You could end up with 4x-5x the base price for each camera. Especially if you want to equip the camera(s) with operator-controlled lenses. The Blackmagic stuff seems like great performance for the money, but not necessarily when you add up all the required "accessories". Remember also that those cameras do not come with lenses, and they use a rather premium lens mount, so you may end up spending 2x or 3x for each camera by the time you hang some glass on the front of them. However you will need an ATEM Talkback Converter to access the intercom/talkback back at the switcher end. The Micro Studio Camera 4K has intercom built-in, with a 3.5mm TRRS socket for a headset as one would use with an iPhone, etc. Are you planning on using these as human-operated cameras? Or remote-controlled? Or fixed POV cameras? There does not appear to be any kind of output for an external tally that can be seen at a distance one would expect in the Real World, or any tally provision for a camera operator. The camera has a built-in tally light and the switcher sends the tally signals back to the cameras (assuming you use TWO SDI cables per camera!) The tally light appears to be quite small and hidden just above the lens mount, so it seems of limited visibility unless you have a very small lens and are very close to the camera. It seems unlikely that you can successfully use more than one UltraStudio Mini Recorder per computer. Of course, you will need a separate recorder for each video stream.
Or you could use something like the Blackmagic Smart VideoHub 12x12 if you have the budget for it. My current favorite is "AVUE 3G-SDI/HD-SDI/SDI 1 to 2 Repeater & distribution extender with re-clocking" at around $100
BLACKMAGIC ULTRASTUDIO MINI RECORDER PROBLEMS ISO
You can use an SDI Distribution Amplifier ("DA") (one SDI input, and two or more SDI outputs) for each camera so you can "duplicate" the camera video to send to both the production switcher and to your camera iso recorders. The downside is the cameras only have HDMI out, so I would require HDMI to SDI converters to run long lengths of cable (probably around 150-200ft per cable).Īm I going to have issues trying to use BPCCs with converters for live streaming? Are there other solutions for long cable runs that I may have missed? They also seem to perform well in low lighting. The BPCCs have a built in display (useful for my camera operators) and have internal storage via SD card. I've decided that 3 blackmagic pocket cinema cameras (BPCCs) and a GoPro may actually be a better option for this. Can I use this feature with my current equipment list? Or do I need the ATEM Talkback Converter?
Lastly, the cameras claim to have built in talkback and tally. If I went this route, would I need something like the Smart Videohub?
I don't think the ATEM has enough video outs to send to each feed to a capture card like the DeckLink SDI 4K. Is there some kind of device I can set up between the cameras and the ATEM production studio to record my video feeds? The cameras do not have internal storage, which means I can only record what's going to the stream through the UltraStudio mini recorder. 1 x Blackmagic UltraStudio Mini Recorder (thunderbolt).1 x Blackmagic ATEM Production Studio 4K.I've been tasked with acquiring equipment to broadcast a festival through online stream, and have decided that blackmagic may be a good direction to go, so I'm going to strictly reference their products.