In simple terms, it gives you an easy way to live stream to platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, Restream.io, Twitter and Periscope. Thankfully New Magic saved the day by shipping me an SDI -> HDMI converter box and so I was able to get the Web Presenter HD set up and running. So, of course, when my review unit of the Web Presenter HD turned up from Blackmagic’s Australian distributor, New Magic, as my two “broadcast” cameras – a Panasonic X1 and Panasonic PV100 – don’t support SDI, only HDMI, this caused a bit of a dilemma. Unlike its previous piece of wizardry, the Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini Pro series of switchers which use HDMI, the Web Presenter HD uses SDI cabling (except for monitor output which is HDMI). The downside is that to use SDI, unless you want to employ converter boxes, then your camera(s) must have an SDI output.Īnd this brings me neatly to the latest gadget from Australian company Blackmagic Design – the Web Presenter HD.

This also makes it far less expensive than HDMI of course. Its main advantage over HDMI is the ability to transmit up to 100 metres without any amplification, as against HDMI which needs amp-ing after about 15 metres.

So for those not aware of SDI (and a quick straw poll shows that is quite a few people), it stands for “Serial Digital Interface” and uses BNC cabling albeit with special connectors. Now to most in the broadcast arena, this probably has caused a shrug of the shoulders and a “so what” response, but to the rest of us who mainly deal in the consumer world of HDMI and USB, this was something of a novelty.

I had to connect some devices together via SDI. I had to do something I have never done before the other day.

Atem web presenter