Thank you for this, and the attached image. Very cool setup. I will try the UltraStudio 4k Mini as a solution. Excuse my limited knowledge, but why would a Mac Studio boast “up to 8 monitors capabilty” - What makes a Realtime Broadcast Monitor so different than a normal standard use additional monitor? Like, why is the Black Magic needed?
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The up to 8 monitors is merely the capacity of the GPU and the I/O to produce that many video streams and connect via TB/DP. I’m sure if you just use the basic MacOS and maybe put different windows on every screen, or make a display wall, it will work fine. I think the performance issue we’re seeing here is a specific interaction between Flame and how MacOS handles multiple screen/spaces. That is probably not a universal problem. I’ve had multiple monitors on Mac with other Apps (Resolve, Avid, After Effects, etc.) and it’s never an issue there.
BlackMagic creates a totally different path for the broadcast monitor. With that setup Flame bypasses the OS entirely, and takes the internal frame buffer for the broadcast display and sends it directly to the UltraStudio via it’s API, and then form there via SDI or HDMI to the display. It’s completely isolated from the display manager, color management, and other functions of the Mac OS. It’s a completely separate signal path. Which also means you can operate them on different color specs if needed. The GUI of Flame remains in MacOS display management though.
There is actually an advantage to this setup, which is why most color critical setups utilize this for the reference monitor. It provides full accounting of the image pipeline free of OS interference and you can trust what you see.
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Ah, this was the best thing to read. Perfectly explained. Going to buy that Black Magic first thing tomorrow. Thank you so much @allklier - I’m excited to see this setup in action. I love this place.
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