Eleanor Roosevelt High School Elevates Student Rallies with Blackmagic Design
Student led production team uses ATEM live production switcher and Blackmagic Camera app to power school events for thousands.
Blackmagic Design today announced that student leaders at Eastvale, CA’s Eleanor Roosevelt High School used a workflow built around the ATEM Mini Extreme ISO live production switcher and Blackmagic Camera app to power large scale school rallies and events for thousands of students throughout the second semester of the 2025-2026 academic year.
Led by senior student Kaden Holmes, the school’s Associated Student Body developed a professional style IMAG and broadcast system to improve visibility and engagement during rallies held inside the school gymnasium. With a student body of approximately 4,500, students are split into three separate areas of the school, each holding up to 1,500 students, making clear visuals essential for the audience experience.
“Before using the ATEM, we were running everything through my laptop and an open source live streaming app for software based switching,” said Holmes. “I’d hide in the back of a supply closet switching between camera feeds and running a really long HDMI cable across the gym. It sort of worked, but it was nowhere near as engaging as the new setup.”
Already familiar with Blackmagic Camera, Holmes wanted to introduce dedicated hardware switching to elevate the school’s productions while also helping younger students learn professional live production techniques.
“My goal before graduation was to move us away from software switching onto a dedicated hardware workflow,” Holmes explained. “The ATEM Mini Extreme ISO has been a game changer because it made the workflow approachable for students, while still giving us access to professional features.”
The ease of setup and operation allowed the student team to transition quickly into a more advanced production environment without sacrificing flexibility. Using the switcher, students were able to connect multiple cameras, including iPhones running Blackmagic Camera, alongside additional HDMI sources for graphics, lower thirds and confidence monitoring.
“The ATEM Mini Extreme ISO allowed us to add more camera feeds and made our productions way more dynamic,” said Holmes. “We were able to add overlays and lower thirds with upstream keys, preview shots before switching, and customize our multiview layout, so we only saw the content we actually needed during the show.”
The workflow was used across multiple high profile campus events, each serving the entire student body, as well as the Senior Assembly for approximately 1,000 students. Productions typically featured up to four camera operators, a graphics operator and Holmes serving as producer. Audio from the school DJ and wireless microphones was also integrated directly into the production workflow, with the final switched program displayed live on large projection screens.
After the first rollout, Holmes noted, “We had people we’d never even met before saying that it was the most visually appealing rally they’d ever seen.”
After graduation, Holmes plans to attend the University of California, Los Angeles, where he will study business economics while continuing to pursue technical theater and live entertainment production.
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