Blackmagic's New 4K Streaming Encoder and Decoder at NAB 2025

Blackmagic's Streaming Encoder and Streaming Decoder, explained by Sarah at NAB 2025.

First, the naming

The Streaming Encoder is the renamed Web Presenter, both the 4K and the HD versions, because the old name confused people. The Streaming Decoder is the genuinely new product, added to pair with it.

How the pair works

The encoder packages SDI or HDMI video as H.264 or H.265 and sends it over the internet or a network. The decoder converts it back to HDMI or SDI at the far end. The encoder isn't confined to a local network either. It can still push straight out to the internet the way a Web Presenter always did.

Why I care

Multi-city town halls. A venue in Detroit gets an encoder and feeds me in Dallas, where a decoder turns it into another source in my switcher, instead of running it over Zoom. If you work with a client regularly, just leave an encoder with them.

The details

• Ethernet plus phone tethering, and you can prioritize one over the other. Run Ethernet as primary with automatic failover to the phone's 4G or 5G.
• Blackmagic won't quote a latency figure, because it depends entirely on the network and the locations. Could be a couple of seconds, could be more.

Sarah frames it as three models of live production: everything on-prem and direct-connected at zero latency; cameras on site with the switcher back at the studio, which is what the ATEM Streaming Bridge handles; and now the cloud model, where anyone can be anywhere.