ATEM Television Studio QUESTIONS!

[Richard Crowley]

I just got my ATEM TVS a few days ago, also. But I have been researching these and other questions here and in other forums (one specifically for ATEM users). This forum blocks references to other forums, so you will have to discover it yourself.

1. It appears that the whole output functionality via the USB H.264 is highly problematic to the point that it doesn’t to seem production-worthy yet. Perhaps in some future update release. Jerry Pournelle coined a popular phrase in his Byte magazine column decades ago which BMD seems to have taken as their motto: “Real Soon Now”.

2. Audio fed into the AES digital input of the TVS is embedded in both the SDI and HDMI program outputs.

The video processing in the TVS introduces an unavoidable delay (unless you are using genlocked video sources). So any audio you embed will be ahead of the video by some amount of time (which varies depending on your configuration). Even if you inject audio into the AES input on the TVS, you must delay the audio so that it will match the video. One online source which discusses streaming hardware suggested the Behringer Shark FBQ100 as a low-cost adjustable delay device. But you still need to convert the analog to digital for the AES input on the TVS. I am ordering a TV One 1T-AP-216 which combines the analog-to-digital converter plus a 150 ms (switchable) delay. For $25. And much smaller than the recommended Behringer SRC2496.

3. You will probably have a problem with the video lagging behind the audio. Whether it is bad enough to be objectionable can only be determined by you doing your own experiment. Easiest way to test it is with the simple “clap-test” and see which comes first, the audio or the video.

[Alex Lee]

Thanks for your quick reply Richard.

Do you have any suggestions in regards to getting the ATEM to stream live?

I’m really trying to set up a live stream with the ATEM and its turning out to be much more of a headache then what I thought.

As for the Analog to Digital converter/delay controller, do let me know how that works out for you. I ordered the Behringer SRC2496 but haven’t even gotten the time to open the manual. It would be nice if I could return it and save 100 bucks.

[Richard Crowley]

We are planning on sending the HDMI output from the ATEM TVS into a computer and probably using the (free) Adobe encoding software. Of course the streaming software you use depends on what streaming service you are using, etc.

I think there is an excellent chance that the TV One 1T-AP-216 output will be compatible with the AES input on the TVS. But I don’t know if the fixed 150ms delay will be even close to what is needed for lip-sync?

{RANT}
BMD (and, to be fair, other manufacturers) seem to design many of their products in a vacuum. Or maybe they are trying to get the products out before all the features are fully baked-in. One would think that users doing streaming would be a major segment of the market. But there appears to be no mention of the process or anything designed to make it easier.

For that matter, even the recording function using the USB H.264 output and BMD’s Media Express software appears to be something that may work OK someday, but not today.

And recording devices like the HyperDeck models apparently don’t support timecode or closed-captioning. According to my local dealer, when they asked the BMD reps about that, the response was that those things aren’t necessary for live capture from cameras. At least here in my country, broadcasters are required by law to provide (and pass-through) closed-captioning data. And there are thousands of points where capture and time-shifting is required.

They reportedly replied that “there are tape machines to do that”. It seems incredible that they appear to have had no vision that the HyperDeck was an attractive replacement for (obsolete) tape machines. My local dealer told them that if it could simply record timecode and closed-captioning, he could instantly sell several dozen of them into local stations and other users just in our city. And certainly hundreds and likely thousands of units across countries where these are legal requirements.

It seems to me that recording timecode and closed-caption data is simply a firmware update, but we’re still waiting. I plan on asking them face-to-face at NAB in a couple weeks. Perhaps these things aren’t important in Australia and they are out of touch with their markets? I must say that they seem to have gone to extreme lengths to make communicating, feedback, and answering questions practically impossible. There is virtually no contact information on their website, and when you can get to someone to ask, they refer you to their distributor who isn’t much better. Maybe they are so busy selling products that customer service (even pre-sales schmoozing) isn’t important to them?
{/RANT}

[Mike Squires]

Ya’ll should check out the MX Light software. It does a much better job with recording, and allows streaming from the TVS.

[Tony Marone]

Hi,

Continuing the above rant:

Are MOST POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS of the Hyperdeck Studio really wanting to spend more money on SSD hard drives than the unit cost in the first place? Do they really want to record uncompressed video that their NLE system might choke on anyway?

I think not in both cases.

Now that the Blackmagic elite have added compressed format recording on the Hyperdeck, why not make the unit able to use standard notebook hard drives. After all, the data rate is 1/5 of uncompressed. I’m sure the regular hard drive could sustain that rate.

This would make the Hyperdeck a superb value, in my opinion.

Tony

[Mike Squires]

Actually, someone tried that last week, and it worked. I believe they captured an hour long video to a standard 7200RPM drive.

[Chris Pearse]

Hi Alex,

I’m afraid that it’s not possible to use the ATEM Television Studio with Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder. I believe FMLE uses the Quicktime framework which is not something the ATEM Television Studio supports. The H.264 capture section of the switcher can only be accessed via an API, which is now available for developers wanting to create applications around the Television Studio. Whilst I don’t know of any software on Mac at this time, I know there’s already software available for Windows as mentioned somewhere else.

It’s certainly possible to take the HDMI output from the ATEM into a capture card such as the Intensity Shuttle to achieve what you are looking to do. And as previously mentioned the audio will indeed be embedded. Different setups can introduce different delays however, and it would be hard to say whether inputting directly into the Intensity Shuttle would cause a delay or not in this case.

I hope that this clears a couple of things up. If you should need any further help, please do feel free to contact your regional support office using the numbers on the following page

https://www.blackmagic-design.com/company/

or using the support request form on the ATEM pages of the support section

https://www.blackmagic-design.com/support

Chris Pearse
Technical Support Consultant
Blackmagic Design

[Chris Pearse]

Hi Richard,

I am sorry to hear that you are not so pleased with the H.264 portion of the ATEM Television Studio. We are always interested to hear customer feedback so that we may improve our products. Perhaps you could expand on what you would like to see from the H.264 encoding so that this information can be passed onto the product manager. I would of course also encourage you to talk to our representatives at NAB next week about any problems or feature requests you may have for any of our products.

Chris Pearse
Technical Support Consultant
Blackmagic Design

[Chris Pearse]

I notice you’re actually running Windows. Where Macs use Quicktime, the Windows version of FMLE uses DirectShow, which too is not something the ATEM Television Studio supports.

Chris Pearse
Technical Support Consultant
Blackmagic Design

[Carlos a. Vazquez ii]

HEY GUYS HOW YOU ALL DOING?
PLEASE CAN SOMEBODY HELP ME?
HOW CAN I SET THE IP ADDRESS BETWEEN
MY MACBOOK PRO AND MY ATEM TVS?