Is Multibridge Extreme shipping yet?

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Keith,

Multibridge Extreme is not shipping yet but it is very close. We’ve been concentrating on the convertor itself and so the PCIe Bridge would not be immediately available.

If you do choose to go with the existing Multibridge, you may wish to consider using the base model DeckLink HD card with it. It is only US$595 and you don’t need one of the higher models of DeckLink HD series cards as the Multibridge has all the i/o options you will need and you simply need a card with HD-SDI in and out. This is nice as it keeps the overall cost down. You can use the Multibridge as a standalone convertor or you can connect it to the DeckLink HD card if you want to capture and playback with a Mac or PC.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Chris Tomberlin]

Luke,

I already have a Decklink HD card, and am very interested in the Multibridge line (extreme in particular). Will there be any advantages to using the PCIe bridge with the Extreme versus just using the HD-SDI out of my card and connecting it to the Multibridge?

Thanks
Chris Tomberlin
OutPost Pictures

[Kurt Hennrich]

[Luke Maslen] “Multibridge Extreme is not shipping yet but it is very close. We’ve been concentrating on the convertor itself and so the PCIe Bridge would not be immediately available.

If you do choose to go with the existing Multibridge,……”

finally this is essential news. after months of waiting for the “available soon – order now from your local dealer” box to rebuild my studio as planned it now seems that this waiting and postboneing of projects was not worth it.

as I understand it, MBextreme has more bandwidth capable of working in 2k also.
to come close to this, one has to add the best DecklinkHD card with existing Multibridge + HDLink, ending in a system able to run HD but not capable of 2k monitoring on LCD. if there would be a tradeIn program that path could make sense now – otherwise not.

the other bad news is that the PCIe bridge is not ready for delivery which will also add to the time a working system is available for current Mac users. but without a time table its hard to wait once more for a uncertain amount of time. maybe there is no intension at all to deliver the PCIe bridge because apple could release a new G5 with PCIe soon. that would mean adding a new G5 to the costs building the expected working environment. while such decisions would be fine from a technical point of view in terms of working speed etc., it might be kind of disaster in financial and strategic business planing for users.

so I am advocating here to get time tables makeing transparent what/when will happen from blackmagicdesigns. this is essential for everyone depending on your products especially concerning fundamental workflow changes as the migration from SD to HD is (which the new MB’s will certainly push) because one must have an opportunity to know what kind of work/projects one can do in the next months and how much it will cost. It seems to me that I defenitely have to tell my clients now that I have to quit two big HD-projects allready negotiated because I cant start working as expected within a foreseeable time frame.

as companies are getting bigger they allways tend to become more quiet about what is really going on, just leaving their clients in the dust of loud marketing or crying for shareholders … which feels arrogant for product users sometimes …
something like this, once was a strong point in my decision to quit my path with products from Avid. BMD for me is far away from such behaviour – just let us make things clear as soon as possible.
thank you,
kurt

[Drazen Stader]

Hy Kurt,

I couldn’t eagree more on with you on this topic. I’ve been expecting the MB extreme with pce bridge for months now, postponing projects and hoping for the best and what we get is another notice of postponing saying that we need an additional card. NOt goood. Dates would be more than welcome in order to keep present and future customers trust. Why advertise something that cannot be delivered as seen on pictures? Hmmmmm….

Drazen

drazen

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Chris,

Macs don’t have PCIe and so the DeckLink HD card will enable you to connect the Multibridge Extreme to your Mac right now and hopefully Apple will do PCIe in the future.

PCIe is simply another evolutionary stage of the PCI bus and isn’t a great reason for excitement in itself other than that it is cheaper to make motherboards with PCIe compared with PCI-X. However one benefit of PCIe is that it allows for an external connector so that the PCIe bus can be taken outside of the computer. This provides a fast link between an external device and the motherboard of the computer and one of the things we can do with that is to provide 2K monitoring via an appropriate display, eg an Apple HD Cinema 30″ display. The quality is amazing and it is funny how full resolution HDTV 1920 x 1080 looks small on a 30″ display when viewed in its native x1 resolution.

I’m not sure when the bridge card will be available so your DeckLink HD card is going to be perfect for use with the Multibridge Extreme until PCIe connectivity becomes available.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Kurt and Drazen,

I wish you could see a day in the life of the development of Multibridge Extreme. It’s the most complex product we’ve ever developed and it is close as you will see if you happen to visit IBC.

Our engineers have been working flat out on the new Multibridges for months. The lead times for ordering some of the components are several months! However we’re used to this and do order components several months in advance but where things become difficult is if we find a problem with a component and a fix or alternative component has to be found and tested. This takes time.

You mentioned that it would be great if there could be time tables making transparent what/when will happen. However the timetables we receive from component suppliers change on a day to day basis and that is one of the big factors which makes it difficult to provide an accurate release date. While these potential sources of delay have always been a factor in the past, Multibridge is far more complex than any basic capture card as it includes the electronics for all kinds of conversions and the new models also provide capture/playback facilities. This degree of complexity does make it harder to accurately predict when the product will be released. We would like to have released it during the summer but that didn’t happen and we’re going to release it as soon as we can. However we want to do it right and ensure that the finished product works as expected and that there is no compromise on quality.

[Kurt Hennrich] “to come close to this, one has to add the best DecklinkHD card with existing Multibridge + HDLink”

The base model DeckLink HD is all that is required in conjunction with an exisiting Multibridge or HDLink.

[Kurt Hennrich] “the other bad news is that the PCIe bridge is not ready for delivery which will also add to the time a working system is available for current Mac users.”

Anyone on Mac or PC who is already working with SDI will simply be able to connect the SDI connections on the Multibridge to their existing capture card and take advantage of everything except for 2K playback as you cannot play 2K via HD-SDI in real time. That is where the fast bandwidth of PCIe helps as you can play 2K in real time via PCIe. At such a time as PCIe connectivity becomes available, and assuming your Mac or PC is fast enough, you should be able to play out 2K via the PCIe connection to Multibridge. In the meanwhile, you can use an existing HD-SDI card to capture and play out HDTV 1920 x 1080 video to the DVI-D output of the Multibridge Extreme and display on an LCD monitor.

[Kurt Hennrich] “it might be kind of disaster in financial and strategic business planing for users”

It is always wise to plan with existing shipping systems in mind. I would never rely upon any form of strategic planning based upon announced but unreleased products.

I hope this provides you with some of the clarity you would like to see. I realise it doesn’t give you a date but it does provide you with some of the variables in bringing the new Multibridges to market and why it is tricky to provide an exact date. I hope this helps and I hope you have a change to drop by the booth at IBC where more of your questions may be answered.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Kaspar Kallas]

One morething – when you have project coming in, in any other format than hdcam SR 4:4:4 buy the 600$ version and you will get it done.
And I am quite sure that You can pay for it by few short jobs.
And when the new products ship then you can sell it for few hunder bucks so it really shouldn’t be that hard.
Evrything else like fast disk arry, computer you can use with the new product, so these thing shouln’t add to the cost.

It was really hard formyself to get the extreme card, I was afraid there isn’t enugh need for the product and first HD cards started shipping – less than 6 months later I had the dual 4:4:4 card paid by the extereme card and I still use the extreme card for sdi-analog-sdi conversions in a nother computer.

So my morale would be, start working with the products that fill the current needs and when you have requirement for 2K playback (you will have most likley 2K capture need – so far I understand that new bridge products will NOT offer this – PLEASE PLEASE HAVE HDSL compatibilty!!!!! – the only product so far, in about sane price level is bluefish444 and it is 16K $)

I am quite sure that is also possible to rent current bridge products so if you need conversion facilites you can get it done.

-Kaspar (know it all) kallas

[Kurt Hennrich]

thank you Luke for your reply
which reflects your (companies) viewpoint and also is interesting for me as a customer, but does’nt necessarily meet my viewpoint as a user.
but anyway its good to hear that some news seem to come at IBC – so no problems to wait some more days. I will not go there. I guess its better and also in your interest to spend money for your products instead of using it for flights & hotels.
concerning your suggestions: because 2k is a necessarity of my setup at least at the end, it doesnt make any sense to me buying an existing MB+HDLink now (not able to connect 30″ display now, no use for MB later). but using MBextreme + DecklinkHD basemodel at least makes sense for the beginning.
thank you for that hint,
kurt