Blackmagic Design ATEM Television Studio HD Production Switcher

Love it! I've used many switchers in my 19 years of working A/V as a FreeLancer and this one is really sweet! Yes you SHOULD get Decimators or the more pricey but better DAC 70's for every input, but in my line of work its not a bad idea to have external scalers on your inputs for each random pc that gets thrown at you right as the keynote presenter walks on-stage. I probably should also state that you should already know that its best to match the output of any video switch to the destination(s). ie-TV, Projection, Video wall, etc. So if you do all that first, you will love this ATEM! The on-board audio mixer is really nice for me too for when a Presentation has video with audio. All I do is run one sdi line to-and-from with a Decimator MD-HX at the source, and i've got the audio and video in one cable! Ive used many brands of switchgear, BlackMagic, Barco/Folsom, Extron, AnalogWay, and for all you Veterans that know what a Sony 1024 is and was;-) For the cost and a couple Scaler boxes you cannot beat this Switcher. I almost chose the Roland V1-SDI for $1200. It has a scaler on only one input. After much head scratching and reviews, I'm so sold on the BMD equipment. Lastly, this unit doesn't require me to sacrifice a laptop just to control it now either! So Happy! That was a HUGE weak link, and a deal breaker for me. If you wanna know how to make a Freeze button, simply route an sdi shorty from an SDI output to an input and boom! Any time you punch up that input with the video loop you have created and it freezes;-) This does however mess with that embedded audio i mentioned above, so you'll have to take that audio layer out. Just an FYI. Thanks for reading my review, I hope it helps!

What can I say? Works, lot of features, low cost, reliable, front switches seem rugged. We haven't run into the fan noise issue. If it gets hot, those fans do howl. However, in our system it is laying on a stone counter top which probably makes nice heat sink, but whatever the fans run slow and quiet. We have this back in a sound booth on the main floor of our church and the fan noise is completely imperceptible in that environment.

I have used Barco and Analog Way over the years. Love both of them and they make great products. I used to really not like Blackmagic for a lot of reasons - but this little switcher has given me hope in their products. I love it. It is very easy to use - has great software control interface and capabilities. Perfect for smaller meetings and events if you need a solid switcher. I only have a couple dislikes: (reasons for 4/5 stars) 1) have to use a laptop to store a logo/title slide. If you're in the live event world, you know the need for a logo/title slide/frame store. Most switcher let you store one from the selected input directly from the menu. Not possible here. 2) make sure you have a bunch of decimators for your inputs/output. All frame rates and resolutions must mach across the board for all inputs and outputs - or no signal. And if you have any SDI/HDMI converters maker sure you know what frame rate/resolution the are outputting (if you can't adjust it) so you can set the Blackmagic accordingly! Overall - my new go-to switcher. Small, light, and I can fit an entire switching rig in a small pelican.

It is one rack space and packed with features that add value. I looked at other options for HD video switchers but those with SDI inputs were much more expensive. The additional SDI inputs and outputs make the practical use of my Sony EX 1R camcorders possible.. much better, there are cable transmission limits to HDMI cables which are more expensive than BNC cables for SDI transmission which can accommodate longer cable runs without issues. Also, the software provided allows for plenty customization of use.

Unbeatable at this price point. It's nice having a switcher that can be used just with the buttons on the front panel if you are doing simple cuts and fades. With the software control, it is more capable than the analog Grass Valley switchers I've used in the past. As with all Blackmagic equipment, it is really important that all equipment hooked to it are at the same resolution and frame rate.

At first I must admit I was pulling my hair out trying to get this thing to work. I had heard it was picky on input but could not figure out how to get my Sony X70 SDI connection to work. I finally realized I needed to set the BM ATEM to 1080p 59.94 for it to receive the Sony SDI output even through I was recording at 30p. I guess it's a Sony thing. The second issue I had was trying to hook it up to my computer. I tried reading the manual and watching youtube videos but start talking IP addresses and my eyes glaze over. This is where the five stars come in. I called Blackmagic Design support and got an experienced tech within 10 minutes who walked me through the steps and got it working in no time. This is the second time I've had to call Blackmagic support for products I purchased and they delivered with flying colors. This company has my allegiance and I will always look to them first when contemplating new purchases because true customer support in this day and age is rare. That said the mixer is awesome and seems to work well so far.

This device does everything it says it can do. There are so many video switchers out there, all of them slightly different and may better fit what you need for one reason or another, this is another option. It does not have every perfect feature you could imagine, but it does what it is supposed to and it does it very well, so I am very happy with it.

I've worked in a broadcast operations center (BOC) with pro grade studio gear for almost 20 years. Troubleshooting comes with the job. Two engineers warned me about the inconsistent quality of Blackmagic (BM) products and to avoid using in mission critical environments. Having no experience with BM products I bought into the hype of BM marketing materials and a small number of Amazon BM reviewers here then took a leap and purchased an ATEM Studio HD and a Hyperdeck Studio Mini for personal use. After spending many hours building a simple home studio around these items and getting intimately familiar with every aspect of the ATEM and Hyperdeck, all I can say at this point is: I AM NOT IMPRESSED Rather than get into a dissertation about every frustration I've encountered I'll list all the additional gear I've acquired just to make the ATEM and Hyperdeck minimally functional with 3 different cameras (Panasonic, Nikon, Canon), Sound Devices MixPre-6, a Macbook Pro and a Windows 10 laptop. 1 BM ATEM Mini (test and backup) 4 BM HDMI to SDI micro converters 2 BM SDI to HDMI Micro converters 2 Decimator MD-HX scalers 1 Decimator MD-LX 2-way SDI-HDMI converter 1 Mackie 8 channel mixer 1 Behringer Tube Ultragain MX100 pre-amp 1 Rode Wireless Go mic 1 handheld dynamic mic 1 headphone set Finally, after much angst and experimentation, every design challenge has been resolved except for one. No matter what I've tried (software update, backdate, change settings, sources, cables, adapters, etc.) cannot get the ATEM analog XLR inputs to function. Neither XLR port will detect audio from a pre-amp or a sound mixer even with the ATEM audio settings correctly set. This problem is extremely annoying and frustrating since analog XLR audio input capability is MISSION CRITICAL for my production setup. I've concluded this particular ATEM unit has a FACTORY DEFECT. Others on BM forums have expressed having the same issue with their units. Now, I'm working on an analog audio to SDI workaround solution which means adding another unanticipated expense to this endless project. I regret having to go through more troubleshooting with this unit that is now "out of warranty" but still relatively new and unused. I should have heeded the warning of my video engineers before purchasing BM equipment. I read that BM offers no service centers for gear like this. Repair costs are too expensive. A BM video blogger said faulty equipment in this price range is meant to be discarded rather than salvaged. Too bad. BM gear, at least on the surface, looks like quality gear. Unfortunately, it appears what's inside is not up to snuff. ### Update 5/15/20 Mailed this to BM for repair. They returned it after technician confirmed XLRs were dead but said these were not repairable. Later, in the middle of a firmware update the installation FAILED. Now the unit will not boot up beyond fan noise and a green blinking USB light in the back panel. $900 DOWN THE TUBES. AM GOING TO DESTROY THIS WITH A SLEDGE HAMMER AND POST VIDEO ON YOUTUBE SOON.