Blackmagic Design announced a new range of ATEM production switchers at the 2011 NAB Show. The company will now offer the ATEM production switchers independent of the control panel, so users can start at a lower cost using the chassis and a software control panel for Mac or PC. Those needing a robust hardware-based control panel can purchase ATEM broadcast panels separately.
The new software control panel for Mac and Windows lets customers use ATEM switchers from their laptop, greatly reducing cost and increasing portability. The ATEM software control provides a professional M/E workflow control panel with parameter adjustments in simple-to-use palettes. Users can also manage the media pool in the switcher and change switcher settings.
Both of the two models of the ATEM switcher include the ATEM software control panel. The one-M/E production switcher model is 2RU size and includes eight total inputs of SDI, HDMI and component video. This model has three aux outputs and a single multiviewer for monitoring. The two-M/E product switcher model is a larger 3RU and includes two separate M/E rows, a total of 16 video inputs and six aux outputs, two multiviewers for monitoring, redundant power input and SuperSource multilayer compositing.