Phoenix Satellite TV upgrades with Blackmagic
Published: ASIA
CHINA: Hong Kong’s Phoenix Satellite TV has recently installed Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve Studios and HyperDeck Studio Pro broadcast SSD recorders at its facility in Beijing. Phoenix Satellite TV is a multinational broadcaster, delivering six channels to an audience of more than 250 million viewers worldwide. The facility in Beijing handles production and postproduction of the broadcaster’s non-news programmes, including shows like Panoramic Eyeshot of Phoenix, Behind the Headlines with Wentao and A Date with Luyu. With the goal of elevating the production value of its promos and documentaries, Phoenix Satellite TV built a new colour grading suite around two Mac-based DaVinci Resolve systems.
‘UltraStudio Express captures the footage directly onto our shared storage for postproduction,’ said Liang Bojian, engineer at Phoenix Satellite TV. ‘HyperDeck Studio Pros are used for backup recording and when postproduction has to be done outside the facility – it’s easy to take the SSDs and go anywhere. Besides in the studios, we also use the HyperDeck Studio Pro recorders at outdoor production locations or in OB vans, since its design is so compact and portable.’
For each of the four studios the broadcaster installed HyperDeck Studio Pro SSDs connected to a computer and an UltraStudio Express capture and playback device via Thunderbolt, which was used to record camera footage or PGM from the production switcher.
‘The HyperDeck Studio Pro recorder supports non-stop recording, which is great for TV show production,’ Mr Liang continued. ‘And it captures footage in open file formats. Once we are done with recording, the post people simply take the SSD out, insert it into a SSD reader, and then start editing without copying footage.’