Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher

Comments about Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher:

This is a decent switcher for the money, but I must say that I'm disappointed with the lack of compatibility it offers. After spending a lot of time with the support person over the phone all he could do was say that, "the atem is extremely finicky with the SDI specs. As a result the monitors I got to go with a remote production flypack, which included an HDMI to SDI converter right inside the monitor (JVC DT-X71F ProHD 7" AC/DC Portable Full Featured Monitor (HD-SDI, HDMI, Composite) is not able to be seen by the Atem. We spent thousands of dollars to get this all-in-one monitor to minimize the setup and now they aren't compatible with the Atem.
The monitor output works with everything but the Atem, so I know its not JVCs fault.
I recommend testing the exact camera you will be using with the switcher before purchasing. As it is I will now have to shell out more money to get HDMI to SDI converters and find out how to jury-rig something together.

Comments about Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher:

This switcher do not sync the audio. During the capture the clip, increase the out of sync.

Comments about Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher:

We use this product in a public access cable setting. More specifically for government meetings and other structured programs. This device is easy to use and is a great value for its price. You do however, have to take some time to research what you are going to put into it. All the inputs need to be the same resolution.

The biggest problem I have had in regards to the switcher is the usb 3.0 connection being troublesome at best. There are still some things for BMD to make right on that end.

Comments about Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher:

Purchased this in early 2012 for our church to be used as primary HD video mixer for live event use. Coming from using a Videonics MX-1 for the last 15 years, this was a huge upgrade.

Yes, the unit certainly has limitations, or perhaps you can say it lacks higher-end/more expensive features. Notably, it lacks scalers on each input to allow mixing sources of various resolution. It also has somewhat limited frame rate and resolution support for video signals, allowing 720p or 1080i59.94. It does accept progressive computer signal over HDMI, but we've had mixed results if not feeding it 1080p or 720p signal.

The unit has performed very well for regular use over the past year or so. Only hardware problem experienced was the failure of two of the SDI auxiilary outputs. Sent in for RMA service. The software/firmware has had regular updates, but occasionally these updates have broken various functionality. Manufacturer seems to respond fairly well in fixing such issues. The control software is easy to use and the ability to easiliy control over an IP network from one or multiple computers is excellent.

Overall, it's an great value when you look at the cost of entry into HD video mixing/distribution with other products. It provides almost all the functionality we need right now and, as I said, we've been using it regularly for a year with few complaints or problems.

Comments about Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher:

So far, one of the coolest switcher I'ved ever used ! Considering the price, you've got a real bargain for a HD switcher.

Must say, it was kinda hard to configure the first time with my computer, cause I'm not3really used to work with the IP code and stuff like that. So, ITS NOT a user-friendly at first, if you don't have a clue about the IP adress of course !

And it didn't work with my MSI laptop GT60-004US, which I primarly bought to go with the ATEM, so I could get USB 3 and a massive 32 gig of ram. It is just not compatible. So, I've return the laptop for a refund, and still looking for a new high performance laptop to operate the ATEM, while recording full HD via USB3, and web streaming live all at the same time !!

I was able to configure the ATEM on 7 computer, laptop MAC or PC without any problem. But all of them where not fast enough to do what I'm looking for to do, yet. So, don't be shy to buy this ATEM, cause its still rock ! If you're looking to do streaming, or mixing or even record clean HD (all independantly, not at once), its amazing so far !

I'm using it in Quebec, Canada for all my large venue, mixing live with feed to all giant screen, and the result is awesome. I use 3 Sony NX-5 cam, all connect in HD-SDI, and its superb !

So, make sure if you need to record in your laptop, that youhave USB3 and dedicated SSD drive that rocks ! So you can have full uncompressed HD recording. Unless, you might need to record in lower quality, or even not be able.

Good piece of hardware !

Comments about Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher:

We were creating a production room for the church and needed a powerful, user friendly switcher to expand our capabilities. We found that and more in the Black Magic Production Switcher! Easy to set up, easy to use, easy to train on. We sold our other switchers - we don't need them anymore!!

Comments about Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher:

A nice unit when set up correctly. But, get ready for lots of headahes and frustration if you're not a tech wizard or don't have the budget to hire a pro and have to set the thing up yourself. I update my software and firmware and that's when all the headaces begin. Followed all the instruction int he manual with no avail. Called tech support and the guy is a ..... . Blackmagic's tech support is a pain in the rear.

Like all things new, we all get excited but once own it, all the flaws show up.

Comments about Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher:

The only problem with this switcher is that we had sources that it wouldn't recognize, even though all setting were correct. Including my Blackmagic Decklink card. But, with the sources that worked the switcher worked great!

Comments about Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher:

Use it daily for church productions. Works as advertised and solid performance. This is a great product for the price. Can't Beat this.

Comments about Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher:

We purchased the Atem1 due to a couple events we got hired for, they wanted Hi Def and this thing worked great! Have had lots of experience with the TriCaster product line and I liked this much better! Graphics were a breeze. We connected two computers to it, used one for the switching and the other to generate graphics. Would be nice to have standard def inputs, but with the shift to HD this thing is great!

Comments about Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher:

My main purpose of using this switcher is for live casting (mainly Ustream) event.Since the Internet live cast has the limited budget, the choice of cost effective device is the must. But you still need to invest the best quality equipment.When purchasing this swicther, my other candidates were- Blackmagic ATEM Television Studio- Roland VR-5- Roland LVS-800Roland makes the best products. But HD model cost over $8,000. If you purhcase the control panel of ATEM, it would cost the same price. But you can choose not to buy in case of ATEM.And it's HD, and it has the HDMI inputs. I can easily connect consumer HD camera without any converter.Next, I had to choose either Television Studio or 1 M/E. I decided to spend extra $1000 for DVE effects.You definately need to do PinP. Television Studio cannot do that.I'm happy with the functionality and the price compared to the conventional video switcher.I love how Blackmagic bring down the price since DeckLink.I'm very comfortable with using software panel now.I don't really think I need the control panel that bad.Although you Television Studio has USB2.0 H.264 encoder built-in, I heard that Ustream Producer Pro or Flash Media Encoder cannot accept the H.264 feed (yet as in Oct 2011).I really wish they they will add the functionality to be able to import into Mac directly. (It's either USB2.0 or Thunderbolt).I've used two productions in 2 weeks of arrival.One of the live cast example (in Japanese)[@]Since I'm on location all the time, I don't like that it's rack design. The heat sink is very sharp. I'm afraid that if I cut my hand some day.And I wish you can just connect USB to control the device. It's troublesome to set-up the IP address.Because of this, I need to carry an extra router for the switcher.

Comments about Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher:

Get the manual from blackmagic's site, and know its limitations. NO scalers are included, and everything must be in the same framesize and framerate, both input and output.

Another person was complaining about HDMI input. NOTE: ***the HDMI input accepts YUV formats ONLY.*** You can NOT put any type of RGB format into the switcher. So for instance, using a DVI -> HDMI converter will not work (DVI always carries RGB data.)

I can confirm that the Panasonic HMC-150 HDMI out does work with the switcher, so does my nvidia video card through HDMI out.

Comments about Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher:

Live productions

Comments about Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher:

No scaling in switcher. All sources must be exact format - no variances. HDMI support sketchy, only have found one device accepted by switcher, #39 DVD player. Higher end sources not supported as of yet. USB 3.0 available, but not supported yet. I Love Blackmagic Design products, but this turns out to be to "format specific" for me to really like. Haven't found media clip format that it accepts yet either.