Blackmagic Design Production Case Study: America Reads the Bible

Dave Rosen (CEO and Tech Producer, Absolute Media Labs): Hey, everyone. Let’s dive right into discussing our workflow and setup for the massive seven-day, 12-hour-a-day live broadcast event for America Reads the Bible in Washington, D.C. David, why don’t you kick things off with your introduction and how we approached this monumental project using Blackmagic Design.
David Courtice: My name is David Courtice. When we were approached to cover this historic multi-day event at the Museum of the Bible, we knew we needed a hardware ecosystem that wouldn’t flinch under relentless, continuous streaming schedules. Thanks to our deep partnership and background working alongside Dave Rosen and Absolute Media Labs, we immediately turned to a Blackmagic-centric workflow to guarantee flawless execution from start to finish.
Dave Rosen: That’s right. Having a reliable structure is everything when you’re live for 84 hours straight. We designed the entire technical schematic around Blackmagic switchers, routers, and recorders. Jack, you were right there on the ground with us building out the live production plan—how did the Blackmagic integration hold up for your team?
Jack Lavey: It was incredible. We utilized the 2ME Constellation switcher as the heart of our video routing, paired with a 40×40 Blackmagic video router that made signal management effortless. Unlike older workflows where routing multiple camera feeds becomes a nightmare of splitters and converters, having that core Blackmagic routing infrastructure is an absolute godsend. Everything hits it, and you can digitally configure your runs instantly.
Scott Clements (Video Director): And don’t forget the reliability under pressure, guys. We were running seven primary PTZ cameras, two line cuts (clean and dirty), and multiple simultaneous ISO records. The fact that the ATEM switchers and Blackmagic hardware can handle varying formats and seamlessly process everything without dropping a beat is a testament to how well engineered these products are.
Dave Rosen: Precisely. In live production, you never get a second chance to get it right. We used to rely on computer-based streaming systems that occasionally crashed under heavy loads, but with Blackmagic gear, it just works. Every piece of equipment functions to exact manufacturer specifications, which lets producers actually sleep at night.
David Courtice: Another major lifesaver for us was the ATEM SDI ISO mini recorder. It gave us instant redundancy, allowing us to record all independent camera channels plus our clean and dirty feeds onto a single compact drive. That gave us immediate, same-day turnarounds for social media highlights and press kits, which kept our PR team thrilled.
Jack Lavey: And on the audio side, using the Blackmagic audio embedders to lock 16 channels of embedded audio directly into our files kept everything perfectly in sync without messy workarounds. Plus, pairing all of that with DaVinci Resolve Studio for our post-production, color grading, and data management closed the loop completely. Having native MD5 checksum verification in Resolve meant our 320 terabytes of recorded data came across bit-for-bit with absolute perfection.
David Courtice: When you look at the price-to-performance ratio, nothing else on the market compares. Blackmagic delivers broadcast-quality tools—like their HyperDeck Studio 4K Pros and Teranex conversion tech—at a price point that makes scaling a massive multi-camera production entirely feasible. It completely redefines what is possible on a budget.
Dave Rosen: It really does feel like Blackmagic acts more like a dedicated production partner than just a manufacturer. Whenever we’ve pushed their gear to do something innovative or custom, their engineering support has been right there in our corner.
Jack Lavey: Honestly, they are leaving everyone else in the dust. From cloud-integrated workflows to incredible hardware reliability, Blackmagic continues to set the gold standard for live broadcasting and post-production. We wouldn’t hesitate to use this exact Blackmagic workflow again.
Participant Contact & Company Directory
•Dave Rosen
◦Company: Absolute Media Labs
◦Email: dave@absolute.live
◦Phone: 818-842-2828
•David Courtice
◦Company: DC Creative
◦Email: david@dc-creative.tv
◦Phone: 818-856-0434
◦Website: dc-creative.tv
•Jack Lavey
◦Company: Dark Research
◦Email: jack@thedarkanswer.com
◦Phone: 512-970-3260
•Scott Clements
◦Company: Upshot Films
◦Email: scott@upshotfilms.nyc
◦Phone: 917-656-6803
◦Website: upshotfilms.nyc