A quiet yet important announcement from Atomos — It appears that the company has developed its own 8K video camera sensor. Atomos defines this new in-house 8K sensor as “World Class” and mentions that camera manufacturers have shown “great interest”. According to Atomos, the technology and foundation for his 8K sensor are based on the Grass Valley acquisition. Nevertheless, this might be the pivot Atomos needed.
Atomos is pivoting to ultra-high-definition sensor manufacturing
The press release titled: “Atomos completes development of world-class 8K video sensor and is exploring commercialization” was a bit of a surprise. The external recorder demand, which is the bread and butter of Atomos, might become a dying business. Hence, this announcement seems like a logical step for Atomos. However, the Annual Report 2022 didn’t mention this new pivot. According to this report, Atomos is continuing to manufacture external recorders with full power. As stated in the Annual Report: “Atomos is the only company with monitor/recorders that can record to Apple ProRes RAW from enabled cameras, positioning it to bene t from a larger addressable market, as the Atomos ecosystem of external cameras supporting RAW over HDMI continues to expand. We have now expanded the number of cameras in the ProRes RAW ecosystem to 46, with the recent notable additions of a new 8K camera from Fuji lm, and a high-speed 4K camera from Sony”. But, no wording in regard to the ultra-high definition camera sensor.
We have completed the development of a world-class 8K video sensor to allow video cameras to record in 8K ultra-high resolution. The Company is exploring opportunities to commercialize its unique IP and is in discussion with several camera makers.
Atomos
“World Class” 8K video sensor
These are the highlights of the announcement of the 8K sensor by Atomos:
- Atomos announces that it has completed the development of a world-class 8K video sensor to allow video cameras to record in 8K ultra-high resolution.
- 8K Ultra HD televisions are already in the market from Samsung, Sony, and LG but 8K content has been lagging.
- The Company is exploring opportunities to commercialize its unique IP and is in discussion with several camera makers.
Now, developing an 8K sensor is a very impressive milestone. It’s not mentioned, though, if the sensor is being manufactured by Atomos. We can assume between the lines that Atomos has developed the sensor, however, it uses 3rd party sensor company for production. Let’s read more from the press release:
Based on Grass Valley’s intellectual property
As stated by Atomos: “Atomos acquired the intellectual property rights and technical team from broadcast equipment firm, Grass Valley five years ago to develop a leading-edge 8K video sensor. 8K video has four times the resolution of 4K video and allows video creators much greater flexibility when zooming in or cropping their shots during editing, as the resulting shot maintains sharp resolution. There are several 8K televisions already in the market from Samsung, Sony, and LG, and 8K gaming consoles are expected soon. 8K content however has been lagging because, outside of big camera makers such as Sony, owning 8K sensor technology is extremely rare. The development of the Atomos 8K sensor is now complete. The Company is actively exploring opportunities for commercialization and is in discussion with several camera makers who are showing great interest”.
A complementary strategy
Furthermore, Atomos emphasizes that the company cannot further disclose its commercialization strategy due to its sensitive nature. However, the 8k sensor is complementary to what the company has done historically (as well as not being a big shift away from core products) and creates opportunities for new revenue channels in very similar market segments, addressing very similar end users. Moreover, the technical specs of the sensor will be made available under NDA to potential commercial partners.
Initial thoughts
If so, Atomos has joined the prestige list of sensor makers. If the company admits that the sensor can be commercialized, then it indicates two assumptions: Atomos is not going to develop a camera for that sensor (although it has the required technology to do so), and the other, there’s a possibility that Atomos is going to manufacturer this sensor in-house, which constitutes a solid achievement. Very few companies can do that in the camera business (Sony, Canon, and RED). Even ARRI utilizes 3rd party company (On-Semi). However, there’s an even lower number of companies that can develop an 8K sensor. Thus, this huge step up from zero to 8K, indicates on strong R&D capabilities of Atomos. It will be interesting to reveal which camera manufacturers implement that new Atomos 8K sensor, and moreover, what will be its image quality.
Actually, Red doesn’t manufacture its own sensors either… Like Arri, Red designs its sensors with a manufacturing partner. Sony and Canon are the only two left that have their own sensor manufacturing in house since Panasonic sold its sensor division off to a large semico whose name escapes me at the moment.
The likelihood of Atomos having its own manufacturing facility is very low due to the cost required; unless Atomos is aiming to manufacture sensors on Sony’s scale which is unlikely, the per-sensor cost would put cameras using it in the Phantom 4K price range.
I expect that Atomos wants to sell a lot of its sensors, so it’s probably working with a sensor manufacturer that does custom work, which includes OnSemi, Sony, and Tower Semi, which I think is now part of Intel. There are others but those are the biggest that I know of that make sensors.
Doesn’t BAE make sensors for some of Blackmagic Design’s cameras?