Blackmagic Design has revolutionized hard to use and ugly waveform monitoring with UltraScope, the company’s latest product from NAB 09. Ultrascope brings together all the features you need when editing or colour correcting, combined with an elegant user interface, all at an affordable price point.
So far, HD monitoring has lagged behind when it comes to the drop in prices across other parts of the HD production workflow. Ultrascope changes all that. Simply plugging the Ultrascope PCI Express card into any compatible Windows PC in combination with a 24 inch monitor, gives access to six live HD or SD scope views simultaneously. With 3 Gb/s SDI, and even 3 Gb/s optical fibre SDI connections, UltraScope is a highly engineered, technically accurate, broadcast quality set of scopes that can auto detect SD, HD and 3 Gb/s SDI inputs.
Ultrascope brings together the six most widely used A/V monitoring displays:
Parade Display for Colorists: When colour correcting video, the realtime RGB parade waveform view is a real asset. The colour balance can be viewed in blacks, mids and whites, so it's easy to get images looking perfect. RGB Parade is also used for checking illegal colours, identifying any video that drops below the black line, or above the 100% line at a glance. Parade can also be switched to component mode so users can align equipment and decks.
Waveform Display for Alignment: Ultrascope is ideal for adjusting video levels or matching black background levels when keying. Waveform view comes with a setting option that is luminance only, or composite. Composite video is synthesized from the SDI input and delivers a much better view for aligning traditional equipment such as decks.
Component Vectorscope View: When colour correcting video, it’s vital to know if colour has been removed or nulled out for accurate white balance. Vectorscope accurately identify what colour is already present in the video, alternatively it can be used to apply highly accurate colour tints.
Histogram for Location Shoots: Histogram view identifies the location of pixels within a video clip, and how they are distributed from black to white. When used on a live shoot it allows users to see if video is clipping and make the necessary adjustments. At the post production stage the video will have the full contrast range for easy colour correction, preserving all the detail no matter how extreme the colour grade.
Audio view for Monitoring Level: With Ultrascope’s Audio View, it’s easy to keep track of audio levels and use the built in phase scope to check for out of phase audio conditions and audio clipping.
Picture View with VITC Timecode: The picture view keeps track of the video input and lets users know what video input is connected into the Blackmagic UltraScope. Input video can be selected from either the optical fiber SDI or regular SDI inputs, and the video standard is automatically detected and displayed above the video image. VITC timecode is also detected and read into a timecode counter on the top right of the video image.
Only waveform monitoring provides a complete overview of a project, allowing users to spot problems that could cause broadcasters to reject the work. Now editors and colourists can have the same technical accuracy as demanded by broadcast engineers, and all at a price every editor can afford – US$695.
For more information: www.blackmagic-design.com
