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Press Release

Blackmagic Design has announced that its Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K was deployed at the 2015 European Short Course Swimming Championship, held in Netanya, Israel, as part of a specialist 3D motion robotic cable system developed by DynamiCam.

 

As the lead overhead camera for live broadcasts, the Micro Studio Camera was part of a major multi camera OB set up, devised by sports specialist Mizmor HD Productions, with a live program mix produced for more than 20 international EBU broadcast partners, including the BBC, RAI TV, MTVA, ORF, NOS, TVE and SVT.

 

The Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K was rigged in a 3D motion robotic cable system over the Olympic size, ten lane facility, in order to deliver a ‘pool top’ view of the action, which is a broadcast prerequisite of the European Swimming Association. The solution features a 360 degree gimbal held in place by lightweight winches and cabling, together with stabilization, to deliver a greater range of camera angles than other rail rig solutions.

 

“The Micro Studio Camera delivered outstanding results,” reveals Ziv Bezalel, head producer at Mizmor Productions. “Not only did the solution give us a top shot of the pool, but it also gave us the flexibility to use a more dynamic range of movement to track competitors, which helped to enhance the overall excitement of the races.”

 

A pilot for the gimbal and camera operator worked side by side to coordinate shots, with the camera operator using the Micro Studio Camera’s CCU software over a fiber connection to control parameters including iris, shutter speed, white balance and gain control.

 

“Remote camera control is essential for any multi camera broadcast environment, especially when you are mixing signals from a wide variety of cameras, as we were at the Championship,” continues Ziv. “The more parameters that we have control over, the better the images we are able to produce. The ATEM CCU also allows lift, gamma and gain control for individual color control, so the team was able to ensure the same level of consistency from the Micro Studio Camera 4K that we were achieving across the rest of our OB production.”

 

“We recognized that a number of small HD and Ultra HD cameras offering superb image quality coming into the market, and designed our solution to place these compact units into an alternative, lightweight cable system for live events as well as stadium and venue AV installations,” explains Enosh Cassel, DynamiCam. “As soon as we saw the capabilities of the Micro Studio Camera, we knew that it would be the perfect partner for what we had in mind; combining broadcast quality images with interesting and unusual camera angles, which bring an added creative dimension to live sports broadcasting.”

Press Photography

Product photos of Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K and all other 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 has announced the immediate availability of Barry Green's A Guide to the Panasonic AG-DVX200 Camera, a comprehensive reference e-book for customers and users of the new AG-DVX200PJ, 4K large-sensor, 4/3” handheld camcorder. The book can be downloaded free at http://info.panasonic.com/dvx200-ebook.html.

A Guide to the Panasonic AG-DVX200 Camera is an interactive digital book examining all the DVX200PJ's features, settings and modes, as well as tutorials on some of the most common situations users will face. The book demystifies the functionality of all the DVX200PJ's features, and explains when and why to use specific settings for best results. An extensive section of tutorials and essays covers a range of subjects from the simple to the advanced, including explanations on the benefits of 4K, working with the camcorder's variable frame rates, using its VLOG-L mode, and how to use the waveform monitor and vectorscope. The full-color, 260+-page book has an abundance of photos, screen-shots and video examples of menu functions.

Barry Green is an Emmy-award-winning producer with four Emmy nominations for writing and producing television commercials and public service announcements. His technical background includes 13 years as a professional computer programmer and producer for Westwood Studios, creating some of the most popular video games in history. Green writes and produces award-winning corporate and industrial films, commercials, screenplays and films for Fiercely Independent Films Inc. and tours extensively as a public speaker and instructor. He also serves as partner and moderator for www.DVXUser.com, one of the world’s largest online communities for filmmakers, shooters, and content producers of all types.

Ever since we added the younger sister of the PXW-FS7 (PXW-FS5

) to the SYNTEX lineup, questions like "What's the difference between the FS7 and FS5?" have been abounding We have therefore decided to describe the most significant differences in the following article.

SCARLET-W represents RED Digital Cinema's passion and dedication to carrying on the legacy started by RED ONE -- disrupting the industry and delivering a camera of unparalleled quality and acessibility to content creators everywhere. And now RED has changed the industry again, with the SCARLET-W, powered by a RED DRAGON sensor and featuring interchangeable lens mounts and OLPFs.

SCARLET-W combines RED's intuitive camera design -- including integrated mounting points, interchangeable lens mounts, simultaneous REDCODE RAW and Apple ProRes recording formats, intelligent OLPF system, and in-camera 3D LUT outputs -- with a RED DRAGON sensor to provide a solution that blends flexibility and accessibility with high-end performance.

Coupling RED's wide dynamic range and renowned color science with simultaneously recording capabilities in REDCODE RAW and Apple ProRes, SCARLET-W provides shooters with the best image quality possible in any format. Professionals are empowered to capture their vision exactly as they see it with recording frame rates of 5K at 60 frames per second, 4K at 150 fps, or 2K at 300 fps when shooting REDCODE RAW.

Estimated to begin shipping in February 2016. You can place a deposit of 955 EUR ex. VAT to reserve your spot in the allocation queue. The deposit will be applied towards the total price when you are invoiced at the time of shipment.

Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced that BAFTA award winning animation company Axis Animation has used Fusion Studio to complete compositing work on the opening cinematic for Microsoft’s new “Halo 5: Guardians” Xbox game in collaboration with 343 Industries.

 

Founded in 2000, Axis Animation has grown into an internationally renowned animation studio, which now boasts a multi talented team of more than 110 artists and spans two UK locations. Fusion Studio has been an integral part of the studio’s VFX pipeline for many years now. The team has worked on a wide variety of games projects for high end titles including League of Legends, Call of Duty, Alien Isolation, and more.

 

This latest cinematic for 343 Industries is the studio’s most ambitious project to date according to Sergio Caires, CG supervisor at Axis Animation. “Throughout the entire project, Fusion Studio ensured we were able us to finesse the final picture to perfection,” he begins. “It did what Fusion always does for every project we’ve worked on with it over the past fifteen years, helping us pull together all of our passes and giving us a fast, interactive compositing environment regardless of what we ask of it.”

 

Boasting more than four million views on YouTube, Axis Animation’s latest action packed “Halo 5: Guardians” cinematic introduces the main characters of Halo’s Fireteam Osiris, delivering a mission briefing before launching viewers into a preview of the gameplay world. In one continuous take, the team jumps out of a Pelican dropship to join a massive battle, which features hundreds of characters, vehicles and ships on a snowy mountain landscape.

 

To complete the project, a team of between 15 and 20 Axis Animation artists worked for six months, modeling, rigging, animating, lighting and rendering the final assets. Fusion Studio was then used for all of the compositing work, bringing together the hundreds of elements and render passes needed for the game cinematic to come to life.

 

“I approached compositing the sequence in a way that meant a lot of the elements, and all the main passes, actually lived in a single scene file,” explains Sergio. “This was a big challenge, especially when you consider the fact that the Halo 5 project included such a long, uninterrupted opening sequence, but was driven by the way we had planned to work on these shots. It was far easier to have a small number of artists focus on one difficult scene than to let many different artists start working on it, which would have been counterproductive.”

 

“I think the biggest success is the visual impact of the opening cinematic,” he concludes. “This is a perfect blend of the amazing choreography created by the team at 343 Industries, and the insane levels of detail, subtlety and action that our team added via the lighting and FX work.”

Press Photography

Product photos for Fusion Studio and all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com.

 

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.