Blackmagic Designs, one of Australia's biggest manufacturers of electronic equipment for broadcast and video production, used the stage at the IBC 2016 to announce its acquisition of  Chatsworth, CA, broadcasting technology maker Ultimatte and Sydney, CA, pro audio vendor Fairlight.

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Fairlight is known for making digital audio products for live broadcast event production, film, and television post production, as well as 3D audio mixing and finishing.

"Fairlight creates the world's most powerful digital audio software and hardware for video production," Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO said. Further adding,"The exciting part about this acquisition is that it will add incredibly high-end professional audio technology to Blackmagic Design's amazing video products. We look forward to working with the Fairlight team to build even more exciting new products for our customers!"

Ultimatte is the creator of realtime blue and green screen removal hardware which is used in broadcast studios to combine reporters, talk show hosts, and so on into virtual sets. While Ultimatte had not shown any signs or hinted that a sale was on its horizon, Fairlight declared in July that it was looking for a buyer for its audio technology.

This acquisition by Blackmagic is more than just a move of a takeover, but it also announces that the company is back in the game after being fairly quiet in 2015-2016. This move most certainly means a streamlining of new products along with substantial price cuts.