MultiCAM: world-class video switching solutions powered by Blackmagic Design posted: 22/05/2020
by Andrey Okunev
MultiCAM Systems, founded in 2003, is a French company that offers video production services and builds easy-to-use video production systems shipped throughout the world. I had a conversation with co-founders Stan Walbert and Prasad Ramassamy, both of whom are now self-isolating: Prasad in his apartment in Paris and Stan in a country house out of town. Stan, who is also a world-class VJ, had his performance at the Dubai Expo cancelled, which now leaves him with more time to do marketing and product development for MultiCAM, as well as to discuss how a Medialooks Video SDK and hardware by Blackmagic Design have helped develop their business.
When Stan and Arnaud, also a co-founder, were 17 years old, they started a pirate radio and had a lot of fun broadcasting whatever they wanted. Later, with Prasad, they started a web TV channel, which eventually led them to offer video production and live streaming services to customers in France.
We started the company with the production services background. We had to record and livestream city councils at first, and we didn't find any all-in-one solution that would meet all the requirements for very low-cost and very small demands of technical crew.
Stan's team kept running into inconveniences because it had to manage a lot of different equipment, which was expensive, difficult to carry and operate.
We had to simplify the setup in order to reduce cost. We wanted to have one solution with everything in it. This way we could send minimum people with minimum training and technical knowledge. If you have a lot of different equipment, you need to make it work together, and you take the risk of failures and misconnections. As a production company we needed something simple for people to operate with less support needed.
At some point, Prasad began his own coding in order to solve this problem. Having discovered Medialooks, he found it was the easiest way to prototype a new solution, which was designed to control and to recall camera presets, have a video preview, perform switching, recording and take snapshots.
We were using manufacturer panels, something that has buttons with numbers on it. But if you look at the numbers, you don't know what is the shot behind. We wanted to develop something where we could identify a camera shot with a certain name and preview thumbnail We didn't want to use a stack of devices and we believed that one piece of software can deliver switching, recording and streaming at the same time.
Since MultiCAM wasn't transforming an existing solution, trying to make it more user-friendly for the inexperienced user, it started from a blank page and went on to design a completely new user experience: by analyzing specific user segments and their behaviour patterns.
This approach, along with the fact that MultiCAM had their own team to provide instant feedback, led to the fact that ease of use is ingrained into the DNA of each product. A distinctive feature of the company's solutions is a touch screen interface, which is not very common in the industry.
Stan clearly describes his customers as those who need to broadcast and engage online, but don't want to have a dedicated crew, technical knowledge and go through a long learning curve:
Our customers are people who want to create video but don't want to know about the process.
Today, the company serves four distinct markets, where it helps organizations produce quality content: visual radio, education, conferences and medical. Each system was designed to fit specific needs and work well within the constraints of specific environments: depending on what resources people have to manipulate the system, the product is adapted for fully-automated, semi-automated or manual operating modes.
With semi-automation, you don't control, but you influence the system.
For instance, radio stations have no budget for a team to produce their visual program, they want a fully automated solution, driven by automatic speaker detection - availability of such solutions has formed a booming trend with more and more radio stations making content available on live and on-demand platforms such as YouTube.
The conferencing solution is similar to that for visual radio: it is integrated with the room's audio system and reacts to the microphone activity and automatically chooses the best shot. In the e-learning solution, image tracking is used instead of audio detection: the system switches between the speaker and his PowerPoint presentation depending on where he stands, how he moves and whether he had switched to a new slide. Medical institutions use MultiCAM systems to produce video training materials, which allow them to quickly focus and highlight a specific situation.
In order to provide customers with a predictable experience, MultiCAM ships integrated ready-to-use systems equipped with up to 9 branded PTZ cameras:
We don't sell separately software and hardware because we provide full support It's really important that we deliver the hardware as this is the guarantee of performance.
Several kinds of capture and playback cards - all from Blackmagic Design - are used for input and output. For example, a 4-camera setup would use a combination of DeckLink Quad 2 (8 SDI inputs) and the DeckLink Studio 4K (embedded audio input and audio & video output via SDI). The e-learning solution is usually a two-camera setup, so the DeckLink Duo 2 is used.
It's great that we have a choice of cards from Blackmagic to pick from depending on how many inputs and outputs we need. It's cost-effective and really versatile to combine and build the solution for every use case we provide.
MultiCAM also works with other Blackmagic devices, such
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
A poisoned spy, a secret war, and a small English city contaminated by a deadly chemical weapon. Available on Sky Documentaries from 4 AugustWednesday 22 July 2...
22/07/2026
Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement wi...
22/07/2026
Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership and Combine the Integration Platform and Managed Services
Flexible integration solutions for cloud, hybrid...
22/07/2026
RT REPORTS NET SURPLUS OF 22.5 MILLION IN 2025...
22/07/2026
In the Opinion of the Censor airs Monday 27 July at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Player
In the Opinion of the Censor looks at how films for theatrical release wer...
22/07/2026
Before a healthcare robot can be useful in the real world, it has to learn how the physical world pushes back. Anatomy varies. Instruments bend, press, slip and...
21/07/2026
New research involving a cross-section of Mongolias independent media landscape finds enthusiasm for AI as a tool to improve efficiency, sustainability and resi...
21/07/2026
With winners Spain having already paraded the World Cup trophy through Madrid in front of millions of fans and the dust now settling on an epic tournament of th...
MultiCAM: world-class video switching solutions powered by Blackmagic Design posted: 22/05/2020 
