Blackmagic URSA Broadcast

URSA B4 Broadcast: Overview

Introducing Blackmagic URSA B4, the world’s first high end digital film camera designed to revolutionize workflow on set. Built to handle the ergonomics of large film crews as well as single person use, URSA B4 has everything built in, including a massive 10 inch fold out on set monitor, large user upgradeable Super 35 global shutter 4K image sensor, 12G-SDI and internal dual RAW and ProRes recorders. Because the sensor and lens mount assembly can be changed, you can choose EF or PL lens mounts, or even a broadcast video sensor with B4 mount. This means you can upgrade to the latest sensor technology in the future and keep your investment in the camera body!

Due late 2014, URSA B4 Broadcast features a sensor optimized for Broadcast Video in Ultra HD, combined with a broadcast B4 lens mount and broadcast lens control connection plus built in ND filter wheel installed onto the URSA B4 camera body.

Professional Digital Film Camera
Designed for feature films, television commercials and more!
Blackmagic URSA B4 is designed to be used on high end feature films, commercials, episodic television production, documentaries, electronic news gathering, music videos and more. When used on jobs with a large crew you can easily dress the camera with high quality cinema lenses, rails, follow focus, matte boxes and more. With built in scopes for exposure, focus and audio levels, it’s easy for DOP’s to get perfect results every time. The dedicated screen for camera assistants lets them check and update camera parameters independently of the DOP. If you’re shooting solo then the large fold out on set monitor, built in scopes and internal recorder means you don’t need any extra on set equipment because it’s all built into the camera. That’s a whole film set of equipment built into the one extremely portable design!

Rethinking Camera Design
All your on set equipment built into one portable design!
The Blackmagic URSA B4 features a larger professional size that has the space for powerful cooling that allows higher frame rates while keeping the chassis cool and the fan super quiet. The machined aluminum design is incredibly strong and has been designed for large film crew use and to be field upgradable to new sensors by the user. Each area of the camera has been divided into separate DOP, camera assistant and audio engineer work stations. The DOP station features a large 10 inch fold out on set monitor and separate 5 inch screen for settings, camera status and scopes. The camera assist station features a separate screen for camera settings, status and scopes and an audio station features audio meters, controls and audio connections. The big screen means you don’t need extra on set equipment so it’s easy to move around quickly between shots. Simply fold in the monitor and go!
 

Shoot in incredible quality Ultra HD
Super 35 size sensor with feature film dynamic range
URSA B4 is a true professional digital film camera with a 4K sensor, global shutter and an incredible 12 stops of dynamic range. The wide dynamic range blows away regular video cameras or even high end broadcast cameras, so you get dramatically better images that look like true digital film. The wide dynamic range preserves detail in dark shadows as well as bright highlights so you have a wider range of brightness levels to work with when color grading in post production. The extra large Super 35 size allows for creative shallow depth of field shooting and the high resolution Ultra HD 12 bit lossless Cinema DNG RAW means you get incredible quality! You can also shoot Ultra HD or HD in Apple ProRes™ for easy post production workflow with minimum storage requirements!

Dual Recorders for Non Stop Recording
Keep recording forever so you never miss a critical event!
Blackmagic URSA B4 features dual recorders so you never need to stop recording to change media. That’s critical if you are shooting an historical event, important interview or where you just cannot stop shooting! Simply load an empty CFast card into the second recorder and when the current card is full, the recording will continue onto the second card, allowing you to change out the full card and keep shooting! The built in recorders use new CFast card technology that allow recording up to 350 MB/s for incredible speeds, perfect for high frame rate RAW recording! Imagine shooting RAW and then playing back for the crew on the massive 10 inch screen!

User Upgradeable Sensor and Mount
Choose from a range of sensors and lens mounts!
The Blackmagic URSA B4 features a modular camera turret that can be simply removed by removing 4 simple bolts! The camera turret includes the sensor, lens mount and lens control connections and can be upgraded in the future when new types of sensors are developed. This means your next camera will be a fraction of the cost of buying a whole new camera! There are currently 4 models to choose from!

URSA B4 Broadcast (B4), due later in 2014, features a whole different sensor optimized for Broadcast Video in Ultra HD, combined with a broadcast B4 lens mount and broadcast lens control connection plus built in ND filter wheel.

Built in On Set Monitoring!
Massive Viewfinder as a fold out 10 inch screen!
Say goodbye to bulky on set monitors because you get a massive fold out 10 inch screen built into Blackmagic URSA B4, making it the world’s biggest viewfinder! The screen is super bright so it’s easy to see when shooting outdoors, even in direct sunlight, plus it features an ultra wide viewing angle so you can pan and tilt to extremes and still see crystal clear images. When shooting in Ultra HD, focus becomes extremely difficult on small viewfinders, however with a massive 10 inch screen in full HD, you can see your images in amazing detail for perfect focus, framing and exposure! Because the screen tilts you can shoot down low, or high up over crowds and easily tilt the screen up or down to see your shot!

Two Extra 5” Touch Screens
Get full control on both sides of the camera!
URSA B4 features the world’s most intuitive and advanced touch screen camera user interface! There are two 5” touch screens on both sides of the camera that put your settings, controls and monitoring tools at your fingertips!
The left side gives you quick access to all major settings via a touch screen and a row of control buttons. That means you don’t have to hunt through complicated menus to make changes!
The right side displays settings like format, frame rate, shutter angle and more! There is a large prominent time code display, an animated histogram for checking levels, a scrolling audio waveform monitor with clipping indicators and a spectrum scope for helping you check and adjust focus!

Broadcast Connections
Standard connections eliminates custom cables
The Blackmagic URSA B4 features standard broadcast connections so you don’t need to worry about buying expensive custom cables! You get 12G-SDI output that can be down converted to HD or used directly at amazing Ultra HD quality. There’s also a 12G-SDI input that can display return video on the 10 inch monitor when working on live events or an external video source! A separate SDI output is available for attaching external viewfinders and eye pieces. For audio, there are 2 professional XLR connections with 48v phantom power so you can use the audio industry’s best quality microphones. You also get timecode in/out and a LANC connector for controlling the camera, lenses, and accessories remotely.

Broadcast Standard Power
Compatible with industry standard power supplies
URSA B4 uses a standard 4-pin 12V to 30V XLR broadcast power connector for plugging into external power supplies. There are also mounting points and a power transfer connector for mounting third party V-Mount and Anton/Bauer gold mount back plates and batteries onto the rear of the camera itself. This means you can integrate the battery as part of the camera itself. You also get a standard 4 pin XLR 12V output power connector so you can use a wide range of third party viewfinders without needing expensive custom cables. That means it’s easy to integrate the camera with all of your existing gear and accessories!

Designed to be Rigged!
Customize your rig to suit your production!
To make it super easy to bolt on your favorite accessories, Blackmagic URSA B4 has multiple mount points all over the camera. You get standard tripod quick release attach points on the bottom of the camera, so you can use industry standard tripod mounts. The viewfinder connection uses standard power and BNC SDI connections for any type of viewfinder, plus there is standard 3/8” threaded points on the top and handle of the camera for mounting anything you like! Standard battery mounts can be bolted to the rear of the camera and you can use standard rails in the rail mounts built into the camera base. No camera is so easy to rig up for any type of production!

DaVinci Resolve Software Included
The industry standard in color correction included free!
Blackmagic URSA B4 includes full DaVinci Resolve 11 software for Mac and Windows, so you get more color correction features that let you take advantage of URSA’s amazing image quality. You can use the Resolve Live feature to grade live pictures direct from the camera. Imagine lighting your set and color grading all at the same time! You get the full creative power of primaries, secondaries, power windows and more! You also get DaVinci Resolve’s advanced editing features including a full multi layer timeline with ripple, roll, slide and slip clip trimming and title tools! Blackmagic URSA and DaVinci Resolve mean you get a complete production and post production solution!

USES

DESIGN

Designed for Production!
URSA has been designed to solve the problem of moving large amounts of equipment between locations when shooting. You get a full size professional production camera with all the accessories such as a large 10 inch on set monitor, two built in recorders, professional audio recording, built in microphones, scopes, dual status screens and more! Because so many accessories are built into URSA B4, it’s been designed to be fully upgradable so you can remove and upgrade the sensor and lens mount in the future! This upgradeable design means we have invested more into URSA B4’s design because you don’t need to throw it away when you buy your next camera!

Revolutionary Design
Rugged, lightweight and future proof!
URSA features a super strong aluminum alloy design so you get a durable camera that’s ready for shooting in all conditions. The built in liquid cooling system keeps internal components cool, even when running sustained high frame rates, and thermal energy is piped into a large internal heat exchanger in the rear of the camera that allows conversion cooling with little fan use required. URSA B4 is also loaded with lots of extra processing power plus advanced SATA 3 based CFast recorders that are faster than currently available cards, so you get a future proof camera with power to handle new emerging formats and sensor upgrades when they become available!

Upgradable Sensor and Lens Mount
World’s first user field upgradable camera!
URSA B4’s revolutionary camera turret is a lens mount and imaging sensor built together, into a single replaceable module that attaches to the camera with 4 simple bolts! Having a replaceable turret on a professional production camera means that you can choose to upgrade your camera as different sensor and lens mount options become available. Changing sensors is as simple as removing the bolts and unplugging the assembly, so for the first time you can upgrade your own camera when it suits you because you can do it yourself! That means your investment in the camera body is protected and you get a completely new camera with the latest sensor technology just by replacing the turret!

Large 10” Viewfinder
Extremely bright fold out monitor with super wide viewing angle
Now you’ll always have a massive on set monitor with you at all times because URSA B4 includes an incredibly bright and wide viewing angle 10” monitor. Now you can totally eliminate the need to carry around extra monitoring when shooting! The built in monitor simply folds out and pivots up and down making shooting down low, or high above crowds super easy. The large screen is full HD resolution for crystal clear images, ensuring your exposure settings are perfect and your focus is super sharp. The large monitor makes framing shots easy and you can also use the large monitor to playback shots to your entire crew. When you’re ready to move to a new location, simply fold in the monitor and go!

Advanced Touch Screen Interface
Dual screens for complete control
Blackmagic URSA B4 features the world’s most advanced camera interface! You get camera settings, control, technical monitoring and more on screens built into each side of the camera. The left screen allows the DOP to see camera settings, scopes and status with full touch screen control. The status display on this screen includes information such as large timecode display, format, frame rate information as well as the histogram scopes for exposure, spectrum scope for focus and audio level over time to show audio clipping. For the camera assistant, there is a second similar LCD on the other side of the camera with all these features that works completely independently of the screen for the DOP!

Industry Standard Connections
Connect without expensive custom cables
URSA B4 features industry standard broadcast quality connectors so you can connect without buying expensive custom cables! Having standard connections on location is important because you never know what equipment you’re going to need to connect to. You get the latest technology 12G-SDI video connections and separate HD-SDI output and 12V power for adding an external electronic viewfinder. Also included are 2 professional XLR balanced analog audio inputs with switchable phantom power for professional microphones. URSA also includes LANC, a industry standard 4 pin XLR power connector and more. No matter where in the world you travel, you’ll always have the confidence you can connect your camera!

External Mounting Points
Attach all kinds of third party accessories!
When you’re operating as part of a large crew, or flying solo, connecting extra items such as external microphones, fiber converters for live production or large lenses is critical. URSA B4 includes the standard 3/8” threaded points positioned over the top of the camera to make it easy to add extra items as you need to. Underneath the camera are lock plates for using quick lock tripod mounts, so you can snap URSA B4 into a tripod mount and remove in less than a second. That’s perfect when shooting on the go. On the rear of the camera are multiple screw mount points for adding V-Lock or Anton Bauer battery mount plates. For large lens and matte box use, production rail mounts are included in the tripod mount point under the camera, and all compatible third party rails are supported!