Use the streaming XML tool: heretorecord.com/xml
Devices ready to test
In this video, we are taken on a deep dive into the new ATEM Television Studio HD switchers, the HD8 and the HD8 ISO. The ISO version is used in the demonstration, but most of the information is applicable to both models.
The ATEM Television Studio HD8 is a desktop-mounted switcher panel that includes the surface for switching the control of audio and cameras for macro control, aux, program, preview, streaming, and recording, all built into one box. The panel itself allows you to access a large percentage of all the features built into the switcher without needing to attach a computer on-site.
Connections
All the connections are on the back of the device, including multiple power options, reference and time code in and out, MADI audio in and out, two USB-C connections for webcam or connecting up drives to record, remote and talkback ports, a four-port ethernet switch, eight SDI inputs, eight program outputs for sending data and program feedback to your connected Blackmagic cameras, two SDI aux connections, program SDI and multi-view SDI and HDMI, analog audio outputs, stereo audio in, analog audio in, and a five-pin port for a talkback headset to communicate with your camera operators.
The ATEM Television Studio HD8 and HD8 ISO are ideal options for venues that want to grow beyond a four-input switcher like the ATEM Mini or ATEM SDI that they already own and really want to make a leap up in terms of inputs and output options.
The ATEM HD8 has a program and preview row, transition controls for setting the mix, the fades, cutting between cameras, and the T-bar for transitioning smoothly. There are also recording and streaming buttons, a still button to grab the current program output as a still, four upstream keyers for chroma keying and other effects, and a macro button to access all the macros recorded into the ATEM previously.
In the top left section of the device, users can access detailed audio and camera control without needing to hop into the ATEM software control. There is access to the level, pan, EQ, compressor, limiter, GIT of all of the inputs coming into the ATEM, and you can adjust them on the fly with the dials and with the buttons.
The ATEM has both of its auxes accessible, allowing users to send whatever camera source or program or multi-view to that aux. The ATEM also has a monitor for accessing lots of other settings and buttons for things like the talkback, settings, keyers, DV, stinger, dip, colors, and a camera control button that does not do anything yet.
Inputs and outputs
The SDI inputs on the ATEM allow users to connect sources like cameras or computers via converters. The ATEM is fully SDI workflow except for that one HDMI output for multi-view.
The ATEM Television Studio HD8 and HD8 ISO have the ability to record the switched program feed onto an attached SSD or the optional built-in storage that you can get added to the device. The ISO model allows users to change between the SDI input sources and switch those out independently for streaming sources instead.
Streaming
Users can stream right from the ATEM HD8 and HD8 ISO as long as they’ve set up a computer in advance and configured their streaming setup to push off to the destination of their choice. The HD8 ISO also records a DaVinci Resolve edit file with all the edits made during the live production, which can be edited later.
Final thoughts
Overall, the ATEM Television Studio HD8 and HD8 ISO are excellent options for venues that want to upgrade their switcher and have more input and output options. The ATEM allows for detailed audio and camera control without needing to hop into the ATEM software.
Transcript
In this video, we’re going to take a deep dive into the new ATEM Television Studio HD switchers, the HD8, and the HD8 ISO. I’ve got the ISO version here on short-term loan from Blackmagic Design, and I have it on the desk ready to play with. However, most of the things we’ll chat about in this video apply to both models, the HD8 and the ISO model. But first, let’s take a look around the device.
The Television Studio HD8 is a desktop-mounted switcher panel, which includes the surface for switching the control of audio and cameras for macro control, aux, program, preview, streaming, and recording, all built into one box. In theory, the panel itself should allow you to access a huge percentage of all the features built into the switcher without needing to attach a computer on site. All the connections are on the back here. From left to right, we have multiple power options; reference and time code in and out; MADI audio in and out; two USB-C connections for webcam or connecting up drives to record; remote and talkback ports; a four-port ethernet switch; eight SDI inputs, all with scalers and all supporting up to 1080p60; eight program outputs for sending data and program feedback to your connected Blackmagic cameras; two SDI aux connections for sending whatever signal you want to whatever monitors or connections you want; program SDI and multi-view SDI and HDMI; analog audio outputs; stereo audio in; analog audio in; and a five-pin port for a talkback headset to communicate with your camera operators.
That’s a lot of connections built into one ATEM device, but given the size, it’s not a surprise they could fit so many options in the back. So, who is this ATEM for and who might actually want to get it? Well, I figure it’s a lovely option for venues that want to grow beyond perhaps the ATEM SDI Extreme or even further beyond a four-input switcher like the ATEM Mini or ATEM SDI that they already own and really want to make a leap up in terms of inputs and output options.
And while Blackmagic Design have made a marketing push for this hold-it-under-your-arm angle, I’m not a 100% convinced of that one. I wouldn’t want to be hopping out of my production van, walking into a venue, and opening the door with this thing under my arms. I’d much rather find a permanent home in a venue for it or build it into a bigger flight case instead.
If you’re familiar at all with the ATEM advanced panel that we have looked at in the past here on the channel, this is quite familiar in terms of layout and design. We have a program and preview row down here where you can send certain cameras off to the audience or preview them before you take them on air. Next to that, we have transition controls for setting the mix, the fades, cutting between cameras and the T-bar for transitioning smoothly. Finally, closest to me on the right, I have DSK options for bringing graphics on and off air and fade to black as well for taking the whole show out on a fade to black.
Above that, we have recording and streaming buttons as well, and there’s a nice little grab, a still button here, which grabs the current program output as a still and drops that into your media pool as an image. I can also start and stop the recording here and the livestream as well. The ATEM HD8 also has four upstream keyers, and these are typically used for chroma keying and other effects like that. They can be triggered right here in the center. Next to that, I have a macro button. Now with that enabled, you can see a blue line lights up and I have access to all the macros I’ve recorded into this ATEM previously.
Which brings me to something that’s definitely been missing in the ATEMs in the past, and that is access to detailed audio and camera control without needing to hop into the ATEM software control. In this top left section here, I have access to the level, pan, EQ, compressor, limiter, GIT of all of the inputs coming into my ATEM, and I can adjust them on the fly with the dials and with the buttons right here.
I wouldn’t say you have rapid access to all the options here, but you can page through all of those sections and find your way through. You might want to explore it a little bit before your production kicks off. In addition to audio, I also have a CAM button here that lets me launch into full control of a connected Blackmagic camera as well. With this studio camera, 6K Pro, connected up to the ATEM here, I can jump into this section and change things like the overall RGB of the lens. I’ll just reset that for the purposes of right now.
I can also hop in and change the focus of this lens since it’s set up to be controlled, and I can change the exposure as well, and all sorts of settings if I dial further into the options. In the past, I’d have to jump into the ATEM software control for this sort of thing, into the camera tab and click around to find the right option, and then I can only do one thing at a time. What’s nice about this setup is I can adjust multiple dials at the same time and get that camera matching just the way it should with other cameras in my setup.
Now wrapping up the tour of the device, I have access to both of my auxes here. So, I can choose aux one and send whatever camera source or program or multi-view to that aux. Then aux two, I can do the same thing, sending a camera just to that aux. And finally, the ATEM has this control section here at the top. It has a monitor for accessing lots of other settings and buttons for things like the talkback, you have settings, keyers, DV, stinger, dip, colors, and a camera control button that doesn’t do anything yet.
The SDI inputs on the ATEM allows you to connect sources like cameras or computers via converters. This might be one of those classic cases, well, if only it had one or two HDMI inputs, but for me it’s not a huge deal. I have an endless supply of HDMI-to-SDI converters, it seems, so I can just use one of those if I really have a computer to work into the system. If you’re switching from a HDMI-only workflow right now, you will want to start your own endless supply of converters because this is entirely SDI workflow except for that one HDMI output for multi-view.
In pre-ATEM mini days, the television studio lineup was the entry point into Blackmagic ATEM switchers. I almost bought one myself back in the day, but I did opt for a 1ME version instead. In those early days, it did make sense for Blackmagic to mix and match HDMI and SDI inputs, but now with the ATEM mini lineup, I think you’ve got all you need in the HDMI world there. It makes total sense to go fully SDI for something like this. I am happy to see that one HDMI multi-view connection, though. It’s always nice to just plug in a monitor nearby and you don’t have to think about any converters just for that one multi-view output.
I must admit, I really like the inclusion of the ethernet switch here as it’s a nice thing to see in these products, and I’m hoping to see it in more products in the future. What’s great here is I can connect it up to my local network for internet access, and I can connect my laptop directly up to the ATEM. It also gets internet access, and it can talk to the ATEM as well. While this ATEM technically does have 12 SDI video outputs, don’t be fooled in thinking you can write whatever you want to them. I put one here as program only, meaning whatever you want to show your audience will always come out of that SDI output. One of them is the dedicated multi-view output. Again, this is fixed to the multi-view and it will always show that.
Now, these two are aux outputs and you can write whatever you want to those. We have eight additional SDI outputs, and these are specifically for adding a return feed to your IT SDI inputs. At this time, you can’t change what video signal goes to those. It’s always going to be the program feed of the item. A typical use case here would be adding a Blackmagic Studio camera as an input and then sending an SDI output back to that camera in order to send tally information and other control data to the camera. The SDI return will also carry the program video feed so the camera operator can see what the audience is seeing. It would be nice here to have some options in terms of what video you send to them. I’d love to send multi-view back to a camera operator. It’s always handy to see that on their screen, but at this point, you can only choose what’s going out of the auxes.
Both the ATEM television studio HD8 and HD8 ISO have the ability to record the switched program feed onto an attached SSD or the optional built-in storage that you can get added to the device. In my case here, I have a two terabyte drive built into this ATEM model. Now when I hit record on this dedicated button, the recording starts and I’m actually pushing it into the M.2 drive within the ATEM, and I can also see on my monitor here that it’s recording. This is capturing an MP4 file right to the internal storage. However, I do need to connect my computer at this point to see what recording quality I have set. I would love to see that option added to the menu here somewhere so I could jump in and see what quality I am recording and make adjustments to that quality.
However, here I am in the ATEM software control on the output tab. In the live streaming section, I can set the recording quality. The recording quality and the live streaming quality are tied together here on these ATEM models, so I’ve opted to set mine to streaming high. In my experience, this does give a pretty decent MP4 recorded file and allows for streaming on a decent network as well. This ATEM also has a Blackmagic Cloud store built in, which basically means I can access the files recorded to the internal storage pretty easily over my network.
I can also automatically upload these recorded files to Dropbox via that Cloud store. The ATEM setup app here allows for access to that drive and the settings as well. I’ll not dive into it too deeply in this video, but here on my Mac, I can do show and finder and it will grab that drive, mount it on my computer, and now I can see all the files I’ve recorded onto the internal storage of this ATEM. I can play them back, pull them off the drive, and use them for whatever I want, or in the ATEM setup app, I can set up a Cloud sync to automatically throw those files onto Dropbox or Google Drive whenever I’m done recording.
Since I have the ISO model here, I thought I could talk a little bit about the ISO functionality in the switcher. Back over on the ATEM software control, I can check this box, ISO records all the inputs, and whenever I hit record on this ATEM, it will record the program feed, what the audience sees, as well as all of the eight SDI inputs connected to the device. Now, this is lovely for making edits later, especially since the HD8 ISO also records a Da Vinci resolve edit file with all the edits that I made during the live production, but I can jump in and re-edit it as I see fit.
You can also stream right from the ATEM HD8 and HD8 ISO so long as you’ve set up a computer in advance and configured your streaming setup to push off to the destination of your choice. While it does take some setup in advance, that’s okay. I wouldn’t really want to type in a streaming key on these dials here. I’d rather just use a computer to do that. Oh, and you can use my ATEM streaming setup tool, which is over on heretorecord.com/xml for a quick way to create a new streaming destination. That XML file can then be loaded into your ATEM and you can press the on-air button on your ATEM and away you go. You’re streaming off to the world. Not me, though. I haven’t set it up. You want to make sure on your multi-view, though, that you’re streaming to the right destination. Again, this is not something you can see on the ATEM. I’d like to see that added, but for now you will need to take a look at the multi-view to see the destination that’s been set up before you press that button.
This HD8 ISO model that I have here has a neat little feature built in, and that’s the ability to change between the SDI input sources and switch those out independently for streaming sources instead. Now, the idea here is that I could have a couple of SDI cameras connected directly to the ATEM and then I could switch out a couple of my inputs instead to be streaming sources from anywhere in my network here or anywhere in the world. Out in the field or somewhere else in the building here, I can have a Blackmagic encoder or camera stream directly over the network into the ATEM and then pick that up as a source. It just acts as any other source.
I can cut to it, I can include it in Super Source, I can run it out to an aux, all that good stuff. Now, keep in mind here, it must be a Blackmagic device on the other end doing that streaming. They are using RTMP for the connection, but rather knowingly, they have baked in some extra details under the hood that ensures that only Blackmagic devices can stream to the ATEM. I would love to see them open this up in the future to other RTMP encoders. It would be super nice for us all since we all have a few lying around, I’m sure. In the meantime, though, it does make sense for Blackmagic to keep it this way because you can get their cameras and their ATEMs and their web presenters and stream into the ATEM.
I have a studio camera 6K Pro here, which has the streaming ability built in. With it connected to my local network here and powered on, I can stream from the camera to the ATEM via the network. I can cut to it just like any other source that would be attached via SDI. This also works when streaming from an ATEM mini pro, ATEM mini Extreme, ATEM SDI, or web presenter as well. In a future video, I will dig into how to set up the streaming from the source into the ATEM. So, stay subscribed for that, coming real soon.
Now, to be honest, I’m not running around doing a lot of productions these days with my own gear and taking it out of the studio on location. So, I’m not really in the market for an ATEM that would work outside of the studio space. Since my livestreams typically include me hosting and producing, and I also want to demo things on the table, it’s a bit big to set on the desk here and take up the whole space. I would have to really set it off to the side, in which case it’s not so easy to jump over to make changes.
However, I certainly would see myself getting something like this if I was doing things with other hosts, whether that’s in the studio space here or remotely via streaming sources. I’ve been a big fan of the ATEM advanced panels when using them on past productions. Now having the streaming and recording audio and camera control built into this one desk is a nice step forward. If you’re on the move a lot between locations, though, my biggest recommendation for this ATEM would be to build it into a nice case where it’s well protected, either partially set up or easily padded for travel and easy to take out and start setting up when you get on location.
I would be cautious, though, about putting all of my production abilities into one box like this, switching recording, mixing audio streaming. Get to a venue and you’ve accidentally bumped this thing and it’s not working right. It would be a big deal. I’m also not fully convinced yet that the ATEM lineup is your sole audio mixing solution. In terms of audio, the ATEM models have come a long way since the first one I ever bought. We do need better audio routing abilities and more audio buses for it to make sense out in the field. My own weekly livestream is a pretty simple setup with two microphones, some music playback, and a dedicated audio feed going into a Zoom call for members. To make that work, I’m using an external audio solution because I just don’t have the control within the ATEM for a pre-show chit-chat with members over Zoom while I simultaneously stream hold music to YouTube.
Overall though, the ATEM television studio HD8 and HD8 ISO models are a really good solution compared to their previous rack-mounted versions. I really like the direction these are headed in. These feel like a well-designed, easy to use switcher with a nice combination of IO and all the control you could need almost on the desktop unit. If you’re currently running the ATEM SDI or even the ATEM mini lineup, I’m sure you’ll be super happy with an upgrade to something like this. You can ditch some of your buttons on your stream deck in favor of the buttons on the ATEM here, and you can do it all via dedicated hardware buttons that were built for that purpose.
As always, I hope you find that useful. If you have any more questions about the ATEM, I have it on loan for a few more weeks so I can test out some more stuff and let you know in the comments below or in future videos how it works. All right, I’ll see you in the next one. Bye-bye.