Blackmagic Announces New ATEM Television Studio 4K8

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New 12G-SDI live production switcher with built in broadcast panel and support for standards up to 2160p60.

Brian Hallett

April 16, 2023

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Blackmagic Design announced the new ATEM Television Studio 4K8 live production switcher that combines all the great broadcast features of the ATEM Television Studio HD with additional support for Ultra HD standards up to 2160p60. The ATEM Television Studio 4K8 features 8 standards converted 12G-SDI inputs, 10 x 12G-SDI aux outputs for external recorders and a 4 port 10G Ethernet switch. It also supports live streaming, talkback and optional internal network storage as well as a joystick for precise DVE control. ATEM Television Studio 4K8 will be available in July from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide from for US$4,595.

The ATEM Television Studio 4K8 will be demonstrated on the Blackmagic Design NAB 2023 booth #N2601.

The new ATEM Television Studio 4K8 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 12G-SDI inputs, 10 x 12G-SDI 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 network shared storage.

The ATEM Television Studio 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 SDI video inputs, ATEM Television Studio 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.

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.

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.

ATEM Television Studio 4K8 also includes a joystick for positioning the DVE for custom picture in picture effects. With full 3 Axis control customers can adjust X, Y and Z positions of wipe patterns and position the DVEs. The joystick allows the DVE position to be set precisely and rotating the knob will change DVE size. Scale the size, position up, down or left and right for the perfect picture in picture effect. Plus, customers can also use the joystick to move the DVE and enter start and end keyframe screen positions for their own customized animated DVE moves.

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 or Ultra HD resolution stills. With the new ATEM Television Studio 4K8 model, motion graphics clips for animations and stingers can be up to 800 frames in 720HD, 400 frames in 1080HD and 200 frames in 2160 Ultra HD.

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 4K8 has 8 12G-SDI inputs. Each SDI input has a dedicated standards converter so any 720 HD, 1080 HD or 2160 Ultra HD input source will be converted to the standard of the switcher.

The ATEM Television Studio includes up to nine 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 dedicated aux outputs for driving stage monitors and master recorders. There’s also a dedicated 3G-SDI and HDMI output for the multiview.

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

Customers can use any video software with ATEM Television Studio 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.

ATEM Television Studio supports recording to external USB flash disks. Or if an optional M.2 flash disk is installed, customers can record directly to internal network shared 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.

The ATEM Software Control app unlocks the hidden power of ATEM Television Studio 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.

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.

“Recently we launched the new ATEM Television Studio HD range, and customers have been very happy with them,” said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “However we’ve also been working on a 4K model. The ATEM Television Studio 4K8 is exciting as it has 10 independent 12G-SDI outputs which can be used for external recording. That’s great for when customers want a high quality solution for multi-cam editing as all outputs are in sync and have matching timecode with full audio mapping.”