Blackmagic ATEM Mini User Manual Using Multiple Control Panels

All ATEM Mini switchers have multiple ways they can be controlled and you can use this software control panel as well as a range of hardware control panels. In fact, if you connect your ATEM Mini to a network that has other computers connected, you can run multiple copies of this software control panel. This means you could have someone operating the switcher, while someone else could be controlling cameras, managing media or mixing audio. It’s quite flexible and this means many people can be operating your ATEM Mini all at the same time!

A good example is the relationship between the software control panel, external ATEM hardware control panel and the control panel of ATEM Mini. The software control panel has been designed to be the same as the external ATEM hardware control panel. This is a convention and well understood ME style of layout where you have a program row and preview row of input controls and then a transition block that lets you command the transition.

If you plug in both control panels, you can see them mirror each other and any button pressed on one control panel will be reflected on the other control panels instantly.

However, due to space limitations the control panel of ATEM Mini is a little bit different and it’s interesting to see the relationship between how this control panel works and how the software control panel works. A good way to understand this is to watch ATEM Mini’s panel control while controlling the switcher via the software control panel.

Because of the limited space on ATEM Mini’s control panel, both the program and preview rows have been combined together into a single row of buttons. When running ATEM Mini in program preview switching mode, you can see the source selected on the program row because it’s illuminated red and the source selected on the preview row because it’s selected green. These are the same colors as the software control panel, but they are just on the same row of physical buttons.

The following section describes how to connect your ATEM equipment to a network so you can operate your switcher using an ATEM hardware panel and multiple computers running ATEM Software Control.

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TIP: If you are using 4 Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4Ks or 6Ks with ATEM Mini, you can even connect an ATEM Camera Control Panel and control all 4 cameras via HDMI using an external hardware control panel.

When connected to a network via Ethernet, multiple computers can run ATEM Software Control simultaneously, which means multiple operators can be dedicated to separate controls on your ATEM Mini. For example, multiple operators can control media management, camera control and audio mixing.

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TIP: For detailed information about how to control your ATEM Mini using ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel refer to the ‘using the ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel’ section.