this was one of the biggest challenges I faced during the color correction of this film. I relied on Resolve to do this,” he said. “As a colorist, I prefer Resolve for professional color grading software because of its large number of features, such as window tracking, stabilization, secondary corrections and curves. I used all of these with Kumbalangi Nights.”

On “Children’s Park” and “Abrahaminte Santhathikal,” Mr. Remesh jumped between two very different genres and looks for the films. With “Abrahaminte Santhathikal,” he was faced with a grim film looking at a man falsely accused of murder. While “Children’s Park” is a light hearted and bright comedy following two friends and an orphanage. With DaVinci Resolve, he was able to work and fine tune the grades for each film and easily jump between genres.

“With Abrahaminte Santhathikal, I used some options Resolve that fit the DOP, Mr. Alby’s, tastes, which due to the subject nature of this film had to be serious and unpleasant and I had to mute the colors a bit. While Children's Park, a children’s film, had to be entertaining and fun, so throughout the film I had to create a pleasant mood in the background. I achieved it by using Resolve to treat the scenes with bright colors and lighting up the background with greens,” he continued.

The use of DaVinci Resolve on many of the Indian film and commercial industries has also allowed Mr. Remesh CP to grow his career and work on bigger budgeted films.

“I have had the opportunity to work with state and national award winning cinematographers, which has given me much wider exposure. Each film I get involved in is an experience and teaches me many things, especially how to see or how to show this world. In my early days as a colorist, working on big budget or big star movies was my dream. To a great extent, Resolve has helped me to achieve the level I am today,” he finished.

Press Photography

Product photos of the DaVinci Resolve Studio, and DaVinci Resolve Advance Panels, as well as all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Fremont, CA, USA - November 12, 2019 - Blackmagic Design announced today that Los Angeles based production company Genius Produced utilizes a Blackmagic workflow to produce immersive educational and instructional design content for elearning. The productions use Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K and Studio Cameras, along with ATEM Television Studio Pro HD and DaVinci Resolve for a complete Blackmagic Design production to post workflow.

Filmmaker K. Rocco Shields founded Genius Produced in 2012 off of the success of her award winning short “Love Is All You Need,” which focused on the harmful effects of bullying, homophobia and prejudice. The film became an inspiration and model for how the company would operate moving forward. Genius Produced quickly staked a claim as an industry leader in producing content for top universities and organizations around the world.

The company has a base of operations in a 15,000 square foot facility in Culver City, California that encompasses the full workflow of filmmaking, from development and pre-production through post. Shields was drawn to the Blackmagic workflow early in the company’s growth. “We used to use DSLRs for everything, but it was a terrible crunch for our post production process,” said Shields. “Filming was difficult with the ‘Frankenstein’ component of these other cameras.”

With the release of the original Blackmagic Cinema Camera 4K, the company’s entire workflow was revolutionized.

Today, the company still utilizes the original Cinema Cameras, which Shields notes, “have certainly lasted the test of time”, and now augment them with Blackmagic Studio Cameras and Micro Studio Cameras 4K. In post, the company relies on DaVinci Resolve Studio for color and finishing, appreciating the ability to shoot in Film mode for maximum dynamic range.

Beyond scripted content, Genius Produced also works heavily in the area of live production, with projects that cover live performances, presentations, lectures and more. The company also uses all of their Blackmagic cameras in conjunction with their ATEM Television Studio Pro HD switcher, giving their directors the same high image quality but in a live format. The studio moves quickly, with projects moving from set to set, and the compact size allows the team to move equally fast. “We feel this combination of high quality, but compact size is a life saver,” said Shields. “It’s the only way to maintain efficiency and integrity of process during our live productions.”

Along with steadily producing quality educational content, commercials, documentaries, and other high concept projects, Genius Produced has gained a reputation for creating transcendent, socially conscious feature films, including the previously completed feature length adaptation of the viral-sensation “Love Is All You Need”, as well as an upcoming historical biopic about legendary aviator and Hollywood stunt pilot Pancho Barnes. These projects, and the remaining films in Genius’ slate of original content have proven that the Genius Produced style of filmmaking can be powerful and effective regardless of the medium. “At our core is a focus of inclusiveness, support and acceptance, which pervades every level of the company. We couldn’t justify supporting a strong message of acceptance and inclusion in our work and not do the same in our business.”

Shields has already begun an upgrade of systems, starting with the URSA Mini Pro G2 and Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, but is pleased that even her oldest gear is still so reliable, after all these years. “With Blackmagic products we are able to attain the quality and look of traditional formats without compromising or disrupting our workflow and processes. Our entire business model is reliant on flexibility on-set and during post-production,” said Shields. “No matter how much planning goes into a shoot, we are always going to want to test the waters in another direction. With Blackmagic, the possibilities are endless.”

Press Photography

Product photos of Micro Studio Camera 4K, Studio Camera 4K, ATEM Television Studio Pro HD, DaVinci Resolve Studio, as well as all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Fremont, CA - November 5th, 2019 - Blackmagic Design today announced that CHEAT has continued its expansion with DaVinci Resolve Studio, adding a new HDR ready grading suite as well as a research and development lab.

This adds to CHEAT’s three preexisting grading suites, which include Linux machines with dual Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 processors supported by four Nvidia GTX 1080Ti GPUs and the DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel.

The first project to be realized through the new workflow is The End of the F***ing World season 2. Returning following the critically acclaimed first season, which has been nominated for BAFTA and Primetime Emmy Awards, the grade on series two was led by CHEAT’s owner and colorist Toby Tomkins.

“Season two was a challenge because it introduced a new director, new DPs and a new production designer. It was also our first Dolby Vision grade as a facility,” says Toby. “There was a lot of pressure to ensure we delivered to the same high standards expected of us from our work on season one.”

While still in preproduction, CHEAT began by setting up an R&D lab to help adapt all of its proprietary film emulation look up tables, originally used in series one, for the HDR delivery on the latest season. The result was a core node tree made up of 18 components, designed to provide a cinematic base look for every shot. Grading with 4.5K rushes Toby then refined the base look to create a neutral palette and analog film aesthetic that stayed true to the first series.

“The software CMU in DaVinci Resolve was a lifesaver, as it meant I could simultaneously monitor dual output to see the HDR on one screen and the SDR on another, at no additional cost,” Toby explains. “If something didn't look right, I could quickly adjust Resolve’s trim controls to ensure the SDR grade wasn't compromised. We would have previously had to use a hardware CMU, which would have been a lot more expensive and harder to use.”

Toby also manually created his own render transform from the project camera source to CHEAT’s scene referred space using DaVinci Resolve, allowing the team even greater control over the final look. “The transform was flexible enough for all the lighting situations we had, and ensured there was more latitude in the HDR range if we needed to use it, while maintaining the same amount of shape in the SDR range,” he concludes.

“From now on, any client that wants a filmic print look, but with the flexibility and extended opportunities of HDR, can come to us for a distinctive aesthetic catered to their needs. That’s crucial with our ever increasing client demand to deliver in Dolby Vision.”

The End of the F***ing World Season 2 will premiere in November on Channel 4 in the UK.

Press Photography

Product photos of DaVinci Resolve Studio and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Fremont, CA, November 5, 2019 - Blackmagic Design announced today that Astro Design, a Japanese manufacturer specializing in 8K product design, is using Blackmagic Design DeckLink 8K Pro as part of their new real time modular transfer function (MTF) measurement system. The new IP-8030 was developed with NHK’s technological collaboration and will be used by broadcasters to test 8K products and systems.

Astro Design is a Japanese manufacturer specializing in real time high speed digital signal processing and have a number of 4K/8K products. Their new IP-8030 will help broadcasters measure the resolution characteristics of the whole system including cameras and lenses by using the DeckLink 8K Pro to capture 8K feeds and feed them into the computer for testing. This will give TV stations, product manufacturers and rental houses the ability to test 8K workflows and products in real time.

Jin Sato, leader of business strategies department at Astro Design, spoke about how they developed this system: “What kind of camera should I choose? If attaching a lens and other accessories to the camera, would the resolution really be secured? These kinds of things are all done up to now by the eyes of someone experienced. There has been a demand for digitizing such ambiguity. Especially for high resolution cameras, people demand such standards.”

There has been a way to measure MTF, but it was very difficult to adjust framing and not real time analysis. “With DeckLink 8K Pro implemented in the system, you can capture 8K footage directly and measure it in real time while operating a lens.”

Before the DeckLink 8K Pro was released, this system supported up to 4K. “Since 4K/8K broadcast has been started in Japan, there are more demands for 8K support of this system. The DeckLink 8K Pro was the only option which could handle 8K, “ said Yohei Adachi, project leader of R&D.

He continued: “I found the DeckLink’s ability to embed ancillary data onto SDI very useful. A camera and a lens communicate with each other and the information for iris and focus distance can be sent to the camera. The DeckLink can receive such lens metadata embedded onto SDI, allowing for a customer to not take a memo manually, so the feature is really useful. The DeckLink also switches formats automatically as it reads Payload ID on SDI so don’t have to think about 12G-SDI or 6G-SDI. The DeckLink just recognize the difference of signals coming in.”

IP-8030 can be purchased with minimum configuration, just the application and license. For example, if a customer already has a DeckLink 8K Pro, they can use the DeckLink to capture and analyze the input video using the application. Also if the customer does not need 8K support and need Thunderbolt 3 support, some of other Blackmagic capture devices such as UltraStudio 4K Mini can be used for capturing. Thus, customers can choose the capture device based on their needs. Also, thunderbolt support means the customers can use their laptop or tablet.

“We would like to make these MTF values to be international standard. The more people who are involved in this video industry use MTF values, the more 8K contents with higher quality,” Sato concluded.

Press Photography

Product photos of the DeckLink 8K Pro, as well as all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Fremont, CA - October 29, 2019 - Blackmagic Design today announced that Teleclub, Switzerland’s leading Pay TV network, has implemented an UltraHD video playout system, built around a Blackmagic Design 12G infrastructure, to support an increased volume of linear and pay per view (PPV) live sports channels.

The network recently expanded its output to offer more than 83 channels, including eight in Ultra HD, broadcasting in German, French and Italian, and covering a wide range of sports including top flight European and national football leagues, ice hockey and others via its IPTV platform.

“We needed to double Teleclub’s capacity to feed additional HD and UHD PPV channels, studio production facilities, as well as additional commentary and graphics elements,” explains Remo Val, system and software engineer, Teleclub. “When we considered our UltraHD requirements, it was clear that a single link 12G-SDI network would ensure we had enough capacity in our server rooms and keep cabling and signal distribution hubs as streamlined as possible.”

18 ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K have been installed, with each one serving two of the HD or UltraHD channels, with a separate M/E attributed to each channel. Each switcher is paired with a video/CG server, developed inhouse at Teleclub using DeckLink Quad 2 capture cards and Caspar CG, for live video playout. One further ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K delivers playout for an HD multiplex channel.

Remo explains that the system is controlled by a bespoke control dual playlist interface.

“The operator opens an event from our database, and the client generates all the specific content into a playlist, for example live or studio input, lower thirds, sponsor logos. The software controls the ATEM, the CG server and the audio engine to provide whatever the next item is in the playlist, so an operator can deliver an entire live event with one button.”

The facility also includes a new studio and 26 commentary boxes, with 12 Smart Videohub 40x40 12G in place to sub-switch monitors located around the channel’s production headquarters in Volketswil, near Zurich, including VIP lounges and a spectator bar. “There must be more than 250 Blackmagic Micro Converters, as well as Teranex Mini converters, working as the production center’s digital glue,” explains Remo. “It was an important consideration to demonstrate the network’s expansion throughout the production hub itself, so wherever you are in the complex, you can see the scope and scale of Teleclub’s broadcast output.”

“Simply put, we could not have realized this project without Blackmagic Design,” concludes Remo. “The open API, together with the capture cards’ price point allowed us to design a flexible and reliable playout solution, and one that could be specifically built around a powerful, futureproofed 12G infrastructure that will enable us to continue to bring the best of sports broadcasting to our viewers.”

Press Photography

Product photos of ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K, Smart Videohub, DeckLink Quad 2, Blackmagic Micro Converters, Teranex Mini and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Fremont, CA - October 22, 2019 - Blackmagic Design today announced that Chimney relied on DaVinci Resolve Studio to collaborate in real time across its New York, NY, and Gothenburg, Sweden, locations while delivering visual effects (VFX) for the hit zombie movie “The Dead Don’t Die.” The international post production company also used Fusion Studio for select VFX work on the film.

“The Dead Don’t Die” follows the peaceful town of Centerville as it finds itself in a battle against the undead as zombies begin to rise from their graves. Directed by Jim Jarmusch, the zombie comedy stars Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Chloë Sevigny, Tilda Swinton and more.

The Chimney team produced more than 300 VFX shots for the film, with work happening simultaneously at its New York and Gothenburg locations. With Jarmusch and the film’s DP, Frederick Elmes, located in New York, Chimney needed to be able to collaborate in real time across locations so both teams could work closely with the filmmakers to discuss and implement changes during the VFX process.

“Since this film was Jim’s first VFX heavy project, we wanted to ensure that he felt comfortable and connected to the team throughout the entire process,” explained Chimney’s VFX Supervisor Sam O’Hare.

Chimney turned to DaVinci Resolve Studio’s collaboration capabilities for its ability to review EXR sequences in real time.

“We needed the teams on each continent to be able to look at the same footage and discuss it live on the phone in real time. With DaVinci Resolve Studio, we were able to share the EXR sequences from each studio, load them into a project which was then shared and relinked, and run a remote session so we could screen all the full quality EXRs in real time in both places. Jim and Fred were able to watch everything and comment directly from New York while the team in Gothenburg, Andreas Hylander (VFX Producer, Chimney Gothenburg) and Alex Hansson (VFX Supervisor, Haymaker), could see the exact frame that was being discussed,” said O’Hare.

“Since this film was mostly shot during the day and later graded to look like night, the challenge was to deliver VFX that would look clear and visible even after such an extensive grade. Traditional workflows with LUTs didn’t cut it, as the grade was dialed back several stops with a multitude of masks and keys. However, since we were using DaVinci Resolve Studio on the original EXRs straight from VFX, we could quickly adjust the grade to make an informed decision on whether we should redo the VFX shot or if we could fix it in the grade” said Hylander.

O’Hare added, “Using DaVinci Resolve Studio, we were also able to use the latest color information from the grade, so the look was always up to date, and with the original footage loaded underneath, we could easily compare it to the plate if needed.”

Jarmusch found the workflow really eased the review process, “Working with collaborators in other places across the world is almost always a challenge, especially when it comes to visual elements like effects. However, on ‘The Dead Don’t Die,’ through the use of DaVinci Resolve Studio at Chimney, we were able to share and discuss ideas immediately and seamlessly with our cohorts in Sweden while we remained in New York. A modern marvel!”

Since Chimney is a global network of facilities spanning 11 cities across the globe, collaboration is at the core of its projects. “This sort of work always relies on good communication, as well as rapid data transfer. We have a data backbone that enables us to send uncompressed sequences very quickly, so we could have the footage available in both places. That system is really a key to collaborating with our offices around the globe,” noted O’Hare.

“We regularly use DaVinci Resolve Studio’s remote grading feature to run color sessions across different locations, but this project was the first time we’ve implemented it in this way on the VFX side of things,” explained O'Hare. “Being able to view all the footage back at full resolution and quality, with the latest color changes applied, simultaneously in two places that are 3,768 miles apart, was a game changer. It meant that the communication between the director, DP and remote VFX team was seamless and immediate, which helped ensure a smooth collaboration throughout the entire process. As a global company with projects constantly running across different studios, that level of collaboration is crucial to our success.”

O’Hare and his team also used Fusion Studio for select VFX work on the film, including one scene that featured a character using a pair of old, damaged binoculars. “The character, Hermit Bob, lives out in the woods, and Jim wanted to get across that there would be layers of grime on the lenses whenever we looked through them, as well as some cracks to internal elements of the glass,” explained O’Hare.

“We used a variety of tools in Fusion Studio to achieve the look, including displacements and offsets fed through rotoscoped shapes to imitate the broken glass, treated imagery of dirt and grime to layer onto the view, and various mattes and keys feeding into rays to build internal reflections in the black areas outside the classic two circle cutout of binoculars. The displacements were designed to react to the movement in each shot as looking through broken glass would, so some shots had movement from the camera, while for others we built matching movement in Fusion Studio using nested perturb modifiers in the transform node,” concluded O’Hare.

Press Photography

Product photos of DaVinci Resolve Studio, Fusion Studio and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com

Product photos of DaVinci Resolve Studio, Fusion Studio and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images

Fremont, CA - September 6, 2019 - Blackmagic Design announced today that TV Tokyo’s “Watanuki-san-chino,” was created using DaVinci Resolve Studio, HyperDeck Studio 12G and a number of additional Blackmagic Design products. The show is the first sitcom series where Virtual YouTubers (VTubers) were cast as the main characters and were included in the show using Blackmagic Design products for recording and post production.

VTubers are represented by a 3D CG avatar created by motion capture technology, and the number of VTubers are increasing every year, with more than 8,000 VTubers now in Japan.

The TV Tokyo show “Watanuki-san-chino” is a unique program in which VTubers play roles as actors. It is about the daily life of three sisters, the Watanukis, who live in Tokyo and three popular VTubers played the sisters. Even though there are no live action scenes, the program is categorized as sitcom series of VTubers and not as animation.

The producer of this series, Kimitaka Goka, TV Tokyo said: “I have been producing many drama series and movies of live action. It was when I was devising a plan to do something crazy which no one ever done that I found about VTubers. There were 6,000 VTubers at that time already, so I thought I could find someone interesting.” He continued: “Unlike animation which involves drawing and painting, and voice over by actors, a VTuber can really act by moving and saying quotes at studios. I thought it would be interesting to make something narrative with them.”

For the first program, the workflow for the production was still experimental. To help build that workflow, Goka asked Kei Akatsu of Tokyo’s helo Inc. for technical help. “We only had a month to prepare for shooting, so we had to gather equipment right away. As this project has no precedent, we first spoke to Blackmagic Design about what kind of equipment could be used for recording this project, and we tested and decided to use HyperDeck, Teranex AV and Video Assist to our studio,“ said Akatsu who is also a producer of the series.

“There were about 1,000 shots for one episode. To manage such massive footage, we needed to record with timecode. Also the finishing project had to be 4K, so the equipment had to be 4K supported,” said Koki Nagaoka, an assistant producer from helo inc.

For shooting the series, three VTubers acted at a motion capture studio, with 3D CG real time rendering and four camera simultaneous shooting proceeded using the Unity game engine. Blackmagic Design’s HyperDeck Studio 12G and Teranex AV were used for recording, while camera outputs from the Unity PC were sent to the Teranex AV to convert frame rate and embed the ambient sound of the studio. Then the video embedded ambient sound and was sent to the HyperDeck 12G for recording onto SSD. Also, another output feed from Teranex AV was sent to a Video Assist for preview.

“We used the Video Assist to preview all four camera feeds at once, which was for the director to check if all the cameras were positioned at right places,” said Nagaoka. “Our studio was small so we had to work all of the gear from a single desk. As Blackmagic products are compact, they can fit in such situations well.”

For the grading of the series, DaVinci Resolve Studio was used. “The original 3D CG itself has a lifeless feeling, and we didn’t have time to set up lighting precisely so the look was very flat. It didn’t suit the feeling of the story as it was, so we graded the footage to amber and added more shading to create a warm look using Resolve. If we tried to do the similar color and lighting adjustment in Unity, it would take so much time and processing power. Grading with DaVinci Resolve, we could obtain the look we aimed for within the limited production time,“ Nagaoka concluded.

Press Photography

Product photos of the HyperDeck 12G, Teranex AV, Video Assist, DaVinci Resolve Studio and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Fremont, CA - September 02, 2019 - Blackmagic Design today announced that a multicamera live production workflow, featuring the URSA Broadcast and URSA Mini Pro G2, was employed during the Holy Ghost Festival of Life (FOL) and used to acquire content for big screen projection and live streaming.

Held at London’s ExCel, the 30,000 seater FOL event is one of Europe’s largest gatherings of Christians, which saw people come together for a night of fellowship, praise and prayers.

Hungry Earth Productions utilized its four Blackmagic URSA Broadcast for acquisition, but needed another two cameras to meet the event’s specifications. “The URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 was available as a rental option and I was intrigued by the fact it was a hybrid camera with all the familiar onboard broadcast controls,” begins Jerry Curd, director and producer at Hungry Earth.

“My initial concept was to use the URSA Mini G2’s shallow depth of field to complement the URSA Broadcasts’ coverage, and that theory certainly paid off. The match was indistinguishable, and due to the identical operational controls and Blackmagic’s SDI protocol for camera control, we were able to rack all of the cameras using the same hardware.”

A Pocket Cinema Camera 4K was also added to the mix as the sixth camera. “We had never previously contemplated using this camera,” explains Curd. “But its weight and form factor made us think it could be ideal on a stabilizer or handheld on stage. We use a Cosmo wireless system and Hollyland range extender on our usual roving stage camera, so we took the Pocket camera’s HDMI output into that.”

To assist with consistency in saturation across the camera setup, Nick Warren, the team’s colorist and DIT, designed a 3D LUT for each camera in DaVinci Resolve using Hue vs Hue and Hue vs Sat curves.

Prayers, fellowship and praise lasted all through the night and were livestreamed to thousands more viewers across the world. FOL’s in-house team handled the live broadcast, utilizing an SDI audio embedded feed from Hungry Earth Productions, alongside a Blackmagic Web Presenter and mimolive software.

Big screen coverage was supplied by SFL Group who handled all of the venue’s AV and projection. “Our team used an ATEM Television Studio Pro 4K for the vision mix, then SFL took the 1080p50 feed over 3G-SDI, plus six computers that had hymn lyrics, VT playout, a clock timer for speakers, and various other graphics, for projection and relaying on screens around the venue,” Curd explains.

“We’ve worked on this event for many years now, starting back in 2001 with a couple of SD cameras, when the crowd was a fraction of the size,” he concludes. “Since then our production capabilities have grown and evolved in line with the festival. Blackmagic Design has and will continue to play an important role in the production systems we deploy.”

Press Photography

Product photos of Blackmagic URSA Broadcast, Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, ATEM Television Studio Pro 4K, Blackmagic Web Presenter, and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Fremont, CA - August 16th, 2019 - Blackmagic Design announced today that a number of the 2019 summer season’s worldwide film releases used numerous Blackmagic Design products during production and post, including its digital film cameras, DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, color correction, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production application, and more. This included some of the biggest blockbusters and expected blockbusters of the summer, such as “John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum,” “Men In Black: International” and “Rocketman.”

Blackmagic Design products were used at nearly every stage of production and post production on various summer films created around the world. DaVinci Resolve Studio continues to be the go to application for many of the world’s leading editors, colorists and post production facilities, such as Company 3’s Stefan Sonnenfeld on “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” Local Hero Posts’s Toby Martisius on “Brian Banks” and Goldcrest’s Adam Glasman on “Tolkien.”

During production, Blackmagic Design cameras were used on a variety of films and scenes, while the company’s various routers, capture and playback devices, monitors, DaVinci Resolve and Mini Converters were used on DIT carts to help manage on set production, from quirky comedies, such as “The Art of Self Defense,” to blockbuster action movies, such as “Dark Phoenix.”

For Post Production using DaVinci Resolve Studio or Fusion Studio:

“21 Bridges” colored by Tom Poole of Company 3;

“Ad Astra” colored by Greg Fisher of Company 3;

“Booksmart” colored by Alex Bickel of Color Collective at Technicolor;

“Boss Level” VFX Supervisor George Loucas of Baked Studios used DaVinci Resolve Studio for select post work as part of the VFX workflow;

“Brian Banks” colored by Toby Martisius for Local Hero Post;

“Dora and the Lost City of Gold” colored by Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3;

“Hallowed Ground” colored by Bradley Greer of Kyotocolor;

“The Hunt” colored at Technicolor;

“John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum” colored by Jill Bogdanowicz of Company 3;

“Luce” colored by Alex Bickel of Color Collective, and VFX Supervisor Lucien Harriot of Mechanism Digital used Fusion Studio for visual effects;

“Men In Black: International” colored by Stephen Nakamura of Company 3;

“Rocketman” colored by Rob Pizzey of Goldcrest;

“The Secret Life of Pets 2” colored by Jason Hanel of EFILM;

“Tolkien” colored by Adam Glasman of Goldcrest.

The summer films that used Blackmagic Design products for production include:

“The Art of Self Defense” DIT Jared Jardu used a variety of Blackmagic Design routers and converters, as well as DaVinci Resolve for on set work;

“Boss Level” DIT Nina Chadha used DaVinci Resolve, DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel and Mini Converters to create daily LUTs on set;

“Dark Phoenix” DIT Julie Garceau used DaVinci Resolve, SmartScope Duo monitor, Smart Videohub 12x12 router, DeckLink Mini Recorder capture and playback card and various UltraStudio capture and playback devices, as well as various routers and converters on set;

“FastandFurious Presents: HobbsandShaw” 2nd set DIT Simon Jori used UltraStudio Mini Recorder and DaVinci Resolve for on set work;

“Hallowed Ground” DP Michael Williams used URSA Mini 4K cameras for principal photography;

“John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum” DIT Patrick Cecilian used DaVinci Resolve and UltraStudio capture and playback devices for on set work;

“Late Night” DIT Michael Maiatico used DaVinci Resolve as well as various routers and converters on set;

“Long Shot” DIT Julie Garceau used DaVinci Resolve, SmartScope Duo, Smart Videohub 12x12, DeckLink Mini Recorder and various UltraStudio capture and playback devices, as well as various routers and converters on set;

“Ma” DIT Paul Rahfield used various Blackmagic Design routers, converters and DaVinci Resolve for on set work;

“Spider-Man™: Far From Home” used DeckLink capture and playback cards for real time streaming of RAW footage, DaVinci Resolve for near set grading, and Smart Videohub 20x20 and Mini Converters on set.

Press Photography

Product photos of URSA Mini 4K, Smart Videohub, DeckLink, Mini Converters, UltraStudio, SmartScope Duo, Fusion Studio, DaVinci Resolve Studio, DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, 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 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com

FREMONT, Calif.—In a livestream announcement on Thursday, Aug. 8, Blackmagic Design highlighted a trio of newly updated and released products for production and post-production needs. Leading the way was the announcement of the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, but it was also accompanied by the latest version of DaVinci Resolve and the new UltraStudio 4K Mini.

Building off of the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K model, the new Pocket Cinema Camera 6K features a full Super 35 size 6K HDR image sensor, 13 stops of dynamic range, and EF lens mount and dual native ISO up to 25,600. With its 6144x3456 Super 35 sensor and EF lens mount ability, the camera can be paired with a range of professional quality lenses to create different looks, as well as reframe and zoom in on an original shot in post-production to create a close-up. The camera can shoot up to 50 fps at 6144x3456 16:9 or 60 fps at 6144x2560 2.4:1 and 5744x3024 17:9. The camera records in either 10-bit Apple ProRes for 4K images or 12-bit Blackmagic RAW for 6K.

Additional camera features a 5-inch touchscreen on the back of the camera to view the image and adjust settings. It features the Generation 4 Color Science for appropriate colors, a full-size HDMI connector, a mini XLR connection, 17 and 33 3D LUT files, a built-in timecode generator and the ability to display settings in 11 different languages. The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K is available now for $2,495.

Blackmagic also displayed a new entry to its line of UltraStudio systems, the UltraStudio 4K Mini. This capture and playback system is designed for Thunderbolt 3 computers with 12G-SDI, HDMI, analog video and audio connections for building solutions editing, color grading, live broadcast graphics, archiving and live internet streaming. The unit is designed to fit on any rack or desktop and has a front panel that features push button controls, and LCD for monitoring signal and setup, an XLR microphone input and 1/4-inch microphone jack. The unit supports SD, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, 2160p and 4K DCI formats. It works with DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro and Avid, as well as Mac, Windows and Linux systems. Blackmagic is now offering the UltraStudio 4K Mini for $995.

There is also a new version of the DaVinci Resolve editing platform that is now available, the DaVinci Resolve 16.1. The new version is meant to help editors improve the sorting of media. This is done through a new featured called Sync Bin, which organizes and displays sync media for easy shot selection either through timecode, audio or manual syncing of clips. Other new features include a Smart Indicator that adds UI feedback for intelligent edit features; a new cut clip tool; a Boring Detector that highlight areas of a clip that lack interest; and a close up edit mode with face recognition to better frame shots. The public beta of the new editing software is available for a free download.

The company also showcased Blackmagic RAW Speed Test, a performance measurement tool for Mac OS X that tests a computer’s CPU and GPU speeds using full resolution Blackmagic RAW image decodes. That is also available as a free download from Blackmagic.

For more information on all these productions, visit blackmagicdesign.com.