Earlier this year, Blackmagic Design, a leading innovator and manufacturer of creative
video technology, announced that South African company Stage Audio Works had been
appointed its official distributor for sub-Saharan Africa.
Tim Siddons, Blackmagic Design channel sales director, was on the Stage Audio Works
stand at Mediatech Africa to demonstrate the latest products.
“The line between broadcasting and live events is blurring,’ said Siddons. “Blackmagic
Design has seen its broadcast market grow significantly over the years and now we’re
making serious in-roads into the live events sector too.
“As a business our particular focus at the moment is growth in Africa and we’re
expecting to see a fast acceleration in the use of our products on the continent. Up until
recently we didn’t have a suitable channel in place to distribute our products into Africa
so this region was left behind in terms of our activities. We have also recognised the
need for local pro-level support for our resellers and customers. This was our reason for
appointing Stage Audio Works as our official distributor – they are absolutely the right
company for the job.’
Blackmagic Design re-sellers in South Africa are Zimele Broadcasting Services, Pro-Sales
and Protea Electronics.
Three of Blackmagic Design’s ATEM live production switchers were on show at the Stage
Audio Works stand at Mediatech Africa, including the Production Studio 4K, which was
launched at NAB this year. This is the world’s first Ultra HD 4K production switcher with
support for Ultra HD live production with 6G-SDI and HDMI 4K technology. It allows
users to connect up to eight SD, HD or Ultra HD 4K video cameras, disk recorders and
computers for live production. The ATEM Production Studio 4K includes all the features
expected from a professional switcher, including chroma key, transitions, media pool,
downstream keyers, audio mixer, multi view and the world’s first 6G-SDI and HDMI 4K
video connections.
Siddons stressed that Blackmagic Design products and systems are built around the
customer’s needs.
“We believe our Teranex advanced standards converter will be an important product for
South Africa. Teranex processors have a heritage in Hollywood but are now available at
affordable prices for everyone. This product is perfect for live production and, with the
built-in Thunderbolt port, can also be used for cleaning and converting content for
authoring, as well as video capture and playback for editing, design and effects.
“At Blackmagic Design we call Teranex “the Swiss Army Knife’ as it fixes anything – it’s
the perfect video converter, standards converter and capture and playback tool all in
one. A Teranex system is currently being tested by the SABC,’ concluded Siddons.
