Blackmagic Design ships UltraStudio Express 3G series for USB4 live production

The release of the UltraStudio Express 3G series signals a commodification of professional-grade ingest hardware for the distributed workforce. By leveraging USB4’s high data speeds and power delivery, Blackmagic is lowering the hardware barrier for field technicians and independent streamers who require SDI-to-10bit-uncompressed pipelines. Within the broader ecosystem, this move bridges the gap between high-end broadcast standards and mobile workstation accessibility. The competitive edge lies in the $175 price point and deep integration with DaVinci Resolve, effectively locking in professional colorists and editors. Watch for similar USB4-native product refreshes from competitors like AJA or Magewell to see if they follow this hyper-portable, bus-powered strategy.

The launch of the UltraStudio Express 3G series coincides with a broader push toward high-bandwidth connectivity across the Blackmagic Design portfolio. At NAB 2026, per RedShark News (April 2026), the company unveiled a complete 100G SMPTE-2110 IP broadcast ecosystem, including the URSA Cine Immersive 100G and the ATEM 4 M/E Constellation IP. While those flagship products target massive IP infrastructure, the UltraStudio Express 3G serves as the mobile component for decentralized production environments.

This hardware refresh also aligns with the release of DaVinci Resolve 21, which, according to TV Technology (April 2026), introduced a dedicated Photo page and advanced AI tools such as IntelliSearch. The integration of 10-bit uncompressed capture in the UltraStudio series is essential for these new software features, as they require high-fidelity data to maximize the performance of AI-driven color correction and tracking algorithms. Furthermore, the industry is seeing a widespread transition to USB4; market reports from MarketIntelo (June 2026) project the USB4 active cable market to grow at an 18.5% CAGR through 2034, driven by the professional demand for 40Gbps and 80Gbps interconnects.

Simultaneously, Blackmagic is expanding its cloud-based collaboration tools. Per company announcements in April 2026, the new Cloud Store Ultra provides up to 48TB of flash storage with redundant 100G Ethernet ports, designed to support live action replay in Resolve. The UltraStudio Express 3G serves as an entry point for ingest into this wider collaborative network, allowing remote editors to capture or monitor locally before syncing assets to the Blackmagic Cloud for global production teams.