Blackmagic: New camera offers immersive 3D and 180-degree live streaming

About a year after the market launch of the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive, the company is announcing a new version of the stereo camera. The URSA Cine Immersive 100G is not a completely new model, but a further development focusing on the live broadcast of high-resolution 180-degree 3D videos.

The sensor characteristics highlighted in the announcement are essentially already part of the original URSA Cine Immersive, which enables recordings with 8160 × 7200 pixels per eye at up to 90 frames per second and 16 stops of dynamic range.

What's new about the URSA Cine Immersive 100G is the optimized live infrastructure: 100G Ethernet instead of 10G Ethernet, and the separately available Blackmagic URSA Live Encoder, a processor module that compresses immersive live video into Apple ProRes and outputs it as SMPTE-2110-22 IP. This allows the stereoscopic image streams to be transmitted at high frame rates over a single 100G Ethernet connection, writes Blackmagic Design.

The manufacturer describes the URSA Cine Immersive 100G as the first cinema camera designed for live productions based on Apple Immersive Video, an immersive 180-degree video format developed specifically for Apple Vision Pro. Like the standard model, the new model, despite its Apple focus, is likely to be suitable for output to other end devices.

Apple and Blackmagic join forces for immersive videos

Apple and Blackmagic are working closely together in the field of immersive video: Blackmagic provides the camera hardware and editing software, while Apple provides the platform and content with the Vision Pro. Apple productions include the submarine short film „Submerged“ and immersive documentaries such as „Wild Life“ and „Elevated“.

Apple demonstrated what the new model can do in terms of live streaming earlier this year with live broadcasts of LA Lakers games on the Apple Vision Pro. In selected regions, viewers could follow the games as an immersive 180-degree experience with multiple perspectives, virtually placing them right at the sidelines.

From autumn, other producers could expand the range of immersive live streams: The 100G model is scheduled to be released in the third quarter of 2026. According to the announcement, the price is $26,495 plus local taxes and duties. The standard model has dropped in price and now costs $24,995, which is $5,000 less than at launch. However, the webshop lists different dollar prices for both models. The separately available Blackmagic URSA Live Encoder will be released later this year, with no exact date specified by Blackmagic Design. The webshop lists a price of $1645.

The company also simultaneously introduced a new version of its video software, DaVinci Resolve 21.

(mki)