Blackmagic Design has announced that Tokyo-based Bull Inc. has installed numerous Blackmagic Design products, including Videohub 12G routers and Teranex Mini Converters, as part of their post-production facility upgrade to handle 4K60P content. The company also uses DaVinci Resolve Studio’s editing and colour correction, including DaVinci Resolve’s new AI features, for online editing, which was used on recent hit TV Asahi dramas such as “Unknown.”
Bull began as an audio recording company and has since expanded into audio/post-production, focusing primarily on TV dramas. Equipped with nine editing suites and three audio suites, the company recently underwent a full post-production system update to accommodate 4K60P production workflow, which was required to work with the recent TV series.
“Previously, each suite’s computer was directly connected to the suite. However, during the system update, we introduced a switch that allows us to connect and switch between multiple computers installed in the machine room for different suites. To streamline this process and make switching inputs easier when changing computers, we required a router. We introduced the Videohub 12G 40×40, Videohub 12G 20×20, Videohub Master Control Pro and Videohub Smart Controls.
Blackmagic Design serves as the central hub of our signal system,” explained Toshiya Okada, the Systems Technology Department at Bull. “In addition, we updated various equipment to 12G models such as converters, and also introduced Teranex AV, SmartView 4K monitors, and DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel.”
The recent system update includes numerous 4K compatible products to handle the demand of high-quality content, especially from new TV shows and streaming services. Multiple units of Teranex Mini Quad SDI to 12G SDI, Teranex Mini 12G SDI to Quad SDI, Teranex Mini SDI to HDMI 12G, and Teranex Mini SDI to Audio 12G were also installed and are used extensively throughout the studio. Additionally, Audio Monitor 12G, DeckLink 8K Pros capture card, Mini Converter SDI to Audio 4K, UltraStudio 4K Minis and UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 were also introduced to ensure that any format needed could be easily worked with anywhere in the facility.
“Despite the various formats within 4K, such as 60P, 24P, and 30P, Blackmagic Design converters can correctly display all these without the need for switching. Some other brands might show a divided image when receiving signals of certain frequencies, which requires special adjustments to get a proper picture. In contrast, Blackmagic Design’s converters process signals accurately without any modifications, which makes them very user-friendly,” commented Okada.
Furthermore, Bull’s online edit suites are equipped with DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel or Micro Panel for the company’s increasing demand for colour correction services. Lately, Bull has also been seeing an increase in the need to use DaVinci Resolve for online editing as well.
“We introduced DaVinci Resolve mainly for grading, and we’ve been using it extensively for skin retouching. Recently, we used DaVinci Resolve for online editing for two titles of TV Asahi drama series,” said Okada.
U-dai Ryoki, an editor at Bull, shared his thoughts on DaVinci Resolve: “The AI (DaVinci Neural Engine) capabilities of DaVinci Resolve are quite impressive. The Magic Mask feature makes keying much easier. I also frequently use Face Refinement in Resolve FX to improve skin tone. DaVinci Resolve allows me to combine tools from different pages for various tasks. In scenes where I needed to replace a car’s license plate, we used tracking in the Fusion page, followed by Magic Mask in the Colour page.”