Controlling the URSA Broadcast with the Skaarhoj RCP control

Hello All,
We recently purchased an URSA Broadcast and a Skaarhoj RCP controller intending to use the chain for video reinforcement (I-mag) mainly for corporate meetings/conventions but also for the occasional entertainment gig. We have had a couple of issues (one addressed on another forum post but not yet resolved - the auto iris function on the camera does NOT function correctly, it steps between settings rather than irising smoothly. Blackmagic is aware of the issue but has not solved it as yet). The newest problem is that the Skaarhoj RCP doesn't allow toggling the auto iris setting. In their instructions they say that you can set the button to toggle function (right now it does automatically and smoothly automatically adjust the iris) but you can't. The auto iris acts only as a momentary button. Once the camera irises to the correct value it doesn't follow changes in light intensity... On other cameras auto iris is an on off button (sony/ikegami) on their ccu/ocp/remotes. Since Skaarhoj isn't in our time zone getting help has been... less than satisfying. I leave you with this observation: DO NOT buy the fist model of anything. You will be the beta/test dummy... Having to pay to be the test bed for a new piece of gear is not a great thing.

Auto iris is a momentary function in the BMD protocol..
Auto exposure can be used to do some very choppy kind of auto iris.. But still is not very well implemented..

Hey Guy, I understand your frustration. Blackmagic has a great marketing team that tends to paint a rather rosy picture of what their stuff can do. I think everyone here has been at that point where we realised that a certain feature wasn't there (iE. I only found out that the ATEM Production Studio 4K 1M/E can't do SuperSource after I bought it or sometimes features didn't work as expected (I am looking at you Hyperdeck Mini's h.264 recording option that can't do interlaced formats). But I really don't think it's fair to blame the maker of a third party controller for a camera feature that isn't what you expected. Skaarhoj does great stuff but even they can't make the camera do something that it's firmware or hardware (or the lens) just doesn't support.

Cheers, Daniel

Hi, I am not bashing Blackmagic over the issue with the Skaarhoj RCP, I have contacted them directly. The URSA broadcast does have autoiris as a function of the camera. It just doesn't work well. It's achieved by setting the autoiris on and telling the camera that the iris function takes precedence (open the side viewfinder, touch the fstop menu at the top of the display, the iris menu will be displayed and the auto iris function can be enabled and it works, just badly). And the auto iris function on the skaarhoj rcp functions, it just doesn't lock/toggle on to track light levels... That said, I think that for the money the ursa broadcast will be a fantastic value. Fortunately I didn't buy the camera expecting to use it immediately, otherwise I can't tell you how pissed off I'd be at having to rent another camera chain to use after dropping several thousand dollars on the camera, the remote, the hardware to mount the camera, the viewfinder, etc....

Fortunately I didn't buy the camera expecting to use it immediately, otherwise I can't tell you how pissed off I'd be at having to rent another camera chain to use after dropping several thousand dollars on the camera, the remote, the hardware to mount the camera, the viewfinder, etc...

Lucky you...

I can tell you a lot of people do.. And they run into these problems..

I use them in the field.. I know were the problems are.. And how to work arround some of them..
But also i address these issues a lot at the forum and BMD staff.. And hope for a quick firmware fix..

But sometimes i get tired how much time the simple things take..
Being a software / firmware programmer myself and working with embedded micro processors and FPGA's i know how simple some things can be fixed.. And i get frustrated that it takes so much time to fix.. or even wont know if it ever will be fixed..

But in my opinion BMD should really fix these issues at short notice if they want to keep everybody this is THE 4k broadcast camera.. Because due too a lot of small bugs or missing features this is FAR from a propper broadcast camera..

Again i love the gear of BMD. And i want to expand from 3 to 8 chains of Ursa broadcast.. But first they need to get it right before spending another 25K on cameras and accesoires..