Expanding the Blackmagic Ecosystem
What if Blackmagic covered the whole event ecosystem?
In my last post, I mentioned the idea of a Blackmagic ecosystem and the idea just wouldn’t shift from my head. So, me being me, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole and may have come up with a rough plan or what I would like to see if it ever came to fruition. Whilst I was at it I may have jotted down a few notes about how I would improve Blackmagic’s current product lineup.
Some of the ideas I have I may have mentioned before and some may make no sense to anyone but me but that’s what happens when you sleep deprived and full of ideas I suppose. I should also point out that I have been rather spoiled and had the opportunity to work in a fair few venues over the years working in nearly all the departments in one form or another and this has influenced some of my ideas a fair amount.
I’m going to split this up into a couple of sections. I’ll start by having a look at Blackmagic’s current offering and suggesting some improvements. Then we’ll dive into the areas that they don’t cover individually. So without further ado let’s get cracking.
Blackmagic’s Current Offering
Cameras
Blackmagic already offers a great range of cameras from the Pocket Cinema Camera and Studio Camera to their URSA mini and URSA Broadcast Cameras. For once I don’t have a lot to complain about here just two things come to mind if I was to make improvements.
The first would be to match the look of each of the cameras out of the factory. I’m not sure if anyone else has noticed but there are slight variations in how the images look when you watch back footage from each of the cameras. Now I know this is due to each of the cameras having a slightly different sensor system or some such but, It would be great not to have to mess about colour-correcting before an event or during post. It’s a little quality-of-life thing that can make a huge difference.
The second comes in two parts and relates to the streaming bridge built into the newer camera. Firstly all of the cameras should have this. It is an amazing feature that I could have used so many times in the past to make life so much easier. The second is to be able to connect to a wifi network. I know this may sound a bit weird considering I’m one of those people that likes to have everything wired where possible but at events where cables just aren’t an option this would be priceless. For example, I worked an awards show a few years back and we needed to get shots of the nominees at their tables for the super source on the screens and the cable run kept getting in the way or there was another live stream I did showing off colleges open evening with events throughout the college. Being able to connect to the wifi would have meant we wouldn’t have had to stop the stream every time we finished a segment. It would have been so much better to have a base set with all the equipment and one wifi camera that could run around the place.
The ATEMS
This is a bit of a list because a few of the things I’m going to mention wouldn’t really fit anywhere else. Before I do start though I really do like the ATEM series of switchers, they are relatively simple to use and easy to teach to others too. They also fill a massive gap in the market that no other company seems to really care about. Let’s get on with the list though shall we:
ADD DANTE!!! I don’t think I need to explain this one again I have written about it a few times
Add a Cue Stack – It may sound like a simple thing but having a queue stack would be amazing. The number of times I could have programmed a show I’m going to be doing 3 or 4 times and the cuts has been the same is nuts. Having a cue stack would make this a doddle. I could program it and have an op on the desk whilst I prep for the next show or event. It’s very similar to how it works for lighting and would make so much sense.
Add Up Down Cross Converts to every input on every ATEM – There is nothing more frustrating than finding that you can use a certain camera or computer or some other device because the resolution or refresh rate doesn’t match. We used to have the Sony Camera that only had an HDMI output that we only really used for wide shots but when we replaced it with a newer camera we couldn’t get it to work with the ATEM at all as it ran on a completely different frame rate to our other camera and no of the options matched (I still have no idea where we got that ruddy thing from). Having Up down cross converters on each of the inputs would have meant this wouldn’t have been an issue. It would have also meant that we could have used on really nice 4K camera with our 1080p ATEM without any messing about before and after the event so the camera could go off and film the next day.
Add the ability to apply LUTs to every input – If you’re using different cameras in your event there’s nothing worse than having a different look when you switch to a certain camera. Having the ability to call up a LUT would make it super easy to make sure each camera has the same look. Especially as you are not able to control the colour on non-Blackmagic cameras from the switcher.
Audio delay on each input – Black magic introduced the ability to delay the audio on the incoming feeds for the additional audio input built into the ATEM switcher a while back and I always thought it was a shame they didn’t add this ability to all the inputs. This would be especially helpful if you are bringing in extra audio from MADI (or DANTE) as there is generally less processing time that there is for video.
Patch MADI (or Dante) to camera inputs – This would make mixing the audio for an event so much easier. It never made sense to me that you couldn’t override the audio on an input or at least have the ability to rearrange the audio channels so you don’t have to scroll through all of the channels to get to your MADI section.
Video Playback from the internal storage – It’s a no-brainer really. Now that ATEMS are starting to have built-in storage or the ability to have USB drives it would be amazing to not only record to the storage but playback using the built-in media players.
ISO Version of 4K ATEMs – I know I kind of covered this in my last post but it’s an amazing feature, especially the resolve file that comes with the recordings. If they can’t find a way to get this to work what about being able to save just the resolve file to a USB stick or internal storage and using the iso recording you made to a HyperDeck!
Animated DVE – Not a huge thing I know but it would look so much nicer if my feed resized and moved rather than just cut. Doug Johnson has a bit of software for a workaround but I’d really like it built into the switcher.
An official free ATEM App – This would make life so much easier when setting up an event. When I was rigging lights my remote was a godsend. The same would be great here when rigging a fixed camera.
A 4K version of the ATEM Talkback Camera Converter – This one has been needed for a long time. I know that they have released their new fibre converts with SMPTE fibre and their ethernet output on the studio camera. but what if the SMPTE converts are too expensive or you’re going more than 10 meters and want to shoot in 4K? What if you are using a non-Blackmagic camera? The ATEM Camera Converter is an amazing piece of kit that helps people get into optical fibre on a budget and included all the amazing Blackmagic features such as talkback and tally. It would be amazing to see this get a well-deserved upgrade.
Scaled Camera Inputs – Having the ability to have 1 Fixed 4K Camera and use it for multiple shots would be amazing. Imagine you are streaming a chatshow or an interview and you only have three cameras and 2 operators. You give yourself one fixed wide shot and then you have your 2 operators doing close-ups. What if you could zoom in on multiple parts of your wide shot and still keep the wide feed? To me, this would be amazing as I could set say 4 locations in the shot (4 people sitting in chairs talking for example) and switch between them during the stream all without disturbing the camera and still having my wide shot.
Other Current Hardware
A 4K SmartView with 12G SDI – Self-explanatory really would also be great if you could record to an SD card or 2 from the front panel but let’s not push our luck.
4k UHD Universal Video Hub – For those studios that are going UHD for Streaming having a permanent installation of your infrastructure is a must. I’ve worked in a number of venues that have 3G SDI panels everywhere that go back to a central location to be routed else where. It would be great to see this brought up to date with 12G SDI and Fibre inputs.
Fix the Dropouts on the Web Presenter – The major thing that has stopped me from going ahead with the Web Presenter is the constant complaint of it giving up the ghost when a frame is dropped or the internet slows down for a millisecond. It would be great if Blackmagic could fix this this way I would need to bring an extra laptop or computer to encode my stream before sending it out to YouTube or Facebook or whatever. I can just have something in my rack.
NEW PRODUCT – A Comms Node – I love how Blackmagic has been able to include communications as part of their signal to and from their camera. There is only one problem with that. If you don’t have a camera or are not at the ATEM then you don’t know what’s going on. It would be great to have a Comms node that can easily link into the system via ethernet. Even better would be if they could come up with some type of matrix communication solution that incorporates the cameras.
I probably should have just made that a post all of its own but I thought having three posts all about black magic three weeks in a row might be a bit too much. Now though, I wanted to share the ideas I had for expanding the ecosystem into Lighting and Sound.
Sound
We’ll start with sound first as Blackmagic is already halfway there. They already have their Fairlight range of consoles for Davinci Resolve and they have been introducing more Fairlight features into the ATEMs over the last few years. The problem is they have only gone halfway when it comes to live sound production. So here are a few of my suggestions to get them the rest of the way
Make the current Fairlight consoles compatible with ATEMS – To me, this is a no-brainer, they have already done the work why not allow more people to use it? Also, build in some comms whilst you’re at it so everyone knows what’s going on not just the video guys.
Make an ATEM Stage Box – The ATEM Microphone converter is a great start but if Blackmagic is going to make me use MADI rather than Dante can I please get a 32 in/32 Out ATE Stage box so I don’t have to daisy change 8 Microphone converters together. That also only handles inputs would be great to use some of those outputs to feed amps of recording equipment.
Give Fairlight on ATEM all the capabilities of a Mixing Desk – I don’t know about you but at times it feels that with all the innovation Blackmagic do they sometimes forget some of the basics. I’d really like Fairlight on ATEM to basically be their version of the Allen and Heath SQ7 or whatever your equivalent may be. You know proper FX engines, Compressors EQs, Delays and the ability to use industry-standard plug-ins to add more. If this was the case then I could see a lot more people using the ATEM for live audio production when streaming.
Let me Patch the audio where I want – Do you know what’s really annoying? having to scroll through all the channels on the Fairlight screen to get to the one I’m after. It would be so much easier if I could move MADI channel one to the 1 channel in the mixer and have this replicated on the external console. Or you know, be able to patch the audio. It’s a pain in the arse and until it’s a possibility it’s going to put a lot of people off.
Include a Cue Stack – I’ve already had a rant about Cuestacks so I won’t go through it again.
As I say, there’s not much more they need to do on the sound side of things as they are most of the way there. A new market they could break into would be lighting. Almost every live production is going to need lighting and having the ability to control it from the same ecosystem and your video and audio would just be ideal. With the Rise of LED Fixtures, they wouldn’t even have to make dimmer racks Just a Console and possibly some ArtNet to DMX nodes if they are feeling fancy. So if they wanted to break into this market and fill out their ecosystem what would they need to include?
Lighting
Be able to control all the protocols – Just like anything else these days there are a number of control protocols to control lighting (Artnet, DMX, sACN, etcNET2) so being able to control these is kinda important.
Must be able to easily control moving fixtures – I know this may sound like a stupid requirement but the costs of moving heads and moving mirrors have been dropping in price and making them more accessible. Don’t just give me 2 rows of fades and a crossfade, those days are long gone.
Visualiser support – I do a lot of reprogramming when I do events so this really is a must for me. If they decide to go down the route of making their own. Please do it properly and be more like WYSIWYG rather than some of these built-in visualizers that have come out over the last few years
Build comms into the console – Again I won’t go into this
Basically, give me a MagicQ MQ500m or an MA3 that is designed and built by Blackmagic. All the bells and whilst encoders to control attributes, enough sub-faders that I don’t have to swap to another page of sub-faders every 2 minutes and a full-size programmer with all the buttons to give me easy access to the feature functions and attributes.
So that my ideas for products old and new but what about actually having them work together? Well, that is where commonality comes in. If there are areas that have things that are similar build them the same. Make each console work together. Take Cue stacks for example, What if not only does each area has a cue stack but there is also a mast cue stack too. For example, you are about to open the show so you want the house lights to go down, the front-of-house music to fade out and the screens to stop showing their welcome image. Run a master cue that runs cue 5 for light, cue 2 for sound and cue 7 for video. This way it’s all in sync. You could do this for the whole show. Imagine if this show was going to be going on for weeks you’d program it once and the stage manager could push a button and control all of the areas, ideal if you are not just the stage manager for the show but also the lighting Dude, Sound Guy and Video Wizard running a one-man op.
When it comes to the hardware, I think there should be two options Rackmount, such as ATEM constellation mixers with separate control consoles for more permanent installs or touring as well as an all-in-one console version like the ATEM Television Studio for small or run and gun productions.
If I ever got my O/B truck up and running I’d go with the Rackmount version because then each control point would only need Power ethernet and a couple of monitors and everything else would be in the rack. Whereas as I am now I think I would prefer the all-in-one option as I don’t have a permanent home for anything. They would also be great in an education setting or a small YouTube studio for example.
The only things, that spring to mind, that I’ve not covered here are LED screens and projectors but I suppose we need to leave something to keep all those other companies in business. Though it would be awesome to have those all in the ecosystem too.
What do you think? Should Blackmagic conquer the mark further and branch out into lighting? Do you think I’ve missed anything? I’d really like to know your thoughts. Drop me a comment below.
