Blackmagic ATEM Television Studio HD User Manual Storage Media

ATEM Television Studio HD8 switchers let you record your program using an external drive or flash disk via the two USB-C connections on the rear panel. You can also connect to multi port USB-C hubs or the MultiDock 10G allowing you to connect one or multiple SSDs for far greater storage capacity.

You can also record internally on ATEM switchers featuring optional internal storage. This section explains how to prepare both external and internal storage.

Preparing Storage via a Computer

External disks can be formatted via a Mac or Windows computer. HFS+ is also known as Mac OS X Extended and is the recommended format as it supports ‘journaling’. Data on journaled media is more likely to be recovered in the rare event that your storage media becomes corrupted. HFS+ is natively supported by Mac. exFAT is supported natively by Mac and Windows without needing any additional software, but does not support journaling. This can be a good choice if you need to read or write to the disk using both Mac and Windows computers.

Formatting Media on a Mac Computer

The Disk Utility application included with your Mac can format a drive in the HFS+ or exFAT formats. Make sure you back up anything important from your disk as you will lose everything on it when it is formatted.

1. Connect your disk to your computer with an external dock, USB hub, or cable adapter and dismiss any message offering to use your drive for Time Machine backups.

2. On your computer, go to applications/utilities and launch Disk Utility.

3. Click on the disk icon of your drive and then click the erase tab.

4. Set the format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or exFAT.

5. Type a name for the new volume and then click erase. Your media will quickly be formatted and made ready for recording.

Use the Format dialog box feature in Windows to format your external disk in the exFAT format

Formatting Media on a Windows computer

The format dialog box can format a drive in the exFAT format on a Windows PC. Make sure you back up anything important from your drive as you will lose everything on it when it is formatted.

1. Connect the drive to your computer with an external dock, USB hub, or cable adapter.

2. Open the start menu or start screen and choose computer. Right-click on your drive.

3. From the contextual menu, choose format.

4. Set the file system to exFAT and the allocation unit size to 128 kilobytes.

5. Type a volume label, select quick format and click ‘start’.

6. Your drive will quickly be formatted and made ready for recording.

Preparing Storage Using ATEM Television Studio HD8

Internal storage can be formatted using system control on the front panel or using ATEM Setup utility. In addition you can also format external disks as Mac OS Extended or exFAT using your switcher’s control panel.

Formatting Storage using ATEM Television Studio HD8

To open the format menu press the ‘settings’ button and use the arrows to navigate to the format screen. Alternatively, press ‘9’ on the keypad.

Once you have opened the ‘format media’ menu, you can select between formatting internal storage or any external drives connected via USB.

1. For internal storage, rotate the ‘media’ knob and select ‘internal’. For external drives, rotate the ‘media’ knob to the selected drive and then rotate the ‘format’ knob to select either Mac OS Extended or exFAT.

2. Press the ‘format’ button above the LCD.

3. Follow the on screen directions by holding the format button for 3 seconds until the tick appears in the countdown icon. Formatting will begin.

4. Once formatting is complete, the storage is ready to use. Press the ‘ok’ button above the LCD to return to the format media menu.

Formatting Internal Storage using ATEM Setup

You can also format you storage using the ATEM Setup utility installed with your ATEM switcher software. You will need to connect your switcher via USB to format the drive.

1. Open the ATEM Setup utility. If you are using Mac, it is located in applications in the Blackmagic ATEM Switchers folder. On Windows computers, ATEM setup can be accessed from Start > Programs > Blackmagic Design.

2. Once open, click on ‘storage’ and then select ‘format drive’.

3. A warning screen will appear to let you know formatting will erase all files on the storage. If this is the first time you are formatting the storage. Click ‘format’ to continue.

4. A second warning screen will appear for you to confirm. This is to make sure people aren’t inadvertently deleting media on the storage. Click on ‘erase’.

5. A progress status will appear during formatting. Once complete the internal storage is ready to use.

Accessing Storage

If you are using external drives for recording, a simple way to access the video clips and any DaVinci Resolve projects is to disconnect the drive from the rear panel of ATEM Television Studio HD8 and connect it to your computer, but you can also access the files via your network.

To access storage on a Mac computer:

1. Open Finder and click on ‘network’ in the sidebar menu.

2. Double click on your ATEM Television Studio HD8 in the list.

3. Now double click on internal storage.

Your ATEM Television Studio HD8 will now appear in the locations sidebar. To access storage on a Windows computer:

1. Click on the ‘Network’ menu item in File Explorer sidebar. You will see your ATEM Television Studio HD8 listed.

2. Double click on your ATEM Television Studio HD8 and a Windows security dialog box will appear asking for network credentials.

3. Set the username and password to ‘guest’.

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   NOTE If your computer fails to connect, your ATEM Television Studio HD8 may belong to a Windows workgroup. Use ‘workgroup\guest’ as your username and ‘guest’ as your password to log into your storage.

4. Click ‘OK’.

You will now see your switcher in the File Explorer window and can access the storage like any other network drive.

Alternatively, you can access your storage from the setup utility. On a Mac computer click the ‘Show in Finder’ button. On a Windows computer this button is ‘Show in File Explorer’.

Cloud Sync

Another way to access your media is by using Cloud Sync, where you can sync the internal storage or external drives on ATEM Television Studio HD8 model switchers with cloud services including Dropbox and Google Drive.

Setting Date and Time

Cloud services such as Dropbox or Google Drive require the correct date and time to sync to your ATEM switcher internal storage. By default, your ATEM Television Studio HD8 will use the Cloudflare NTP server to automatically set the date and time.

To sync your online account with ATEM Television Studio HD8 all you need to do is sign into your online account using the cloud sync settings, set the folder you want to sync to and set the sync direction.

Sign into Dropbox and Google Drive

1. Click on the ‘sign in’ button for the Dropbox or Google Drive account. A sign in window will appear.

2. Sign into Dropbox or Google Drive. A confirmation message will indicate that you have successfully connected. If the connection failed, check your computer is connected to the Internet.

3. Click ‘close’.

Sync Folder and Direction

1. You will now see the ‘add sync’ button enabled. Click on the button to open the ‘add sync location’ window.

2. Name the sync location and click on the folder icons to point to your desired sync folders. These would typically share the same name.

3. Select the sync direction. For example, if you are syncing to Dropbox and you want to sync files from your switcher to Dropbox but not from Dropbox to your switcher, select ‘from ATEM TV Studio to Dropbox’.

4. Click ‘add’.

Your cloud service is now synced to your ATEM Television Studio HD8.

Status indicators provide information about the sync process

The sync arrows show the sync direction. A blue arrow shows that data is being sent from your switcher and a yellow arrow shows that data is being received. If data is being sent and received at the same time, then a blue and yellow arrow will be displayed. A gray arrow indicates when data is not being synced in that direction.

The percentage figure to the right of the sync arrows shows the current status of the sync progress.

Click on the ‘edit sync’ indicator to change the sync folder name and location.

Click on this indicator to delete the sync location. In the confirmation dialog box, click ‘continue’ to confirm or ‘cancel’ to abort the deletion.

If you have Blackmagic Cloud Store or Blackmagic Cloud Pod, you can add these syncs via the Blackmagic Cloud Setup utility to your own storage and keep a live copy as you record.

Using the Multiview

Your ATEM switcher has a powerful multiview feature that lets you monitor all inputs, together with the program and preview outputs as a group of views on one screen. The multiview also displays the media player, streaming status, disk recording disk status, audio levels, plus Fairlight EQ and dynamics indicators.

This feature provides a comprehensive overview so you will always know exactly what is happening with your broadcast!

The multiview is a powerful feature that lets you monitor all sources and outputs simultaneously

Below is a description of each view.

Preview

The preview view lets you monitor the source currently switched to the preview output. This view is helpful to practice switching between sources, previewing transitions or setting up a keyer so you can see what it will look like before switching to the program output. You need to change the switcher operation to program/preview style switching to make use of the preview view. There is more information about this in later sections of this manual.

Program View

The program view displays what is currently switched to the program output. This view will always show exactly what you are broadcasting.

Input Views

The input views display all the sources connected to the 8 inputs. Having all inputs on the multiview lets you see the image from every camera so you can make quick decisions. However, they don’t always have to be cameras as you could also have a computer’s video output or a HyperDeck disk recorder connected to the switcher’s inputs and you can monitor them in the input views.

When an input is switched to the preview or program output, a green or red tally border will appear around the input’s respective view. Green represents the preview output and red represents the program output, or ‘on air’.

Media Player View

This view displays the graphic currently loaded in the media player. To load a graphic, simply go to the media pool in ATEM Software Control and drag a still into the media player. You can read more about how to use the media player and the media pool in the section ‘ATEM media pool’.

Streaming View

This view displays the streaming on air status, including the broadcast data rate and the cache status. You can also see what streaming platform you are currently broadcasting to as it is displayed at the bottom of the view.

• On Air Indicator Prior to recording, the on air status indicator will display ‘off’ to let you know the switcher is standing by and ready to broadcast. When streaming begins, the indicator will display a bright red ‘on air’ status until streaming is stopped. If there is an interruption during the stream, for example the internet connection speed becomes too slow and the cache is depleted, the on air indicator will begin flashing.

• Broadcast Data Rate The data rate is measured in megabits per second. For ATEM Television Studio HD8 switchers to broadcast 1080p60 video without losing frames, the data rate needs to be approximately 5 to 7 Mb per second.

• Cache Status The cache status displays the capacity of the switcher’s built in memory buffer. The cache is a small amount of internal memory that continuously records and plays the program output. It acts as a safety measure if the broadcast data rate decreases below a level able to sustain video. The variable nature of the internet is mostly due to network activity or wireless signal strength, so if the broadcast data rate decreases, the buffer data will increase accordingly. If the connection speed becomes slow enough that it cannot support the video stream, the cache will fill with video frames to compensate. However, once the cache is 100% full, the video stream will be compromised, so you will want to avoid a full cache where possible. You can do this by testing the connection speed when you set up your stream. During a broadcast test, watch the cache display in the multiview. If the cache frequently approaches 100%, choose a lower quality in the live stream settings.

• Tethering status The smartphone icon is displayed when the ATEM switcher is connected to the internet using mobile tethering. The icon will become red when on air.

Recording View

If you are recording to external drives via USB-C or to the internal storage, this view will display the current recording status.

• Recording Indicator Prior to recording, or if there are no disks connected, the indicator will display ‘stop’. When disks are connected, you will see them appear as icons below the indicator. When a disk is recording, the indicator displays ‘rec’ and will illuminate bright red.

• Duration Counter Underneath the recording indicator is the duration counter. When you press the record button on the switcher, the duration counter will start running.

• Record Status Indicators These indicators provide details on each drive and its recording status. For example, if you are using two drives, their drive names will be displayed along with available space and record time remaining. While a disk is recording, the indicator will illuminate red and shows how much disk space is left.

The disks are ordered by capacity. For example, if you have 4 SSDs connected via a Blackmagic MultiDock 10G, the drive with the largest remaining space will be labeled 1. Drive 2 will be the SSD with the next largest available space. When drives 1 and 2 are full, drive 3 will then assume the disk 1 indicator and disk 2 will become drive 4. You can always see what drives are assigned to the disk numbers by looking at the disk names underneath their icons.

Audio View

During your broadcast you can monitor the audio levels for each source and the levels of the program output using the audio view.

• Audio Meters Each input and the program output has its own audio meter and you can monitor them all simultaneously. If the audio level rises above -10dB the meter will illuminate red to warn you that it is close to the maximum strength of 0dB. Once the level reaches 0dB the audio will clip. Clipping means the audio will distort and you will need to decrease the level using the switcher’s audio level buttons or the audio mixer in ATEM Software Control. You can read more about ATEM Software Control in the next section of this manual.
  The audio meter is an important tool to monitor your levels so you can make sure your audio always sounds great!

• Fairlight Icons These icons let you know if EQ and dynamics controls are enabled in ATEM Software Control’s audio page.

If the Fairlight icons are colored and illuminated, the EQ or dynamics tool is active and the input is on air.

If the icons are colored but dim, it means the tools are active, but the input is not on air.

If the icons are dim and colorless, the tools are inactive or bypassed on the audio page.

The multiview is an excellent tool that will let you spot every detail and put you in the moment. For example, it can help you previsualize ideas in the preview window before switching them to the program output. You can monitor each SDI source and test switching between them, set up a chroma key, or even preview a transition to see what it will look like before switching it to the program output!