Blackmagic Design, a provider of video processing and distribution technology has acquired da Vinci Systems, a pioneer in the areas of film coloring and restoration, based in Coral Springs, Fla. Financial terms of the deal were not released.
Blackmagic is headquartered in Port Melbourne, Australia, with offices in Europe, Asia and a U.S. office in Milpitas, Calif. The company has developed a range of products for editing, monitoring and conversion and has recently expanded into distribution with its Videohub router product line. Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO and founder said that the company will focus its efforts on improving engineering and marketing for da Vinci’s Resolve and Revival products.
“The team for Resolve should be 3-4 times bigger in about two months time and we have a lot of good ideas to work on,” Petty said in an e-mail statement earlier this month. “Resolve is just incredible and deserves more resources.” Petty said that the company has streamlined its workforce in da Vinci’s Florida facilities and is hiring new engineers as well as rehiring former da Vinci engineers.
As for Revival, Petty said that it needs a new user interface and extra features and that “it will also have more engineering added to it.” He also said that Blackmagic will stop marketing 2K-based systems, focus on marketing Resolve and honor all current support contracts. “But we are not going to sign any new ones,” he added.
Blackmagic bought da Vinci for its “performance,” but added that the company was losing money. He declined to indicate whether the acquisition will result in lower-cost da Vinci products.
Blackmagic Design has a history with da Vinci. In 2008, Blackmagic Design Singapore, the company’s sole post production facility, installed a Resolve R250 digital imaging suite and accompanying Impresario control panel and upgraded its da Vinci Resolve RT with the new Resolve R350 as part of a facility expansion and upgrade. Petty is a longtime admirer of the company.
“I cannot believe we have purchased such a legendary brand,” he said. “One of the things that totally blew my mind when I first started in post production as an engineer way back in 1988 was the color grading room with a da Vinci. The image on the monitor was such incredible quality, I just stood there staring speechless. It was amazing. Now we have our opportunity to care for the da Vinci name. It’s exciting but a little terrifying too! We have some big standards to live up to, but we want to exceed what people expect.”
