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Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced that NTT Learning Systems Corporation (NTTLS) has built a 4K recording and streaming system for a large digital art museum in Tokyo using ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K, ATEM 1 M/E Broadcast Panel and Video Assist, as well as a number of Blackmagic Mini Converters.

NTTLS is a company offering educational service for the NTT group, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation and other companies and organizations outside of the NTT group. They offer educational and video production services such as digital signage and video streaming, as well as technical consultation. For their museum client’s system, NTTLS built an entire AV and production system, as well as sourced NTTLS staff as technical support in the facility.



The facility mainly exhibits digital art, and includes both a permanent exhibition and special exhibition spaces. Performance rooms in the museum allow museum staff to hold panel sessions or bring in guest artists, which occur about 20 to 30 times a year. The NTTLS built 4K recording and a streaming system was made to record these performances and events, as well as archive them for streaming or viewing in the facility.

With the museum’s productions, four cameras are used, with their output sent to the ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K via Mini Converter HDMI to SDI 4K. They record ISO camera outputs as well as switching with a 4K recorder via Mini Converter SDI to HDMI 4K. Computer outputs for presentations are also sent to the ATEM switcher and recorded via SDI to HDMI 4K. Audio feeds from a PA system and audio from computers are converted with Mini Converter SDI to Analog.

“When we first built the system for this museum five years ago, we were looking for an HD switcher and we installed Blackmagic’s ATEM 1 M/E switcher. This time, we needed to upgrade the system to 4K, so we decided to use the new Blackmagic switcher. Our affiliate post production house, NTT MEDIA LAB, has been using many Blackmagic products so it made us comfortable to use the same brand,” said Mitsuhiro Tajima, the system engineer of NTTLS.



NTTLS installed the Blackmagic 2 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K as they needed additional inputs and outputs, as well as the ATEM 1 M/E Broadcast Panel for hardware switching. The compactness of the set up was one of the main advantages of the Blackmagic Design products for NTTLS, with the ATEM Broadcast 1 M/E Broadcast Panel sitting in a system rack that can be pulled out whenever needed. The monitor for multi view output from the ATEM is also mounted on a rack.

“We wanted everything to be rack mounted and compact, and Blackmagic had an advantage in terms of compactness. We chose the 1 M/E Broadcast Panel as we wanted to keep it in the rack system. We used to operate the Blackmagic switcher with their software control panel, but I like the physical switcher’s intuitiveness. ATEM also allows us to easily switch output formats, which is very usable,” said Yuji Ohmameuda of NTTLS, who manages the recording/streaming system at the museum.

Ohmameuda continued: “Most of the recorded material is premised on editing, however, some events are live streamed. We use the Blackmagic Video Assist as an HD recorder to live stream the down converted video via Ustream.”



“Blackmagic has a wide variety of product line ups, so I don’t have to worry about which third party products work well with Blackmagic. I can simply use the same Blackmagic brand so it is very easy to build a system like this,” Tajima concluded.

Press Photography
Product photos of all Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/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.

Pixologic presents an exclusive live streaming broadcast event Tuesday, June 13th at 12pm PDT on www.ZBrushLIVE.com. Tune in for a chance to chat with the Pixologic team as they give a special demonstration!

Press Release

Blackmagic Design has announced that Goldcrest Post has utilized a Blackmagic Cintel Film Scanner for a major restoration project to upgrade asset formatting for all of Goldcrest Film’s prestigious library titles, which were scanned to Ultra HD 4K and remastered in 2K.

Led by Goldcrest’s CTO, Laurent Treherne, the project involved remastering sixteen of Goldcrest Film’s titles, including “Dance with a Stranger” (1985 ), “Absolute Beginners” (1986 ) and “White Mischief” (1987). “With an increase in the number of OTT services there is a growing demand for high quality film originated content,” Laurent begins.



Laurent goes on to explain that as well as meeting the clients’ demand for 4K quality content, the Cintel Film Scanner allowed Goldcrest Film to keep the restoration workflow within the group. “As with any restoration, we knew the project would entail numerous challenges. They included locating suitable source elements, repairing damage, identifying reference images for color grading and re-versioning picture and sound files into formats suitable for the modern consumer. The versatility and speed of the Blackmagic infrastructure helped us to address those challenges.”

A dedicated DaVinci Resolve workstation was set up alongside the Blackmagic Cintel Film Scanner in order to create a standalone, single workstation pipeline that would not impact on Goldcrest’s DI work. The film elements were inspected and cleaned in laboratory conditions, then each reel was scanned in 4K onto a dedicated high speed storage volume and conformed and reframed to 2K.

The files were dustbusted and then graded in DaVinci Resolve Studio. Finally the Goldcrest team rendered the DSM archive and the HD deliverable. “We deliver in HD ProRes HQ 422, as that’s the delivery requirement for multi title library distribution deals, however Ultra HD 4K is increasingly a consideration for clients, so it’s an important requisite, certainly for future sales strategies,” explains Laurent.



The Cintel’s performance has been incredibly beneficial from the outset of the project, in particular how the scanner was able to work with negative film splices. “What’s impressed us the most from day one has been the scanner’s performance with negative film splices. What would jump in the gate of other scanning devices simply flows through the Cintel without a hitch. This represents a considerable time and cost saving over standard workflows which tend to require numerous shot stabilization fixes to address such artifacts.

The Blackmagic workflow for scanning, conforming and grading is straightforward, flexible and a low cost way of approaching remastering whether used as a standalone scanner with a single operator, or in conjunction with complementary scanners,” concludes Goldcrest Post’s managing director, Patrick Malone. “We’ve been impressed by how much detail we’ve gotten from some of the more challenging 35mm picture elements, and the quality and speed of the Ultra HD scan from both negative and print have been excellent.”



Press Photography
Product photos of all Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/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.

Panasonic Corporation announced a firmware upgrade for its P2 camera recorders (AJ-PX5000G, AJ-PX800G, AJ-PX380G, and AJ-PX270) and recorder (AJ-PG50) for broadcast use. The upgrade is the result of a partnership with LiveU and TVU Networks, enabling IP connection (wired or wireless) to LiveU or TVU Networks devices for parallel use (bonding) of multiple cell phone lines. Providing higher and more stable quality for live streaming of video content, and this enables high-speed FTP transfers of recorded files. The status of the LiveU or TVU device is also displayed in the camera's viewfinder to allow real-time confirmation of the connection conditions.

Combined with Panasonic's P2 Streaming Server (P2SS) and P2Cast, this produces a comprehensive solution for a variety of broadcast needs.

P2 Live Streaming Solution

Compatible P2 camera recorders are equipped with a QoS mode for streaming use. This mode optimizes the signal bit rate in real-time depending on the connection conditions of the cell phone line. Bonding with a LiveU or TVU device makes it possible to stream video with greater stability and a higher bit rate. The streaming video is sent through a LiveU or TVU server to the P2 Streaming Server (P2SS).

P2Cast Cloud Workflow

Compatible P2 camera recorders feature a Rec During Uploading function that automatically uploads proxy image files while recording. Uploading is possible to Panasonic's Cloud News Production System, P2Cast, or to a client FTP system. P2Cast uses a cloud application to set IN and OUT points in the proxy video. After producing the EDL, only the necessary scenes extracted in the form of high-quality video files from the on-location camera will be received. This achieves very efficient workflow. Bonding connection with a LiveU or TVU device accelerates the transfer speed and increases stability for a faster workflow.

Creatives are always on the go, needing a tool that can adapt to their ever-changing projects. Watch as Director Mark Toia describes his major three requirements for a creative tool and why WEAPON 8K S35 is the camera that checks all of the boxes: image quality, ease of use, and size/weight.