(bright cha cha music) - Setting up a multi-camera
live stream or podcast has always been complicated and expensive. That is, until now. This is the Blackmagic
ATEM Mini and for $300, it lets you switch between
four HDMI inputs, live. And before we begin, I just
want to make sure you know, this video is sponsored
by me and my paycheck because I'm the one who bought
(shattering) all of these things and this video is not
sponsored in any way. I think that's important
because it's going to be a pretty glowing review. In fact, to just jump to the end and spoil the whole thing,
out of a 10 star rating, I would give the ATEM Mini 11 out of 10. - [Man] The numbers all go to 11. And that's definitely not because I'm a huge fan of Blackmagic products. I actually tend to not
like them very much. You might remember my video
about the Elgato Cam Link, where I talked about
how much more I like it than the Blackmagic Mini Studio Recorder, which I really dislike a lot. In general, Blackmagic has
a lot of really good ideas and they have so many
products, and some of them are truly excellent and some
of them are truly awful. And a lot of them, I have found
in my personal experience, tend to be in the middle,
where it's a great idea with a really funky execution. And while the ATEM Mini has
a few areas for improvement, this is an absolutely
groundbreaking device and as far as I'm concerned, it's perfect. And so despite my long standing hesitation to use Blackmagic products, this ATEM Mini has really captured my ATEM-tion. But in order to understand that, I think it's important for
me to give a little bit of context within the
world of video switchers. So I got my very first job back in 2001, working at a TV news station where they had a production switcher from a company called
the Grass Valley Group. And it looked something
like this and it cost, when it was new, upwards of $100,000. And obviously, considering that
was purchased in the 1990s, it was not a high definition
switcher by any means. It only output in standard,
like 480p (chuckles) definition. And it wasn't really
designed to be purchased by individuals, by any means,
with a price like that. And with the size of, you know, being a NASA mission control center, it was intended to be
purchased by large corporations and network affiliates
and customers like that. And after that in 2016, I
came to this school where part of my job was to set up a
live daily broadcast program. And I've talked about that
quite a few times before, but the first thing I
did was look for a mixer. And this is the one that we ordered, which is the Roland V-40. And this mixer is a four input mixer. It does take HDMI, SDI, RGB components. So it's very versatile on what it takes and it's super reliable. It's really fussy about
making sure every input has the same frame rate resolution and the output to match and all that, but once you get everything matching, the suckers are very reliable. The thing is, this four channel mixer, at the time we got it cost $6,000. So it's literally one of the
most expensive single pieces of equipment in this whole studio. And if I'm sweating right now, the air conditioner is broken, it's like 100 degrees in here. And so about two years ago,
we actually replaced that with the Blackmagic TV production studio. And this mixer is an eight channel mixer. And that was a big thing that I wanted, was to be able to have more inputs. Because with four, we
could do three cameras and like, graphics on a
computer or video playback. Now we can do seven cameras,
plus some video playback. And the thing about this Blackmagic mixer when it first came out,
is it was about $2,000, which is the cheapest I had
ever seen a production switcher, especially considering
it has eight inputs. It does definitely have some quirks, but for the price, I mean,
this is unbelievable. So this became our studio
mixer and the Roland mixer is one that we use for
mobile live streams. But again, this was
$6,000, this was $2,000, Which is why this little
Blackmagic mixer is so incredible. For $300, this does almost everything that that Roland 6,000 four channel mixer does. But the thing about this
also, is it's so friendly with resolutions and frame rates. You can plug in pretty much
any HDMI source, computer, TV, console, camera, frame rates, whatever, and it will convert it to
whatever you set it as an output. And it will do everything at 1080p. You don't have any other
option besides 1080. But it does give you 23.98 all the way up to 60 frames per
second, so that's $300! 6,000, 2,000, $300. So with all that being said, while this might not be a
perfect, perfect device, for what it does for $300, I don't think there's really any legit
criticism you can throw at it. Other than the fact it
doesn't have a power button. Blackmagic has a thing where they just don't like putting power switches on their devices, which is insane. I, luckily, have been
able to just hook this up to a wall plug thing
that lets me control it with the remote controls. So when I want to turn it
off, I can push a button here and it turns the switcher off
and I can push a button here and it will turn the switcher back on. But otherwise, the only
way to turn this on and off is to literally unplug
it, which is just silly. The same is true for the
$2,000 TV production studio that we have at work. Just put a power button
on your products, come on. Doesn't take any kind
of black magic to see that that is a smart thing to do. But beyond that, and especially
considering this is marketed for, you know, a home
streamer or a consumer, this does everything
that you need it to do and it just kind of gets out of the way. Each channel has its own audio input. So you can choose by pressing AFV, which is audio follows video. That means every time
you cut to that angle, the switcher will take the
audio from that angle as well. These little up and down arrows
let you adjust the volume of that input, and in addition to that, there are also two 3.5
millimeter inputs on the back that you can turn on or off
and adjust the input level. Unfortunately, you can't
see what the level is. You just have to turn it up, turn it down and probably use your
software to monitor it. But one thing I like to do is, I've plugged my VideoMic
Pro+ directly into this and it has worked terrific
as an audio source. But typically when I'm using this, it's with the RodeCaster Pro. I just plug the monitor outputs into one of these 3.5 millimeter jacks. And then I have all of the
inputs, all of the sound effects, all of the capabilities of
the RodeCaster Pro available as I'm doing any kind of
streaming or online classes. And that's really where I
decided to purchase this thing and where it has totally been a lifesaver, is starting this school
year virtually and online instead of in the classroom like normal. It was about two weeks
before school started and I realized, "Oh my
gosh, it's not just enough to have a camera that I can
talk to my students with, but I'm probably gonna want to switch to different camera
angles as I'm doing that." And then that's what made me realize this was gonna be the
perfect thing for my setup. And then from there, it
can be used in live streams when Heather and I do our weekly podcasts, sometimes we play around with it. And the reason that I know
that it is really good is because oftentimes, when
I get my new camera gear, Heather, my wife is just kind
of like, "Oh, that's cool." And when I got this, she was
legitimately excited about it because of the capabilities
that it provides. So the fact that something
like this can bring that excitement out in almost
anyone who encounters it, I think is really cool. And it's not that you even
just have to switch live. If you're using software like OBS, you can record directly into that software and it will record all of your switches and all of your camera moves. There are some other
basic functions built in. You can do picture in picture,
some very basic transitions and some basic keying. And even though this is
designed to be simple and user-friendly, if you do
want to take it a step further and add in some more advanced features, you can use the ATEM Mini
software control on your computer, which is a free download
from Blackmagic's website. And that essentially turns
this into the same thing as the TV production
studio that I have at work. It's got all your inputs here. You can add in bars and
transitions and keyers and Chroma. There's even a media
pool, so if you wanted to add in still images,
unfortunately it doesn't do video. You can just drag up to
20 still images in here and then make them live. So for example, if I drag an
image to one of these windows, then it pops up and now
it will be live there. And then on the switcher itself, if I press the still
button, that will transition to whichever image is selected over there. You can also adjust your
audio much more finely than you can on here. You can see the audio
inputs from every source and adjust them specifically. And if you are using
Blackmagic cameras, of course, they're going to be more
compatible with this and you can jump in and
control all the color and all of the fine tuning
of your connected cameras. I don't have any black magic cameras, but that is a capability built
into this, which is huge. So it's not even just a
basic four channel mixer. There's a lot of, this button is flashing. So it's not even, what are you doing? So it's not even that this
is just a simple mixer. It has a lot of really
cool built in features to the hardware component,
and then goes through the roof once you bring in the software component, if you want to take it to that level. Now in learning more about
this switcher after I got it, I found a great YouTube channel
by guy named Aaron Parecki where he kind of dives
into every possible setting in a very detailed way. So if you want to know the
absolute technical capabilities of this, I think he does a better job than I ever could of explaining that. What I want to do is explain
how something like this fits into my workflow in a really practical, down to earth kind of way. It's also important to mention that Blackmagic does
have an ATEM Mini Pro, which goes for around $500
and just has a few more of those pro level features
like a multi-camera output. So just like back at my job
with our bigger switcher, you can see all your
inputs and then select from them on a monitor,
that's definitely much more of a traditional livestream set up. Now on the back, there
are the four HDMI inputs, along with the HDMI output, which can go to a reference monitor. And I actually have found
that to be very helpful because I use this most of
the time currently with Zoom and you don't really get
a good preview window of Zoom before the
meeting actually starts. So having that monitor up there so I know, even if I'm sharing a screen or whatever, having that set up is a
great way to let me know what camera angle I have
and that it looks okay. And then the fourth input, I actually have from my old MacBook Pro so I
can run Keynote presentations or play videos, because I have
found that playing the video from the switcher gives me
better quality over Zoom than just doing a screen share
and trying to play a video, and it sounds all garble-y
and terrible and whatnot. There's also the USB-C connector, which will let you connect
it to the computer. There's the two audio inputs. There's also an ethernet connection, so you can run this over a network. And then of course, the power jack. Connecting this to your computer via USB-C is what also lets it act as an interface. So I don't even use it with
something like the cam link. This takes care of all that itself and it shows up as a
webcam in your software. So for example, if I open
up Zoom and then I go into preferences and click on video, it shows up as an input option. There's of course, the
built in FaceTime camera, which is just horrible quality. (chuckles) And then there are two
options for Blackmagic. There's 30 frames per second
or 60 frames per second. All my cameras are only
actually set to 24. It doesn't really matter,
everything looks fine, so who cares? (chuckles) And this is my second angle, here's my third angle,
you can see over here. Normally the fourth one is
where my computer would be and the first one would
typically be this camera. But right now, it's not
connected to the switcher. If you go into audio, it will also show up Blackmagic design as an audio source. And typically for a Zoom
meeting I will select that, because the Rodecaster Pro
will be running into this and then that will set
it up as my audio source. And the same thing would be
true in a program like OBS or whatever you're using to stream. I've used it with StreamYard, I've used it with YouTube Studio. You can just select the
Blackmagic ATEM Mini as its own interface,
and then whatever you have connected to it will
automatically show up. So it's very easy, it's
really plug and play. And then you can kind of
see, any switches I make on the software also take
place on the switcher itself. And there is, just like
a more traditional mixer, there's a program and preview settings. So if you're using the software
and you want to do that, essentially, what that means is program, this red button is whatever is active. So if I want to switch to
camera two or camera three, this is usually the easiest way to do it if you're just one person
kind of manning your stream. Traditionally in a broadcast setting, what they will do is have a preview. So I have camera one active now. I'll preview input number three, and then I will cut between them. And that just prevents
you from making mistakes and switching to something
before it's ready or accidentally, let's you
make sure your next shot is ready to go before you take it live. And you can actually set
that up in this software so that this does work that way. So when you download the ATEM Mini app, it does include the software control, but it also includes
something called ATEM setup and if I open that up, it's
gonna give me the option to change a few things. One of them is the switching mode. I can switch from program to cut, and if I switch it to
program preview and save, and now you can see if I
want to switch from angle one to angle three, I press three,
but it doesn't go live yet. It turns green, meaning
it's in preview mode, and then I can press
cut to actually take it. And now camera one becomes the preview. If I press auto, that
will automatically do whichever transition I want. So you can kind of see
both options are then red, which means it's
transitioning between them, and then it switches once they're done. So it just depends on
what your workflow is, what you're used to, how
you're using the ATEM Mini, which one would be best for you. I can't believe that this costs $300. This is something that
thousands of dollars was the minimum price you would pay for this functionality up until now. So while there are weird things, you know, it would be great if it
had a multi-view output, it'd be great if it had a power switch. Sure, it'd be great if you could
see the level of the volume when you're pushing these
buttons up and down. But for $300, the capabilities
that it provides to you, there's no room to argue. The Elgato Cam Link is a
one source capture card that has none of the
switching capabilities and it's one third the price. So for $100, you get one
camera and nothing else. For $300, you get four cameras, plus all the audio processing, plus all that software support. That's an unbelievable deal and it puts multi-camera
broadcasting right into the hands of pretty much everybody. Now, is this something you need for your live stream to be successful? No, absolutely it's not. Like I just mentioned, something
like the Elgato Cam Link, if you just need one really
nice camera connected to your computer, one
little HDMI capture card like this is definitely the way to go and you can get stuff that looks terrific. But if you want to switch between
sources easily on the fly, this is unreal and
having a hardware switch or a physical thing that controls that makes it so much easier
than having to go in here and click a mouse button and
do all that kind of stuff. You can just push a physical button. Sometimes without even looking, I can just push the button
and I know which one it is and it's gonna switch the angle and I'm gonna look super slick on camera and my students are
gonna think I'm awesome, more awesome than they already do. And that's ultimately the point, right, is for people to just think
you're even more awesome than they already do? (chuckles) That's not the point. (bright cha cha music)
