Blackmagic Design Announces New ATEM Television Studio HD8

February 25, 2023

Blackmagic Design announced ATEM Television Studio HD8, a new family of all in one live production switchers that combine broadcast features with extreme portability. These new switchers feature broadcast grade control panels with 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.

ATEM Television Studio HD8 is available immediately from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide from US$2,995.

The new ATEM Television Studio HD is a professional live production switcher built into a broadcast control panel so it can be used for high end work while being extremely portable. This means customers can use it in small venues that don’t have the access for equipment racks or broadcast vans. Customers get a powerful switcher with 8 standards converted SDI inputs, 2 aux outputs, 4 chroma keyers, 2 downstream keyers, SuperSource, 2 media players and lots of transitions. Plus it includes a whole television studio of features such as hardware streaming, recording, audio mixer, talkback, multiview and optional internal cloud storage. There’s even an ISO model that records all 8 inputs for editing.

While ATEM Television Studio HD is a compact design, it still includes very powerful broadcast features. Customers get an advanced broadcast grade switcher, with built in ATEM Advanced Chroma Keyers, Fairlight audio mixer, DVE, still store for graphics and much more. Most of the features can be operated from the front panel, or customers can use 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.

Customers can select from exciting transitions such as dissolve, or more dramatic effects such as dip to color, DVE squeeze and DVE push. Customers can even add a DVE for picture in picture effects with customized graphics. There are also media players which let customers store graphics with alpha channels for titles and graphics that customers can load as live video inputs. Then customers can live stream the results.

The ATEM Television Studio HD combines a switcher and control panel into the same unit, so it’s extremely portable. The front panel includes buttons for selecting sources, triggering transitions and setting up video effects. Plus the buttons are the same high-end type used on expensive broadcast switchers. Customers also get a built in t-bar for manual transition control. The front panel even has an innovative audio mixer control area with live metering on a dedicated LCD.

With 8 3G-SDI video inputs, ATEM Television Studio HD lets customers connect multiple cameras for different views of the performance. Video cameras with SDI outputs, such as Blackmagic Studio Camera or Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2, are much better quality as they have better low light performance and use professional lenses. All video sources will re-sync to the switcher, even if they operate at different video standards. Everything just works so setup on location is easy and customers don’t have to worry about technical problems.

One of the benefits of ATEM Television Studio is the range of professional built in video effects. The t-bar fader can be used to transition video effects, or customers can do the transition automatically by pressing the auto button. There is a wide range of SMPTE wipes included, plus fun DVE effects that slide or squeeze the image off screen when transitioning between video sources.

The built in media pool stores broadcast quality graphics and animations that can be played back using the built in media players. For highest quality, all media supports RGB colorspace with alpha channel, allowing transparency and layering. The media pool can hold 20 HD resolution stills. Motion graphics clips for animations and stingers can be up to 400 frames in 720HD and 200 frames in 1080HD.

ATEM Television Studio is perfect for news and on-set presentation work because it features 4 ATEM Advanced Chroma Keyers for green screen keying effects. The chroma keyers are incredibly powerful and include features such as a color picker to sample background colors for automatic generation of the key parameters. Customers get precise controls for edge and flare, and there is even a foreground color corrector so customers can match the foreground and background layers for seamless compositions. The keyer can also be used for pattern and DVE keying.

In addition to the DVE in the ATEM Television Studio, there is also a powerful SuperSource multi layer processor. SuperSource gives customers 4 extra DVE layers plus a background layer, all layered together as an additional input source. SuperSource is perfect for doing multiple picture in picture displays with people being interviewed because customers can set up the effect so the viewer can see each person being interviewed all within a stylish graphic.

The ATEM Television Studio HD features 8 independent 3G-SDI inputs, with each input featuring its own dedicated standards converter. That means it’s possible to convert any 1080HD or 720HD input source to the video standard of the switcher.

The ATEM Television Studio includes nine 3G-SDI program outputs so customers get enough connections to send a separate program return feed to all of their cameras. That’s important because the SDI program return is used to send tally, talkback and control information back to the cameras. Customers also get 2 dedicated aux outputs for driving stage monitors and master recorders. For camera monitoring, there is a dedicated 3G-SDI and HDMI output for the multiview.

With a built in Fairlight audio mixer, ATEM Television Studio HD 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.

ATEM Television Studio HD includes a professional multiview that lets customers see all video inputs, preview and program on a single SDI or HDMI monitor. Each camera view includes tally indicators so customers know when each source is on-air, plus each view has custom labels and audio meters. Customers can fully customize the multiview layout with up to 16 simultaneous views.

ATEM Television Studio HD has a built in hardware streaming engine for live streaming to a global audience. That means customers can live stream to services such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitch in better video quality and without dropped frames. Streaming works using the Ethernet connection to the internet, or customers can connect a smartphone to use mobile data.

ATEM Television Studio HD supports recording to external USB flash disks. Or if an optional M.2 flash disk is installed, customers can record direct to internal cloud storage. The internal storage plus any external USB disks will be available to share over the local Ethernet network so other people can work on post production tasks such as editing, color correction and graphics preparation. All recordings are in H.264 format with AAC audio for broadcast quality video and small file sizes. An exciting feature is append record, which allows customers to re-start recording onto the previous file so customers can deliver customers a single file.

Customers can use any video software with ATEM Television Studio HD because the USB connection will emulate a webcam. That means customers can plug into a computer and use any video software that works with a webcam. That guarantees full compatibility with any video software and in full resolution 1080HD quality.

The ATEM Television Studio HD ISO model allows customers to edit their live event as it can record all inputs to separate video files. Customers get 8 separate video input files with matching timecode and sync, plus the program video is also recorded into a separate master video file. This means customers can edit using any NLE software that supports multi-cam editing. A DaVinci Resolve Project file is saved and linked to the input video files, so their live switching is converted into an edit timeline that customers simply click to open.

With support for DaVinci Resolve project files in the ISO model, customers get a full post production workflow with editing, color correction, visual effects and audio mixing. Simply open the project and users will see their live production as an edit timeline. Customers can even relink to Blackmagic RAW camera files if customers want to finish in Ultra HD.

Another exciting feature on the ATEM Television Studio HD ISO model is that it can connect to remote cameras. The Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2, Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 and Blackmagic Studio Camera 6K Pro cameras can live stream in H.264 direct to the switcher. Plus customers even get camera control and tally. Program audio is also sent back to the camera which is great for live interviews.

The ATEM Software Control app unlocks the hidden power of ATEM Television Studio HD by allowing access to all the features in the switcher. ATEM Software Control features a visual switcher user interface with parameter palettes for making adjustments. The software lets customers live switch, mix audio, color correct in the cameras and manage media. Customers can also build and run complex macros from the software.

ATEM Television Studio HD supports multiple languages in the menus and in the ATEM Software Control, so customers can customize it to the language customers prefer. Customers get support for English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, German, French, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, Polish and Ukrainian languages.

If users are building a podcasting studio or customers need more microphones, then the ATEM Microphone Converter allows audio input expansion. It connects to the ATEM Television Studio using the MADI port, so there’s no complex setup and customers can daisy chain units to add more inputs. Each converter has 4 analog inputs that are mic/line selectable and have phantom power. The design features amazing quality with an extremely low noise floor of -129dBV, a dynamic range of 131dB(A), low distortion of 0.002% and uniform tolerances across all channels. It even uses 8 separate ADCs on each input to collectively extend the dynamic range. Plus it has a fun HDMI monitoring output with scrolling audio waveforms.

ATEM Television Studio HD8 Features