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Blackmagic Design announced that Pickathon Music Festival used five Blackmagic Studio Cameras and six ATEM Live Production Switchers, as well as a large number of additional Blackmagic Design products, as the backbone of its live production and live streaming workflows. Held outside of Portland, OR in early August, Pickathon brought together more than 50 musical acts across seven stages for a three day music festival on the Pendarvis Farm and in the surrounding woods.

Not only is Pickathon unique in terms of location, with one stage nestled in the woods and made entirely out of tree branches, but it also relied on a unique live production workflow. Pickathon’s producer and a production veteran, Ryan Stiles, coordinated a crew of 68 staff and 223 volunteers to handle live broadcasts to monitors around the festival grounds, as well as 44 hours of live streams to a global Internet audience via the festival’s and local station KEXP’s websites. Tens of thousands of people enjoyed the festival, whether at the event itself or watching live streams online.

Located near the main stage, a 57 foot broadcast truck housed an ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K and ATEM 1 M/E Broadcast Panel, which were the heart of the live production workflow. The switcher handled all the stages’ feeds along with three computers feeding it edited content.

“The ATEM switchers allow Pickathon to accomplish tasks that would otherwise be impossible. We needed stability and a universal system that’s the same no matter what stage the directors are at. The simplicity and ease of use of the software and control over the network is an all around win for us,” said Ryan. “The importance of using it cannot be stressed enough. One of Pickathon’s challenges is that we are not a crew during the year. We come from all different types of employment in the industry, and I need everyone to understand the equipment within a five minute period so they can focus on our aesthetic rather then fuss with technology. The ATEM switchers and Studio Cameras allow us to do just that.

“When putting together the production for this year, I knew we needed to use the Blackmagic Studio Cameras because of their functionality and mobility, perfect for live production,” he continued. “When shooting live, menus inside of menus are not an option, and the Studio Camera’s easy access to camera options is amazing. And the two color settings worked out great. We shot flat for post editing color grading and then switched over to video for richer tones when streaming live.”

Ryan added: “By the end of the first day, our senior camera operators had nothing but praise for the Studio Cameras. I would say that the Studio Camera is the future of multi camera live production.”

The staff were divided among the rest of the stages and used a mix of cameras, switchers and converters, including the Blackmagic Studio Cameras HD, ATEM Production Studio 4K, ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher, three ATEM Television Studio switchers, six ATEM Camera Converters, three ATEM Studio Converters, HyperDeck Studio Pro and three HyperDeck Shuttle SSD recorders to record the footage, two H.264 Pro Recorders and 13 Mini Converters. 3,800 ft. of optical fiber cable connected the stages to the main broadcast truck. A Blackmagic Design Production Camera 4K was used to shoot private sessions around the farm with the musicians called "On the Farm.” These sessions were also streamed during the festival and will be released throughout 2015.

“This is Pickathon’s 16th year, and since day one the driving force behind it has been to create the best music festival possible for music lovers. And that’s across the board, from the lineups and stages to eliminating plastic and normal festival hassles, as well as putting decisions in the hands of the online community,” concluded Ryan. “I’ve been producing the festival for the last six years, and each year we try to make the production better for festival goers and online viewers. It’s why we rely on Blackmagic Design for much of our live production and streaming workflows.”

Press Photography

Product photos of Blackmagic Studio Camera, Production Camera 4K, ATEM Live Production Switchers 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.

This software package updates your Teranex to the latest software release for new features, third party software support, bug fixes and other enhancements as well as installing Blackmagic Media Express and Blackmagic UltraScope. Version 3.0.1 of the Teranex Utility updates only the Teranex Express model, with bug fixes of known issues. There are no changes for the Teranex 2D or 3D.

New model AG-HPX610 is going to be launched on October2014. A current model AG-HPX600 is going to be discontinued at the end of September 2014. AG-HPX600 users who require AVC ULTRA upgrade with charge are able to upgrade AG-HPX600 to AJ-PX800 from October 2014 to March 2015.

Panasonic announces the new firmware update program for the LUMIX G interchangeable lens camera DMC-GH4. The firmware will be released to enhance the performance and controllability of the camera, featuring new 4K Photo Mode. The 4K Photo mode encourages a new way of photography first proposed by Panasonic. It encourages users to capture spur-of-the-moment, high resolution, 4K photos by cropping out a designated frame from a 4K video. With the new firmware for GH4, it is easier to get 4K photo by using the dedicated mode. Once selecting the 4K Photo Mode, recording format, picture quality setting, brightness level are automatically set to the optimum parameter for photo shooting. Users can record high quality video either in 4:3, 3:2 or even 1:1 aspect, in addition to 16:9, all which can provide a still image with 8-megapixel equivalent resolution. While recording the 4K video in 4K Photo Mode, it is possible to mark the designated part by just pressing the [Fn1] button. This can reduce postproduction work for searching the spur-of-the-moment worth cropping out. Furthermore, 4K video can be recorded continuously with Loop Rec function which keeps on saving 5 newest 2-minute video files before you press record. There are more functional upgrades such as an addition of 4K video recording in 23.98p (MP4, AAC) and enhancement of controllability over ISO setting or light amount of flash emission. Also, the DMC-GH4 now expands its connectivity with external equipment. For example, the PC software USB Tether” enables remote camera control (shooting, setting or image data transfer) by PC via USB. The PHOTOfunSTUDIO 9.5PE and Panasonic Image App for iOS/Android will also be updated to support these functional upgrades. The new firmware program is scheduled to be released in the beginning of October, 2014.

HC-X1000 is a first prosumer camcorder capable of recording 4K 60p/50p video images on an SD card! Featuring a LEICA Dicomar Lens alongside a new BSI Sensor, and Crystal Engine Pro 4K, the HC-X1000 produces stunning, lifelike images in Ultra HD 4K resolution. In addition, the camcorder packs a wide variety of professional features and functions and a 20x optical zoom lens into an extremely compact body, enabling the most nimble and mobile shooting as the scene unfolds.