The 2016 edition of the trade show IBC, in Amesterdam, represents a new step for Blackmagic Design. Besides the acquisition of Ultimatte, which offers green and blue screen solutions, it acquired Fairlight, known for its solutions, both in hardware and software, for audio.
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!”
Fairlight shows for the first time at IBC 2016 its modular audio routing and distribution system that include analogue, digital, MADI and SDI modules. Also new is the choice of card frames, with 3RU, 1RU and desktop versions. Visitors can also see Fairlight’s range of converged audio production consoles, switchable between Live and Post modes. Handling 250 channels in Live mode, and up to 1000 tracks in Post mode, mixing to immersive 3D sound with AirPan control and support for formats like Dolby’s Atmos, these FPGA-powered consoles deliver flexibility with no compromise in performance.