Blackmagic Design (http://www.blackmagic-design.com) has announced what it says is the world’s first video product with Thunderbolt technology. It's shipping and costs US$995.

Running at 10Gbps, Thunderbolt technology -- developed by Intel in cooperation with Apple -- can transfer a full-length HD movie in less than 30 seconds, according to Mooly Eden, general manager, PC Client Group, Intel. The vision for Thunderbolt technology (formerly codenamed “Light Peak”) is to move media faster, simplify connections between devices, and foster new and exciting ways to build and use computers, says Eden.

Combining high-speed data and HD video connections together onto a single cable is instrumental to achieving that vision. Thunderbolt technology delivers this via two communications methods, or protocols -- PCI Express for data transfer and DisplayPort for displays.

The UltraStudio 3D allows portable capture and playback with full resolution dual stream 3D support, 10-bit hardware architecture, dual link 3 Gb/s SDI, support for up to 1080p60 in SDI and component analog and HDMI 1.4a connections, as well as full SD, HD and 2K support. It uses the new Thunderbolt interface for dual link 3 Gb/s SDI, HDMI 1.4a and analog component/s-video/composite, as well as balanced analog and AES/EBU digital audio capture and playback.

UltraStudio 3D is designed for 3D workflows as it features interleaved, side by side, frame packed and dual stream capture and playback. Dual stream 3D allows customers to use the UltraStudio 3D dual link SDI connections to capture and play back two streams, one for the left eye and one for the right eye.

The two streams are recorded into two separate media files. Dual stream 3D is higher quality because each eye is full resolution video, but dual stream is less compatible with current editing software. To solve this problem, Blackmagic Design’s Media Express 3 has been upgraded to handle both interleaved and dual stream 3D for capture and playback of 3D media for a complete 3D solution.

With SDI, HDMI and analog video capture and playback, combined with balanced analog and AES/EBU digital audio, UltraStudio 3D lets customers connect to most l decks, cameras and monitors. UltraStudio 3D instantly switches between SD, HD and 2K.

UltraStudio 3D is also based on a new internal hardware design with support for 10 bit SDI video and full support for video rates up to 1080p60 via SDI, HDMI and analog component. Thunderbolt technology easily handles this quality, and allows high end post production quality and features in a portable design, says Blackmagic Design CEO Grant Petty.

-- Dennis Sellers