Blackmagic and Fairlight ?
This is a rather interesting development at least in signs of potential intentions of Blackmagic to further expand into the audio world.
Up until now Blackmagic have mainly been focused on the video sector but Video and Audio pretty much go hand in hand these days so its perhaps a natural progression to move this way.
Back in the days of the early digital mulitrack systems Fairlight and Digidesign/Avid were in extreme direct competition in the audio sector both offering what was at the time cutting edge rock solid DSP powered recording hardware.
Avid's audio division expanded further into "Pro-sumer" entry level products with M-Audio and Pro Tools LE/M-Powered but Fairlight always remained pretty close to their original demographic of high end dedicated DSP and so perhaps did not maintain the wider known name that Avid developed for their brand.
While at the same time Fairlight have moved into Post Production, Live Sound and 3D Audio in a considerable way.
So what i'm getting at is a question, Does this mean Blackmagic are aiming at some serious competition to Avid's current market of the all in one Pro Audio and Video solutions brand?
It certainly seems that way from this move, but what will that mean for users of Blackmagic hardware with Pro Tools systems will they get cut off? Will Avid drop support for Blakmagic hardware in a strategic counter-blow ?
This all remains to be seen, watch this space.
See the full Blackmagic/Fairlight Press release below.
Blackmagic Design acquires cutting edge professional digital audio technology!
IBC 2016, Amsterdam, Netherlands - September 9, 2016 - Blackmagic Design today announced its acquisition of Fairlight, which creates professional digital audio products for live broadcast event production, film and television post production, as well as immersive 3D audio mixing and finishing.
Fairlight has an impressive history of designing and manufacturing integrated audio control surfaces and software that are renowned for their speed, flexibility and exceptional sonic quality. Fairlight Live products feature consoles that are designed for the most demanding on-air and live productions, giving customers leading edge audio processing and control surfaces that range from 12 to 60 faders, along with audio I/O interfaces with full redundancy for mission critical work in broadcast facilities, outside broadcast trucks, performing arts venues and houses of worship.
For post production solutions, Fairlight creates everything from compact desktop audio post systems to large format mixing consoles with dedicated controls. Fairlight audio engines can deliver up to 1000 tracks which lets customers create complex productions without premixing, along with a massive 64 channels of monitoring.
Fairlight’s editing software and fully featured audio post consoles give customers complete tactile control along with unique features like time compression and expansion that allows audio within a single clip to be precisely aligned to picture. Designed for the film and television post production markets, Fairlight also creates immersive 3D audio workstations so customers can deliver 3D sound in formats such as 5.1, DTS MDA, Dolby Atmos, NHK’s 22.2 and more. Fairlight’s 3D audio workstations are large format mixers with complete support for both 2K and 4K video playback.
“Fairlight creates the world’s most powerful digital audio software and hardware for video production,” said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “The exciting part about this acquisition is that it will add incredibly high end professional audio technology to Blackmagic Design’s amazing video products. We look forward to working with the Fairlight team to build even more exciting new products for our customers!”
Press Photography
Product photos of Fairlight, and all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images.
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.
