[Tom Bassford]

The talkback feature on the camera converter is a little strange – I can’t see how one would use it in a multicamera system without adding additional equipment.

There are 2 different scenarios depending on if you have an existing talkback system or not.

If you have no talkback currently then you will need an audio distro amp and a basic audio mixer, these both sit with the director, a microphone is plugged into the input of the audio distro amp and the outputs of the audio distro amp are plugged into the mic input of each of the local atem camera converters. The headphones out of each of these local converters is plugged into the audio mixer and the output of this is fed to the directors headphones. At the camera end you just plug the mic and headphones into the atem converter and then your set.

If you have a standard 3 wire PL talkback system then you could set things up as above with a ADA and a mixer, then you would plug the mixer output into a audio input on the comms base station and feed the ADA with the audio output from your comms base station. If your comms base station is too basic to have audio in and out, then you could simply make an adaptor wire to take the audio send and return feeds out of a normal beltpack (this is a simple xlr 4 or 5 pin, whichever your headsets use, to whatever connectors you need on the mixer and ADA)

I you have a lot of beltpacks then you can drop the need for the ADA and mixer by simply using a beltpack with a 4/5pin to 2x minijack connected to each of the local ends of the atem converters.

All of which makes for a bit of a messy system – really your better off using cameras with proper studio cables (26pin / triax / smtp fibre) as not only will you have talkback that is easier to setup and neater, you’ll also have proper remote control of iris and black level, universally compatible tally, genlock and returns into the camera viewfinder.

I can’t see the ATEM camera converter being a very popular product, at $1000 per camera (2x converters one at each end of the fibre) it’s pretty expensive for a product that doesn’t have any remote control facilites, and is clearly designed to work with low end cameras. I’m also concerned about the flimsy fibre connector – i could see that breaking very easily.

On the other hand it’s quite a cheap* solution for a bidirectional HDSDI / DVI / HDMI sender so it could prove popular for simply sending these hd signals a long distance, it’s just the camera specific add ons which seem a little ill thought out.

*go to https://www.telecast-fiber.com/ to see how expensive fibre used to be!

[Tom Bassford]

Thanks Luke, I look forward to his mail.

cheers
tom

[Tom Bassford]

Hi Luke

That is very disappointing to hear. I had understood that Echolab had sold the ATEM product line and that the buyer would become responsible for the echolab warranty commitment on ATEM products. I understand the issue with components (it is unfortunate that you’ve redesigned so much of it! IP based control panel does make sense (in a way) but leaving existing users high and dry is not good)

It would be nice if i felt you were a little more open to the needs of existing users, there are not very many ATEM owners in the world (less than 100 maybe? i don’t know i’m sure one of the former Echolab employees can tell you just how many they made / sold) And the relative cost of offering us some crossgrade option would be low, or maybe you could make an add on box to convert the old dual BNC serial panel to the new IP standard?

The very serious problem I have if there is no meaningful support (i already have the manual for my product thanks! Latest version of the firmware would be of interest though) is that I need to change switcher to something which is supported. The obvious choice is to upgrade to a BM ATEM, however you’ve changed the specs to the point where it has lost it’s competitive edge. (specifically the lack of supersource and scaled aux outs on the 1ME is a big issue for me) I’d need to get a minimum of the 2ME rack with a 1ME panel. Now this would cost me $10,000 which is a lot of money to spend to effectively gain no new features, and to of actually lost some features that I like.

At this moment the logical conclusion for existing ATEM users is to buy something else from a different manufacturer. The 10K i would have to spend to stay with the ATEM gives me a decent choice of competing products form Ross, Panasonic, Sony, GrassValley, JVC etc etc
Whilst my current ATEM has some serious advantages over these options, the new ATEMs have somewhat eroded this advantage by cutting features.

So its a hard choice where the attitude of the different companies has as much, if not more to do with the choice of what equipment to use in future that the technical specs of the kit. So far BM are not coming up to scratch on the support side which is a big shame as it is likely to cause current ATEM users to switch to another manufacturers product. (as a comparison I recently spoke to Snell and Wilcox about a Magic DaVE switcher, this product was discontinued in the late 90s, but they still offer support on it)

I’d appreciate some direct communication about this matter, if you could forward this post on to the UK support guys and the relevant product managers and marketing people i’d much appreciate it. Or get them to email me directly on tomATsleepytomDOTcoDOTuk

Thanks

Tom

[Tom Bassford]

Hi Luke

Firstly congratulations on getting the ATEM to market again. I’m a little disappointed to see the downgrading of the specs, but understand that your doing the BM thing with price points! (err a 6input HDSDI switcher cost $1000 per day to rent not that long ago, SELLING one for that money is insanity (the kind of insanity which we love BM for!)

Secondly I’d like to know if your going to offer ongoing support and / or crossgrade options to existing Echolab ATEM customers? I’m the proud owner of an Echolab ATEM 1ME and I’d be very interested to know if your planning to honor echolab’s support + service commitments? Someone at Echolab did say to me that “whoever buys the ATEM product line will take on support for existing users” So i’d like to know if this is the case and / or if there are any crossgrade options to the new BM version of the ATEM product?

If you would prefer to contact me via email my address is tomATsleepytomDOTcoDOTuk

Thanks
Tom Bassford

[Tom Bassford]

holdTime = .5; //time to hold each position (seconds)
seed = Math.floor(time/holdTime);
seedRandom(seed,true);
hmm = random(0,10);
if (hmm >5){
transform.opacity=100};
else {transform.opacity=0};

the following works 🙂