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  • Blackmagic Design

    Need advice on hooking up a presentation computer to a Blackmagic Design ATEM Television Studio switcher

    Posted by Leonard Teo on December 7, 2011 at 7:26 pm

    Hi guys,

    My church recently invested in getting an ATEM Television Studio switcher and HD cameras to upgrade its video ministry and it works really well! We’re very satisfied with its results.

    One of the things we are trying to do now is to hook up a laptop to it using HDMI so we can mix in Powerpoint overheads.

    Basically we want a setup with a laptop/computer on stage. This has to drive a monitor/laptop screen, HDMI output for the switcher and VGA output for the projector simultaneously. To add to this, the television switcher is 60 feet away at the back of the church, and we were already experiencing some signal loss on the HDMI.

    I was wondering if you guys have any advice on what the best way would be for a stable setup presentation setup? We are investing into this in a serious and conscientious way, so if there’s any additional hardware to get, we’re happy to look into it. Any advice would be most appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Leonard

    Kevin Copeland replied 7 years, 4 months ago 9 Members · 14 Replies
  • 14 Replies

  • Stefan Stanciu

    December 11, 2011 at 4:29 pm

    We’re in the same boat as you here – with a few slight differences. We have a small OB van where the switcher lives and cable runs of about 50m to our cameras (currently 3x Sony EX1R). We’ve tried HDMI over ethernet with no luck…works with short ethernet cables (3-5m) but no longer. We’ve also tried with long HDMI cables. The TVS is very fussy. Also please be aware that the computer has to be outputting whatever resolution the switcher is set to, otherwise it won’t show… In our case, here in the uk its set to 1920x1080i50.

    I’ve even tried VGA to HDMI convertors but those are just flawed by design. The computer thinks its a VGA monitor that’s connected and won’t offer you the option of 1920×1080. With a HDMI connection from the computer we’re able to get the right resolution but then still have the distance to conquer…

    Our next idea is to try to convert from HDMI to SDI, carry the signal over Coax and either go into the TVS via SDI or convert back to HDMI… Atomos have just launched some ‘cheaper’ convertors. Will keep you posted if we have any luck.

  • Shaun Roemich

    December 12, 2011 at 6:26 pm

    I’m using a Grass Valley AVG G1 Anything to SDI converter to feed VGA (through a VGA – DVI-I adaptor) in and getting HD-SDI out. Works like a charm for my IMAG/conference/convention live switching.

    Big Dog – Technical Director – Switcher
    Road Dog Media – Vancouver, BC Canada
    roaddogmedia@gmail.com

  • Doug Fish

    December 12, 2011 at 8:25 pm

    I’m impressed you got 60′ of HDMI cable to feed the ATEM TVS at all. I had trouble with anything over 15′ without a booster.

    Basically, you need to be able to feed 3 displays: Your control display, your feed to the ATEM, and your overhead feed. You can do that with an AMD Radeon graphics card with Eyefinity support, but you will need an active displayport to HDMI (or displayport to VGA) adapter. If the feed to the ATEM and the overhead can be the same, you just need to split the signal between the two.

    You might also want to look into HDBaseT as an alternative to HDMI cable. Monoprice has an HDBaseT HDMI extender that I am using now to extend HDMI 175′ using a single Cat6 cable (sending program out from ATEM to HDTV’s in hallway/nursery/multipurpose room in our church–after the extenders, I have a splitter and then up to 40′ more with HDMI cable). Have had it in place a little over a month. It has worked perfectly thus far.

  • Leonard Teo

    December 12, 2011 at 9:14 pm

    Hi Doug,

    What resolution are you driving your overhead at? 1920x1080i?

    I’m still getting the specs for our overhead, but I’m concerned that we might be unable to drive our overhead at HD (i.e. the same resolution as the ATEM)

    For the Eyefinity, can it drive the same output image at different resolutions?

    1. Display: 1920x1080i
    2. ATEM: 1920x1080i
    3. Overhead: Unknown but likely not the above….

    Thanks for the advice!!!

    Leo

  • Doug Fish

    December 12, 2011 at 9:50 pm

    Find out your projector model and check its specs online. Despite its native resolution, the projector will likely handle/convert a 1080i signal, unless it is really old. Having said that, we have two projectors, one bought ~8 years ago and one bought ~4 months ago. The newer one accepts 1080i fine, while the older one doesn’t (although it is spec’d to handle 1080i–I get an image for a tenth of a second or some green screen, but mostly I get a blank screen). Ironically, the older one probably cost $10,000 way back then, while the newer one went for $360!

    In eyefinity, your graphics card is driving 3 monitors. You can set each of the three monitors to whatever resolution works in extended mode. In clone mode, you have to keep the resolution of the cloned monitor.

  • Allan Tabilas

    January 5, 2012 at 6:50 am

    Hi Don is this the HDMI extender you are using over cat6 / HDBase-T

    https://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10105&cs_id=1010504&p_id=8122&seq=1&format=2

    Also have you tried using this extender from a Camera to the ATEM TVS ? (versus using the extender as an out from the HDMI program out to a hdmi splitter to TVs?)

    thanks

  • Doug Fish

    January 6, 2012 at 4:01 am

    Yes, that is the HDBaseT HDMI converter I am using.

    No, I have not attempted to use it as an input, but I would assume that it would work fine. However, I would also consider getting an HDMI to SDI converter and use SDI (which is just your standard RG-59 cable with BNC connectors) for long distances.

  • Shaun Roemich

    January 6, 2012 at 5:08 am

    Quote:
    use SDI (which is just your standard RG-59 cable with BNC connectors)

    Sort of.

    For short cable runs, you can certainly get by with regular RG59 cable but for long runs in HD, cable ballistics become critical.

    I recently did a multi camera live event using my old good quality sd cables to feed HD-sdi signals out to 200 feet but to get the full 300′ theoretically available in HD, I would only consider dedicated HD-sdi cable like Belden 1505 .

    Big Dog – Technical Director – Switcher
    Road Dog Media – Vancouver, BC Canada
    roaddogmedia@gmail.com

  • Allan Tabilas

    January 6, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    Thanks for the advice guys

  • Razvan Amarandei

    January 11, 2012 at 9:36 pm

    Hi there! the Grass Valley AVG G1 Anything to SDI converter it is more then 1000 usd on amazon.com for that money you shpoul consider to purchase the ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher and not the ATEM Television Studio :(.
    also do you think this will work?
    1. https://www.aten-kvm.com/servlet/the-335/VC180-vc-dsh-180/Detail
    2. https://www.amazon.com/Atlona-AT-HD500-Laptop-Converter-Built/dp/B001QL1VZU
    3. https://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=8915

    THX,
    Razvan

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