News

Audiotech Services Ltd is supplying One Directions 120 date ‘Take Me Home’ Tour with an AV control system built around Blackmagic Design infrastructure, including the Blackmagic Design ATEM 2 M/E Production Switcher with ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Panel, Broadcast Videohub router and SmartView Duo monitor.

The concert tour consists of 120 shows in Australasia, Asia, Europe and North America, which broke records by selling more than 300,000 tickets in a single day, and includes a huge amount of video at each show. All of this is managed through a rack mounted AV control system supplied by Audiotech, providing full HD monitoring and recording, eight live camera inputs, stills playback and live HD web streaming.



Situated at the heart of the AV control system is Blackmagic’s ATEM 2 M/E Production Switcher, operated using the ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Panel, and a Blackmagic Design Broadcast Videohub router, which includes 72 inputs, 144 outputs and 72 deck control ports in a compact 8 rack unit size.

Each night a backdrop is built for the show, featuring onstage LED screens with computer generated effects while a live camera relay is displayed on two LED screens, positioned left and right of the main stage. Seven HD SDI camera’s are used to capture the main performance, while a further seven are deployed as on stage mini cameras. Camera sources are routed via the Broadcast Videohub over SDI into the ATEM 2 M/E Production Switcher and mixed using the ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Panel. Line cuts coming from the ATEM 2 M/E Production Switcher get routed into hardware which converts the SDI feed into DVI to be displayed directly onto the two side LED screens.

"It would have been ridiculous to think that we could have run the One Direction IMAG (image magnification) system without an SDI router and ATEM switcher," said video director Thomas Levitt. "It makes it so much easier, in that you're not physically having to patch and repatch cables. You can also control it via serial or ethernet, just logging in via Telnet and sending it the commands. Or with the router’s iPad app. We can integrate that easily into our show if we have switches we need to make at strategic points. It can all be automated over our network without us having to plug in a serial cable."

According to Tom, the ATEM 2 M/E Production Switcher was bought especially for this tour, not only for its broadcast grade features and panel but also for its one line video delay, a significant factor in video for concerts. “It's extremely fast compared to other video switchers, which maybe have one frame delay, or sometimes up to four frames, which makes them unusable for us, other than for live relay. With the ATEM, we're ahead of the game already. That was a big selling point for the ATEM switcher," he concluded.



Press Photography
Product photos of 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 film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, 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 stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Blackmagic Design released Blackmagic Cinema Camera Utility 1.3.1, new version of its driver/software for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF/MFT. New in this update are general stability improvements when selecting DNxHD as the recording format. To access this update, visit Blackmagic Design's Support page and select your product.

Videohub software for Mac OS X and Windows, the client and server software for the Blackmagic Design Videohub series of routers, has been updated to version 5.0. The new version adds support for GPI and Tally Interface. Download it from Blackmagic Design's Support Center.

Blackmagic Design released an updated version of its color grading application DaVinci Resolve for Mac OS X and Windows Systems. Version 9.1.4 contains:

• Option in Preferences to also use the display GPU for image processing

• Improvements for image edges when resizing without the anti-alias filter

• Ability to render 3 and 7 channels of audio

• Debayer improvements for ARRI RAW

• Debayer improvements for Sony RAW

• Sizing information now exported as part of ALE CDL export

• General performance and stability improvements

Blackmagic Design announced that Glendale, CA based production and post house Fisher Film Works used Blackmagic Cinema Camera to film Arby’s recent “King's Hawaiian Roast Beef Sandwich” commercial, a nationally syndicated co-promotion with Adult Swim. The television spot, which features an artist painting a picture of the sandwich, was also colored using Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve, the world’s most advanced color correction tool.

Gavin Fisher, founder and owner of Fisher Film Works, used Blackmagic Cinema Camera to shoot the commercial in less than one week. Shot in 1080HD in compressed Apple ProRes, Gavin was able to capture high quality images and bring them into his editing and color correction workflow without the need for transcoding, allowing for the most efficient workflow possible for the project.



“I knew the quality of the footage would be great, because I’ve used the Blackmagic Cinema Camera before,” said Gavin. “But the resulting footage still impressed me. The skin tones, the colors of the artwork on the wall, all of the images were amazing, and we were able to do a lot creatively with the footage in Resolve.”

Another advantage during the shoot was the camera’s unique design, which allowed Gavin to work within a very confined space.

“We filmed in a small studio because we were trying to get the look of a cable access painting show,” said Gavin. “We didn’t even have room for a dolly, but the director wanted some movement in the shots. In the end, we were able to use some sliders, which we wouldn’t have been able to do with a larger camera. The compact size of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera proved to be a big advantage for us.”

The director, Paul Cummings, cut the commercial in Final Cut Pro and handed it off to Gavin who imported it into DaVinci Resolve via XML for final color corrections. Once the final commercial was finished in Resolve, it was exported straight to the client for airing.

“The Log workflow in Resolve just goes hand in hand with the camera,” said Gavin. “We were going for a specific look, a super saturated, high end cable access look. By shooting in ProRes film mode, which meant the images from the camera were flat, and then grading the commercial in Resolve, it was super easy to get that look. I prefer Resolve over anything else I’ve used, especially when using the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. The workflow between the two is seamless.”

Press Photography
Product photos of 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 film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, 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 stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com.