Blackmagic Design’s Zoom-ready HDMI switcher has no proper to be this cool
MSRP $595.00
“The ATEM Mini Professional is your ticket to professional-grade Zoom conferences, and an superior instrument for streamers on all platforms.”
Professionals
Quite simple to arrange
Extremely highly effective
No driver required for many options
Low-latency HDMI output for gaming
Maintain again that yawn! An HDMI switcher won’t sound thrilling, however Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Mini Pro is probably the most enjoyable I’ve had with a tech product this yr. Designed by an organization that builds costly, rack-mountable thingamajigs for broadcasters, that is an inexpensive multi-camera streaming resolution for the remainder of us. Lastly, you’ll be able to stay out your fantasy of being a night information director (effectively, possibly that’s simply me).
Truly, the ATEM Mini Professional (and extra inexpensive, non-Professional variant) has a extra practical aim targeted on the rise of work-from-home videoconferencing: Turning a real camera into a webcam. A pc’s built-in webcam is mediocre at finest, and even standalone USB webcams have limitations. With the ATEM Mini, you’ll be able to connect any digicam that has a clear HDMI output (that’s, with out UI overlays), together with many mirrorless cameras and DSLRs.
AT $595 for the Professional and $295 for the usual mannequin, the pricing is superb for this class. Many individuals have taken a brand new curiosity within the ATEM Mini line within the wake of social distancing restrictions resulting from COVID-19, so each the usual and Professional variations are on backorder at main retailers. Blackmagic Design informed me it’s “constructing them as quick as we will,” however maintaining with demand has confirmed troublesome.
To be clear, this product is past overkill when you simply wish to use a single digicam as a webcam. Nonetheless, if it is advisable to run extra advanced videoconferences or YouTube livestreams — or just wish to exhibit by being probably the most further participant on the Zoom name — the ATEM Mini is a game-changer.
Plug and play
One factor I’ve all the time appreciated about Blackmagic Design merchandise, just like the Pocket Cinema Digital camera collection, is how their superior options don’t clog up the elegant person interface.
That very same philosophy is undamaged within the ATEM Mini Professional. When mixed with the management software program, which is identical program that powers Blackmagic’s $10,000 skilled ATEM switcher, the quantity of fine-tuning out there is almost limitless — for the uninitiated, it’s a bit mind-boggling. You may add customized graphics like decrease thirds, file macros, load nonetheless photographs to make use of as inexperienced display screen backgrounds, and management audio ranges.
When you’ve got a Blackmagic digicam (I used to be loaned a Pocket Cinema Camera 4K for this assessment), you’ll be able to even management it by the software program by way of HDMI, adjusting publicity settings, focus, and even shade correction. It’s spectacular how effectively this works, particularly contemplating no separate USB connection to the digicam is required. Word that Blackmagic Camera Software 6.9, a free obtain, is required for the digicam management options to work. That is out there on each Pocket Cinema Digital camera 4K and 6K fashions.
Or, you’ll be able to ignore all of that.
In a world that’s transferring more and more within the path of software program interfaces, the ATEM Mini is a bit old style (refreshingly!) in that it handles a lot on the {hardware} degree. Even with a full complement of 4 HDMI sources, there’s no want to put in a driver. Simply join the ATEM Mini to your pc by way of USB and it’ll present up as a selectable webcam in Zoom, FaceTime, or different videoconference and streaming apps. It’s the definition of plug-and-play.
Outfitted with a 12-40mm f/2.8 Olympus lens (courtesy of Lensrentals), the Pocket Cinema Digital camera turned my A digicam, plugged into enter 1 on the ATEM Mini. I crammed out the remaining HDMI inputs with my private Fujifilm X-T2 mirrorless camera, a Nikon D780 DSLR, and my Xbox One X.
Video newbies concentrate: All of those sources had been initially set to completely different resolutions and framerates, and that’s…completely OK! The ATEM Mini immediately transcodes completely different alerts right into a single, unified output. It simply works — as long as your supply isn’t utilizing copy safety. On the Pocket Cinema Digital camera, it even mechanically set the digicam’s framerate to the ATEM’s output framerate.
Utilizing the ATEM Mini Professional
4 numbered buttons can help you change between inputs with none interruption within the video feed to your pc. So far as it is aware of, solely a single digicam is connected. Optionally, you’ll be able to select from a choice of built-in transitions to play when switching inputs, together with dissolves, dips, and wipes. There are even buttons to alter the length of those transitions, from half a second to 2 seconds.
Image-in-picture (PIP) is inbuilt on the {hardware} degree, which is nice for presenters who wish to stay on display screen whereas showcasing a second angle. Online game streamers are an apparent goal right here.
There’s additionally a dizzying choice of audio controls which can be a bit formidable to anybody who, effectively, hasn’t run a broadcast studio earlier than. Along with utilizing audio from any or all the HDMI inputs, two 3.5mm jacks allow you to connect exterior microphones. You may toggle each audio enter independently and alter particular person ranges for every. You may also choose AFV (audio follows video) on any enter to mechanically use the audio from that supply when switching to it.
After ending my assessment, Blackmagic launched the ATEM switchers 8.2.3 update that, amongst different issues, added the power to set a customized audio delay for microphones plugged into the three.5mm jacks. As completely different cameras have completely different delays of their HDMI output alerts, this can be a doubtlessly essential function for maintaining audio in sync. I didn’t discover any syncing points earlier than the replace — Blackmagic informed me it could have solely been off by just a few frames at most, so a small fraction of a second — however for functions past Zoom conferences the place a extra exact presentation is desired, this can be a welcome function to have.
Managing all of those inputs and audio sources sounds difficult, however there’s a devoted button for all the pieces, so it’s fairly easy when you study the assorted abbreviations. There’s no diving by menus, and no want to recollect keyboard shortcuts. Buttons are backlit with completely different colours. White reveals what’s chosen, inexperienced signifies what’s being previewed, and purple illustrates what’s energetic. This offers you lots of info at a look.
Have an exterior monitor? That is the place the true enjoyable begins. Join it to the ATEM Mini Professional’s HDMI output and also you’ve received your self a streaming command middle, full with a multi-view show of each enter and on-screen quantity ranges for each audio supply. You may take any enter full-screen separate out of your stay “program” stream, even when it’s not the energetic enter. Players can use picture-in-picture to overlay themselves on their stream, whereas nonetheless taking part in with a distraction-free view (however this can restrict the sport to 1080p decision).
Once more, all of that is potential with out putting in a driver. Nonetheless, some prospects ought to positively set up the software program, notably avid gamers. Along with the opposite options it unlocks, it’s the one method to activate 60 fps output. The ATEM Mini defaults to 30 fps.
ATEM Mini Professional vs. ATEM Mini
The ATEM Mini Professional is the newer of the 2, and is actually an ATEM Mini with further options bolted on. There’s no distinction in video or audio high quality — each assist as much as 1080p/60 fps and 10-bit video — however the further $300 untethers the Professional switcher from a pc, providing direct-to-disk recording and livestreaming over Ethernet to YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch. It additionally presents the aforementioned multiview monitor output, which the non-Professional mannequin lacks.
Most individuals shall be completely superb with the ATEM Mini and shouldn’t spend the additional cash on the Professional model. Even with out the Professional’s straight-to-disk recording, you’ll be able to nonetheless use software program to file your stream to your pc from the usual ATEM Mini.
The Professional remains to be a cut price for what it presents, and when you’ve received the cash to burn (it’s seemingly a tax write-off, in any case) it’s possible you’ll wish to spring for it when you suppose you might ever be in a scenario to stream or file with out being related to a pc. The multiview monitoring can be simply flat out cool.
Who can actually use it?
With some firms saying they are going to now let employees work from home indefinitely, there are lots of new consumers on the lookout for one thing just like the ATEM Mini. That is the crème de la crème of turn-your-camera-into-a-webcam equipment. It’s overkill for individuals who simply wish to look higher on Zoom, however Zoom hosts working in an workplace setting might positively reap the benefits of the a number of digicam and microphone inputs to enhance the standard of hybrid distant/native conferences (as soon as social distancing is relaxed, anyway).
For YouTubers, the ATEM Mini can immediately improve livestream manufacturing worth, letting you create skilled broadcast-style streams that go far past the fundamentals. Throughout interviews, for instance, you’ll be able to reduce between a large shot and close-ups of the host and the visitor. Stay tutorials, from cooking to images to make-up, might all profit from a number of angles.
It takes the enhancing out of enhancing.
As any HDMI system could be a supply, I might think about remote-work software program builders utilizing it. Cellular app builders can plug in a smartphone or pill and stream the direct expertise of utilizing their app on a selected system, whereas net builders might do the identical factor for web sites.
Through the use of a doc digicam — or simply any digicam and a replica stand — it’s even potential to livestream printed materials or different bodily media. This could be essential to academics and artists.
Even for creators who don’t care about livestreaming, the ATEM Mini can nonetheless be a worthwhile funding. For any multicamera shoot, it helps you to do cuts stay moderately than having to load the footage from every digicam onto a pc and undergo the painstaking strategy of slicing in put up. It takes the enhancing out of enhancing. Make-up artists, residence cooks, and automotive restore gurus might achieve the advantages of multi-cam productions with out having to learn to be an expert video editor.
The one caveat right here is, once more, the utmost output decision of 1080p. That restrict applies to each livestreaming and recording to disk. When you’ve got a 4K digicam, you’ll have to only stay with out these further pixels. I personally don’t suppose this can be a drawback for YouTube or streaming, the place most viewers are watching on small telephone screens and video high quality is compression-limited. Nonetheless, 4K is one factor you surrender if you wish to use the ATEM Mini to chop stay moderately than edit a multi-cam video in put up.
For myself, the ATEM Mini goes to save lots of me each money and time. Pre-social-distancing, I drove an hour into the Digital Tendencies workplace every-other Monday for my Digital Tendencies Stay look. I made a two-hour spherical journey for a 10-minute section. It sounds ridiculous, however it was value it as a result of the studio’s skilled cameras and close-up angles made it a lot simpler to indicate off no matter new product I had in hand.
Now, I can do all of that from residence. Certain, it won’t be completely vital — a single angle, possibly even sticking with my webcam, would in all probability suffice. However that may hardly be as cool.
Up to date June 10, 2020 to incorporate new options from the ATEM switchers 8.2.3 software program replace and digicam management features launched with Blackmagic Digital camera Software program 6.9.
Editors’ Suggestions