Blackmagic ATEM Television Studio HD User Manual Using Adobe Photoshop with ATEM

Installing the ATEM software on your computer also installs a Photoshop plug-in that lets you download Photoshop graphics direct to the ATEM media pool.

This means you can accept graphics from designers in the application that 100% of the world’s designers use, Adobe Photoshop! You can even use the layers in a Photoshop image to keep variations of graphics, such as different titles in a graphic, then select the layers in Photoshop you want and then simply download them at the press of a button. When downloading the layers are automatically flattened in real time before download. This happens in the background and your document in Photoshop is unchanged by the export.

The ATEM export plug-in requires Adobe Photoshop CS5 or later. Install or reinstall the ATEM software after Photoshop is installed, to ensure the ATEM export plug-in is installed.

ATEM export plug-in

Setting up Plug-in Switcher Location

The first time the Photoshop export plug-in is run, it will ask you to select your switcher location. This is the IP address of the switcher so the plug-in can find the switcher to communicate with. By default, the IP is set to 192.168.10.240, which is what the switcher IP address is originally set to when first sold. If you want to export several versions of the same Photoshop file, you can use the export plug-in window to name each exported file and also choose whether to set the files to a Media Player after export.

Preparing Graphics for Download

For best results, you will want to use a Photoshop document resolution that matches the video standard you’re using with your ATEM switcher. For 1080 HD you should use 1920 x 1080 pixels in resolution. For 720p HD formats you should use 1280 x 720 pixels.

When working with Photoshop documents for ATEM, you should not put any content on the background layer, but add all content to the layers above. The background layer should always be plain full frame black and you should use a pre-multiplied key setting in the ATEM keyers for keying graphics from Photoshop.

To help you get started, we’ve included a guide and some graphic template files in the Example Graphics folder which was installed on your computer along with the ATEM Switchers software.

To download the graphic to the ATEM media pool, simply select the export menu in Photoshop and then select ATEM Switcher Media Pool to export. A window will appear asking you to choose which position in the media pool you want to download to. The list includes all the file names of graphics currently loaded in the media pool. Select which position you would like to download to and then select export.

If you’re in a hurry to get your graphics on air, then you can select to automatically copy this graphic to any of the media players after export. This lets you get images to air fast! If you don’t want to interfere with the media player graphic sources, simply select not to copy the media players to this graphic.

Pre Multiply Alpha should almost always be enabled and requires that you also switch on the Pre Multiplied Key setting on the switcher or via ATEM Software Control. Premultiplying mixes the graphic color with its alpha channel when exporting to ensure your graphic has smooth edges which blend in to the video.