Blackmagic Design kicked off NAB for us in the post-production space with the announcement of DaVinci Resolve 19. I think a new Resolve was expected but we didn’t expect a new Resolve editing control surface, the DaVinci Resolve Replay Editor. I was just about to board my flight to NAB, but a delay in that flight meant I got to catch the YouTube announcement all the way through the Resolve goodies. I’ve posted a few Twitter comments here as we had some near-live discussions as the keynote played out. And not to leave out the big camera announcement, read about there here. 

The biggest surprise was the DaVinci Resolve Replay Editor. I first thought it might be an update to the Speed Editor. 

The Speed Editor is cool but had a lot of limitations and just weird design choices. Hopefully this new surface has some better thought put into it. Bit dang gotta buy a new piece of hardware and toss the SE?

— Scott Simmons (@editblog) April 12, 2024

But watching Blackmagic’s Grant Petty’s demo play out, it became clear that the Replay Editor is a new tool entirely. It looks to work in conjunction with some big improvements to the Resolve Cut page and be geared toward new and live broadcast productions. 

I’m not sure if the @Blackmagic_News Resolve Replay Editor is really a Speed Editor replacement at all. Seems like different tools for different uses. pic.twitter.com/oWRNXFuJoS

— Scott Simmons (@editblog) April 12, 2024

Grant explained that when the Cut page was introduced, it had much more planned development. It now has dedicated tools to include stingers into live broadcasts or quick turnaround products and tools to implement replays. That’s not something that your traditional non-linear editing application can do. This new functionality of the Cut page seems to work with the DaVinci Resolve Replay Editor and other Blackmagic hardware like the Hyperdeck and switchers to add different functionality than you would normally get in an NLE. I wonder if this will compete with something like EVS for the live TV replay crown. 

Of course, I was very interested in the Edit page. While updates there aren’t huge, the big bullet point feature of Resolve 19’s Edit page is updated to the built-in transcription tools. In addition to speaker identification, we now have full-blown text-based editing with many more features than what was introduced last year. 

Text-based editing comes to @Blackmagic_News Resolve 19! That’s cool and a natural progression. Looks nice. pic.twitter.com/tyhjOSIm63

— Scott Simmons (@editblog) April 12, 2024

In fact, check out this new feature noted in the DaVinci Resolve 19 New Features Guide.

Edit Timeline Content Based on Source Clip Transcription

You can use the transcription you generated from the original source clip to subsequently modify that clip on the Timeline. Entering this mode in the Transcription window will let you select, cut, and paste text and then mirror those changes to the Timeline.

You can download the beta of Resolve 19 and the New Features Guide from BMD’s website.

That is awesome anad mirrors some features we’ve seen in third-party cloud-based transcription services. Your move, Adobe!

Here’s the bullet point feature list from Blackmagic’s press release:

• IntelliTrack AI point tracker for tracking and stabilization.
• Support for the DaVinci Resolve Replay Editor.
• Cut page as a media player and playout system.
• New multiview option in the source tape to view time-synced footage.
• Add points of interest and create replays from multiview and timeline.
• Ability to edit timeline content based on source clip transcription.
• New ColorSlice six vector grading palette.
• AI powered UltraNR noise reduction for spatial denoising.
• Node Stack allows management of complex grading workflows.
• New Film Look Creator.
• New Defocus Background isolates foreground with blur.
• Multi Poly tool for easier rotoscoping of complex objects.
• USD enhancements for Material X and advanced volumetric shading.
• Multiple shape toolset enhancements.
• Fully integrated native Ambisonics workflow.
• IntelliTrack powered audio panning to video in Fairlight.
• Music Remixer FX to remix voice, drums, bass, guitar and other sources.
• Dialogue Separator FX to separate dialogue, background or ambience.
• Ducker track FX for auto level management of beds against dialogue.

It feels like there’s a lot more than this after watching the keynote but these are the highlights. The public beta of Resolve 19 is now available as a free download. 

One noticeable aspect of all the Blackmagic camera announcements (and there are more) is that cloud media syncing to DaVinci Resolve is a huge part of BMD’s media play. It’s really an amazing bit of infrastructure that BMD has enabled with their cameras syncing to the cloud, near-instant media and proxy avability in Resolve, Cloud Store hardware products as well as their cloud database for Resolve. This is some well thought out stuff has it has been playing the long game as we have seen these things roll out over the years. I still don’t think that Resolve as a creative editorial tool is yet at the level of Avid Media Composer or Adobe Premiere Pro but it’s getting there, slowly but surely. But the whole workflow BMD has built and is building will indeed push whole productions to their platform(s).

The other thing worth noting is that Blackmagic has redesigned the DaVinci Resolve Micro Color Panel. Instead of an $800+ grading panel designed to mimic the big Resolve Advanced panel, it is now smaller and has a slot where you can mount an iPad Pro. The picture is kind of cool.

The price has come down to around $500. And you can use it with desktop Resolve as well. Hopefully, Apple doesn’t change that iPad Pro design too much, so new versions of it no longer fit!

And a few other things to fill this out.

And look it’s audio ducking in the Resolve 19 Fairlight page. No more weird side chaining! pic.twitter.com/jpLXtzAQBd

— Scott Simmons (@editblog) April 12, 2024

This new “multi view” looks like to could actually make the Cut page useful for fast multicam turnaround. But gotta have real multicam time code I’m guessing !! Some interesting stuff. pic.twitter.com/Qrg0XVdPUX

— Scott Simmons (@editblog) April 12, 2024

That little Resolve Replay editor slider thing on the side is shown adjusting speed changes. pic.twitter.com/PvtdERpusD

— Scott Simmons (@editblog) April 12, 2024

This is cool. A new @Blackmagic_News codec for IP video and live production. As I watch the BMD keynote and wait for my delayed #NAB2024 flight pic.twitter.com/w60zxJ7Kh4

— Scott Simmons (@editblog) April 12, 2024