Video Monitor, Recorder and Switcher IN ONE CASE!

this is the a10 mini jacket it's a custom case i built for the blackmagic a10 mini switcher and in short this thing is a mini multicam studio packed into a tiny case with everything you need to stream switch and record videos it's incredibly functional with a monitor on off switches and a single power input for use on desks stands or on the go with battery power in this video i'm going to show you how to build an a10 mini case like this one and why this diy project is so incredible for those who don't know the blackmagic 810 mini is pretty much one of the best video switchers money can buy right now there are three models available right now that allow you to switch stream and in some cases record up to four different cameras over hdmi the only problem i have with the a10 mini is the mess of cables needed to get everything set up there's no monitor that comes with the unit itself there's not even a power on off switch so it's just always on unless you unplug it and every time you need to adjust your setup or move things around there's just a mess of cables to deal with so over the last several months i spent quite a bit of my time designing this case to solve all of those problems before we dive into building the a10 mini jacket let me show you what all this killer little case can do the entire project was built inside a pelican 1170 case which perfectly fit the a-10 mini monitor and electronics the a10 mini is mounted in the case and held down by two bolted clamps that are easily removed if you need to pull the switcher out there is a seven inch camera monitor built into the lid which at first might seem a little silly because it's so small but it changes everything for the better without this monitor you'd have to connect a monitor to the atem mini mount it to something run power to the monitor and then pack it all up if you need to move your atem mini i know you don't need a monitor to use the atem but man is it handy to have one always connected always powered and ready to go for troubleshooting or just a way to quickly see all of your camera angles at once this monitor also has hdmi pass-through which i've routed to the back of the case so you can connect a second larger monitor if needed the monitor i'm using has a headphone jack so i rerouted that to the side of the case so i can easily plug in a pair of headphones and monitor my audio on the back of the case you can see the cutout for the a10 mini ports and a large gap for airflow there is also a single power jack on the back of the case that supplies power to everything inside this means you could run the entire case off of one single power cable or even a battery if you want to use this setup while on the go there are two switches in front of the case that send power to your a-10 mini and monitor separately so if you just need to use your atem you don't have to power on the monitor there's also a cheese plate on the bottom of the case so i can thread on various accessories if i want to mount the case to a stand in the studio and finally i threw out a couple little rubber feet to raise the case a little bit in practice this case is so easy to use you supply power you turn it on you connect your cameras and a computer if needed and you're ready to stream or record or switch and you're done this project and all of the parts set me back 375 dollars excluding the a10 mini but you could easily lower the cost by excluding a few features now let's get to building this case and putting everything together now before we move any further definitely check the link in the description i've put together a huge build guide over on my blog and everything is laid out there all of the tools all of the parts every little nitty gritty you know instruction to build this so this video is going to be more of an overview if you really want to dive in and see the nitty gritty check out the blog post this entire project starts by building a frame that fits inside of the pelican case and supports the atem mini to build this frame you can use 3d printed parts which i've designed or build this frame out of wood or pvc or other thin material in the build guide i have a template for the top plate that you can print out and use as a cutting guide from here on out i'll be covering the 3d printed parts but with a little elbow grease you can definitely make something like this without a 3d printer or i'm sure you could use some kind of 3d printing surface like shapeways to get the parts the next step is to prep the 3d printed parts to connect all these parts together we will be using m4 bolts but first we need to add threads to a few of the parts to do this i've designed the parts to have holes for brass inserts using a soldering iron you can heat up the inserts and push them into the parts once they cool these are rock solid and ready to be put together here is a diagram showing all of the parts and the parts that need inserts full diagrams and links to the brass inserts and other parts can be found in the build guide next using m4 bolts we can connect all of the parts together and do a test fit this frame should sit nicely into the case and the top plate should rest on the supports that are built into the sides of the pelican case before we cut out the back of the case we need to install the corner supports i just used hot glue which was plenty strong and after another test fit i added even more hot glue to ensure the supports don't come loose now we can start working on the cutouts and drilling holes for the case i would recommend starting with the back cutout which you can see here is rather large so using a drill bit that's larger than my saw blade i was able to go ahead and start working on cutting this bad boy out in the build guide i have a link to a saw that worked really really well for this and in short you're going to cut from the bottom of the case up to the upper lip and then from the far left support to the far right support once you're done with that cutout you can go ahead and do another test fit put your a10 mini in there and make sure all the ports on the back here are easily accessible from here we can start drilling some holes for all kinds of different stuff first i drilled two holes on the front of the case for these switches side note i would definitely recommend stepper bits for this as they leave really really clean round holes and you can keep drilling in until you get the hole size that you want as opposed to having to buy a billion different bits once you have your two holes in and your buttons fit we can move on to the power jack on the back of the case drill a hole that fits your power jack then we'll also drill a hole on the right side of the case for our headphone jack if you're concerned about airflow which i really wouldn't you could also put a hole on the side of the case here which is roughly lining up with the vents inside of the a10 mini and i just used a i believe 40 millimeter fan grille here and just bolted that right into the case now it's time to start wiring everything together you could use a few dc splitters to power everything from one jack but i would highly recommend soldering if possible here's a diagram showing the final wiring and don't worry the blog post goes into great detail as to how to put this together step by step in short we are taking the power input on the back of the case splitting it to the a10 mini and the monitor and adding switches for each again check the guide for in-depth instructions next we can mount the monitor to the top lid of the case we will be drilling four holes in the lid of the case and mounting the monitor with two 3d printed brackets that attach to the top and the bottom of the monitor that i'm recommending for this build i designed these top and bottom brackets for this particular newer monitor but they will most likely work with other monitors as long as the monitor actually fits into the case next we're going to work on the hdmi routing in the case now you could simply connect your a10 mini to the monitor but the problem with that is you'll have a cable kind of looped and sticking out of the back so that's not really desirable the setup i'm going with as you can see is completely flush so i can actually set this case down on the table or on the ground the crown can even be wet and i won't have any problems at all to solve this i found an hdmi ribbon cable which keeps things nice and tidy inside of the case here's another diagram showing the hdmi routing in short connect the ribbon cable to the hdmi output on the a10 mini and using a coupler you can extend the ribbon cable to the monitor's hdmi input for all the cables going between the a10 mini and the monitor i've designed a cutout here in the top plate of the 3d printed parts so the cables can nicely route up and you can zip tie everything together close the case and latch it so going back to that hdmi diagram that takes care of the hdmi input into our monitor now we can route if we want to an hdmi out of the monitor and send it to the back of the case so in my case you can see this fifth hdmi jack here at the bottom that's actually an hdmi coupler so i'm running a cable from the monitor output down to a coupler that is bolted to the bottom of the case to bolt that coupler to the case i've designed another 3d printed part that allows you to bolt the actual coupler to this part and then bolt that part to the bottom of the case giving you a really tidy rock solid hdmi output this of course allows you to use the monitor in the case as well as a larger monitor if you need it once you have the hdmi and the power wiring done it's time to tidy everything up zip ties and tape are your friend to keep everything down in the bottom of the case and at this point you can finally put everything together install the top plate to the supports inside of the case run monitor cables through the cutout in the top plate install the monitor and a 10 mini plug everything in power on your creation and bam you've got one of the coolest video switchers on the planet now i glossed over a lot in this video but again the blog post covers everything in detail so this project was a ton of fun i learned so much working on it and i am by no means a professional engineer so if you have recommendations or critiques or if you build one of these yourself i would love to hear from you i would love to see photos so that's gonna wrap this video up on this crazy a-10 mini jacket as i'm calling it i hope you have a wonderful rest of your day thank you so much for watching and we will see you in the next video

Channel: DSLR Video Shooter

Views: 494,249

Keywords: Atem Mini, Blackmagic, Video Switcher, Atem Mini Case, Monitor, Hack, build, diy, recorder, Caleb Pike, dslr video shooter, atem mini pro, atem mini ISO, multicam, stream, live stream, streaming

Id: I9qHchu2m7Y

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 07 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/blondofblargh]

Fantastic... If you can get your hands on an Atem Mini Pro. They've been sold out since March.

[u/VdomanFla]

I use a lot of the ATEM line of products from Blackmagic. Their switchers and routers have pretty much taken over the professional A/V world... helped along by their price point. Since streaming has taken over, those Mini's are very popular.

[u/jleeth]

I have been wanting to do this! Thanks for the link!

[u/[deleted]]

People ask me about thermals on the Pi4, but let me tell you the ATEM Mini runs pretty darn warm. Also, *yawn*