Blackmagic ATEM Television Studio HD User Manual Introducing ATEM Television Studio HD8

ATEM Television Studio HD8 switchers are professional broadcast grade digital production switchers capable of switching and processing a variety of video sources in live video production and broadcast environments. The switcher uses the current and familiar Mix Effects based design with software and hardware control options that provides an intuitive, fast and easy to use workflow for program/preview switching. If you’re used to the older A/B direct switcher style, ATEM switchers also support A/B direct switching which makes it easy to get started.

You only need your ATEM switcher to get started as it has a built in control panel so you can switch your live production using just the switcher. However, if you want to add more control flexibility, you can also use ATEM Software Control, or even add one or more hardware control panels if you need a more advanced solution.

Setting up your ATEM Television Studio HD8 can be as simple as plugging the multiview output into a monitor, plugging in a camera and then connecting the program output to a recording deck

What is an M/E Switcher?

If you have used low cost switchers before, then these might not have used the mix effects style of operation that’s commonly called an M/E style of operation. If you have used an M/E style switcher, then you might want to skip ahead to install and get working with your new ATEM switcher.

When you’re starting out with a switcher for the first time, the ATEM can look a little intimidating with all its buttons and knobs, however it’s all very logically laid out so it’s very simple to use.

ATEM is a true high-end broadcast switcher that operates using the M/E workflow standards used in the broadcast industry. This means once you get familiar with how it works, you will feel instantly at home on virtually any switcher used in broadcast today.

The M/E style of operation has been developed over decades to help eliminate errors when switching live events and is a broadcast standard. It’s extremely easy to see what’s going on at any time so you don’t get confused and make mistakes. The M/E style of operation lets you check the sources you are about to switch on air, as well as try effects before using them on air. You can see buttons for each keyer and transition, so you instantly know what’s going on and what’s about to happen.

The best way to learn about how your ATEM works is to grab your switcher and play with it while referencing this manual. You might want to jump ahead and install your switcher before reading the rest of this section.

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.

The program and preview rows of buttons let you preview a source and then switch it to air

There are multiple types of transitions available, and they can be selected using the system control buttons to the left of the LCD or by pressing the specific transition button on the panel. You can choose from a wide range of wipe patterns and DVE effects, plus use the LCD menu to adjust the transition rate and other transition settings.

The other concept that is important to know about M/E style switchers, including ATEM, is the video on the program and preview rows is technically called the background video. This is because the upstream (effects) keyers and downstream keyers will overlay on top of this source. So you can load graphics into the keyers and see them with the preview video and when keys are turned on, you will see the overlay on top of the program video. This is very powerful and allows multiple layers to be built up.

Another great advantage of the ATEM M/E style of operation is you can tie keyers to the transition. This means when you do a mix transition, you can also fade on or off keyers at the same time. This allows you to build up a composition, and then bring the whole lot on air at the same time. This is what the next transition buttons do, and you can select background for normal transitions, or select one or more keyers to transition them on air.

You can even press multiple buttons on an ATEM Television Studio HD8 switcher’s control panel to tie multiple keys and the background at the same time. There are also dedicated downstream key tie buttons to tie downstream keyers to the transition. Downstream keys also have dedicated cut and mix buttons and so are very flexible. Downstream keyers are always layered over the top of everything including the transition, so are a great place to key bugs and logos.

Finally, when your live production is finishing, it’s nice to have a dedicated fade to black (FTB) control to fade everything to black. You can see the dedicated fade to black control on the bottom right of the switcher. This lets you fade everything to black, and helps make sure you don’t miss a layer. Fade to black is at the extreme end of the processing chain so you get a clean fade of all sources.

The last part of an M/E style switcher is the select bus. This is above the program row, and simply allows sources to be selected for effects processing and other purposes, and there is a label above this to show what you’re switching. The select bus is commonly used to select key inputs, and can also be used to run macros directly from the control panel.

As you can see by this quick overview, M/E style of operation allows confident live production with good feedback on what’s going on and the state of your switcher and programming at any point in your production. Once you learn the M/E style of operation, you can move between models of production switchers with little retraining as they all work the same.

What is an A/B Direct Switcher?

If you have been using video switchers for a long time, then you might be used to older-style A/B direct switchers.

A/B direct switchers have an A bus and a B bus. One bus is the program bus which shows a red button for the current program output. The other is the preview bus which has a green button for the preview video. As you move the fader bar up and down, the buses switch so that the red program button follows the fader handle. This is where A/B direct switching is really easy to use as the buttons stay lit in the same positions and just switch color between green and red.

A/B direct switching becomes a little more confusing when the fader control is not used to make the switch. If you use a cut or auto transition button to bring your preview source on air, or if you use more than one control panel connected to your switcher, the fader control won’t have moved on the control panel that you are using. The red program output always follows the fader control and, as you haven’t moved it, the red program light has to move to another button on the same row and the green preview light has to move to another button in its row.

This can become quite confusing when sometimes using the fader control to make switches, and sometimes not, as the rows containing your preview and program buttons will sometimes switch and sometimes stay where they are which has the potential to lead to mistakes.

This is why modern M/E style switching is preferable because you’ll always find your green preview button in the preview row, and the red program button in the program row. It’s always consistent and there are no surprises with M/E style switching.

Understanding the ATEM Switcher

ATEM Television Studio switchers provide all the video processing, as well as all video input and output connectors.

The switcher has a built in control panel with buttons and knobs so you can switch directly from the switcher itself, or you can connect to a computer via Ethernet and use ATEM Software Control that emulates the same controls on a software panel. Using the software panel together with the built in control panel lets multiple operators switch your production. For example, you could switch cameras using the built in panel while other operators control the camera and audio levels using the software panel. The options are endless.

ATEM Television Studio HD8 switchers support HD video up to 1080p60 via 3G-SDI. All inputs on your switcher have a built in resynchronizer and standards converter so you can plug in different formats and they will automatically convert to the switcher’s set output format.

Each switcher features advanced chroma keyers, a Fairlight audio mixer, camera control adjustments and the ability to load stills into the media pool and much more. When connected to a network, you can select streaming inputs or record directly to network storage.