News

The new Sony PXW-X180 camcorder, successor to the popular HVR-Z7E, HXR-NX5E and PMW-150 models, features three 1/3-inch type Exmor CMOS sensors, records HD videos into the XAVC format, as well as AVCHD and DV, features dual SxS memory card slots and an SD slot for proxy recording, and is fitted with a G-Series fixed 25x zoom lens with 26mm wide angle and variable 4-position ND filter. To be available in August 2014.

New 12x12 and 20x20 size SDI routers include 6G-SDI technology for SD, HD and Ultra HD mixed format routing plus built in control panel with LCD for monitoring and new visual routing!

Press Release

April 14, 2014

Blackmagic Design announced Smart Videohub, a family of new mixed format routers with new and unique visual routing user interface and 6G-SDI technology allowing SD, HD and Ultra HD routing all on the same router at the same time. Smart Videohub will be priced at 1045 EUR for the 12 x 12 sized mode and 1475 EUR for the larger 20 x 20-sized model.

The new Smart Videohub family of professional SDI video routers are the world’s first Ultra HD mixed format routers to include built in video monitoring and spin knob router control panel. The Smart Videohub family also include the latest 6G-SDI technology so customers can simultaneously connect and route any combination of SD, HD and Ultra HD video all on the same router at the same time. Even if a customer had 20 different television formats connected to the router inputs, Smart Videohub would route any of these inputs to any combination of the outputs all simultaneously.

Smart Videohub also includes elegant machined metal front panels with full router control as well as built in LCD monitoring. Using the front panel customers can perform direct entry of router crosspoint using buttons, or they can use the spin knob control.

The new visual routing combines the spin knob or button entry with large easy to read custom router labels, or the customer can select to display live video from the video inputs onto the LCD. When any input or output is selected, the video is displayed live on the LCD. This allows customers to see their router connections as video on the LCD as they scroll the knob to select routing. This unique feature means customers can route video simply by looking at the video!

Smart Videohub features advanced 6G-SDI connections that allow high resolution Ultra HD video using a single SDI connection, while retaining full compatibility with all SD and HD-SDI equipment. This means customers get the industrial strength of stable and reliable SDI video connections with the flexibility to work in any television format they like. Even if customers not running in Ultra HD now, they can still take advantage of the innovative design and lower cost of these new models, while working in regular SD or HD today, then know they are ready for Ultra HD the moment they need it.

These new models replace the previous Micro Videohub and Smart Videohub SD/HD routers from Blackmagic Design. These new models have the benefit of being lower cost, feature new 6G-SDI and Ultra HD support and include a built in power supply. Because small routers are often used for local routing, these new models also include the benefit of a built in front control panel so no external control panels are required as all routing can be completed from the front panel itself.

“We really wanted to revamp our compact router family and we are extremely excited to release these new Smart Videohub models”, said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design, “There is so much that’s new in these models, including the latest 6G-SDI technology for SD, HD and Ultra HD mixed format routing, a new design with a beautiful front panel design with built in control panel and a new lower price point. They are so much better than the models they replace and we hope customers love them as much as we do!”

Smart Videohub Key Features

–Available as two models: Smart Videohub 12x12 and Smart Videohub 20x20.
– Features multi rate 6G-SDI that supports auto switching SD, HD and Ultra HD formats.
– Built in control panel allows direct entry and spin knob control.
– Built in LCD monitor allows large labels or for display of live video for visual routing.
– Built in crosspoint buttons on front panel allows direct selection of crosspoint.

– Take and clear buttons allow conformation of selected crosspoint before going live.
– Includes Ethernet port for external router control plus RS422 port for controlling router via serial link.
– Built in menus available from the front panel LCD for selecting Ethernet IP settings for remote control.
– Supports Blackmagic Design router control software for Mac OS X and Windows.
– Supports Blackmagic Smart Control and Master Control hardware router control panels.
– Built in power supply operates from 110V to 240V.
– Compact 1 rack unit design, ideal for large systems as well as mobile use.

Availability and Price

Smart Videohub 12x12 is available now for 1045 EUR and Smart Videohub 20x20 is available now for 1475 EUR.

Press Photography

Product photos of the Smart Videohub, 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.

Now customers with ATEM production switchers can control their cameras via the SDI connection!

Press Release

April 14, 2014

Blackmagic Design announced ATEM Camera Control, a new update that adds support for controlling cameras from their ATEM production switcher via the program feed to the camera. This update will be free of charge to ATEM customers when available in May 2014.

Until now the ability to control cameras from the live production switcher was only available to extremely high end broadcasters who had the costly infrastructure that allowed this feature. With the new ATEM Camera Control software update, ATEM live production switchers can now control cameras via a new open standard protocol sent to the camera via the return program feed.

This new ATEM Camera Control is currently compatible with a software updated version of the new Blackmagic Studio Camera. The Blackmagic Studio camera features both optical fiber and regular SDI program return feeds to the camera and the commands from the switcher are broadcast to all cameras via this program return feed.

The Blackmagic Studio Camera can be controlled via a regular CCU style of control, however to allow even greater creativity, the Blackmagic Studio Camera has a fully featured DaVinci Resolve primary color corrector built in featuring the same YRGB style grading that is found on DaVinci Resolve.

This means the switcher operator has incredible control over the cameras and not only can settings like focus and iris be remotely set with extreme accuracy, but the operator has full lift, gamma and gain controls in full YRGB colorspace just like a full color corrector. Now any colorist that are familiar with DaVinci Resolve color grading can use their creative skills on live production work.

This new ATEM Camera Control with color correction will allow customers to not only get perfect matching between cameras on live production, but operators can also take into account changing light conditions, which is common on outdoor events. Then when customers need to generate creative looks, such as for music videos, they can push the correction further for exciting looks all in real time.

The stylish control panel in the ATEM Software Control allows normal operation of the ATEM live production switcher, but then at any time the user can select the camera tab and then see the controls for each camera. They get a familiar CCU style of interface with easy control of black and iris settings on the camera as well as focus. When controlling a camera, this camera is automatically output using one of the switchers aux. outputs so the operator can use this aux. output to local monitoring.

When more refined and creative looks are desired, the user can then push a button and the CCU style interface will expand out to a fully featured primary color corrector interface, that allows color grading using an interface very familiar to any DaVinci Resolve colorist. Every setting creatively is the same as DaVinci Resolve as the processing is the same. With the color corrector built into the camera, customers get much greater creative control because the color corrector gets full bit depth and colorspace direct from the cameras sensor.

“When we designed the Blackmagic Studio Camera we really wanted to take advantage of the design and allow amazing features like camera control from the ATEM switcher and we wanted to build in an amazing color corrector, right inside the camera itself!”, said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design, “This new SDI based protocol allows full control without any need to run additional cables. Just a single thin optical fiber or SDI cable is required and we think some amazing creative styles will now be possible for live production, where in the past this kind of color grading was only possible during post production. Its very exciting, and of course we are developing this as an open standard with details in the ATEM switcher instruction manual”

ATEM Camera Control Key Features

– Color control for up to 20 cameras.

– Familiar Da Vinci YRGB style live color grading including lift, gamma and gain control.

– CCU style operation for the most commonly used operations of iris and pedestal levels.

– Remote gain settings.

– Remote shutter speed settings.

– Coarse setting for iris.

– Remote white balance selection.

– Remote focus.

– Remote iris.

– Aux switching for camera preview allowing automatic local monitoring for grading.

– Clear "On Air" indication in user interface reduces the possibility of mistakes

– Lock function stops accidental changes.

Availability and Price

ATEM Camera Control will be available May for all ATEM live production switcher customers free of charge for download from the Blackmagic Design web site. To use this software with the new Blackmagic Studio Camera, the Blackmagic Studio Camera will also require a software update that will be available free of charge.

Press Photography

Product photos of the ATEM Camera Control, and all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagic-design.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.

Major update dramatically improves online editing features, adds new photographer friendly color correction tools, on set media management and much more!

Press Release

April 11, 2014

Blackmagic Design announced DaVinci Resolve 11, a major upgrade with over 100 new editing and color grading features. This new update includes major improvements in online editing plus context sensitive trimming, onset file cloning, photographer style color grading tools and an amazing new collaborative workflow that allows multiple users to work simultaneously on the same timeline.

The new DaVinci Resolve 11 has over 70 new editing features based on feedback from professional editors. With DaVinci Resolve 11, editors now have dual monitor support and familiar professional tools like dynamic JKL trimming, audio crossfades and fully customizable keyboard shortcuts for faster editing. Trimming tools are context sensitive, which means DaVinci Resolve automatically knows whether editors want to ripple, roll, slip, slide, extend or shorten edits, based on the position of the mouse. This makes editing super fast because time is not wasted switching tools and clips can be trimmed on multiple tracks simultaneously in the same direction, or asymmetrically.

DaVinci Resolve 11 features a new spline curve keyframe editor integrated into the edit timeline that positions keyframes directly under each clip and in context with the clip. Editors can now also add and animate open FX plugins directly in the timeline as well as use plug-ins for transitions.

The new collaborative workflow tools in DaVinci Resolve 11 allows an editor and multiple colorists to work on different workstations, sharing the same timeline and working in tandem as they complete shots. An example is a colorist could be color grading or tracking windows while another colorist fine tunes grades that are all immediately updated as the editor edits. Each user can see the timeline update so they are all working on the same job at the same time. Sharing the same timeline makes it much easier for creative teams to stay in sync and work faster on large complex jobs such as feature films and television programming.

One of the most exciting advantages of the enhanced editing features in DaVinci Resolve 11 is the dramatically better round trip collaboration with Apple Final Cut Pro X. This is possible because more of the features in each application are compatible so projects can be moved back and forward easily. A powerful example of this integration is when a Final Cut Pro X customer might be shooting an independent film but then wants to move their edit to a large Hollywood post production facility for color grading and finishing. This is an exciting workflow that makes it possible to allow independent filmmakers to integrate with the largest post production facilities.

Color correction features have also been upgraded in DaVinci Resolve 11, including all new RAW image and color grading controls that are designed for photographers who are moving into cinematography. The new camera RAW palette features highlight and shadow recovery, mid tone detail, color boost, saturation, lift, gain and contrast. DaVinci Resolve 11 solves the single frame limitations of photo enhancement systems and gives photographers advanced control over RAW images so they can pull the maximum detail from high dynamic range footage in real time.

Adding to DaVinci Resolve’s powerful on set tools, DaVinci Resolve 11 can now securely back up and save digital camera files. The new DaVinci Resolve clone tool copies media drives, memory cards and camera packs to multiple destinations simultaneously. All copies are checksum verified, that means users get exact bit for bit digital copies of their source media. The new clone tool is included in the free DaVinci Resolve Lite and can be installed on a laptop for on set use.

DaVinci Resolve 11 also features a unique and powerful automatic color chart color balancing tool that works on all types of footage including video, RAW and even film. The new color match tool automatically gives a primary base grade by analyzing shots containing standard color chip charts even if they were shot in different lighting conditions with different exposure and color temperatures.

DaVinci Resolve 11 also adds optimizations to OpenCL image processing which allows improved rendering speeds on the new Apple MacPro systems. The MacPro features dual GPU’s so is the ideal solution for customers looking for an “off the shelf” solution that easily handles the high processing speeds when working on Ultra HD work in the deepest YRGB 32 bit float processing quality.

“This is a massive update and we are really excited about DaVinci Resolve 11”, said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design, “Since we added the new editing tools into DaVinci Resolve we have had some great feedback from editors working on high end feature film and television programming jobs. We have rolled this great advice into DaVinci Resolve and now it’s a fantastic full featured online editor. Of course we continue to add wonderful color correction and on set tools into this release as well. This is the best version of DaVinci Resolve we have ever released and we are going to provide this update to all DaVinci Resolve customers free of charge. This means the cost of switching to the worlds most exciting online editor will be zero!”

Availability and Price

The update to DaVinci Resolve 11 will be available in June for download from the Blackmagic Design web site free of charge for all current DaVinci Resolve customers.

Press Photography

Product photos of DaVinci Resolve 11, 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.

New Cintel film scanner features an innovative new wall mount and desktop design with Thunderbolt 2 for real-time scanning of 35mm and 16mm film up to 30fps in Ultra HD resolution!

Press Release

April 11, 2014

Blackmagic Design announced a new model of Cintel Film Scanner designed with an architectural aesthetic that's so thin it can even be wall mounted!

With consumers purchasing large Ultra HD televisions in massive quantities right now, the demand for great Ultra HD content has never been greater and will become a boom market in the next few years. Ultra HD is incredible quality and there are millions of hours of Ultra HD content that’s been generated over the last 100 years locked up in 35mm film that is stored in vaults worldwide.

The new Cintel scanner will scan negative and positive 35mm film into amazing quality Ultra HD so customers can unlock the extra resolution from 35mm film that no one has been able to see until now. 35mm film is natively 4K so the extra quality is already in the film. This means there is no easier way to generate Ultra HD feature films and television programming for customers to view on their new large screen televisions than scanning filmed entertainment thats already been produced, including classic hits.

Designed to hang beautifully on your wall, the Cintel film scanner is constructed using aircraft design techniques for a stiff and vibration free main deck to ensure smooth film handling. The core chassis has been designed as a super rigid structural space frame, which results in a design that’s dramatically lighter allowing it to be wall mounted in a facility, making it part of the environment of a color correction suite. Whether wall or desk mounted the innovative design includes sliding doors, built in cleaning rollers and new digital servos to keep your film clean and ensure handling of valuable negative remains gentle.

The new Cintel film scanner is an innovation in technology. Film traditionally has been a mechanical technology and film products have suffered from poor quality electronics that required experienced engineers to keep them working. The Cintel scanner has been designed with the latest Blackmagic Design image processing technology and features a Thunderbolt 2 connection. The high-speed Thunderbolt 2 port provides massive bandwidth for transferring 4K video in real time, so you can connect the device to your Mac and scan the film directly into your color correction system. That makes setup and use extremely fast plus eliminates slow file copying after scanning. Because Cintel is an OS X Thunderbolt 2 peripheral, you get easy to install software updates that add new features and it also means customers have the freedom to upgrade their computer whenever they choose.

In the past when film was the main way to get high quality images for post production, Cintel telecine’s and DaVinci color correction was the standard combination used worldwide. Now these two wonderful brands are back together again because the Cintel film scanner includes a full copy of DaVinci Resolve software. Now customers will get full color correction features included so they can take advantage of the Cintel scanner’s amazing image quality. Customers will never be limited creatively by their equipment because you’ll have incredible film looks combined with the same powerful color correction toolset used by the world’s leading cinematographers!

The Cintel film scanner will include everything customers need for a complete solution to film scanning and grading. The Cintel scanner includes powerful built in Image Mill stabilization and grain reduction, a 35mm film gate (16mm purchased separately), two film spools, a set of four cleaning rollers, DaVinci Resolve 11 software and desk mount feet included. Unlike many film products, there are no fees for installation, no software update fees, no license transfer fees if a customer ever should want to sell their Cintel scanner in the future.

“Everyone purchasing these wonderful new large screen Ultra HD televisions are desperate for content. The amazing thing is there are millions of hours of Ultra HD content already in existence and it’s just sitting there on rolls and rolls of 35mm motion picture film!”, said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design, “The new Cintel scanner is the perfect way to give this film new life and to get all those old classics into a new age. It’s very exciting and is why we acquired Cintel, as we believed in the brand and what we could do with it. The new Cintel scanner is the result and it’s been exciting to combine all this amazing cutting edge technology with the elegance and timeless image quality of film!”

Availability and Price

The Cintel film scanner is being previewed at NAB 2014 for customer comment and will retail for US$29,995 later in 2014 once all the NAB customer feedback has been included into the product.

Press Photography

Product photos of the Cintel Film Scanner, 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.