The Japanese Nikkei makes its productions with Blackmagic Design

Nikkei, the publisher that publishes the largest financial newspapers in the world, carries out audiovisual productions for its internal channel with various equipment and solutions. Blackmagic Design such as ATEM Mini mixers, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera units, Blackmagic Cloud Pod network storage devices, and DaVinci Resolve Studio software, among others.

Nikkei is a media company that publishes several major newspapers, such as the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (also known as The Nikkei) and the Financial Times, the UK's leading financial daily. Some of the audiovisual content published on the company's official channel is created by a small internal production team.

Haruki Yajima, a member of said team, explains that since "I belong to the sales department for advertising, and my team essentially works with sponsored content. We used to outsource all our productions, and I thought that was the norm. Then, in 2020, the COVID pandemic began, and all the events we were working on were canceled. It didn't seem like things were going to improve soon, so we decided to create an easy way to spread said content."

"I had some technical knowledge, since my hobby is filming with drones. Therefore, I took the initiative when choosing the equipment and preparing the work dynamics for audiovisual productions and broadcasts. For me, it was important to be able to transmit and record from anywhere in the world with compact equipment and obtain quality content using the latest technology," says Yajima.

The products it uses include ATEM Mini Pro ISO and ATEM Mini Extreme ISO mixers, Video Assist 5” 12G HDR monitors/recorders, Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro units, Micro Converter BiDirectional SDI/HDMI 12G converters, DaVinci Resolve Studio software, a DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor keyboard, HyperDeck Shuttle HD recorders, and Blackmagic Cloud Pod devices. The mixers are the rock. angle of productions.

In this sense, Yajima points out that "fundamentally, all cameras are fixed. For example, if we record or broadcast a talk, we film each of the speakers and use another camera to obtain a general shot of the event. The more people there are, the greater the amount of equipment we need. In addition, we always use a converter Micro Converter BiDirectional to obtain SDI signals from HDMI sources or vice versa, since sometimes it is necessary to extend the length of the cables. Recently, we have broadcast international events and conferences that take place abroad, and in such cases we transport the equipment in suitcases, as we want to avoid problems with shipping. For this reason, I like that Blackmagic Design products are compact.”

Increasing production

Yajima used different cameras when he started doing in-house productions. However, he began to use the models Pocket Cinema Camera to meet the increase in demand. "At that time, the cameras stopped working due to thermal problems. The solution was to use USB fans connected to each unit, but they were too large and complicated to charge."

“Then I started using the model Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro, and the advantage of being able to record in format Blackmagic RAW to one 6K resolution It was really significant, plus the camera continued to work even after filming for hours. Even if the settings aren't the most conducive, as long as the image is well focused, it's easy to make adjustments and reframe shots during post-production. This camera is an ideal ally for those who work alone or on smaller productions,” he says.

Yajima always uses ATEM Mini mixers, whether to transmit or simply record content. Thanks to the project files of DaVinci Resolve, edit images quickly in the Montage module with a DaVinci Resolve Speed ​​Editor keyboard. For more complex jobs, use the Editing module to edit sequences recorded with multiple cameras. “When shooting with the Pocket Cinema Camera model, I can export the project in 4K and replace the lower resolution files with their equivalents in Blackmagic RAW format,” says Yajima.

Sometimes editing needs to be outsourced when the team is busy. For these purposes, they resort to the device Blackmagic Cloud Pod for the purpose of sharing the files necessary for the work dynamic. In this sense, Yajima explains that "when connecting an SSD drive to the device, the recorded material is automatically uploaded to Dropbox. The contractor edits with lower resolution files that we then replace with the Blackmagic RAW versions before exporting them."

Other Nikkei departments also produce audiovisual content, but many of these productions are also outsourced. The Yajima team handles the most expensive projects.

“Si tercerizáramos un trabajo que implica filmar y transmitir al exterior, el presupuesto sería enorme. Al tener la oportunidad de encargarnos de dichos proyectos, podemos reducir los gastos de producción significativamente y realizar más trabajos que, de otra manera, no seríamos capaces de llevar a cabo debido al presupuesto”, finaliza Yajima.