In a fascinating interview held by Forbes with Blackmagic Design’s CEO and Founder – Grant Petty, a few absorbing facts have been revealed. These facts say a lot about the company’s culture and pathway, which is being led by Petty, that also writes the company’s SQL code. With 1,500 employees and $576M revenue, Blackmagic Design wants to conquer the filmmaking and TV industry with its products, by making them simple, and affordable.
Blackmagic Design: From 2001 till now
Blackmagic Design company (in short – Blackmagic) was founded in 2001 by Grant Petty and software engineer Doug Clarke. The company produced its first product in 2002, a capture card for macOS called DeckLink that was the first to offer uncompressed 10-bit video. This $995 product has competed with other solutions that cost around $10,000. In 2009 the company acquired the American-based DaVinci Systems, best known for its color correction grading products. At the 2012 NAB Show Blackmagic announced their first Cinema Camera and the rest is history. Since then, the company has released 12 digital cameras and numerous products, paving the way to affordable yet professional solutions for the tough filmmaking and TV industries.
Affordability is the name of the game
This is how Petty describes his company: “Blackmagic Design is dedicated to allowing the highest quality video to be affordable to everyone, so the post-production and television industry can become a truly creative industry”. Indeed, this set of words is being stated on every product of the company. As opposed to other leaders in the industry that are proud of their overpriced products, Blackmagic’s strategy is being very clear on that. Make it high-end and affordable, so the masses of professionals can use it.
Where there’s a place to reduce the price, Blackmagic cuts it. For instance, the price of the flagship cinema camera URSA Mini Pro 12K dropped by 40% overnight. Petty stated that this price drop was possible due to elevated manufacturing efficiency. That’s one of the major reasons that the company does not outsource. All is done in-house. Petty told Forbes that he despises outsourcing. Actually, it appears that Petty participates in coding the SQL queries of the company.
1,500-Employees, $576 Million Revenue
Here’s an interesting quote from the Forbes article: “For the year ending June 30, 2021, Blackmagic’s revenue nearly doubled from 2019 to $576 million, and its profits grew tenfold, to $113 million. Given its rapid growth and today’s heady tech valuations, debt-free Blackmagic could fetch $3 billion as a public company, making Petty and cofounder Doug Clarke, who each own 36%, billionaires on paper”. On paper, Blackmagic Design can make it public and be the next Canon. However, there’s no source that can confirm if there’s such an intention/plan.
Blackmagic: Juicy facts
Here’re some interesting facts about Blackmagic Design summarized from the Forbes interview:
- The founder and CEO also writes the code
- Company Culture that encourages in-house production and NOT outsourcing
- 1,500-employees
- $576 million revenue
- The company manufactures all 209 of its products itself
- Three factories: Australia, Singapore, and Indonesia
DaVinci Resolve 18?
Tomorrow Petty is going to announce something new regarding DaVinci Resolve, titled ‘DaVinci Resolve Cloud Update’. We don’t really sure if it’s going to be version 18 of the software. Resolve 17 was a significant leap and since then almost every month there’s a new update that boosts the software’s capabilities in almost every aspect (editing, grading, sound design, and SFX). This new update seems to be related to the cloud. Nevertheless, most probably it’s NOT going to be a subscription-based model, as Petty told Forbes: “Cloud licensors are like slumlords. You have to keep buying from them and the more you’re loyal, the more you’ll get penalized. It is like your dog does something nice and you beat it with a stick”. Nevertheless, Petty knows that it has tough competition from legacy NLEs like Premiere and Avid. Feature-wise, DaVinci Resolve could be much more sophisticated and with a smarter GUI, but editors are having a hard time making the jump and converting to other programs.
Nonetheless, we believe that DaVinci is on the right pathway to NLE domination. It just gets better and better every release. Note that there’s a new generation of editors that grows with Resolve. These have never put their hands on Premiere or Avid. Anyway, we are going to report on this release comprehensively. Let’s stay tuned.
Product List
Here’re the products mentioned in the article, and the links to purchase them from authorized dealers.
- Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve 17 Studio with Speed Editor
- Blackmagic Design URSA Mini Pro 12K Camera
- Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Cameras
This guy really is a kind of Elon Musk for sure! Love him! bringing so much!
As a professional broadcast editor I’d love to break free of the truly awful Avid Media Composer, but it won’t happen until facilities switch over. Facilities won’t switch over until editors are comfortable with Resolve. And editors don’t like change. I don’t see any way to break Avid’s dominance.
Except he isn’t an egotistical jersey like Musj
I really like the way they are doing things,with time watch out
I mean, its all about getting the youth to start using it, and then when you have a legion of graduates who really want Davinci Resolve, the tides will shift. I mean right now, there is a literal genre of Youtube videos about “Why I am switching to Resolve”.
They really have the best mindset and philosophy.