News

Press Release

Blackmagic Design today announced UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3, the world’s most advanced Thunderbolt video capture and playback solution.

Featuring the latest 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 technology, UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 has a wide range of digital and analog connections and is designed to work with virtually all formats ranging from SD and HD all the way up to Ultra HD and digital cinema. Thunderbolt 3 performance allows customers to work with the highest quality 12-bit RGB and highest frame rate video, including stereoscopic 3D and DCI 4K, making it perfect for high end feature film, television and commercial work. UltraStudio 4K Extreme features a hardware codec that can encode in real time into the new H.265 format.

UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 will be available in May for US$2,995 and will be demonstrated on the Blackmagic Design NAB 2016 booth at #SL217.

UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 uses the new Thunderbolt 3 connection for transferring data to the host computer at up to 40Gb/s. That means customers using the latest desktop workstations and laptop computers can now work with extremely high end video from anywhere using a single, thin Thunderbolt 3 cable.

Featuring advanced 12G-SDI technology, UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 can capture and playback video from the latest high frame rate Ultra HD and 4K devices up to 2160p60 over a single, standard BNC cable. UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 supports virtually every SD, HD, Ultra HD and 4K format and frame rate, in both YUV and RGB color, making it the ultimate capture and playback device for editing and color correction.

UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 also includes a built in multi format hardware codec that allows capturing video directly to H.265 files, which is the new compression standard for distributing Ultra HD content online. The demand for content encoded in the H.265 format will become higher as customers demand high quality Ultra HD content for the latest televisions they are purchasing today. This means UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 is the perfect solution for real time encoding of Ultra HD for online distribution of content.

Designed to be used on a desktop, or installed into equipment racks, UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 features an attractive, machined aluminum front panel with an integrated color display and buttons for quickly selecting input sources for video, audio, timecode and deck control. The rear panel includes virtually every type of video and audio connection that exists, including 12G-SDI, HDMI 2.0, analog component and composite video, balanced XLR and AES/EBU digital audio, as well as expansion cages for optical fiber SDI connections, RS-422 deck control inputs, dual power supplies and more.

Customers will be able to capture and playback Ultra HD in YUV at 60 frames per second as well as Ultra HD and 4K RGB video at 60 frames per second via the advanced 12G-SDI video connections. The Thunderbolt loop thru allows connection of up to 6 devices, so customers can connect fast disk arrays for massive amounts of video storage with a single Thunderbolt connection to their computer.

UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 handles virtually every television format, making it the ideal solution for all post production and broadcast users working on high end design, editing, paint, color correction and visual effects projects. UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 is also perfect for 3D workflows because it features both interleaved/side by side and dual stream capture and playback. Interleaved 3D allows the left and right eye to be interleaved as fields into a single video connection and file, so customers can use edit and finishing software such as DaVinci Resolve.

“The addition of Thunderbolt 3 with its amazing 40Gb/s speed makes it possible for customers to edit and color correct with higher end, higher quality video formats than ever before,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “This is the most powerful and versatile capture and playback device we’ve ever made because it connects to virtually all analog or SDI equipment, is incredibly fast, has a built-in hardware codec, and lets customers work at higher resolutions and frame rates with popular editing and color correction software like DaVinci Resolve 12.5!”

UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 Key Features

Supports 4K 60p capture and playback using 12G-SDI and HDMI 2.0 connections.

Built in high performance hardware codec for H.265 encoding.

Supports 12-bit 4:4:4 RGB 4K for high end color correction and VFX.

3D capture and playback via SDI and HDMI.

Analog Component and dedicated NTSC/PAL in and out.

4 channel balanced analog audio in and out. Additional RCA HiFi audio in.

2 channel AES/EBU unbalanced audio in and out.

Professional Mic input with phantom power selector and full input gain control.

Timecode in and out on XLR connectors.

Genlock/tri-sync input & output.

2 x Sony compatible RS-422 deck control.

Includes hardware down conversion of Ultra HD to HD on playback.

Includes hardware SD and HD keying.

Connects with both Thunderbolt 3 and PCIe

Includes free DaVinci Resolve software.

Includes free developer SDK

Elegant 2 rack unit design, with removable ears so it can be used in a rack or sit on a desk.

Availability and Price

UltraStudio 4K Extreme Thunderbolt 3 will be available in May for US$2,995 from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide.

Press Photography

Product photos of the UltraStudio 4K Extreme Thunderbolt 3, 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.

Press Release

Blackmagic Design today announced a major new camera operating system for its URSA Mini cameras. This new camera OS features an incredible new user interface along with dozens of new features and will be available later this year free of charge for all URSA Mini customers.

The new Blackmagic URSA Mini camera OS beta will be demonstrated on the Blackmagic Design NAB 2016 booth at #SL217.

The new URSA Mini camera OS is not just an upgrade, it’s a total rewrite from the ground up. The new OS has been specifically designed for the high performance processing architecture of URSA Mini and delivers a much more responsive experience, along with an entirely new user interface that makes using URSA Mini faster and more intuitive than ever before.

The first things customers will notice is the incredible new user interface and heads up display which dramatically reduces the number of menus and submenus needed to find specific settings and commands. Customers can now quickly change settings such as ISO, white balance, shutter angle, iris, frame rate, frame guides and more without ever having to navigate through any menus.

In addition, there are now custom white balance and white balance presets, along with tint control settings. Customers also get more accurate shutter angle selection, including a large easy to use on screen keyboard for easy entry of settings. When entering the shutter angle, the new URSA Mini camera OS will even offer smart flicker free shutter angle suggestions to assist the camera operator.

Entering metadata on cameras has always been tedious. The new URSA Mini camera OS solves the problem of tedious metadata entry by giving customers an entirely new metadata entry page with predictive entry suggestions and a preloaded dictionary of commonly used terms that can be applied as metadata tags with a simple tap. For example, if you stop and start the camera, the take will automatically increment. If you increase the scene number, shot and take, it will automatically reset to 1.

The new URSA Mini camera OS adds 1.33x and 2x anamorphic de-squeeze previews, along with the ability to double tap so customers can pan and zoom around the preview on the built in display. Customers can now import and store external 3D LUTs and apply the LUT to the LCD, front and main SDI outputs independently. They can also load and save their own presets for different shooting setups or different operators.

In addition, customers can now assign shortcuts to camera function keys, toggle between peaking and color focus assist, see new percentage based safe area guides and have the ability to toggle SDI overlays with information specifically geared toward either the cinematographer or the director viewing at video village.

“Customers love their URSA Mini cameras and are shooting some incredible footage with them,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “The new Blackmagic URSA Mini camera OS is so exciting because it gives us a platform to build on for the future. There is a lot of extra power in the URSA Mini design that we have only just started to unlock, and until now this power has been hidden. The new URSA Mini operating system is going to let us build more of the features customers need even faster than before. Once you use it, it’s like getting a whole new camera for free!”

Availability and Price

The Blackmagic URSA Mini camera OS will be available later this year as a free update for all Blackmagic URSA Mini customers.

Press Photography

Product photos of the Blackmagic URSA Mini, 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.

Now it’s possible to distribute and sell Ultra HD content direct to customers at live events!

Blackmagic Design announced the new Blackmagic Duplicator 4K, which allows delivery of Ultra HD content to consumers by recording files onto inexpensive SD cards that can be distributed to customers the moment an event is finished. Featuring 25 built in SD card recorders, multi rate 12G-SDI connections and a realtime H.265 encoder, Blackmagic Duplicator 4K is the best way to deliver Ultra HD content that customers can actually view on their 4K televisions and Windows 10 computers today.

Blackmagic Duplicator 4K is available now for US$1,995 and will be demonstrated on the Blackmagic Design NAB 2016 booth at #SL217.

The Blackmagic Duplicator 4K lets content creators dramatically increase revenue because it gives them a way to sell content right after a live event, while attendees are still excited about the performance, and before they walk out the door. Now customers can sell concert videos to fans as they leave the venue, to parents after their children’s latest performance or recital, after sporting events, conferences, sales seminars and more.

The Blackmagic Duplicator 4K encodes video using H.265, which is the new standard for Ultra HD delivery, and saves files in an open file format on to standard SD cards. The built in realtime H.265 hardware encoder gives customers incredible looking Ultra HD video, even at high frame rates up to 2160p60. The H.265 video looks better than the older H.264 standard, and the files are small with data rates low so content can play back from standard SD card media. With H.265, Ultra HD content is not much larger in file size than a HD file would be in the older H.264 standard.

Featuring 25 SD card recorders miniaturized into a single rack unit, the Blackmagic Duplicator 4K uses standard, common SD cards that are readily available, super thin, inexpensive and very fast. Cards can be used for SD, HD and Ultra HD video up to 2160p60 and are compatible with Windows 10 computers. With the addition of a USB adapter, SD cards can even be plugged directly into most consumer Ultra HD televisions for immediate playback of the video.

The built in H.265 encoder is so efficient that a one hour Ultra HD program can easily fit onto a very inexpensive 8GB SD card. SD cards are also easy to label and completely re-usable so customers can reformat unsold cards and record over them again at their next event. Unlike proprietary disc based formats like Blu-Ray, customers don’t have to buy a slow and expensive player. Blackmagic Duplicator 4K is the easiest, most compatible and cost effective way to distribute Ultra HD content to consumers today.

The front panel controls are designed to make duplicating content as easy as possible and feature 6 large illuminated buttons for record, stop, lock, append, menu and remote. The lock button prevents accidental interruption of recording during an event, and the append record button seamlessly combines recordings from different parts of an event into a single file.

This revolutionary new append recording feature is perfect for events that have natural breaks, like weddings with a ceremony and reception in different locations. Append recording makes it easier for consumers to watch the final program because they only have to play back a single movie file.

The Blackmagic Duplicator 4K features advanced, multi rate 12G-SDI connections that can record all SD, HD and Ultra HD formats up to 2160p60. For larger events, multiple duplicators can be stacked using the SDI loop thru and RS-422 deck control. This lets customers encode and duplicate to an unlimited number of SD cards in realtime. When recording is started or stopped on the first duplicator, the others automatically follow. There is also an optical fiber SFP socket for adding an optional SMPTE compatible optical fiber SDI module when working in larger venues with long distances between equipment. Adding optical fiber SDI directly into the duplicators could be very useful when duplicators are set up close to the merchandising stands away from the production area so that cards can be handed to customers for quick sale.

“Virtually all televisions sold are now Ultra HD models,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “Manufacturers have moved away from regular HD and customers are buying new larger high resolution TV’s. But the problem for consumers is that there’s very little content available so they can’t take advantage of the resolution, color and detail that their new Ultra HD televisions can display. The Blackmagic Duplicator 4K is the solution to the Ultra HD delivery problem because it is an extremely affordable and convenient way to deliver Ultra HD content directly to consumers that they can play on their Ultra HD televisions today!”

Blackmagic Duplicator 4K Key Features

25 SD card recorders for simultaneously recording onto multiple cards at once.

Realtime H.265 encoding technology which is the standard for Ultra HD.

12G-SDI input and loop thru output, along with RS-422 control.

Uses open standard file formats that are compatible with computers and Ultra HD televisions.

Records all SD, HD and Ultra HD formats up to 2160p60.

Record unlimited cards by daisy chaining multiple duplicators together.

Easy to use front panel controls with lock, record, append, stop and remote buttons.

Built in universal 110V - 240V AC power supply.

Availability and Price

Blackmagic Duplicator 4K is available now for US$1,995 from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide.

Press Photography

Product photos of the Blackmagic Duplicator 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.

Introducing the world's smallest broadcast quality video converters!

Blackmagic Design introduced Blackmagic Micro Converter SDI to HDMI and Blackmagic Micro Converter HDMI to SDI, two new super small, pocket size broadcast quality video converters. Both models are available immediately for only 79 EUR ex. VAT each.

Blackmagic Micro Converters are available now and will be demonstrated on the Blackmagic Design NAB 2016 booth at #SL217.

The Blackmagic Micro Converter SDI to HDMI converts signals from professional broadcast equipment such as cameras, decks, switchers and routers, and converts it into HDMI so customers can monitor video using big screen televisions and projectors. The Blackmagic Micro Converter HDMI to SDI model lets customers connect their HDMI equipment, such as laptop computers, gaming consoles and consumer video cameras, to professional broadcast equipment.

Both models feature full size HDMI and professional 3G-SDI connections for working with all SD and HD formats up to 1080p60. Unlike other small video converters, Blackmagic Micro Converters feature the highest quality broadcast technology, miniaturized into a proper metal enclosure. Customers get the same broadcast quality 10-bit video processing found in full size converters. In addition, Blackmagic Micro Converters also have SDI re-clocking on the 3G-SDI input which regenerates the SDI video input, reduces SDI jitter and improves SDI eye pattern before the signal is processed. This allows longer cable lengths and makes them incredibly reliable for use in professional broadcast.

Blackmagic Micro Converters are powered via the same micro USB connection that’s used on smartphones so customers can use the included DC plug pack, any USB device, or even a smartphone charger to power the converters. The included external power supply supports 110 to 240V AC and comes with 4 different AC socket adapters so customers can plug them into outlets anywhere in the world. That means they can be run from the external power supply, or even over USB from things such as big screen televisions or laptop computers if there are no AC wall outlets available.

“The new Blackmagic Micro Converters are exciting because they give customers full 10-bit broadcast quality video processing in an incredibly small design they can take anywhere,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “There’s never been a converter this good, this small and this affordable! Customers are going to use them in studios on broadcast news, at live events, hidden on set, with digital signs, in corporate or hotel AV setups and everywhere in between!”

Blackmagic Micro Converters are part of a large family of professional broadcast converters that include even more advanced models with a massively increased range of features. This range includes 3G, 6G and 12G-SDI models that are compatible with SD, HD and Ultra HD all the way up to high frame rate 2160p60. Blackmagic Mini Converters and Teranex Mini converters feature support for a wide range of connections such as balanced analog and AES/EBU audio, redundant inputs, analog video, optical fiber and more.

Blackmagic Micro Converter Key Features

Available in SDI to HDMI model or HDMI to SDI model.

Full size HDMI and 3G-SDI connections for working with all SD and HD formats up to 1080p60.

Durable metal enclosure designed to be rugged enough to use anywhere.

Professional Blackmagic Design broadcast quality 10-bit video processing.

SDI re-clocking on 3G-SDI input to reduce SDI jitter and improve SDI eye pattern.

Power via micro USB connection from devices such as laptop computers, phone chargers, and televisions, or via the included DC plug pack with external 110V - 240V AC power supply.

Availability and Price

Blackmagic Micro Converters are available now for 79 EUR ex. VAT.

Press Photography

Product photos of the Blackmagic Micro Converters, 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.

EDIUS 8.2 brings a number of new features to EDIUS 8 users, including motion tracking, which allows filters to be applied to a moving object to obscure identities or sensitive information for example, and a primary color correction video filter that enables color adjustments to clips in the original color space. It also supports adjustments natively, enabling editors to work with LOG files from Sony, Canon and Panasonic cameras.

Other new features include RAW decoding for Sony and Canon footage, improvements to the innovative GV Browser content management tool and draft preview for EDIUS Workgroup users. The latter makes it easier to work with heavier codecs, for example 4K, and CPU-intensive effects, by using selectable preview resolutions. When the preview is paused, EDIUS instantly displays a full-quality image to give the editor the best of both worlds -- speed and precision.

Another significant boost to EDIUS' plug-in compatibility comes with the announcement at NAB that creative effects specialist HitFilm is developing native support for EDIUS, a preview of which will be shown at the Grass Valley booth. The library of 140 HitFilm Ignite plug-ins (sold separately) will provide a powerful visual effects arsenal for EDIUS users.

Users of EDIUS Neo (versions 1 to 3.5) or EDIUS Pro (versions 2 to 6.5) can still take advantage of the special upgrade promotion that enables an upgrade to EDIUS Pro 8 for just 349 EUR ex. VAT, until April 30, 2016. This promotion also will be open to those who have purchased academic versions.