Blackmagic has released an updated web presenter in 4K for $695 a great solution for work from home streaming

Blackmagic design has done it again and have released a 4K streaming version of the web presenter.

The previous $495 version could accept a 4K signal, but it only could output at 1080, but this can output at a full 4k for a better signal for $695.

And like the previous model it has a USB C out so you can connect it to your computer as a web cam to use in Zoom. And with my UltraStudio 4K I could easily run it via the SDI input without bothering the HDMI out (though it also has an HDMI out).

I was talking to a DP with the director on a notes call and I really wished I had this setup so We could do live sessions. I know a lot of producers like to do a session in person and being able to stream live to a producer and talk really is something I need to add to my setup soon so I can continue to work at home. I am really looking forward to trying out Sofi Marshall’s setup and getting this going.

Oliver Peters on Audio Plug-ins for editors

Oliver Peters at his digitalfilms blog has written 2 article son Audio Plug-ins for Editors. Parts 1 & 2 focus on categories, such as equalizers and compressors, part 3 is on the audio plug-ins from FabFilter Software Instruments and 4 is on Free Plug-ins.

You should go to his blog and check out parts 1, 2 , 3 and 4.

Sound is my worst part of editing. So often of late I am working for companies that expect me to mix, when an audio guy can add so much to a mix. Maybe this can help a little with audio if you want to dive into it.

Toolfarm’s top 5 plug-ins for under $99 for Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, AVID, Final Cut Pro X, and more

Toolfarm, the plug-in seller has posted it’s top 5 plug-ins for under $99 for various software. For Premiere Pro, Davinci Resolve, AVID, Final Cut Pro X, Audio and various 3D packages.

Always good to see lists of inexpensive plug ins.

Adobe has updated Premiere Pro to 15.4 with Free Speech to Text and Full M1 support

So I woke up way too early today because the air conditioner is not working too well, and I was too hot to keep sleeping and low and behold Adobe has updated Premiere Pro to Version 15.4!

This update brings the amazing Speech to Text out of Beta and into the normal version and out of the Beta program which I have been running for a bit. This quickly became my favorite feature when cutting testimonials, and I am so happy that i is available to all. It also includes new Transcript Editing Tools and the ability to Generate Captions Automatically.

And adds native support for Apple M1 Computers which was previously only available in the beta.

Other new features of Note:

New Titling and Caption Styling Tools.

You can now upgrade Legacy Titles to Essential Graphics. ARE YOU LISTENING AVID?

Color improvements with Tetahedral LUT interpolation. And the beta now includes a colorized vectorscope for more detail in grading.

The Speed of Saving of Team Projects has improved thanks to a new file structure. And in the Public Beta is progressive project loading to work faster, and improved media relinking.

You can now also label colors and clip names and have the option of limiting changes to the current sequence or applying changes to your source media.

Faster Scene Edit Detection.

On Windows you get automatic Audio Device Switching.

And CUDA and OpenCL have been discontinued completely in favor of Metal on the Mac.

Looking forward to running it through it’s paces, this is huge news.

Knights of the Editing Table has updated Excalibur to 1.1.3 with ability to mark clip, control track targeting and select all disabled clips

Knights of the Editing Table have updated their awesome keyboard launcher Excaliubur for Adobe Premiere Pro to 1.1.3.

Here is the Change Log for this app that you will quickly find to be indispensable. For current users you download the update from the Excalibur settings app within Premiere Pro.

NEW

Sequence module:
– Add Marker to Clip
– Target Video/Audio Tracks
– Mute Video/Audio Tracks
– Lock Video/Audio Tracks
– Sync Lock Video/Audio Tracks

Selection module:
– Select Clip Above/Below
– Extend Selection
– Select All Clips after/before Playhead
– Invert Selection
– Select All Disabled Clips

Preferences module:
– Display Color Management
– Snap playhead in Timeline
– Selection Follows Playhead
– Linked Selection
– Transparency Grid
– Show Rulers
– Show Guides
– Snap in Program Monitor

Other:
– Multiply, divide, percent operations are added for Position/Scale/Rotation and etc
– Excalibur Settings could be open from a search bar

FIXED

– “Copy Frame to Clipboard” didn’t work on some macOS machines
– “Export Media/Selected Clips” in a search bar used project location as an export path. Now it defaults to Premeire Pro last used export path (which could be controlled with Compass)
– Unnecessary undo step was performed for Duration/Speed command if duration/speed couldn’t be changed or was the same for an affected clip
– Effect presets that used “Vector Motion” (part of Essential Graphics) added additional “Vector Motion” effect instead of changing values of an existing one
– Optimized “Nest Clips” command
– Optimized “Paste Clip on Same track” command
– Optimized preloading of a search bar
– Enter pressed multiple times in a search bar caused Excalibur to execute command multiple times

—–

This app really is amazing and will guaranteed speed you up within Premiere. My biggest problem is working on other machines where it is not installed! Honestly I might be buying multiple licenses when I eventually have to go back to working in an office instead of working from home.

Elgato has updated it’s Stream Deck software to version 5.0 with a store

The software for the Elgato Stream Deck has been updated to version 5.0 with the addition of a store. Jose Antunes at ProVideoCoalition has a great article on it.

Now it is great for them to have a store, but the store is pretty useless to me if it doesn’t have SideShowFX in it, because they make the profiles for pro video users. Now you can find software for streaming in the store, but the Stream Deck really works for Pro Video users, and to not have that software represented seems like a huge mistake.

I still plan on doing an article on Steam Deck and SideshowFX, but have been so busy I haven’t had the time.

Film Editing Pro on Multicams or Merge Clips in Premiere Pro

Film Editing Pro has an good article on using Multicams vs Merge Clips in Premiere Pro.

Now like Sofi Marshall I do like Merge clips, but just wish Adobe would fix them, getting rid of meta data and not being able to go back to original clips without exporting an xml and re-importing (and the fact that this works shows that Merge clips still has the data somewhere). And I don’t like single angle clips to be multicam, but they are right that as it is now Multi-cam is slightly superior.

Still might just switch back to using Red Giant (or should I say Maxon) Plural eyes and sequences unless Adobe does something about Merge clips.

BlackMagic RAW has been updated to 2.1 with improved Premiere Pro Performance and M1 Support

Blackmagic Design has upgraded it’s BlackMagic RAW plugin to version 2.1 with M1 support and improved Premiere Pro Performance.

  • Added native support for Apple Silicon on Mac.
  • Added optimised CPU decoding for clips captured by Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K.
  • Added Blackmagic Generation 5 Color Science Technical Reference document.
  • Added support for Panasonic Lumix S1H, S1 and S5 Blackmagic RAW clips captured by Blackmagic Video Assist.
  • Added support for Nikon Z 6II and Z 7II Blackmagic RAW clips captured by Blackmagic Video Assist.
  • Blackmagic RAW Adobe Premiere Pro plugin performance and stability improvements.
  • General performance and stability improvements.

Improvements to performance are always welcome and M1 support is as well.

Adobe adds Speech to Text to the Public Beta

Adobe has added Speech to Text to the Public Beta, you no longer need to sign up to use it. Of course if you you are already signed up you can also use it in the release version.

Speech to Text is so good for doing testimonials I don’t know how i ever lived without it. It is fast and works so incredibly well. And having the script helps with comprehension so my edits just go faster. This is the most impressive feature in years, and it has quickly become essential to my workflow.

Adobe needs to bring back SpeedGrade as Lumetri Pro and have a proper finishing workflow

Now I was a huge fan of SpeedGrade when it existed, and greatly lamented it’s passing when it went away. For those of you who don’t know, SpeedGrade was a professional color correction software much like DaVinci Resolve that Adobe purchased and added to their creative suite for a while, and then gutted it and that is where the Lumetri color panel came from. What I miss the most was that unlike with DaVinci where you render out movies with the grade baked in, the grade from SpeedGrade could be exported a single movie or movies of each shot, but you could also roundtrip to premiere and the entire grade came back to Premiere as the Lumetri plug in on your clips! Not only was this much faster, especially since most Lumetri grades would play back in real time without rendering in Premiere, but it saved hard drive space too and made the whole round-tripping thing a real pleasure.

Sure it wasn’t quite as powerful as DaVinci Resolve at the time, but it was plenty powerful and at the time even beat DaVinci on a couple of things.

Of course by this point DaVinci has vastly moved on from SpeedGrade, but this is Adobe we are talking about, and they could certainly update it (and give it multi-monitor support). And maybe bake in some After Effects tools for masks and tracking and the like.

Now Premiere Pro has the Lumetri Color Panel, but it isn’t near what SpeedGrade was and no where near what Premiere can do. So the Adobe Creative Suit really needs a high end color correction package and it could be the evolution of SpeedGrade or as Randi Altman called it Lumetri Pro (I wish I could take credit for the name).