As the Australian company does every time, in one single event Blackmagic Design announces a new surprising range of products that captivated the imagination of content creators for the powerful combination of design, features and affordability. The new ATEM Television Studio HD8 (available now, US $2,995) and ATEM Television Studio HD8 ISO (available now, US $3,995) are two new all-in-one live production switchers that combine broadcast features with extreme portability.
With a built in Fairlight audio mixer, the ATEM Television Studio HD family makes it possible to do complex live sound mixing. The internal mixer features enough channels for all SDI inputs, as well as extra channels for the XLR, RCA and MADI inputs. Each input channel features the highest quality 6 band parametric EQ, compressor, limiter, expander and noise gate as well as level and pan controls. The audio mixer is extremely powerful and it can be adjusted from the front panel using the dedicated audio mixer controls and LCD.
"These new ATEM Television Studio HD8 switchers are amazing as they pack so many features into an extremely portable design," says Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. "However we also wanted them to be high end broadcast grade switchers so customers don't have to compromise. We have achieved this as they feature full broadcast control panels, innovative audio mixing, plus streaming and recording all built in. It’s very exciting!"
The ATEM Microphone Converter (available Q2 2023, US $395) is a new audio analog to digital converter that connects additional microphones to ATEM switcher models such as the new ATEM Television Studio HD8. Featuring a MADI connection, it means the connection is a simple BNC cable. More importantly, the design features amazing quality with an extremely low noise floor of -129dBV, a dynamic range of 131 dB(A), low distortion of 0.002% and uniform tolerances across all channels. The design also features an HDMI monitoring output with scrolling waveform displays.
"We are very excited by this product because we spent a lot of time innovating on the analog conversion design for incredibly high quality," says Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO and mentor of almost all the products that the company puts out, because he designs the things he wants for himself. "We didn't want to design a cheap converter, we wanted to design the best, so the benefit to customers is their microphones will have a very low noise floor so there is no background noise. The noise floor of this converter is lower than all the microphones we tested!"
Everything Included
These new ATEM Television Studio HD switchers feature broadcast grade control panels with built-in advanced features such as streaming and recording. There is also an ISO model that can record all video inputs and can connect to up to 8 remote cameras. These new switchers also support live streaming, talkback and optional internal storage.
The ATEM Television Studio HD series includes a professional multiview that lets users see all video inputs, preview and program on a single SDI or HDMI monitor. That includes each camera view with tally indicators, custom labels and audio meters. Users can fully customize the multiview layout with up to 16 simultaneous views.
The internal mixer features enough channels for all SDI inputs, as well as extra channels for the XLR, RCA and MADI inputs. Each input channel features the highest quality 6 band parametric EQ, compressor, limiter, expander and noise gate as well as level and pan controls. The audio mixer is extremely powerful and it can be adjusted from the front panel using the dedicated audio mixer controls and LCD.
Most of the features can be operated from the front panel, or using the free ATEM Software Control on Mac or Windows to access even more features. With a little fun experimentation it’s possible for anyone to create high end broadcast quality live television. And the mixers emulate a webcam, allowing a simple USB-C connection to a computer for use with any video software, with full resolution 1080HD quality output.
The ATEM Microphone Converter features combo XLR/TRS input connectors allowing both XLR or jack cables and there is also a MADI input which allows multiple ATEM Microphone Converters to be daisy chained so more than 4 channels of audio can be embedded into a single MADI connection. This means if a second converter is connected to the input of another, the upstream converter will stack its 4 channels above the 4 channels on the downstream converter.
With the wide dynamic range input that eliminates the need for an analog pre amplifier, microphone levels are adjusted by a digital pre amplifier gain stage that is extremely stable. Different microphone types and brands can vary widely in analog audio levels, but the 32-bit gain stage allows compensation for all types of different microphones and line input sources with much greater precision than the MADI audio standard can support.
www.blackmagicdesign.com
