The University of Cape Town Deploys Blackmagic Cloud
ATEM and DaVinci Resolve help university to deliver faster, collaborative production for digital learning content.
Blackmagic Design today announced that the University of Cape Town (UCT) has adopted Blackmagic Cloud as part of its production workflow, enhancing access to online resources for students in distance learning programs.
The Digital Media Unit at UCT was created to support the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching’s (CILT) exploration of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Today, the unit’s inhouse production specialists run three studio spaces for live production, visual podcasting, and digital content creation, serving more than 2,000 students and teaching staff each year.
“I joined the team in 2023 and I pushed for us to adopt the Blackmagic ecosystem. It made sense to streamline everything from recording to editing,” explained Evan Zerf, head of the Digital Media Unit at UCT. “We wanted the space to feel safe and inclusive for students and staff alike. Everything, from the walls we painted to the technology, was designed to balance professional production standards with a welcoming educational experience.”
The control room handles video feeds from the three studio spaces, with the ATEM Television Studio HD8 ISO live production switcher used to switch and manage the inputs. Blackmagic Studio Camera 6K Pros are used throughout the studio spaces and can be customized as needed. The control room also uses a HyperDeck Studio HD Plus recorder to route audio for the program feed to back up the recordings.
“Communication between our control room and the studio presented some challenges, but thanks to the ATEM’s talkback features, I was able to route all the comms through the switcher, add a separate speaker in the studio for the guest to hear the gallery, and monitor everything from the control room,” Zerf noted.
The ATEM Television Studio HD8 ISO records up to eight isolated camera inputs (ISO) while generating a DaVinci Resolve project file that reflects the live program cut. That project and the associated media are then synced to Blackmagic Cloud for collaborative editing in DaVinci Resolve Studio. To support local storage and speed up access to proxy media, the team also installed a Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini 8TB network storage solution.
In addition, another HyperDeck Studio HD Plus is connected to receive the program feed, serving as a redundant recording solution and enabling media playback when needed. Once the recording is complete, the media files are copied to the Cloud Store Mini 8TB, from which they are automatically synced to the Blackmagic Cloud for access across the postproduction workflow.
“After attending a Blackmagic workshop in Cape Town, we saw how the ecosystem could streamline our efforts,” said Zerf. “Being able to take the live switched ISO project and recordings straight from the ATEM to DaVinci Resolve has made a huge difference, and we’ve never looked back.”
“Since moving to the new Blackmagic Cloud workflow, everything has become more centralized and intuitive. It has cut our turnaround time from weeks to days; meaning that we can spend more time supporting the students and utilizing the studio spaces, without compromising on quality. It’s made a real difference,” Zerf concluded.
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