La familia Blackmagic ATEM se amplía con Television Studio HD8 y Microphone Converter

Magia negra continues to expand its ATEM range of switchers with the new Television Studio HD and HD ISO models, as well as the Microphone Converter solution.

El ATEM Television Studio HD, part of the new ATEM Television Studio HD8 family, is a professional switcher with an integrated control panel and a small footprint, allowing it to be used in tight spaces without requiring racks, even on location mobiles. It includes 8 SDI inputs with format conversion, 2 auxiliary outputs, 4 channels for chrominance overlays, 2 compositors for post overlays, SuperSource function, 2 media players and numerous transitions. In addition, functions for TV studios are available, such as web streaming directly from the device, recording, audio mixing, communication, simultaneous display and optional internal storage. The ISO version also allows recording of all eight connected sources for further editing.

While the ATEM Television Studio HD model has a compact design, it is packed with advanced features such as chrominance compositing, Fairlight audio tools, digital visual effects, image storage and a variety of additional functions. Most of these can be controlled either from the front panel of the mixer, or via ATEM Software Control on Mac or Windows computers. These devices also allow you to add custom digital visual effects with overlays and store images with alpha channels for titles and graphics in the media player, so you can load them as sources and output the resulting signal live.

With eight 3G SDI inputs, the ATEM Television Studio HD line of switchers allows multiple cameras to be connected. All sources are synchronised with the mixer, even if the formats are different. This makes it easy to use the equipment on location without having to worry about technical problems.

FHD workflow

Blackmagic ATEM Television Studio HD lets you store high-resolution animations and graphics for playback using dedicated built-in tools. To ensure the highest quality, it supports the use of RGB colour space with alpha channels, providing the ability to apply transparencies and layers. The multimedia panel can store up to 20 HD graphics. In addition, it is possible to use graphic animations in transitions with a duration of up to 400 or 200 frames in HD 720 or 1080 definition, respectively.

According to Blackmagic, the new ATEMs are “ideal»”for news bulletins and studio presentations, as they feature four advanced compositors for chrominance overlays. Colour selectors allow the background to be sampled for the purpose of automatically generating mask parameters. In addition, controls for edges and reflections are included, as well as a colour corrector for the foreground image to match its appearance to that of the background. The compositor can also be used for geometric shapes and digital visual effects masks.

The ATEM Television Studio HD also includes both digital visual effects and a multi-layer SuperSource processor, with one channel for the background plus four additional channels for effects, which combined generate a new signal.

The mixers in this line include up to eight independent 3G SDI inputs with format conversion to different resolutions. This means that any HD 1080 or 720 source can be processed, depending on the mixer’s operating format. There are also nine main 3G SDI outputs for transmitting individual return signals to each of the cameras. There are also two auxiliary outputs for reference monitors and master recorders. Dedicated 3G SDI and HDMI outputs are included for monitoring multiple sources simultaneously on a single monitor.

Audio and broadcasting in the ATEM Television Studio HD

Thanks to the Fairlight tools, the ATEM Television Studio HD model allows complex audio mixes to be realised. There are enough channels to process all SDI sources, plus additional channels for XLR, RCA and MADI signals. Each channel includes a 6-band parametric EQ with compressor, limiter, expander, noise gate and audio distribution. These tools are available on the front panel, via dedicated controls.

On the other hand, the integrated streaming engine allows you to broadcast live worldwide on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitch with better quality and without skipping frames. Simply connect the device to the Internet via an Ethernet network or via a mobile phone.

The ATEM Television Studio HD is also capable of recording directly to USB flash drives or to the optional internal memory if an M.2 flash drive is installed. Both options allow data to be shared between local Ethernet networks so that colleagues can collaborate on post-production tasks such as editing, colour grading and graphics preparation. Files are recorded in H.264 format with AAC audio for professional-quality images that require little storage space.

The USB connection allows any video programme to recognise the mixer as a webcam. Simply connect it to a computer with one of these programs installed to be able to transmit images in HD 1080.

ATEM Television Studio HD ISO

El ATEM Television Studio HD ISO version offers the possibility of live editing, given its ability to record all signals in isolation. This results in eight correctly synchronised individual files, plus a master copy of the programme. Thanks to this, it is possible to edit the signals of several cameras in any non-linear editing program. A DaVinci Resolve project file will even be saved and linked to the individual feeds, so the images are combined into one timeline for easy editing.

DaVinci Resolve project files generated in the ISO version provide full post-production dynamics with editing, colour grading, visual effects and audio mixing tools. When you open a project, the files will be visible in the timeline and ready to edit. Blackmagic RAW files can also be relinked from the camera to finish the job in UHD.

Another amazing feature of the ISO version is the ability to connect cameras remotely. The Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2, Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 and Blackmagic Studio Camera 6K Pro models are capable of transmitting images directly to the switcher in H.264 format. In addition, the devices in this line-up allow these units to be controlled and the pilot light to be activated. The audio from the main signal is also transmitted to the connected cameras, which is ideal for live interviews.

ATEM Software Control provides access to all mixer functions through an elegant interface with a virtual panel and tabs for quick adjustments. You can switch live feeds, mix audio, apply colour correction to cameras, manage files and create macros.

ATEM Microphone Converter

If additional microphones are required, for example in a studio to create multiple podcasts, the new ATEM Microphone Converter makes it easy to add additional audio sources by connecting to the mixer via the MADI port with an extremely low noise floor of -129 dBv, a dynamic range of -131dB(A) and a minimum distortion of 0.002%.

The design is very similar to other converters and features the electronic technology required to convert analogue signals to digital at the «highest quality». It also includes mixed XLR/TRS inputs that support both types of cables and a MADI output for the converted audio signal, as well as a MADI input that allows multiple converters to be connected in series, so that more than four channels can be integrated into a single connection.

Each analogue input features an extremely low noise floor and a fixed-gain preamplifier for converting analogue signals to digital with a wide dynamic range, completely eliminating the need for an analogue microphone preamplifier, which in turn eliminates artefacts generated by using preamplifiers. Specifically, each input is capable of processing analogue sources into digital (ADC) signals by means of 8 high dynamic range converters, instead of just one, which work together as a unit, amplifying it considerably, so that it reaches a value of 131 dB(A) at each input.

A common drawback when using converters for the microphone signal is that the electronic noise generated by the amplifier increases the noise floor. The ATEM Microphone Converter eliminates this problem as each source is processed directly with extremely high dynamic range, allowing RAW audio signals to be transmitted to the mixer, from where the required gain can be applied to achieve the desired audio level. By avoiding the sharp increase in noise that often occurs when determining the optimum gain level for analogue audio, a noise floor of -129 dBV is achieved, which is surprisingly low.

At the same time, due to the wide dynamic range of the input which avoids the need for a preamplifier for the analogue signal, the microphone level is adjusted by a digital preamplifier which offers great stability. The analogue levels of different makes of microphones vary greatly, so determining the optimum values by digital methods offers the possibility to adapt them to the peculiarities of each model. In addition, the signal received by the digital preamplifier is processed in RAW format with a 32-bit floating point depth, which allows for more precise adjustments than the MADI format.