2 minute read
Jeromy Young is back and in charge, Blackmagic co-founder Peter Barber is the new COO, and the new version of Atomos is starting to take shape before our eyes.
We’re only just over halfway through February, and it’s already been an extremely interesting year at Atomos. The company has sunk an entire Australian soap’s worth of drama into its news releases, which started with a plot twist no one saw coming, the return of CEO, Jeromy Young. And that vibe continued this week with the appointment of Blackmagic Design co-founder (and original co-owner) Peter Barber as the company’s new chief operating officer.
“I feel like a founder in the rebirth of Atomos, and I must say that I’m thrilled to be joining and investing in another Australian company that has created a global impact with a great brand,” said Barber in a PR statement. “The immediate focus is to grow sales of Atomos’ world-class products while strengthening and adding to the product range and technology services available to creative professionals all over the world, with an eye on expanding into adjacent markets.”
There’s a fair deal to unpack in all this, but first, some product-related announcements. It’s fair to say that a lot of eyes will be trained on Atomos at NABShow 2024, but before that, and any new products the new team might be planning, the company has announced a few sweeteners to tempt current and new users.
- The return of the three-year warranty on all core products
- An os11 upgrade path for Ninja V/V+ for $79/$129
- Camera-to-cloud free for six months
- Atomos Connect for just $/€99
“The first thing I did when I came back into the company was instruct our engineers to offer the same features as the latest Ninjas that are new to the older customers,” explains Young in the first episode of a new YouTube show, Atomos Live. “So those are a paid upgrade. But to make that paid upgrade a bit more palatable, we’ve included some of the really important streaming and RAW functionality where we give you H.265 raw for free, and we give you the Pro Res raw SDI input into these products for free. So that's all turned on for you once you pay for this upgrade.”
What’s next for Atomos?
So, what is the company likely to do next? Barber is a big hire, and you would hardly expect it to be following a cautious path. One potentially interesting new product development may be hinted at in the scripted part of the Atomos Live broadcast, where the host drops in a question about whether they will offer Blackmagic RAW recording any time soon to help develop potential RAW Resolve workflows.
“We absolutely would; we are the Switzerland of recording,” says Young. “We would love to love to record it. It's up to Blackmagic if they'd like to give it to us, and we're ready to take that call anytime.”
Elsewhere, there’s the news that now nearly 60 cameras are supported in the Atomos ProRes RAW ecosystem, there are more flexible H.265 options for camera-to-cloud uploads, and NDI support is coming soon for Zato Connect alongside enhanced NDI support for Ninja and Shoguns.
But it’s at the corporate level we could see the next round of fairly feverish activity.
“This appointment is part of a company restructuring and broader recapitalization process, including a return to stock market quotation, which will be announced to the market in more detail over the coming weeks,” says the statement about Barber’s hire.
Then there’s the rather interesting way it highlights his expertise at Blackmagic in negotiating “the acquisition of seven businesses over an eight-year period.”
Add that to his words above regarding “expanding into adjacent markets,” and you have the plotline for a whole new episode coming up already.
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