BSVP On-Site at NAB 2014 with Sue Lawson, Sr. Editor at ChicagoEdit and Dan May of Blackmagic Design talk about the new Blackmagic UltraHD studio camera.
The idea behind Blackmagic Design’s new UltraHD studio camera is to create a single-purpose camera. Other cameras on the market are great for going out and creating creative content and being able to be used in lot of different ways. But Blackmagic believes they found a gap for a strictly live production camera.
The new Blackmagic Studio Camera is almost a single-purpose camera. There is actually no recording media within the camera. It’s for live events. The camera is for those productions using a live switcher with 2 or 4 or 10 cameras. The way most cameras are built today, the production could use a small consumer level cameras in order to get a multi-camera shoot. The other option is to buy a few larger ENG style cameras which would also work out. But that leaves a big gap where Blackmagic can have this great single purpose camera.
Blackmagic took on the challenge of building a single-purpose camera with a large viewfinder. What they came up with was a camera with a large 10″ screen attached to a small camera body and easily accessible features. Because the camera is for live production, they also added features such as a Push-to-Talk so the operator can communicate back with a live production switcher and a Tally light to see when the camera is live on air. In general the camera is really designed specifically for live production.
As far as other features that the Blackmagic Studio Camera includes are 2 XLR audio inputs with Phantom Power and standard quarter audio inputs that can be used for aviation style headsets to communicate with the director. The unit shown at NAB included a micro 4/3 lens which is important because Blackmagic wanted to have something that could be an affordable, but also accommodated good optics. Especially since there are many great still micro 4/3 lenses available as well as highly adaptable. The camera can be upgraded to attach PL-based lenses with servos for remote shoots. On the right side of the camera, there are Optical Inputs & Outputs for fiber cables, SDI In/Out, Reference and 12V power plug.
Fiber is really great situations such as high school football where the production needs to run fiber around the stadium. The fiber cables are great for long runs while SDI is great for a couple hundred meters. Dan May pointed out that the camera has a four hour battery for productions where power is not accessible as well as a standard four-pin power plug when power is available.
The Blackmagic live production HD Studio camera lists for $1995.
The HD version shipping now and the UltraHD version of camera for $2995 will be shipping in May 2014.
