Blackmagic ATEM Television Studio HD User Manual Getting Started
Getting started with your ATEM Television Studio HD8 is as simple as connecting power, adding your SDI video sources, connecting your multiview and using the built in control panel to check your inputs.
Plugging in Power
To power your ATEM Television Studio HD8, plug a standard IEC cable to the power input on the rear panel. ATEM Television Studio HD8 model switchers also feature a DC input, which lets you connect power from an external 12V battery. Once powered the control panel LCDs will turn on and camera buttons will illuminate.
Connect power via the IEC or DC inputs on ATEM Television Studio HD8 and HD8 ISO
Connecting the Multiview
To check the inputs, connect a display to the multiview output using either the SDI or HDMI multiview connections.
Once connected, you should see 8 small boxes and 2 large boxes on the display. Each box is a separate view and as you connect additional sources, they will appear on their respective views. You can customize the look of the multiview to show up to 16 views using ATEM Software Control. For more information, see ‘using the multiview’ later in this manual.
If you can see the multiview, then your ATEM is powered on and running fine and you can now start plugging in sources.
Connect your ATEM Television Studio HD8 to a monitor to view the multiview output
Plugging in Sources
Plug your SDI cameras and other HD sources into ATEM Television Studio HD8’s SDI inputs. These 3G-SDI connections feature format conversion and frame synchronizers so all sources will conform to the video format set on your switcher.
3G-SDI Television Studio HD8
With ATEM Television Studio HD8 ISO switchers, you can also connect streaming sources via the Ethernet ports, such as Blackmagic Studio Camera 6K Pro. For more information on selecting sources via Ethernet, refer to ‘additional features on ISO models’ later in this manual.
Plugging in Audio
ATEM Television Studio HD8 includes a built in audio mixer which allows the use of embedded SDI audio from your cameras as well as external audio from the XLR and RCA inputs as well as the MADI BNC inputs. These additional audio inputs can be used for other audio sources such as camera microphones and pre-recorded audio.
Once your audio is connected, you can confirm the signal on each channel by looking at the levels on the control panel’s audio mixer.
Check audio levels via the meters on the Fairlight audio mixer
For more information refer to the audio mixer section later in this manual.
Performing a Transition
To start, the most visible part of an M/E based control panel is the transition fader, which typically appears as a T bar or slider on a control panel, and the program and preview rows of source buttons.
When checking your setup, the first step you may want to try is to perform a transition.
There are two switching modes available on your ATEM Television Studio HD8 switcher. The default mode is ‘program preview’ which lets you preview a source before switching it to air. However the program bus source select buttons in the top row can be used to hot switch sources to the program output. Be careful when selecting sources on this row, as they will instantly be switched on air.
Performing a cut from input 1 to input 3 using the program row:
Input 1 is illuminated red to indicate input 1 is currently live on air.
In the program row, press input 3.
Input 1 will now immediately switch to input 3 and you will see input 3 illuminated red, which means input 3 is now live on air. This is known as a cut as you are ‘cutting’ directly from one source to another.
A safer and more orderly way to do transitions is to select them on the preview row, and then use a transition to cut or transition them on air.
This is a very powerful way to use a switcher, because you can select your source on the preview row, and see it on the preview video output to confirm that you have the correct source before you select the transition you want. You can see what’s happening at all stages so it’s hard to make mistakes. Only the M/E style of operation allows you to keep track of what’s going on.
The bottom row of buttons is the preview bus source selection. This is where you will spend most of your time selecting sources about to go on air. This selected source is sent to the program output when the next transition occurs. The next transition can be triggered by pushing the cut button, the auto button, or by moving the transition fader up or down. You can select between a mix, dip, wipe, DVE or other transition depending on what you have selected in the transition control section.
In the following example a mix transition will be used to transition from source 3 back to source 1.
Select the next source by pressing button 1 on the preview row. The button will now illuminate green to show it is selected on the preview bus.
Press the dedicated ‘mix’ transition button.
Now press the ‘auto’ button to perform the transition.
During the transition, input buttons on both the program and preview rows illuminate red to indicate they are both on air and the fader bar indicators will light up.
You might also notice that once your transition is complete, the sources selected on the preview and program rows swap over. This is because the source you selected on the preview row is now the new on air source, so it becomes selected on the program row once the transition is complete. Remember the program row always shows what’s on air.
Setting Your Network
Your ATEM switcher ships from the factory with settings to allow hardware control panels to simply be connected directly with an Ethernet cable. However your ATEM supports full Ethernet IP protocols so you can place your ATEM Television Studio HD8 and external ATEM hardware panel on your network or anywhere on the planet using the internet. Connecting to a network means you have enormous flexibility with how you control your switcher. For example, you can connect an ATEM Camera Control Panel on the same network to your switcher and have two operators switching content. In addition, you also have the software panel on your computer so you can even have a third operator handling audio, or managing media from the software panel.
ATEM Television Studio HD8 switchers default to DHCP so the switcher can get its network information automatically. However you can set a fixed IP address manually.
If you’re not in the home menu, press the ‘home’ button to return to the main menu.
Press the ‘network’ soft control button above the LCD and use the right arrow button to navigate to ‘IP address’. If your switcher can see the network, the assigned IP address will appear across the bottom of the screen.
To set a manual IP address, press the ‘DHCP on’ soft button above the LCD to turn DHCP off. Set your manual IP address using the corresponding knobs beneath the LCD. When using a static IP the switcher must share the same IP address subnet as any device you which to connect to, for example a HyperDeck, which typically means the first 3 fields in the IP address need to be the same.
Once you’ve entered your IP address, press the ‘save changes’ button.
Now your switcher is on your network, you can select your streaming platform via ATEM Software Control and use the ‘on air’ buttons to start your stream.
For more information on selecting your streaming platform refer to the ‘output tab’ later in this manual.
That’s all there is to getting started! Keep reading this manual for information on how to use all the features and controls on your ATEM Television Studio HD8 switcher.
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