[Greg Wall]

I just came back from 4 days on location using ATEM Studio controlled by MacBookPro Retina (Thunderbolt) and recording directly to BM’s Hyperdeck Studio. And we used 3 Panasonic GH2s connected via 40 ft HDMI with end-of-line signal boosters. All cameras were set to High Bit Rate 1080i. The cameras were running for an hour straight and close to 5 hours each day. No overheating issues. And we recorded on camera at the same time. As a matter of fact, you can’t get clean signal via HDMI while shooting unless you are recording to internal card at the same time. It all worked flawlessly. ANd we have iso footage from each camera source.

Now I may have said flawlessly a bit too soon. But not sure whether my issues are related to user error (cables too long?) or not. But we did experience some small patches of stuttered imaging that looked more like a shutter speed set too high. But that was the only issue aside from an approximate 3 frame offset between video and audio which we ran through a separate mixer/recorder and then took digital output. Easy enough to fix in post. And I assume that may have been caused by the cable length. Otherwise it worked well.

The only other thing is that the cameras require a little extra effort to set them up for the right balanced exposure. While the camera is on but not recording, you get a rather harsh lower rez image via HDMI along with all of the little icons giving exposure, color temp, record time, etc. But as soon as you hit record you can see what the image is really like. And it is there that you have to determine if the balcks are too low or your saturation is good and exposure is correct. Then you have to stop recording and make your adjustments. Then hit record again and review your refinements. If it’s not just right, stop and start until you have what you want. We also ran a monitor out of the Hyperdeck Studio recorder into BlackMagic Extreme via HDMI to monitor through the same laptop using ScopeBox’s $99 app via a second screen.

When it’s all said and done it’s totally incredible that $7-800 cameras, some good lenses and a $1995 switcher controlled by my Apple laptop can be so good.

I would recommend this set up for anybody who is on a budget but wants professional quality.