NAB 2022 Perspectives: Blackmagic Design U.S. President Dan May on the Content-Creation Explosion By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Wednesday, May 25, 2022 - 8:00 am
Print This Story
In recent years, the Blackmagic Design booth at the NAB Show has been a cornerstone of the South Hall. The large, open space welcomed attendees from across the spectrum of industry professionals. This year, Blackmagic Design called the North Hall home and displayed a wide range of products and services, many born out of the pandemic. One of the key things that we saw immediately with the pandemic was that people were looking to create video, says Dan May, president, Blackmagic Design. There wasn't a lessening of video-content creation; it was an increase of video-content creation.
May says Blackmagic Design quickly saw the birth of a new kind of customer: those who were set to rely on video not only to enhance their business but to stay in business. And the Blackmagic Design products, from the ATEM live production switchers to the 4K cameras, storage, and monitors all found a place in a new eco system.
Blackmagic Cloud comprises the DaVinci Resolve 18 software package offering editing, color correction, visual effects, motion graphics, and audio postproduction.
If you were a karate instructor that no longer had kids coming into your dojo, he says, the question was, how do you get a multi-camera shoot into the dojo. Even normal corporate-video-based things needed to have video in the workplace to connect people together. And then there was media and entertainment.
With that explosion of video-content creation, products like the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera lineup (starting at $1,295 for a 4K camera) and the ATEM Mini (priced at $295) or Mini Pro found a marketplace hungry for their capabilities and price point.
You're not going to sell a lot of those users $10,000 cameras and $5,000 switchers, May explains. The increase in demand was so much that we chanced some of our product launches to broaden our offerings with things like the URSA Mini Pro or ATEM Mini Extreme.
The ripple effect of an expanding customer base over the past three years is also opening up opportunities for higher-level Blackmagic Design products, such as the ATEM Constellation 8K UHD live-production switcher.
We're at a point where people are looking to expand, May notes, and now we can help them with new products that enable them to do more and to move upstream with some of their functionality. We were very fortunate to have products and a supply chain to manage all of that fairly well.
One of Blackmagic's big stories at NAB 2022 was the Blackmagic Cloud, in particular DaVinci Resolve 18, the free software package that provides editing, color correction, visual effects, motion graphics, and audio postproduction.
We want to have people working on the same project timeline within Resolve at the same time, explains May. Someone can be creating a project in California and invite in a colorist in Florida or an editor in Vietnam. The need was driven by the pandemic, but now it's about empowerment and connecting creatives wherever they are. And, with Blackmagic Cloud, you can share a project timeline with them via cloud and then have storage solutions update media across these different projects.
A key message at NAB 2022 involved the pricing of hosting a project as well as accessing it. It's only $5 to host the project library, says May. The editor or VFX person does not have to pay $5 to log in on top of that. We're trying to steer away from everyone having to have a subscription. We're also trying to steer away from the model where you pay for a subscription whether you use it or not. If you have 20 project libraries one month and 10 the next, you pay only for those 10.
It's all part of a process that truly is focused on democratizing video.
How do I bring more people to the table? says May. It's not about taking business away from the post house. It's about getting more people trained and educated on how to use these tools. Maybe some of them will be working at that post house in 10 years, but some of them will just be able to do their own cool things using Blackmagic products. And that has always been what Blackmagic has been about.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
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...
30/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/09/2026
Mavis has launched Mavis Camera 8.2, the latest release of its professional camera app for the iPhone and iPad. This update brings support for iPhone 18 Pro and...
29/09/2026
Oak View Group (OVG) has announced Cisco as an Official Technology Partner, with plans to standardize infrastructure across its venue network on Cisco solutions...
29/09/2026
SportsNet Pittsburgh (SNP) won three honors at the 2026 Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
Program awards went to Bucs BP in the Sports Program Live category (produced ...
29/09/2026
The Professional Women's Hockey League has announced home openers for all 12 teams for the 2026-27 season, along with a broadcast partnership with CBC under...
29/09/2026
Manifold technologies has been recognized as a contributor to the Media eXchange...
29/09/2026
FuboTV has announced My Local Sports, allowing subscribers in select markets to add their local regional sports network (RSN) as an add-on to a Fubo Sports subs...
29/09/2026
Asian News International (ANI), a wire agency and video news provider based in India, has deployed Grass Valley's AMPP Media Operating System and Framelight...
29/09/2026
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has deployed Ikegami UHK-X600 cameras as part of an upgrade to IP-based production infrastructure. The deployment ...
29/09/2026
REMI, REMCO models will drive the bulk of the broadcaster's NHL productions ...
29/09/2026
Three years in, the facility is supporting more centralized race production, com...
29/09/2026
NBC, Peacock, and NBSN are carrying all four Wild Card series with a production ...
29/09/2026
19 Nonfiction Projects Across All Stages of Production to Receive More Than $1 million in Support as Documentary Film Program Approaches 25th Anniversary
LOS ...
29/09/2026
Two new plug-ins launch alongside updated bundles
Zynaptiq have just announced the launch of two new plug-ins, alongside new and improved versions of two of...
29/09/2026
All-in-one bus processor revealed
Wes Audio's ng product range has come a long way since it was first introduced, and now includes a tasty selection of ...
29/09/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Ikegami announces that the South African Broadcasting Corporation, SABC, has chosen Ikegami UHK-X600 camera systems as part of an advance to IP-based operation ...
29/09/2026
Blendkit Offers 20% Discount to Celebrate Crossing 150K Asset Milestone
Brie Clayton September 29, 2026
0 Comments
Blendkit, the largest 3D asset libr...
29/09/2026
Interactive streaming specialist Ease Live supported more than 76.5 million fan sessions across three major European media operators during this summers FIFA Wo...
29/09/2026
Ease Live has added support for VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) to its graphical overlay technology, opening up new ways for broadcasters, streamers and rights...
29/09/2026
Rise AV has announced the launch of the inaugural Rise AV Awards, a new global awards programme celebrating the women, advocates and organisations across the AV...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Clear-Com announced that First Baptist Nashville has upgraded its production communications with a Clear-Com intercom solution as part of a comprehensive sanct...
29/09/2026
Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K Captured Action Shots for Sketch
Brie Clayton September 28, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's portable design and dynamic range...
29/09/2026
Kean Production Services Deploys AJA ColorBox to Deliver Consistent, Accurate Co...
29/09/2026
Berklee Alumni and Faculty Nominated for the 2026 Latin Grammy Awards A total of 28 Berklee alumni and faculty earned nominations across 20 categories this ye...
29/09/2026
Berklee's K-Pop & Beyond Explores Connections Between K-Pop and Hip-Hop Now in its fifth year, the series brings together artists, industry leaders, and s...
29/09/2026
We tend to think we live in a digital world, with hopes and fears around artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, data centres and the next big technolo...
29/09/2026
Today, in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Apple relea...
29/09/2026
Final Cut Camera, the professional filming app for iPhone, receives a major upda...
29/09/2026
RT lyric fm is proud to announce the annual Choirs for Christmas competition callout. Warm up those vocal chords and join us on RT lyric fm for a celebration ...
28/09/2026
The NHL has announced Adobe as an Official Creative, Marketing and AI Partner beginning with the 2026-27 season. The partnership will provide the league and its...
28/09/2026
MultiDyne will exhibit at CABSAT 2026 (October 5-7, Dubai Exhibition Centre), showcasing an expanded technology portfolio following its June 2026 acquisition of...
28/09/2026
ARRI and HONOR have announced the HONOR Magic9 Pro Max, a flagship smartphone carrying ARRI branding on the device and packaging as the first product-level expr...
NAB 2022 Perspectives: Blackmagic Design U.S. President Dan May on the Content-Creation Explosion By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
