Live video in church: once only used by the biggest of mega churches that were fortunate enough to offer a TV ministry. Then came Blackmagic's release of the Atem Television Studio in the Fall of 2011, which changed the game for many churches providing broadcast-quality switching at an affordable price. At my church, we were quick to jump on these, installing an Atem 1M/E at our satellite campus; upgrading them from manually switching the input cable going to the projector.
Blackmagic is still at it, and has just released its newest addition to the Atem line: the Production Studio 4K switchers. They are bringing Ultra HD to the world, ringing in with an unbelievable price tag under $2,000. While most churches, mine included, are not doing anything in or capable of showing 4K (3,840 X 2,160) yet, you know you'll be future-proofed with the purchase of this unit—that is to say if 4K ever really takes off in the church, but we'll save that debate for another time.
When I was approached to review the Production Studio 4K, I have to say I was very excited and knew exactly what I was going to use it for. Over the years I have used quite a bit of Blackmagic equipment and have had great success with it. They have come a long way over the years, and I feel are a viable contender in the professional
market.
First things first
Let's dive into the massive amount of features the Production Studio 4K (PS4K) brings to the production room. For my review, I had only the Production Studio 4K unit without the broadcast panel and, as stated above, only was able to utilize it to 1,080p.
BESIDES THE FACT THAT IT IS CAPABLE OF 4K RESOLUTIONS, I THINK THE BIGGEST IMPROVEMENT OVER THE PREVIOUS MODELS IS THE ABILITY TO SAVE YOUR START-UP STATE.
First off, upon opening the box and seeing the unit for the first time, it is obvious that Blackmagic employed its acquisition of Teranex for the design of the PS4K. With a sleek rounded front, push button operation, and LCD preview screen, it just looks good.
Initial setup was a breeze. I was able to quickly rack the unit up and feed it two HD-SDI camera signals, a program output from our main switcher via SDI, and a computer signal. A quick note regarding connecting a computer to the HDMI—the PS4K can be finicky here. I first tried connecting my Macbook Pro to the HDMI one input and was unsuccessful in getting a usable image. This has to do with the RGB/YUV color spectrum conversions. However, it did work after trying another computer.
When you first install the unit, you not only need to connect it to your network, but also a USB cable to a computer. The USB connection is used for the initial setup and any firmware updates. Since the entire Atem line communicates via Ethernet, you'll need to free up some static addresses or create a new private network for it. Upon opening the configuration utility, you'll set the static IP, then you can put the USB cable away until there's a firmware update or you need to change the IP address. Connecting the unit to the network made me nervous at first, with fear of lag or drop out; however, the software control is instantaneous as far as I could tell. I also enjoy being able to control the unit from anywhere in our building via laptop or iPad.
Blackmagic provides a CD-ROM of the software in the box with the unit, but I highly recommend just going to their website to download the latest control software. That way it's ensured you'll have the latest firmware as well.
Closer inspection
Moving to the back of the unit, you find four HDMI inputs and four 6G-SDI inputs. A huge improvement here over the earlier Atem Television Studio is that you can utilize all eight inputs. The caveat with this is that all the inputs have to be of the same resolution. For example, if when you setup the PS4K you configure it to 720p59.94 (which is how I have it set up for my system), all inputs have to come in at that same resolution and frame rate. There are no built-in scaling options for inputs. This is not that unusual, even when dealing with large-scale production switchers; but it is something to keep in mind as you plan your workflow.
The output options on the PS4K offer an HDMI and 6G-SDI program out at Ultra 4K resolutions and an additional SDI output that is down-converted to 1,080p HD. There is also a single auxiliary SDI output that can be controlled via the unit's front buttons. The built in multi-viewer can output either from dedicated HDMI or SDI outputs as well. The fact that the program outputs cannot currently be controlled with the faceplate buttons is a negative for me, because I would like to know that if the software were to suddenly fail I could still switch my output feed. This is most likely something that can be added in a firmware update, though.
Audio integration is easy on the PS4K, with analog XLR ins and outs, as well as a set of stereo RCA inputs. The unit will also pass embedded audio from the HDMI and SDI inputs. Then, in the software integrated audio mixer, you can easily mix where the audio is coming from and it is then embedded into the output signal as well as fed to the analog output XLRs. If you use this unit with a lot of audio, I would suggest investing in an outboard USB controller (sound board), since you have to leave the switcher tab to adjust audio in the software.
Besides the fact that it is capable of 4K resolutions, I think the biggest improvement the PS4K has over the previous models is the ability to save your start-up state. The PS4K has two media players that can be used to show still graphics and motion clips like a lower third bug directly from the unit without having an external computer taking up an input. With the included Photoshop plug-in, graphics can be directly sent from Photoshop to the media pool in the PS4K. For my uses, I would want the unit to always boot up in the same state: with my media stores loaded and ready to go. Now that feature is here, and saves a lot of time with the ability to quickly recall a different scene as well.
I wanted to use the PS4K as a dedicated switcher for our live streaming feed. While it receives primarily the program feed that the main room sees, sometimes for the broadcast feed you need to cut to something else so those who are not physically there can follow along with what is happening live. The media stores allow for us to have preloaded graphics that apply only to those watching on broadcast as well as an emergency “technical difficulties” graphic—not that we ever have those.
As with any product, there are going to be pros and cons. It doesn't ship with a power cable, a minor detail that could catch you off guard initially. I do like Blackmagic's commitment to always improve, though. Sometimes you have to patiently wait for a firmware release, but with each new update they unlock a little more and a little more. This demo unit performed flawlessly for us, including using it for a nationwide simulcast leadership conference that was fed from it. I am excited to see where Blackmagic takes this line in the future. I have already threatened not to send the demo unit back.
